Education Initiatives and Resources
A significant part of GPA’s mission is to educate and acculturate Philadelphians on many levels.
Our promotion of Philadelphia’s heritage and status as a global city isn’t just aimed at adults. We also provide learning experiences for students ages preschool to K-12 and college.
African-American, United States, and World History lesson plans K-12, World Heritage City coloring book, and a World Heritage Tool Kit for Educators. We have developed and implemented World Heritage Education Programs to help cultivate Philadelphia’s youth into global citizens.
Lesson Plans
Imagine having to capture the imagination of children every day. It’s not easy. But working together with Philadelphia’s teachers, we have produced an enormous slate of local heritage and global lesson plans. Each plan is pegged to state requirements and is vetted by education professionals.
But our teachers still need more, as the highly engaged audience for GPA’s popular newsletter for teachers lets us know. The newsletter provides fresh ideas for classroom interactions and projects throughout the school calendar.
African American / Black History
#1 Why does the School District have an African-American History Graduation Req?
#2 Boycotting as a Strategy for Abolition
#3 Black Soldiers in the Civil War
#4 Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disenfranchisement
#8 World War Two & Racial Equity in Philadelphia
#9 Corporate Global Citizenship: A Vision Out of Philadelphia
United States History
#1 That's Gross
#4 Philadelphia and World Heritage Sites
#6 Hellraiser
#8 Philly 1776
#9 Philadelphia Workshop of the World
#10 The Peopling of Philadelphia Immigration
#11 The Lazaretto 1799-1893 Philadelphia's Quarantine Station
#12 The Centennial Exhibition Philadelphia Hosts the International Community 1876
#13 Fairmount Water Works: An International Urban Model
#14 Philadelphia: A City of Neighborhoods
#15 Globalization Circa 1780: Philadelphia's Trade with China
#16 The Lewis Clark Expedition: Philadelphia First Stop on the Journey
World History
World Heritage Toolkit
As of November 2015, Philadelphia is officially a World Heritage City joining the ranks of cities such as Shanghai, Amsterdam, and Istanbul. The content of this document is an exciting journey through the history, culture, and people that continually create and reinvent our city. The Tool Kit is designed for varied grades and subjects in K–12 as a vehicle and idea-starter for teaching the value of World Heritage to our children.
This document was created by teachers, like you, who desire to educate youth on Philadelphia’s heritage as well as underrepresented world regions. The Tool Kit is a product of a joint venture between Global Philadelphia Association, the City of Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania’s South Asia Center, Middle East Center and Center for East Asian Studies.
We hope this collection of ideas inspire, within our future ambassadors, a deeper sense of civic pride and global citizenship. For more information on the World Heritage City Project and to support these efforts visit worldheritagephl.org/
Learn Philly Heritage
GPA has curated a vast collection of resources at our revamped LearnPhillyHeriatge.com site. We recently optimized the site to increase accessibility and ease of use, leading to a substantial uptick in views.
Teachers and students are the site’s primary audience, and it’s a timely resource for school projects. What can teachers and students find at the site? A deep pool of resources for topics like the founding of Philadelphia, African American history, and the many global cultures that influence the region’s past and present.
