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Lesson Plan Library

Free Lesson Plans for Teachers

WHDE offers a set of free resources for teachers to help students better understand Korea. The lesson plans cover a variety of topics including geography, religion, economic development, culture, history, and the Korean War. Search our archive of lessons plans by topic, skill or grade level. You can find more teaching resources on the Korean War on the Korean War Legacy Foundation website. Visit teachingaboutnorthkorea.org to find lesson plans and activities for teaching about North Korea.

 
Skills
 
Topics

Can North Korea Be Trusted?

fighter planes on runway

The main focus of “Can North Korea be Trusted” lesson is about the deconstruction of the Nuclear Missiles Through research and reading, students will confirm facts and historical

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PDFWord

Author: Mary Ellen Richichi

Grades: Secondary (9-12)

Time: One 55-minute class

Participation Year: Fellowship 2018

Skills: Analysis

Topics: North Korea, Politics

Dark and Light: Incentives and Korea’s Divergent Economies

street scene

Post-war North and South Korea present a direct comparison case study through which students can understand how economic incentives help create wealth and good governance or deprivation and bad governance. By examining photos, charts, and videos, students will be able to understand the role of incentives in creating economic growth and democratic institutions.

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PDFWord

Author: Katie Booth

Grades: Secondary (9-12)

Time: 2 50 minute class periods or one 90 minute block

Participation Year: Fellowship 2019

Skills: Analysis, Evaluation

Topics: Economics, North Korea

North Korean Defectors: An Analysis of the Human Side of the Story

barracks with guards

This lesson analyzes sources related to historical and current events on the Korean peninsula, focusing on the stories and experiences of North Korean refugees and defectors. Using differentiated primary and secondary sources, students will review the history of Korea in the 20th century, the division of the Korean Peninsula, the and major events up to the present day in order to better understand the background behind the division of Korea as it stands today. Students will then use this background knowledge to understand the setting and circumstances behind the stories of real North Korean defectors.

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PDFWord

Author: Randy Martin

Grades: Middle (6-8), Secondary (9-12)

Time: 3 60-Minute Classes

Participation Year: Fellowship 2019

Skills: Analysis

Topics: Communism, Korean War, North Korea

Nuclear Attack on Seoul and Tokyo – Teaching About the Crisis with North Korea

map of North Korea with bomb-blast radii

Students will explore the possible impact of how a potential first strike against North Korea could lead to an attack on Seoul and Tokyo.

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PDFWord

Author: Tom Mueller

Grades: Secondary (9-12)

Time: 90 minutes

Participation Year: Fellowship 2020

Skills: Analysis, Cause and Effect

Topics: Current Events, North Korea

One Peninsula, Two Systems: Explaining the Economic Rise of South Korea

night-sky scene of city

Why do some countries develop rapidly, growing their economies and influence on the world stage while other countries struggle to achieve economic takeoff? This is a central question in Human Geography and an important question in World History. The Korean Peninsula provides a case study for the exploration of this question. This peninsula of a common people with a shared history was divided not only by a civil war but by competing ideologies and foreign alliances. In this lesson students will explore the causes of South Korea’s rise and the sharp divisions that remain between the two Koreas.

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PDFWord

Author: Matthew Sudnik

Grades: Secondary (9-12)

Time: 2 80-minute classes

Participation Year: Fellowship 2019

Skills: Comparison

Topics: Economics, North Korea, Politics

Whose War is the Korean War?

soldiers in cemetery

The main focus of this lesson is to illustrate why each party (South Korea, North Korea, US and China) are engaged in what has become a perpetual war of the Koreas. The lesson attempts to show that each nation has really no reason to end a “war” that for the most part is “bluster.”

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PDFWord

Author: Matthew Britton

Grades: Secondary (9-12)

Time: 135 – 180 min

Participation Year: Fellowship 2019

Skills: Cause and Effect, Comparison

Topics: China, Korean War, North Korea