Educators should always check to see the resources provide by their state's education department.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction provides resources for English Language Arts through an ELA wiki at http://elaccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/ELA+Home. In this wiki, educators can find materials uploaded by others like worksheets and resources. This includes text exemplars. Text exemplars are sample texts intended to guide educators as they thoughtfully select texts to use as vehicles for teaching the ELA Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Some of these select texts may relate to O Brother, Where Art Thou? via time period, culture, or technology.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction provides resources for Middle Grades Social Studies at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/socialstudies/middlegrades/.
On this page in particular, teachers can access a list of internet resources with explanations of their purposes and relation to Middle Grades curriculum.
One of these sources was used in Social Studies Activity One: http://www.measuringworth.com/ppowerus/.
PBS.org is another great resource to incorporate technology into an ELA or Social Studies class. While students learn how to navigate the website, teachers will be addressing essential standards of the North Carolina Essential Standards for Information and Technology Education.
PBS provides free classroom-ready media resources via PBS LearningMedia.
The following is an example lesson plan provided by LearningMedia for 8th graders to learn character development in an ELA class: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/vtl07.la.rv.text.lpflora/character-development-flora/ . The lesson plan can be applicable to O Brother, Where Art Thou? in lieu of the media materials provided.
To help educators present ELA Activity One, they may access this link: http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/venn.pdf and print out copies of the Venn Diagram for students to organize their work and complete the activity.
To help educators teach students learn how to create a Facebook account to complete ELA Activity 3, they may access short video tutorials like this one:
Teachers may also use the same concept to teach creating a Twitter account to complete ELA Activity 2.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? takes place during the Depression Era. To relate the movie back to Social Studies Essential Standards, teachers could relate Depression Era legislation to legislation being passed today. This video encompasses this concept : http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/3b150e58-4306-4db4-b046-79786fdae18d/3b150e58-4306-4db4-b046-79786fdae18d/
Other Social Studies concepts that can be addressed are culture and technology if educators use this source about the Tennessee Valley Authority: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/95f644be-4af1-49c1-9840-f64b0afd5237/95f644be-4af1-49c1-9840-f64b0afd5237/. "Today, TVA is the largest public power company in the United States. As a Federal public power corporation, the TVA serves about 80,000 square miles in the southeastern United States. This area includes most of Tennessee and parts of six other states— Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia." (National Archives) This meets 8th grade Social Studies Essential Standards, learning about North Carolina history as well as influence on the United States.
