Lesson: Philadelphia Then & Now as a Place of World Heritage

Source: Philadelphia World Heritage Tool Kit

Created by: Natalia Mykytiuch, Henry C. Lea School

Subjects: Literacy, Social Studies

Grade Levels: K-2

View or download this Lesson Plan.

Overview: This lesson will connect the idea of what Philadelphia looked like in the late 1700s, tangibly and intangibly, to what it looks like now and connecting those ideas to World Heritage.  Students will gain insight into the role Philadelphia played as a center for democracy as well as its importance today. They will also gain knowledge of what ideals and places are still important today as they were back then, accomplished through various texts, digital media, and photographs and illustrations.  This lesson is about Philadelphia in general but will be and can be extended to focus on the area of Philadelphia where your neighborhood school is located for example, West Philadelphia.

Objectives: Students will be able to to understand how Philadelphia has changed and stayed the same by comparing and analyzing the time periods of late the 1700s and present day IOT to relate it to the concept of Philadelphia as a World Heritage city.

The Philadelphia World Heritage Tool Kit

This lesson is one of 29 lessons (K-12, all subjects) in the Philadelphia World Heritage Tool Kit. The goal of the Tool Kit is to help educators and their students develop a transnational analysis in their classrooms by using complex themes of world heritage as a framework to understand global regions across disciplines. These themes include shared architectural, cultural, economic, environmental, political, recreational, religious, and social heritage features.  Real teachers created these lessons and based their work on “best practices” that reflect student collaboration and the broad goals of young people in ways that support care and understanding of others who may be very different in background and history.