In this class, we will explore America's diversity through questions of immigration, …
In this class, we will explore America's diversity through questions of immigration, race, gender/sexuality and class--some of the major ways our culture is organized. It is comprised of 9 lessons based on online resources, plus 2 auto-ethnography assignments. This class was originally taught by Huma Mohibullah at Renton Technical College.
This course contains five projects that are organized around the following question: …
This course contains five projects that are organized around the following question: “What is the proper role of government in a democracy?” Each project involves political simulations through which students take on roles that help contextualize the content required by the new College Board course framework.
Founders' Intent Elections Supreme Court Congress Government in Action
Openly licensed PDF unit plans of all the above units are available at this Sprocket Lucas Education Research Platform (scroll to bottom of web page).
Alternately, educators may sign up for free access to the online AP U.S. Government and Politics course that includes additional instructional supports: https://sprocket.lucasedresearch.org/users/sprocket_access
Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator David Richman for his AP World History …
Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator David Richman for his AP World History course. Adaptable to US History. Adaptable to other grades. Assignments ask students research the effects Executive Order 9066 had on families of Japanese descent, to analyze primary sources, and to create an illustrated story book detailing Ms. Wakatsuki’s time spent at Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp.
The inaugural online presentation of the Aaron Copland Collection at the Library …
The inaugural online presentation of the Aaron Copland Collection at the Library of Congress celebrates the centennial of the birth of the American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990). The multiformat Aaron Copland Collection from which the online collection derives spans the years 1910 to 1990 and includes approximately 400,000 items documenting the multifaceted life of an extraordinary person who was composer, performer, teacher, writer, conductor, commentator, and administrator. It comprises both manuscript and printed music, personal and business correspondence, diaries, writings, scrapbooks, programs, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, awards, books, sound recordings, and motion pictures.
The first release of the online collection contains approximately 1,000 items that yield a total of about 5,000 images. These items date from 1899 to 1981, with most from the 1920s through the 1950s, and were selected from Copland's music sketches, correspondence, writings, and photographs.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1864 by M.E. …
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1864 by M.E. Goodwin in the Clerk's Off. in the Dist. Court of the United States for the Southern Dist. of N.Y. Designed by R.D. Goodwin.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)
A satire on enforcement of the "gag-rule" in the House of Representatives, …
A satire on enforcement of the "gag-rule" in the House of Representatives, prohibiting discussion of the question of slavery. Growing antislavery sentiment in the North coincided with increased resentment by southern congressmen of such discussion as meddlesome and insulting to their constituencies. The print may relate to John Quincy Adams's opposition to passage of the resolution in 1838, or (more likely) to his continued frustration in attempting to force the slavery issue through presentation of northern constituents' petitions in 1839. In December 1839 a new "gag rule" was passed by the House forbidding debate, reading, printing of, or even reference to any petition on the subject of abolition. Here Adams cowers prostrate on a pile composed of petitions, a copy of the abolitionist newspaper the "Emancipator," and a resolution to recognize Haiti. He says "I cannot stand Thomson's [sic] frown." South Carolina representative Waddy Thompson, Jr., a Whig defender of slavery, glowers at him from behind a sack and two casks, saying "Sir the South loses caste whenever she suffers this subject to be discussed here; it must be indignantly frowned down." Two blacks crouch behind Thompson, one saying "de dem Bobolishn is down flat!" Weitenkampf cites an impression with an imprint naming Robinson as printer and publisher, this line being apparently trimmed from the Library's impression. The drawing style and handling of the figures strongly suggest that "Abolition Frowned Down" is by the same Robinson artist as the anonymous "Called to Account" and "Symptoms of a Duel" (nos. 1839-10 and -11).|Drawn by HD?|Entd . . . 1839 by H.R. Robinson . . . Southn. Dist. of N.Y.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 59.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1839-12.
In planning this history lesson, determine if you want to cover this …
In planning this history lesson, determine if you want to cover this material in one or two class periods. The lesson focuses on Abraham Lincoln as a man and as a leader during the Civil War. The reading paragraphs have pictures and Word Banks to help students grasp the main ideas of the lesson. This lesson covers more advanced vocabulary than beginners will know, but it is not critical that the students produce every new word. The goal is to engage the students in the topic and help them learn the general knowledge included in the test items. For example, in the paragraph on the Lincoln Memorial, the students do not need to retain the information about the construction and historical use of the memorial. These details are introduced in order to demonstrate that even years after his death, Americans still honor Lincoln’s leadership in significant ways. Covers civics test items 60, 72, 74, 75, and 100.
Lincoln, Abraham. 1858. "First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas." Excerpts of speech …
Lincoln, Abraham. 1858. "First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas." Excerpts of speech delivered at Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858. https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate1.htm
A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring Abraham Lincoln and …
A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring Abraham Lincoln and his national role. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Speeches, correspondence, campaign materials and a map documenting the free and slave states in 1856 chronicle Lincoln���s rise to national prominence
Students work in groups to examine excerpts from primary source documents. They …
Students work in groups to examine excerpts from primary source documents. They identify social and economic factors affecting specific categories of people when the Great Migration accelerated in 1916 to 1917: black migrant workers from the South, southern planters, southern small-farm farmers, northern industrialists, agents, and white immigrant workers in the North. Each student group creates a "perspectives page" to post for a gallery walk where students analyze the causes of the Great Migration and the changes it brought to both the North and South. Students also discuss the specific economic factors that influenced the Great Migration: scarcity, supply, demand, surplus, shortage, and opportunity cost. Using the PACED decisionmaking model, they analyze the alternatives and criteria of potential migrants.
Primary source documents serve as the bedrock of all reliable social studies. …
Primary source documents serve as the bedrock of all reliable social studies. They provide firsthand facts, descriptions, opinions, and accounts which illuminate the distant world of the past while allowing us to better understand the present. To many students, however, primary source documents are foreign, verbose, and tedious.
In order to reach out to these students, a history teacher’s best weapon is often adaptation, especially through the medium of film. Passionate actors, perceptive directors, witty screenwriters, and elaborate costumes bring dusty historical documents back to life through an immersive audiovisual experience.
Yet with a bit of inspection, these cinematic adaptations of history can reveal much more than secondary historical details. By analyzing these films as primary source documents themselves, audiences can gain insight into the time period in which the movies were made.
This curriculum unit considers the story of Spartacus—the celebrated hero of ancient history and the 1960 film directed by Stanley Kubrick—as both a primary and secondary source of history. How does Spartacus compare to the ancient sources recorded before the common era? And how does Spartacus reveal the political and social turmoil which afflicted the United States throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s?
A boy and his family endure a difficult nine-week journey across the …
A boy and his family endure a difficult nine-week journey across the ocean and survive the first winter at Plymouth. Based on true events, "Across the Wide Dark Sea" poetically narrates a young boy's account of risking the ocean to find religious freedom in a new land.
In this activity, students watch a short clip from the ASHP documentary …
In this activity, students watch a short clip from the ASHP documentary 1877: The Grand Army of Starvationto learn about the impact of railroad expansion on Americans and the nation as a whole. After watching the clip, students complete the “Technological Turning Points and their Impact” worksheet in order to examine the positive and negative effects of the railroad.
PBS American Experience’s Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Dividedis a 6 …
PBS American Experience’s Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Dividedis a 6 episode mini-series available as a 3 DVD set. The following activity focuses on the causes and consequences of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation through an active viewing of Episode 4: The Dearest of All Things(Disc 2). There is a companion website to the series, The Time of the Lincolns, that contains a Teacher’s Guide, primary sources, and episode transcripts.
In this activity, students watch short clips of the PBS/A Bill Moyers …
In this activity, students watch short clips of the PBS/A Bill Moyers Special production ofBecoming American: The Chinese Experience(2003). The documentary clips and accompanying materials cover the arrival of Chinese in California, their work on the transcontinental railroad, the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Angel Island immigration facility. At the end of the activity, students complete a short writing task on whether not to immigrate to the United States from the perspective of a young Chinese man.
In this activity, students watch short clips of the ASHP documentary Daughters …
In this activity, students watch short clips of the ASHP documentary Daughters of Free Mento learn about the experiences of Lowell mill girls in the 1830s. Students follow the life of Lucy, a young girl working in Lowell in 1836. After each clip, students reflect on what they have just learned and predict what Lucy will do next.
In this activity students analyze the reasons why the Montgomery Bus Boycott …
In this activity students analyze the reasons why the Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted so long and was successful. Students watch a short clip from the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prizeabout the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Then students analyze primary sources to determine who participated in the boycott, who organized it, and what challenges boycott supporters faced. The teacher will need access to the filmEyes on the Prize, which is widely available in school and public libraries.
In this activity, students watch the documentary Heaven Will Protect the Working …
In this activity, students watch the documentary Heaven Will Protect the Working Girlin sections, with documents and exercises designed to support and reinforce the film's key concepts: workers challenging the effects of industrial capitalism, the impact on immigrant families of young women earning money in the garment industry, and the methods used by women to improve working conditions in factories during the Progressive Era.
This activity is designed to help students understand key ideas from the …
This activity is designed to help students understand key ideas from the documentary film Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs, and Empire 1898-1904. The film is divided into short segments with suggested viewing strategies and questions to keep students focused.
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