K20 LEARN
Manifest Destiny: U.S. Territorial Expansion
A close examination of John Gast's painting "American Progress" launches a study of the concept of Manifest Destiny used to justify United States' policy of westward expansion. Young historians read statements from persons with different...
K20 LEARN
The Conflict at the Washita River: The Indian Wars in Indian Territory
"Battle" or "Massacre"? Words matter, especially when labeling historical events. That's the big idea in a lesson about the 1868 conflict at the Washita River. After examining two images of the event, groups read and discuss articles...
K20 LEARN
Reconstruction Treaties Of 1866: The Reconstruction In Indian Territory
The Reconstruction Treaties of 1866 and their impact on the Five Tribes in the United States Civil War are the focus of a lesson that asks young historians to consider how these treaties affected tribal sovereignty. Class members do a...
K20 LEARN
Whose Manifest Destiny? Westward Expansion
Your land is my land! Young historians investigate the concept of Manifest Destiny used by the United States government to justify western expansion. Jigsaw groups read primary source documents to gain an understanding of the movement...
K20 LEARN
Many Trails of Tears: The Era of Indian Removal
Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. All were forced off their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States as part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Young historians research the tribes' reactions to this removal and...
K20 LEARN
Show and Tell Museum - Investigating Primary Sources: Read and Interpret Primary Sources
Scholars become detectives in a lesson that focuses on primary sources. Learners practice their observational skills by examining the teacher's artifact and visiting the Show and Tell Museum that highlihgts items from peers and...
K20 LEARN
Native American Education - Past, Present, and Future: Assimilation
To understand the history of Native American education, high schoolers examine the record of young scholars who attended the Carlisle Indian School from 1879-1918. They also examine sources that contain information about indigenous...
Anti-Defamation League
Analyzing Primary Source Documents to Understand U.S. Expansionism and 19th Century U.S.-Indian Relations
Historical events can be viewed from multiple perspectives. This simple truth is brought home in a lesson that examines primary source documents related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny,...
Curated OER
America’s Early Colonies: John Smith and Jamestown, Va
John Smith's 1616 letter to Queen Anne of England offers ELLs an opportunity to learn about a bit of early American history. The four-page packet includes the full text of the letter. In addition, the packet includes a worksheet...
K20 LEARN
Learning About The Past: Comparing Primary And Secondary Sources
Scholars find out how primary and secondary sources help us learn the past. Beginning with an anchor chart, class members discuss and write the differences between primary and secondary sources; a card sort is added to the anchor chart...
K20 LEARN
Examining The Boston Massacre Through Primary Sources
The Boston Massacre is the focus of a lesson that explores primary sources. Scholars examine two primary source images and discuss the different perspectives on the historical event. After groups read a researched account, they perform a...
Anti-Defamation League
Building Alliances
Bystander or up-stander? The final lesson in the "Looking Back Reaching Forward" unit asks participants to consider how they can become involved in encouraging change in their school and community.
Anti-Defamation League
With All Deliberate Speed
Has the integration of U.S. schools proceeded "with all deliberate speed?" Has progress been made? Those are the questions young historians must consider as they examine the barriers to and opportunities revealed in a study of timelines...
Overcoming Obstacles
Designing an Action Plan
Outcome + available resources + schedule + timeline + steps to complete project = Action Plan! The second instructional activity in the "Service Learning" module outlines for scholars the steps to take when designing an...
National Endowment for the Humanities
García Márquez’s Nobel Prize Speech: “The Solitude of Latin America”
To conclude a study of One Hundred Years of Solitude, class members analyze Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech. After a whole-class discussion of the main ideas in the speech, individuals draft a...
Annenberg Foundation
Actions that Changed the Law
The Fair Play Act of 2009 came about due to the actions of one woman. Young historians research Lilly Ledbetter and what she went through to get pay equal to that paid to men for the same work at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The...
Smithsonian Institution
The Suffragist: Educator's Guide for Classroom Video
Class members take on the role of historical investigators to determine why it took 40 years for women in the United States to get the right to vote. Sleuths view videos and analyze primary sources and images to gather evidence to answer...
American Institute of Physics
The Physicist's War: Dr. Herman Branson and the Scientific Training of African Americans during World War II
The mobilization of soldiers for World War II resulted in a worker shortage in the defense industries, especially in the fields of physics and other sciences. The Engineering, Science, and Management War Training program (ESMWT) was...
Teaching Women's History
Georgian Women
Britain was and is a stratified nation. History sleuths investigate the Georgian Era (1714-1830) of British history to gain an understanding of how the roles women played during this period were influenced by class, race, and religion....
US National Archives
Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Suffrage
Susan B. Anthony was willing to break the law to gain voting rights for women. Young historians investigate Anthony's willingness to go to jail to draw attention to the suffrage movement. They read and discuss primary source documents to...
Teaching Women's History
Medieval Women
Not all the women in the late Middle Ages (1400-1510) lived lives of quiet desperation. Young historians study images and read primary source documents to gain an understanding of what life was like for the elite class of medieval women.
American Institute of Physics
The Physical Sciences at Women's Colleges
After a brief introduction to the history of women's colleges in the United States and a discussion of the resistance such institutions faced, young scientists investigate seven traditionally women's colleges and their physics programs....
Anti-Defamation League
Shirley Chisholm: Unbought, Unbossed and Unforgotten
A 13-page packet introduces high schoolers to a lady of amazing firsts. Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress, the first Black woman to run for President of the United States, and a leader of the Women's Rights...
DocsTeach
The Amendment Process: Ratifying the 19th Amendment
The process for adding an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is long and arduous, by design. High School historians study a series of documents about the Nineteenth Amendment and, using an interactive program, drag the documents onto a...