Magic Sash Lesson Plans

Here you will find all of the lesson plans created by the National Park Service to accompany the podcast The Magic Sash.

Statues at Women’s Rights National Historical Park represent some of the people who attended the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.

NPS Photo

Episode 1: The Sash

Listen to the Episode | View the Lesson Plan

Guiding Question: How do people express their support for social and political issues or candidates?

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will identify and summarize the history of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the convention's organizers.

2. Students will analyze information from text and the audio podcast and draw conclusions from information.

3. Students will support an argument or opinion with evidence drawn from the text and audio podcast.

4. Students will create a poster that supports an issue or opinion using images and text to convey a message to a specific audience.

The 1848 Women's Rights Convention was held in Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York.

NPS Photo

Episode 2: A Declaration

Listen to the Episode | View the Lesson Plan

Guiding Question: Why do groups supporting different movements sometimes work together?

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will understand and summarize the importance of the "Declaration of Sentiments."

2. Students will analyze text and a map to explain why Seneca Falls and the surrounding area was the location for the Women's Rights Convention of 1848.

3. Students will compare and contrast the goals of the women's rights and anti-slavery movements and explain why some leaders supported both movements.

Women registering to vote, early 1900s

Library of Congress

Episode 3: Susan B. vs. The Law

Listen to this Episode | View the Lesson Plan

Guiding Question: What rules should apply to deciding who has the right to vote?

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will identify Susan B. Anthony and summarize her significance in the history of the US women's suffrage movement.

2. Students will analyze text from the 14th Amendment and draw conclusions about whether US citizens' equal protection under the law extended to women's right to vote.

3. Students will compare and contrast the voting rights movements of the mid-20th century with the women's suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Suffragettes picketing outside of White House, 1917.

National Women's Party Collection

Episode 4: Locked Up

Listen to this Episode | View the Lesson Plan

Guiding Questions: When should we be able to speak for ourselves? When should others make decisions for us?

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will identify the Silent Sentinels and summarize their significance in the passage of the 19th Amendment.

2. Students will consider the consequences women suffragists received for their actions in protesting and picketing for voting rights.

3. Students will create a political cartoon that supports or opposes an issue with appropriate language and symbols.

Harriet Tubman, 1870s

Library of Congress

Episode 5: Harriet

Listen to the Episode | View the Lesson Plan

Guiding Questions: How do our life experiences shape our opinions and decisions? What actions do we take based on these experiences?

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will identify and summarize the significance of Harriet Tubman in the history of the abolition of slavery, the Underground Railroad, and her work as a women's rights and voting activist.

2. Students will compare and contrast the experiences of women of color supporting women's rights and suffrage with those of white women.

3. Students will create a design for a new U.S. $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman and explain their choices for imagery and text used in their design.

A group of American nurses marching in the Woman Suffrage Procession in DC on March 3, 1913.

Library of Congress

Episode 6: The Procession

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Guiding Question: How should a group determine who or what best represents the group's ideas and goals? How can the group make sure the decisions are fair to all members of the group?

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will identify and summarize the importance of the 1913 Woman's Procession in Washington, DC.

2. Students will name some of the organizers and leaders of the 1913 Woman's Procession and identify their roles in the march.

3. Students will design a banner or float to represent their state's participation in the 1913 Woman's Procession and explain the symbols and words selected in their designs.

Lavinia Dock and Edna Dixon arrested outside White House, 1917.

National Women's Party Collection

Episode 7: The Vote

Listen to the Episode | View the Lesson Plan


Guiding Question: How should we remember and commemorate the achievement of women's suffrage 100 years later?

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will summarize the importance of highly educated and professional women to the women's suffrage movement of the early 20th century.

2. Students will research and create a timeline of their state's women's suffrage history.

3. Students will identify and explain the important people, places, and events in their state's or territory's women's suffrage history.