Historical Thinking Matters
Social Security: 3 Day Lesson
What does social security reveal about the political and social culture of the 1930s? After beginning with a brief introductory video on the impact of the Great Depression and how various Americans, such as Huey Long and Francis...
Historical Thinking Matters
Social Security: 5 Day Lesson
Did the New Deal fundamentally shift the role of the American government in the economy? Your class members will examine the interpretations of various historians in answering this question, and use a variety of primary and secondary...
Curated OER
For The Sake Of Security: U.S.A. Patriot Act & Bill of Rights
A substantive New York Times article about the U.S.A. Patriot Act, military tribunals, racial profiling, and the Bill of Rights forms the basis for a discussion of the complex interplay of fundamental American rights and the aftermath of...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Homestead Act Signed: Who were the Settlers?
Life in the great, wide-open spaces of the West! Scholars analyze the reasons behind the vast movement to the Great Plains after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Homestead Act. Using photographic, document, map, video, and...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 The Kansas-Nebraska Act
How the Kansas-Nebraska Act created Bleeding Kansas is complicated—until scholars research and examine documents from the time. After completing activities that include mapping, photo, document analysis, and discussion, learners...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Homestead Act Signed: The Challenges of The Plains
Start a whole new life in a land known as the Wild Wild West! Learners analyze maps, personal accounts, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, songs, and video clips to uncover life under the Homestead Act. Using their new skills, class members role...
Curated OER
Security and Savings for All?
Students act as either Democrats or Republicans to debate plans to alter Social Security. For homework, they consider whether Social Security has become too politicized and propose their own solutions.
Teaching Tolerance
Racial Profiling
Racial Profiling. Class members chart what they know and what they want to know about this hot-button topic.
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: The Patriot Act
In this current events worksheet, students analyze a political cartoon that requires them to consider how visual irony is used in a cartoon about the Patriot Act. Students respond to 3 talking point questions.
James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
A Deliberate, Palpable and Dangerous Exercise of Other Powers: James Madison & Homeland Security
This resource uses primary source documents to explore the First Amendment. After reviewing key events of the 1790s, government or US history classes explore Madison's letter to Jefferson regarding the Alien and Sedition Acts. They then...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Native Americans and Settlers
Did Western settlers receiving free land from the Homestead Act realize it wasn't really free at all? Scholars investigate the impact Western expansion had on Native American culture in the mid-1800s. They use documents, timelines, and...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 African American Settlers
Go West, young man! Scholars investigate the impact of African American settlers moving to the Nebraska territory, following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in the mid 1800s. Using primary sources, timelines, maps, and...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Beef Moves to Nebraska
Just how long was the Long Drive? Learners investigate the movement of cattle in the Great Plains during the mid-1800s. They incorporate photographic, newspaper, video, and primary source evidence into their posters, artwork, and written...
Curated OER
The Stamp Act
In this teaching American history worksheet, students examine a primary source document regarding the Stamp Act. Students discuss their impressions of the document.
Curated OER
The Alien and Sedition Acts
Middle schoolers discover the conflicts that arose between the political parties over issues of foreign policy and economics. Using the Internet, they research the Alien and Sedition Acts and how they relate to the U.S. Constitution....
Advocates for Human Rights
The Rights of Women in the United States
Six diverse activities make up a substantial unit on the women's rights movement in the United States, past and present. A few of the topics at hand: the fourteenth and nineteenth amendments, the Equal Pay Act, the Lily Ledbetter Act,...
Judicial Learning Center
American Equality Milestones
Has equality always existed as an unalienable right in the United States? Use this worksheet to chronicle the history and progression of equality in major documents and speeches throughout American history. The graphic organizer asks...
Curated OER
Does Security Mean Safer? Exploring Issues of Security in Public Places
Students explore various scenarios that may or may not make them suspicious in the post-September 11 world, and discuss and write position papers about a fatal shooting involving air marshals and a mentally ill passenger.
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Liberty vs. Security
In this current events activity, students analyze a political cartoon about civil liberties and respond to 3 talking point questions.
Student Handouts
Voting Rights Speech Before Congress
Is your class studying civil rights? Consider taking a look at President Lyndon B. Johnson's voting rights speech. This resource includes an abridged version and three related questions. Pupils consider Johnson's use of language and the...
Curated OER
Running for Freedom: The FUgitive Slave law and the Coming of the Civil War
In order to understand the complicated nature of slave laws during the Civil War, learners compare and contrast an abolitionist poster and a runaway slave ad. They use an attached worksheet to consider each primary source document, then...
Curated OER
A Furious Mob
In this Stamp Act worksheet, young scholars read and discuss an excerpt titled "A Furious Mob," which was written by Governor Thomas Hutchinson regarding the events of August 26, 1765.
Humanities Texas
A President's Vision: Franklin D. Roosevelt
This poster goes well beyond any traditional worksheet in allowing learners to analyze a variety of primary source documents related to the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Curated OER
Barriers to Immigration: The Chinese Exclusion Act
Pupils study the Chinese Exclusion Act and its impact on the Chinese here in the US and abroad. They watch a video, then perform research which is guided by worksheets imbedded in this lesson plan.