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Lesson Plan

"Contagious Liberty": Women in the Revolutionary Age

Government and Civics

Background The American Revolution, a byproduct of events both on the North American continent and abroad, unleashed a movement that focused on egalitarianism in ways that had never been seen before. Even John Adams commented on these...

Lesson Plan

"Father" of Our Country v. "Father" of the Bill of Rights

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Essential Questions To what extent does the Bill of Rights provide a "blanket of protection" for American citizens? Why do many Americans believe that the Bill of Rights is especially relevant today? Objectives Students will be able...

Lesson Plan

"Men of Color: To Arms! To Arms!"

5, 6, 7, 8

Overview Approximately 200,000 African American men served as soldiers during the Civil War. This lesson seeks to teach fifth grade students not only the skill of analyzing a primary source but also the methods that were used to...

Lesson Plan

"The Spirit of Empire": America Debates Imperialism

World History

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Click here to download this two-lesson unit. This unit was created in partnership with World101 from the Council on Foreign Relations .

Lesson Plan

"You Drop A Petal in the Water, and It Has a Ripple Effect": The Disability Rights Movement, 1950-1990

Government and Civics

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Click here to download this four-lesson unit.

Lesson Plan

“A City upon a Hill” from John Winthrop’s “A Modell of Christian Charity,” 1630

Government and Civics

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Click here to download this four-lesson unit.

Lesson Plan

A Different Perspective on Slavery: Writing the History of African American Enslaved Women

9, 10, 11, 12

Introduction The accounts of African American slavery in textbooks routinely conflate the story of enslaved men and women into one history. Textbooks rarely enable students to grapple with the lives and challenges of women constrained...

Lesson Plan

A Lesson on Détente

World History

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Materials "Memorandums of Conversation," National Security Archive, George Washington University Notes and Excerpts from Nixon’s Meeting with Mao, February 1972 , National Security Archive, George Washington University "Nixon and...

Lesson Plan

A Look at Slavery through Posters and Broadsides

Art

6, 7, 8

Overview Students will examine posters and broadsides from the 1800s to examine attitudes about slavery in the United States at that time. Materials Overhead or copies for all students of the poster packet (PDF) Poster Inquiry Sheet...

Lesson Plan

Abraham Lincoln on Slavery and Race

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Background Slavery played a prominent role in America’s political, social, and economic history in the antebellum era. The "peculiar institution" was at the forefront of discussions ranging from the future of the nation’s economy to...

Lesson Plan

Abraham Lincoln: A Man for All Seasons

8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Overview At one time in our country’s history we stood divided as a nation over the issue of slavery. It was Abraham Lincoln’s ideology and sense of purpose that helped to unite our country and set us on a path toward realizing the...

Lesson Plan

After World War II: The Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Trials

Government and Civics

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Click here to download this lesson.

Lesson Plan

Alamo Simulation

Geography

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview Through a simulation, in which Canadians try to seize the state of Maine, students will gain an understanding of the circumstances surrounding the Battle of the Alamo, February 23–March 6, 1836, between approximately 200...

Lesson Plan

Alice Paul: Suffragist and Agitator

9, 10, 11, 12

Background The American women’s suffrage movement has always been identified with its two founders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, whose strong, enthusiastic leadership defined the movement. When they retired from active...

Lesson Plan

All Aboard: Making Connections with the Transcontinental Railroad

5, 6, 7, 8

LESSON 1 Objectives Students will Read and understand primary source writings from two key documents that encouraged settlers to go west and that established congressional support of what would eventually become the transcontinental...

Lesson Plan

America in Song

Government and Civics

3, 4, 5

Unit Objective This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical...

Lesson Plan

America's Role in the World: World War I to World War II

World History

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Click here to download this two-lesson unit. This unit was created in partnership with World101 from the Council on Foreign Relations .

Lesson Plan

America's Unseen Soldiers

9, 10, 11, 12, 7, 8

Click to download this five-lesson unit.

Lesson Plan

America’s First Ladies on Twentieth-Century Issues

Unit Overview Over the course of three to four lessons the students will analyze five primary source documents. These documents are the abridged transcripts of speeches by five of our country’s first ladies: Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty...

Lesson Plan

American Music Goes to War

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Entertainment is always a national asset. Invaluable in time of peace, it is indispensable in wartime. —Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1943 Background Music during World War II had an unprecedented impact on America, both on the home front...

Lesson Plan

American Symbols: The Flag, the Statue of Liberty, and the Great Seal

Art, Government and Civics

K, 1, 2

Unit Objective This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These units were written to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical...

Lesson Plan

American Women and World War I

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Click to download this three-lesson unit :

Lesson Plan

Americans All: Foreign-born Soldiers and World War I

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Click to download this three-lesson unit.

Lesson Plan

An "Unconstitutional" Act? The Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Background At the beginning of the Civil War, as the number of dead increased daily, a force of opposition to the war efforts began to intensify in the Congress and in the voices of the American people. Abraham Lincoln, in an effort...

Lesson Plan

Analyzing Protest Songs of the 1960s

Background In January 1969, America’s recently elected conservative president Richard Nixon took office, young Americans were engaged in a radical and vivacious counterculture, and a devastating war in Vietnam continued amidst a...

Lesson Plan

Analyzing the Great Compromise, 1787

Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Essential Question How could our Founding Fathers balance the needs of the states as we created a national government? Materials The Virginia Plan, 1787 (PDF). Source: Virginia (Randolph) Plan as Amended (National Archives Microfilm...

Lesson Plan

Andrew Jackson and the Bank War

9, 10, 11, 12

Introduction When Alexander Hamilton called for a Bank of the United States in his Report on a National Bank , he envisioned a central bank that would sustain a developing national economy. The bank would, through the creation of bank...

Lesson Plan

Andrew Jackson's Message to Congress Concerning the Indian Removal Act of 1830

Geography, Government and Civics

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

View a copy of Jackson’s Message to Congress in the Gilder Lehrman Collection by clicking here . For additional resources click here . Unit Objective This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based...

Lesson Plan

Apprenticeship and Indentured Servitude: Contract Labor in the British Colonies

5, 6, 7, 8

Click here to download this three-lesson unit. About This Lesson Plan Unit The four lessons in this unit explore a massacre in colonial Pennsylvania in which the Paxton Boys—immigrants from Ulster,...

Lesson Plan

Articles of Confederation

Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Essential Question How could our Founding Fathers best meet the governing needs of the various factions after the Revolutionary War? Materials Articles of Confederation (PDF). Source: Transcript of the Articles of Confederation , 100...

Lesson Plan

Back in 1734

K, 1, 2, 3

Introduction Present the following scenario to your students. You can either read it to them or enlist students to act it out. The scenario is about two children who lived in 1734 and were the age of your students. "Anna Elizabeth and...

Lesson Plan

Banking Basics

Economics

1, 2, 3, 4

Introduction Many elementary school students are unaware of how banks make money and what causes them to fail. This lesson will provide students with a basic understanding of those two issues, linking them to the Great Depression and...

Lesson Plan

Baseball and Race in the United States

9, 10, 11, 12

Background On April 15, 1947, 27,000 fans packed Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, to watch the Dodgers' new first baseman take to the field. They came to watch a baseball game, and they came to see a talented 28-year-old rookie,...

Lesson Plan

Beyond Rosie the Riveter: Women's Contributions During World War II

Art, Economics, Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview Although often understated, the social, economic, and political contributions of American women have all had profound effects on the course of this nation. For evidence of this, one needs to look no further than the many...

Lesson Plan

Black Women and the American Revolution

9, 10, 11, 12

Click to download this lesson plan.

Lesson Plan

Bruised Egos, Battles, and Boycott: The 1980 Moscow Olympics

World History

4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Background Politics and sports have intermingled since the inception of the Olympic Games in Greece, but not until the 1980 Olympics did people fear that politics might destroy the Olympic movement and spirit. The Union of Soviet...

Lesson Plan

Celebrating Labor Day

Government and Civics

4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Essential Question To what extent have the conditions of American workers improved over the past 100 years? Background After the Civil War, the United States witnessed an accelerating movement of people westward, a rapidly increasing...

Lesson Plan

Challenging Segregation in Public Education

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Background The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, during the congressional Reconstruction era. The amendment’s most significant provision —"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or...

Lesson Plan

Children on the Home Front

World History

2, 3, 4, 5

Overview While American soldiers were fighting abroad, those left at home, including children, contributed to the war effort in many ways. Background Although World War II wasn’t fought on US soil, its effects were deeply felt by all...

Lesson Plan

Children’s Attitudes about Slavery and Women’s Abolitionism as Seen through Anti-slavery Fairs

6, 7, 8

Overview Over two days, students will examine the attitudes that children from northern states had about slavery during the 1830s to 1860s and how abolitionists tried to change their way of thinking. They will also explore how woman...

Lesson Plan

Colonial Pennsylvania and the Paxton Massacre, 1763

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Click here to download this four-lesson unit. About This Lesson Plan Unit The four lessons in this unit explore a massacre in colonial Pennsylvania in which the Paxton Boys—immigrants from Ulster,...

Lesson Plan

Colonists Divided: A Revolution and a Civil War

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8

Background The Stamp Act, the Quartering Act, the Declaratory Act, the Sugar Act, and the Tea Act were just a few of the many policies Great Britain enacted in the British North American colonies in the eighteenth century. To many...

Lesson Plan

Common Man and Contradictions: A Mock Trial of Andrew Jackson

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview The election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 marked a change in American politics. For the first time a presidential candidate had been elected from west of the Appalachian Mountains, marking an end to the streak held by wealthy...

Lesson Plan

Comparison of Ideas: Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois

Economics

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Essential Question Which of the two views presented below, W.E.B. Du Bois’ or Booker T. Washington’s, offered a better strategy to put our nation on a quicker path to equality for African Americans at the turn of the twentieth century...

Lesson Plan

Conflict and Captivity in the Colonies

Literature

6, 7, 8

Background The early seventeenth century was punctuated by a series of small wars between Native Americans and colonists. Many colonists were captured and taken prisoner, but two women, whose ordeals were published as books, stand out...

Lesson Plan

Dashes and Dots: A Product of the Nineteenth Century

Economics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Overview Students will examine primary sources including letters, a patent, photos, and diagrams to identify and describe the technological invention and development of the telegraph that evolved during the nineteenth century....

Lesson Plan

Dawes to Burke to McGirt: Tribal Sovereignty, 1887–2020

Geography

9, 10, 11, 12

Click to download this three-lesson unit.

Lesson Plan

Deadly Diseases: A Fate Worse than Dying on the Battlefield

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12

Background Cannons blasted and bayonets tore through flesh in America’s worst war, the American Civil War. This war was gruesome for many different reasons. It tore the country apart and created divides that exist to this day. One of...

Lesson Plan

Debating Chinese Immigration and Naturalization, 1869-1898

Government and Civics

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Click to download this three-lesson unit.

Lesson Plan

Declarations of Independence: Women's Rights and the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8

Background Under the leadership of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a convention for the rights of women was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. It was attended by between 200 and 300 people, both women and men. Its...

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