Lesson Plan
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Founding Documents

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Teach the class about the predecessor to Declaration of Independence—the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Using the foundational documents, scholars examine the two writings to consider how they are similar and how they are different. A...
Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Women's Suffrage, Racism, and Intersectionality

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote—as long as they were white. High schoolers read articles and essays about racism in the suffrage movement and consider how intersectionality played a role in the movement. Scholars...
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Scholastic

Women's Suffrage for Grades 6–8

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Learners study the decisions and solutions involved in winning the right to vote. After reading background information on the fight for women's suffrage, including one woman's story, and its eventual success in the United States and...
Lesson Plan
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School Improvement in Maryland

Affirmative Action

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Do the government's affirmative action policies promote equity in the United States? The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution and affirmative action policies come under scrutiny in an activity that asks class members to...
Lesson Plan
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School Improvement in Maryland

Court Proceedings Civil Cases

For Teachers 9th - 12th
What's the difference between civil and criminal law? How do the court proceedings differ in these two types of trials? How do the standards of proof differ? Why do these differences exist? As part of their examination of the...
Lesson Plan
City University of New York

Jim Crow and Voting Rights

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Class groups examine primary source documents to determine how the voting rights of African Americans were restricted after the failure of Reconstruction, and how African American participation in World War II lead to change.
Lesson Plan
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Constitutional Rights Foundation

Options for Affecting Public Policy

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Letter-writing, e-mail and telephone campaigns, petitions, marches, meetings, with lawmakers. Options for influencing elected representatives are the focus of resource that details how to craft each of these approaches to influencing...
Lesson Plan
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Channel Islands Film

Eminent Domain

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
After viewing the documentary The Last Roundup, a documentary about the transitioning of Santa Rosa from a privately own island to a National Park, class members debate the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment that permits the...
Activity
Museum of Tolerance

Documents That Shape Society

For Students 10th - 12th Standards
The Bill of Rights is a foundational document of American democracy, much like the Nuremberg Laws were a foundational document of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany. But that's where their similarities end. Engage high schoolers in a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Constitution: Drafting a More Perfect Union

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze the U.S. Constitution.  In this U.S. History lesson, students explore the purpose of the Constitution, as well as who was involved in its creation.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

European Union Constitution

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students explore the European Union Constitution and the impact on the various countries involved. They discuss the countries that have rejected the rules and the countries that have accepted them. They imagine they are the head of a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Popular Sovereignty and the Lecompton Constitution

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore the purpose of the Lecompton Constitution.  In this United States History lesson, students read several articles then complete several activities to reinforce their reading, such as a cause and effect worksheet,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

First Things First: Using the Newspaper to Teach the Freedoms of the First Amendment

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners use the newspaper as a tool to make connections about what the five freedoms guarantee in the First Amendment. In this first amendment lesson plan, students analyze events in the newspaper to form conclusions about the freedoms...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Expansion and Reform: Applying the Declaration of Independence

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students conduct inquiries and research-acquiring, organizing, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and communicating facts, themes, and general principles operating in American history. They use the Declaration of Independence to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Thomas Jefferson on the Sedition Act

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students research and cite arguments Jefferson used in objecting to the Sedition Act. They discuss Jefferson's opinion on how constitutional questions about the Sedition Act could be resolved.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Political and Cultural Road to the American Revolution

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Learners examine the Declaration of Independence. For this Revolutionary War instructional activity, students use primary sources to analyze how the creation of the Declaration of Independence lead to the development of the United States...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Rights of the Child

For Teachers 6th - 11th
Students create a set of rights that promote safety and tolerance at the school site. In this Bill of Rights instructional activity, students read the U.N. Declaration on Rights of the Child. Student presenters lead a discussion of these...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Declaration of Independence

For Teachers 2nd - 6th
Students examine the Declaration of Independence. In this colonial America lesson, students read literature regarding the document as well as excerpts of the document itself. Students also perform a Reader's Theatre script based on the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Grapes of Wrath: Scrapbooks and Artifacts

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary sources. In this Great Depression lesson, students read John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and use ethnographic research processes...
Activity
iCivics

Do I Have a Right? Bill of Rights Edition

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
In an online engaging and animated game, pupils role play as lawyers charged with protecting rights found in amendments to the United States Constitution. As they choose appropriate amendments to match the right that has...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Double Jeopardy Clause: A Fifth Amendment Constitution Trivia Game

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Here is a wonderful way to introduce your learners to the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. There are 16 questions designed to generate thinking and discussion questions about the Fifth Amendment. This lesson is extremely...
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Center for Civic Education

The Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and Today

For Teachers 5th - 12th Standards
Discover the fascinating history of the Equal Rights Amendment and discuss the major implications and considerations associated with it today. Here you will find background information on the topic, a graphic organizer summarizing...
Lesson Plan
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Illustrative Mathematics

The Geometry of Letters

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Use the alphabet as a tool for teaching your class about geometric figures. Break apart capital letters into line segments and arcs. Classify angles as right, acute, or obtuse. Identify parallel and perpendicular lines. An excellent...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Producing a Strain of E. coli that Glows in the Dark

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students observe the experimental process called bacterial transformation and demonstrate phenotype changes in bacteria that have been transformed with an antibiotic-resistance gene and a metabolic marker. They create a luminescent...

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