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Guided Readings

Guided Readings: Using Primary and Secondary Sources: Slavery in the Founding Era

3, 4, 5

Primary and secondary sources can provide different kinds of information about the past. In the context of slavery, Phillis Wheatley is considered the most important figure of the eighteenth century. Two accounts of her experience...

Lesson Plan

The Cold War Across Time (1945–1990): A Jigsaw with Expert Groups

Economics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Objective To discover the impact the Cold War had on multiple aspects of life, both in the United States and around the world, by exploring changes over time. Overview of Jigsaw Process Expert Groups will create four timelines...

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

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

How to Analyze Primary Source Documents / F.D.R. & The Great Depression

Government and Civics

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

Essential Question How effective was President Franklin Roosevelt in communicating with the American public during this time of crisis? Objectives Understand the importance of thinking critically about historical events. Be able to...

Lesson Plan

Making a Covenant with Death: Slavery in the Constitutional Structure

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

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

Materials US Constitution , Our Documents Finkelman, Paul. Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson . New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2001. Essential Question Why did the Founders find it necessary to provide...

Lesson Plan

Nineteenth-Century Native American Viewpoints

Geography

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

Objective Identify and compare the ideas of major Native American leaders from the nineteenth century. Evaluate the impact of those ideas on the United States and Native Americans. Locate the original and final reservation territory...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

A proclamation on the suspension of habeas corpus, 1862

The doctrine of habeas corpus is the right of any person under arrest to appear in person before the court, to ensure that they have not been falsely accused. The US Constitution specifically protects this right in Article I, Section...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

The price of war: A letter from Mary Kelly to Sarah Gordon, 1862

James Kelly served with the 14th Indiana Volunteers beginning in 1861. In March 1862, his wife, Mary, traveled to the field hospital in Virginia where he lay wounded after the Battle of Winchester. She described the terrible...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on the Siege of Vicksburg, 1863

One of the Union’s top military objectives was to gain control of the Mississippi River, and thereby split the Confederacy in two. General Ulysses S. Grant took up this challenge late in 1862 but was frustrated for several months by...

Site Search

90,944 items

Guided Readings: Using Primary and Secondary Sources: Slavery in the Founding Era

The Cold War Across Time (1945–1990): A Jigsaw with Expert Groups

Analyzing the Great Compromise, 1787

A Lesson on Détente

How to Analyze Primary Source Documents / F.D.R. & The Great Depression

Making a Covenant with Death: Slavery in the Constitutional Structure

Nineteenth-Century Native American Viewpoints

A proclamation on the suspension of habeas corpus, 1862

The price of war: A letter from Mary Kelly to Sarah Gordon, 1862

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on the Siege of Vicksburg, 1863

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