Lesson Plan The French and Indian War Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ 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 The Evolution of the US Constitution: The Preambles to the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Objective This lesson plan is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These resources were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Lord Dunmore's Proclamation, 1775 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ In April 1775, John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore and Virginia’s royal governor, threatened to free slaves and reduce the capital, Williamsburg, to ashes if the colonists rebelled against British authority. In the months that followed,...
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.
Essay The Road to Revolution T. H. Breen Government and Civics, World History 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 The Peace of Paris (February 10, 1763) marked a glorious moment in the history of the British Empire. France surrendered Canada, ending more than a century of warfare on the northern frontier. At the time, no one seriously thought...
Essay The Declaration of Independence in Global Perspective David Armitage Government and Civics, World History 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ No American document has had a greater global impact than the Declaration of Independence. It has been fundamental to American history longer than any other text because it was the first to use the name "the United States of America":...
Essay The Social and Intellectual Legacy of the American Revolution Gary B. Nash Government and Civics 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ "We can see with other eyes; we hear with other ears; and think with other thoughts, than those we formerly used. We are now really another people, and cannot again go back to ignorance and prejudice. The mind once enlightened cannot...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770 Art, World History 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ By the beginning of 1770, there were 4,000 British soldiers in Boston, a city with 15,000 inhabitants, and tensions were running high. On the evening of March 5, crowds of day laborers, apprentices, and merchant sailors began to pelt...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Henry Knox’s Order of March to Trenton, 1776 Geography, Government and Civics, World History 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ On Christmas Day in 1776 the American Revolution was on the verge of collapsing. Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American forces had been driven from New York City to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and reduced...