High School Curricular Resources

Biographical Resources

Biography of John F. Kennedy
Biography of Jacqueline B. Kennedy


Campaign, Election and Inauguration

MO 96.247.4 'Kennedy for President' Campaign Button

Lesson Plan: Political Debates: Advising a Candidate
Students analyze excerpts from the first Kennedy-Nixon debate (September 26, 1960) and a memo assessing the debate from one of Kennedy's advisers. They then use the memo as a model as they watch a current political debate to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate they support.

Lesson Plan: Interpreting JFK’s Inaugural Address 
Students learn about the historical context of the inaugural address and then analyze the speech from three perspectives—a young civil rights activist, a Soviet diplomat, and a Cuban exile.

Lesson Plan: Analyzing the Rhetoric of JFK’s Inaugural Address
Students consider the rhetorical devices in the inaugural address. They analyze suggestions made by advisors and compare them to the delivered version of the speech.

Civil Rights in the Early 1960s

Missing media.

Lesson Plan: Art as a Civic Language
Students examine a painting to explore the experiences of those involved in the civil rights struggle during the 1950s and 60s.

Integrating Ole Miss 

Leaders in the Struggle for Civil Rights 
These letters and telegrams from key figures help tell the story of the civil rights movement during the Kennedy years. Documents include communications from James Farmer, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young.

1963: The Struggle for Civil Rights

The Cold War: Cuba, Space, Test Ban Treaty, and Vietnam


Cuban Missle Crisis Map of Missle Range

World on the Brink: The Cuban Missile Crisis
Your students can investigate the rich historical evidence in this online exhibit to analyze the events, decisions, and outcomes of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Lesson Plan: The Cuban Missile Crisis: How to Respond?
Students examine primary source documents and recordings. They consider some of the options discussed by Kennedy's advisors during the Cuban Missile Crisis, what groups and which individuals supported each option, and the pros and cons for each alternative.

Lesson Plan: The Bay Of Pigs: Lessons Learned
Students analyze President Kennedy’s April 20, 1961 speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors framing the invasion as “useful lessons for us all to learn” with strong Cold War language. This analysis will help students better understand the Cold War context of the Bay of Pigs invasion, and evaluate how an effective speech can shift the focus from a failed action or policy towards a future goal.


Lesson Plan: Kennedy's Quest: Leadership in Space
Students do a close reading of four primary sources related to the US space program in 1961, analyzing how and why public statements made by the White House regarding space may have differed from private statements made within the Kennedy Administration.

Test Ban Treaty

Lesson Plan: Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Students consider the threat of nuclear weapons in the early 1960s and the opportunities and challenges in negotiating an arms control agreement.

The Presidency in the Nuclear Age Resources
These annotated resources - gathered for a special conference held at the Kennedy Library in 2009 - provide students and teachers with useful documents, images, maps, timelines, and essays about issues related to nuclear armaments since the development of the first atomic bomb.


Lesson Plan: Military Advisors in Vietnam: 1963 
Students analyze a letter to President Kennedy from a woman who had just lost her brother in South Vietnam and consider Kennedy’s reply which explains his rationale for sending our military to that country.

Lesson Plan: JFK and Vietnam: The September 1963 TV Interviews 
Students will consider the language a president might use in trying to create the right balance in tone for both American and foreign audiences when discussing US involvement in other parts of the world.

Vietnam and the Presidency 
Read transcripts from an historic two-day conference held at the Kennedy Library on March 10-11, 2006, examining the history of the Vietnam War and the Presidency. Participants included General Alexander Haig, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Special Counsel to President Kennedy Theodore Sorensen, and Special Assistant to President Johnson Jack Valenti.

 The Kennedy White House


Lesson Plan: The Press Office: A Presidential News Conference Simulation
Students act as members of President Kennedy's Press Office with an assignment to brief him for a news conference. They research issues and events of the early 1960s by exploring the Kennedy Library's website. The lesson culminates with a simulated press conference.

Civic Education

Presidential Debate

Lesson Plan: Political Debates: Advising a Candidate
Political debates are an important part of the election process, whether on the local, state or national level. In this lesson plan, students analyze excerpts from the first Kennedy-Nixon debate (September 26, 1960) and a memo assessing the debate from one of Kennedy's advisers. They then use the memo as a model as they watch a current political debate to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate they support.

Lesson Plan: Federal Budget Simulation
In this lesson plan, students debate our nation's priorities by establishing their own "simulated" budgets.