Curated OER
Major Events Leading to the American Revolution
Students explore the causes of the American Revolution. For this taxation without representation lesson, students analyze political cartoons in order to gain an understanding of the efforts of the colonists to resolve conflict with...
Curated OER
Road To Revolution
Students examine events that occurred and explore the differing sentiments between the British and American colonists in the years leading up to the American Revolution. They view and discuss a video on the events then analyze quotes...
Curated OER
The Emerging American Identity
High schoolers define what it meant to be an American early on in the nation's history. In this American identity lesson, students examine the noted quotations and determine what was meant by each of the authors with regards to an...
Curated OER
Policies that Relate to American Indians
Eleventh graders demonstrate an understanding of the impact of the western settlement patterns on American Indians. They analyze the growth and division of the United States from 1820 through 1877 and examine the non-Indian concept of...
Curated OER
What Experiences Shaped the Founders' Thinking about Government?
Students study the ideas and experiences that shaped the founding fathers' perspective about government. In this the government lesson plan, students examine the Articles of Confederation as they relate to the power of government....
National Endowment for the Humanities
Lesson 1: The First Great Awakening
High schoolers examine the First Great Awakening and how it affected religious belief in colonial America. They read and analyze primary source documents, explore various websites, and write a five-paragraph essay examining the beliefs...
Curated OER
An Empire in the Balance
Eleventh graders investigate the role of New York state during the American Revolution. In small groups, they research a particular region within colonial America, analyze primary source documents, complete Document Analysis Sheets, and...
Curated OER
The Declaration of Independence
Learners analyze the Declaration of Independence. They identify and describe various sections of the document then discuss how the colonists responded to it. As a culminating activity, they write their own declarations of independence as...
Curated OER
American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins
Students explore daily life and its influences in the late 1700s for two families in different colonies- Delaware and Massachusetts by becoming historical detectives. After gathering information from artifacts to make inferences about...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Slavery and the American Founding: The "Inconsistency Not to Be Excused"
High schoolers examine slavery in the revolutionary and colonial eras of the United States. In this slavery lesson, students investigate the presence of slavery in early America, the language of the Constitution, and the intent of the...
Carolina K-12
Loyalists and Patriots
Your young historians will square off as Loyalists dedicated to the English crown or revolutionaries fighting for a new nation in a role-play of a colonial town hall debate before the American Revolution.
PBS
Puerto Rican Perspectives
Puerto Ricans are wholly American, but their history with the United States has been one of tumult. Using clips from a PBS documentary, viewers consider the history of the island and Puerto Rico's contributions to the mainland United...
Curated OER
The Revolution Begins
Eleventh graders investigate the causes of the American Revolution. In this American Revolution activity, 11th graders examine the reasons that the colonists revolted against England as they read an online PowerPoint. Students write...
Curated OER
Slavery and Empire 1440 - 1770
Students reflect on the events that led up to slavery in the early years of North America. For this United States History lesson, students read excerpts from the book "Out of Many," then gather in small groups to answer specific...
Curated OER
First Nations vs. Euro-Americans
Students analyze primary and secondary source documents to help them describe the cooperation and conflict that existed among the American Indians and new settlers. Then, students analyze the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives...
Curated OER
The Colonization of the United States
Bring the Age of Exploration into the 21st century with this ancestry activity! Learners get a chance to explore the complex genealogy of the Spanish settlers through watching two video clips (approximately five minutes each) featuring...
Curated OER
Indigenous Peoples’ Day Lesson Plan
Indigenous Land Guardianship, Settler Colonialism, Racial Capitalism. While the terms may be new to some, they feature in a lesson plan designed for Indigenous Peoples' Day. Young scholars investigate four concepts: Land...
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
What Ben Read
Just what did Ben Franklin read? By juxtaposing Ben Franklin’s reading material as a young man with an analysis of his developed ideas, learners gain the opportunity to see how the influences of his youthful reading played out. Roman,...
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
Franklin’s Philadelphia: Another Point of View
The impressive story of Benjamin Franklin, including his rise from a printer’s apprentice to a statesman, color upper-level scholars’ understanding of the possibilities of life in colonial Philadelphia. But not everyone had the...
PBS
Free, but Not Free: Life of Free Blacks Before the Civil War
Using the family stories of a famous comedian and singer-songwriter, learners consider what life was like for African Americans who were enslaved and free before the Civil War. To complete a concluding activity, they write about the...
Curated OER
The African and the Pequot in Colonial America
Students determine that the lands the English settled on were owned and inhabited by 70,000 Indians. They consider that the London Company sold land charters to the English, which gave them illegal title to lndian land and that the...
Curated OER
Colonial America and Roots of Government
Students identify 50 States and the major geographic features, regions, and political representation of each. In connection, they investigate the causes and effects of European colonization on North America. They identify the formation...
Curated OER
Not Getting the News about the Stamp Act
How did American colonists react to the Stamp Act of 1765? Your young historians will examine primary source material by reading excerpts from a transcription of the Pennsylvania Gazette and then identifying the sentiments expressed by...
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Tea Overboard
While less well known than the event in Boston, the Yorktown Tea Party was equally decisive in turning community sentiment against Great Britain. To gain an understanding of why the colonists objected to the Tea Act, young historians...
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