Put the power of primary sources to work in the classroom. Browse ready-to-use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides and research aids.
Featured Resource
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Learning Together Page
Designed for educators seeking ways to include Asian Pacific American narratives in their classrooms. Do you teach a unit on the history of the transcontinental railroad? In May 2019, Learning Together will feature resources about Chinese laborers who contributed to the completion of the railroad.
Image credit: Heading of east portal Tunnel No. 8. Hart, Alfred A., photographer. Photograph shows Chinese tea carrier at the east entrance to tunnel number 8 of the Central Pacific Railroad, about 1867. (Library of Congress)
Selected Resources For Teachers
The Library of Congress 7Hide All
- Chinese New Year Celebrations: Primary Sources Reflecting a Cultural Tradition
- Immigration -- Primary Sources & Student iBook
- Japanese American Internment -- Primary Sources & Student iBook
- Presentation – Japanese Immigration
- Presentation – Chinese Immigration
- Student Discovery Sets on iBooks
- (Themed Resource) Asian Pacific Americans
National Archives 7Hide All
- The Chinese Exclusion Act interactive book on iBooks and iTunes U Course
- The Chinese Exclusion Act and Related Primary Sources
- Petition Against Annexation of Hawaii
- Primary sources and teaching activities on the Vietnam War
- Primary sources related to Chinese immigration to the United States
- Primary sources related to Hawaii
- Primary sources related to Japanese internment during World War II
National Endowment for the Humanities 13Hide All
- Asian American and Pacific Islander Perspectives in Humanities Education
- Beyond Island Wear
- The Birth of an American Empire
- Guampedia (Site Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities)
- Gulf of Tonkin and the Escalation of the Vietnam War
- Highlights of Preservation & Access Division Projects
- Life in the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Prints and the Rise of the Merchant Class in Edo Period Japan
- On the Road with Marco Polo
- Outside the Frame: How Asia Changed the Course of American Art (Site supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities)
- Poetry lesson: “Peaches” by Adrienne Su
- Preserving Asian-American History and Culture 2013
- The Road to Pearl Harbor: The United States and East Asia, 1915–1941
- “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
National Gallery of Art 4Hide All
National Park Service 10Hide All
- “Breathing Fire”: Asian/Pacific American Chapter from the LGBTQ Theme Study
- “A Brief Glimpse: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study” (.pdf) (PDF, 2.51 MBs)
- Find Your Place: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (.pdf) (PDF, 2.13 MBs)
- “Japanese Americans in WWII” (.pdf) Theme Study (PDF, 8.68 MBs)
- “WWII and the American Home Front” (.pdf) Theme Study (PDF, 4.06 MBs)
- Internment: Forced Relocation of Japanese-Americans
- Locke and Walnut Grove: Havens for Early Asian Immigrants in California
- Teaching with Historic Places: Lessons on Asian American and Pacific Islander History
- The War Relocation Centers of World War II: When Fear Was Stronger than Justice
- Asian Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying Asian Heritage (PDF, 944 KB)