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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...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: Reconstruction Amendments

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Thirteenth Amendment Prohibited slavery in the United States Fourteenth Amendment Defined national citizenship Reduced state representation in Congress proportional to number of disfranchised voters Denied former Confederates the...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: The Articles of Confederation

Economics, Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation No separate executive branch to carry out the laws of Congress No national judiciary to handle offenses against the central government’s laws or to settle disputes between states Congress...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: New Deal Legislation

Economics, Government and Civics

New Deal Legislation 1932 Reconstruction Finance Corporation Granted emergency loans to banks, life insurance companies, and railroads 1933 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Employed youth in reforestation, road construction, and...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: Great Society Legislation

Government and Civics

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

President Lyndon Johnson announced his Great Society program during his State of the Union address in 1964. He outlined a series of domestic programs that he promised would eliminate poverty and inequality in the United States. By the...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: Slavery Fact Sheet

Economics, Geography, Religion and Philosophy, World History

9, 10, 11, 12

Geography Enslaved Africans came primarily from a region stretching from the Senegal River in northern Africa to Angola in the south. Europeans divided this stretch of land into five coasts: Upper Guinea Coast: The area delineated by...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: Slavery and the Law in Seventeenth-Century Virginia

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

1662 General Assembly determines “Negro women’s children to serve according to the condition of the mother.” 1667 General Assembly passes “An act declaring the baptisme of slaves doth not exempt them from bondage.” 1669 Virginia...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: Major Slave Rebellions

Economics, Government and Civics, World History

9, 10, 11, 12

New York City, 1712 Like many later revolts, this one occurred during a period of social dissension among White colonists following Leisler’s Rebellion. The rebels espoused traditional African religions. Stono Rebellion, 1739 The...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: National Expansion

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

National Expansion Free States Slave States Connecticut Delaware Massachusetts Georgia New Hampshire Maryland New Jersey North Carolina New York South Carolina Pennsylvania Virginia Rhode Island Kentucky (1792) Vermont (1791)...

Classroom Resources

Infographic: New States in the Union

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

View this infographic as a downloadable PDF.

Lesson Plan

Woman Abolitionists

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Background Women always played a significant role in the struggle against slavery and discrimination. White and black Quaker women and female slaves took a strong moral stand against slavery. As abolitionists, they circulated...

Lesson Plan

Militancy and the Abolitionist Movement

9, 10, 11, 12

Essential Question Did militancy help or hinder the abolitionist movement? Materials Abolition Excerpts (PDF) Timeline of the Abolitionist Movement (PDF) Background Although the original Constitution of the United States did not...

Lesson Plan

Who Was John Brown?

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8

"Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic." —Frederick Douglass Background The late 1840s and the 1850s were a turbulent and complex time in American history as the...

Lesson Plan

Examining Antebellum Elections

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Aim What can the statistics tell us about the rise and fall of the second two-party system? How did the breakdown of this system contribute to the onset of the Civil War? Overview The purpose of this lesson is to examine the...

Lesson Plan

Every Four Years: Qualifications for the Office of President and Electing the President

Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Overview Students will examine aspects of Article II of the Constitution for specific information related to the requirements for and method of electing the president. Materials (attached) KWL Chart (PDF) The United States...

Lesson Plan

Every Four Years: Introducing Presidential Elections

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8

Lesson Overview The students will examine, explain, and evaluate Article II, Section 1 of the US Constitution for specific information concerning the eligibility requirements and election process for the office of President of the...

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

Enslaved African Americans and Expressions of Freedom

Art, Literature

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview Students will examine African American slave spirituals, a painting, and a personal narrative to analyze the underlying messages of these materials. Materials The Old Plantation (painting) can be seen at: http://www.history...

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

Jewish Immigration, Popular Culture, and the Birth of the Comic Book

6, 7, 8

Background The study of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries goes beyond the study of the ethnic make-up of the immigrants of this era, the challenges and hardships they encountered in the United States,...

Lesson Plan

Immigration in the Gilded Age: Using Photographs as Primary Sources

Geography, Government and Civics

6, 7, 8

Aim / Essential Question How successful were photographs in demonstrating the conditions of immigrants during the Gilded Age? Background The latter portion of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century witnessed the start...

Lesson Plan

Norwegian Immigration in the Nineteenth Century

Geography, Literature

5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Background For most Norwegians in the nineteenth century, America remained a remote and exotic place until the first immigrants began to write home. These "American letters," which traveled from the immigrants back to former neighbors...

Lesson Plan

Framing Soo Hoo Lem Kong

6, 7, 8

Overview Students will examine immigration documents and interviews in order to describe the experience of Chinese immigrants entering California in the 1900s. Students will use depth and complexity icons as tools to develop higher...

Lesson Plan

Martin Luther King Jr.: His Legacy as Seen Through the Mississippi Summer Freedom Project

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Background Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 21, is celebrated by Americans each year to remember and recognize the life and work of the man. Martin Luther King Jr., however, represents far more than the contributions of a single...

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...

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