Lesson Plan Environmentalism, Love Canal, and Lois Gibbs, 1953-1997 Economics, Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math 9, 10, 11, 12 Click here to download this four-lesson unit
Spotlight on: Primary Source Temperance movement cartoon: The Drunkard’s Progress, 1826 Art Numerous reform movements to improve society sprang up in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. The temperance movement attracted reformers who identified excessive drinking as the principal cause of domestic...
Spotlight on: Primary Source A British view of rebellious Boston, 1774 Art, Government and Civics, World History In the years leading up to the American Revolution, both the British and the colonists used broadsides to influence public opinion. This broadside, “The Bostonian’s Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring & Feathering,” printed in...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Frederick Douglass’s tribute to Abraham Lincoln, 1880 Literature Despite initial differences, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln forged a relationship over the course of the Civil War based on a shared vision. Fifteen years after Lincoln’s death, Douglass described him as "one of the noblest...
Lesson Plan The Civil Rights Movement: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X Government and Civics Click to download this three-lesson unit.
Spotlight on: Primary Source A soldier on the battle for the Philippines, 1945 Geography Witnessing the brutality of war and atrocities against civilians could overwhelm the most fair-minded of men. Sidney Diamond, an officer in the 82nd Chemical Battalion, wrote loving, humorous, and hopeful letters to his fiancée almost...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Abraham Lincoln's last letter to his wife, 1865 Government and Civics This letter, written as the Union captured the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, demonstrates Lincoln’s active, hands-on commitment as commander in chief of the armed forces as well as his devotion to his family. It reads...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The women’s rights movement after the Civil War, 1866 The fight for women’s rights that had begun in earnest with the convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, diminished in the 1850s and 1860s as reformers focused on the abolition of slavery and the Civil War, but the movement did...
Spotlight on: Primary Source "The President is murdered," 1865 At 10:13 p.m. on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC, President Abraham Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln, unconscious and bleeding, was rushed...
Spotlight on: Primary Source D-Day correspondence between a soldier and his wife, 1944 On June 6, 1944, as Allied forces numbering approximately 160,000 troops landed along fifty miles of coastline in Normandy, France, Moe Weiner, a native of Brooklyn, was serving in the US Army Quartermaster Corps in England. He did...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The Fort Pillow Massacre, 1864 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ "Among the stories of the stormy days of the Republic, few will longer be remembered than the heroic defense and almost utter annihilation of the garrison of Fort Pillow." —Mack J. Leaming, April 1893 On April 12, 1864, fifteen...
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,...
Classroom Resources Infographic: Life in Colonial America: Climate, Commerce, and Culture Geography, Government and Civics K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Click here to learn more about the New England Colonies. Click here to learn more about the Middle Colonies. Click here to learn more about the Southern Colonies.
Lesson Plan Pilgrims, the Plymouth Colony, and Thanksgiving, 1608-1621 Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy, World History 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Click here to download this five-lesson unit.
Video: Inside The Vault Inside the Vault: A 1925 Study Guide for Eighth-Grade Graduation in Iowa Foreign Languages, Geography, Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Are you smarter than a (1925) eighth grader? In the 1920s, when most students did not go to high school, the eighth-grade state examinations marked the end of their formal education. Sam C. Stephenson published review books to help...
Guided Readings Guided Readings: Reconstruction Government and Civics Reading 1 We hold it to be the duty of the government to inflict condign punishment on the rebel belligerents, and so weaken their hands that they can never again endanger the Union; and so reform their municipal institutions as to...