Teaching and Learning
Ford’s Education provides dynamic learning experiences for all teachers and students.
Our teacher programs and resources explore the leadership and legacy of Abraham Lincoln and the city of Civil War Washington. Through historic site visits, virtual field trips, student matinees, and oratory programs, we offer powerful and unforgettable opportunities to express, explore and engage. Come learn with us!
Attend a summer institute exploring Civil War Washington. And so much more!
Featured Programs
Civil War Washington
Summer Teacher Institute
The city of Washington was a complex, gritty, unfinished and precarious place during the Civil War. In this institute, connect with peers to illuminate new perspectives and under-told stories, explore historic sites and collect a wealth of resources.
Set In Stone
Summer Teacher Institute
Learn about monuments and memorials in the nation’s capital and examine how we remember the Civil War in this week-long summer teacher program for 3rd- through 12th-grade teachers.
National Oratory Fellows
Join us for a virtual Open House to learn more about this program.
Inspired by Abraham Lincoln’s oratory, National Oratory Fellows are a network of teachers who cultivate student voices in Grades 5-8 by making public speaking a part of the everyday classroom experience. To register or for more program information, click the button below.
Ford’s Approach to Oratory
Abraham Lincoln was a powerful orator who used his words to inspire and unite. Reflecting this legacy, the Ford’s Theatre Oratory Approach offers easy-to-implement tools that help every student develop public speaking skills and find their own powerful voice.
Teaching Lincoln’s Assassination and Legacy
We offer ready-to-use history lesson plans focused on how to teach President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and the Civil War.
Virtual Field Trips
Bring the story of President Lincoln’s assassination and the world of Civil War Washington into your classrooms through our distance-learning program.
Education Resources
We offer teachers many ways to bring President Abraham Lincoln into your classroom.
Narrative Writing: Using a Primary Source Memoir
In this lesson, students will close-read a narrative primary source (a letter from Julia Adelaide Shepard, an eyewitness to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln) and use it as a mentor text for creating their own piece of narrative writing.
Type: Classroom Activities, Lessons, Primary Sources
Levels: Grades 3 to 5
Podium Points
Ford’s Theatre has identified nine elements of effective public speaking. This lesson teaches students use those elements and helps them recognize how to use them effectively.
Type: Classroom Activities, Lessons
Levels: Grades 3 to 5, Grades 6 to 8, Grades 9 to 12
The Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
In this free lesson plan, students use first-person primary source documents and perspective taking to better understand the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Type: Classroom Activities, Lessons
Levels: Grades 5 to 8
