Nine historical documents, an interactive online notebook, and a fantastic opportunity for historical inquiry await your pupils in this 5-day lesson plan. Class members identify and discuss various causes for the Spanish-American War...

Provide a primary source document for the class to read and analyze. They read the 12-paragraph introduction to the book Our Islands and Their People, then answer six critical-analysis questions about Wheeler's statement on the...

Why did the United States choose to invade Cuba in 1898? As part of a 3-day activity, your young historians will first develop working hypotheses to answer this question, then work with a variety of historical primary source documents...

After analyzing newspaper articles portraying different perspectives of the explosion of the Battleship USS Maine, your young historians will take a stand on which position is the most believable in both discussion and writing.

Governments rely on propaganda to build support for wars. Class members examine six propaganda posters, two each from the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II, and analyze how the way women were portrayed in the posters...

What role did yellow journalism play in bringing the United States into war with Spain? As part of their study of the Spanish-American War, class groups examine newspapers of the times and other texts and then produce their own...

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War, but it did not end tensions between the two nations. The activity provides learners with an opportunity to practical historical analysis with text experts from the Treaty of...

Free Trade and Sailor's Rights! Pupils dive into America's first declared war, the War of 1812. They analyze the presidencies of Jefferson and Madison through diary entries and historical reasoning. To conclude the lesson, they use their...

A band of brothers or the Devil's agents? Nobel warriors freeing the oppressed or mercenaries working for the military/industrial complex? Groups examine poems from the Civil War, World War I, and World War II to determine the poets'...

Class members read a series of primary and secondary source materials to examine the effects of Queen Anne's War, also know as the War of Spanish Succession, on the Pocumtucks and other Native Americans in the area of Deerfield, MA.

The battle between code makers and code breakers has been going on for centuries and is a key tool of warfare. The contributions of the Native American Code Talkers of World Wars I and II are celebrated in a lesson that features a...

Can a negative perception of a president's foreign policy harm his or her historical legacy? A project that winds the clock back to the date of Theodore Roosevelt's death puts students at the editorial desk of a fictional newspaper....

Did Scopes violate the Butler Act? Why did so many Americans follow the Scopes trial? See analytical reading in action with a fantastic five-day lesson plan in which class members consider the historical context that provoked public...

What can maps tell us about the past? Find out with a Spanish lesson that incorporates geography. After examining maps individually, comparing two old maps of Spanish Florida and writing notes in the provided Venn diagram, pupils pair up...

Scholars analyze the role of women in the military in United States history. Using group research, debate, and diary entries, they explore various military activity in America. To complete the lesson, young historians write an essay...

Young historians have an opportunity to study the complex history and culture of Mexico by learning about several holidays: The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe), The Day of the Dead (El Dia de los...

To compare how the Spanish, French, and English approached the exploration of North America, class groups examine primary source documents and become experts on one of four explorers: Francisco Coronado, Robert LaSalle, Samuel de...

What led to the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and how might historians approach this question differently? This rich series of lessons includes a short introductory video clip, analysis of six primary source documents, and...

What do slaves fighting for their freedom on board a ship and a slave fighting for his freedom in a courtroom have in common? Budding historians investigate the two different cases of the Amistad slave revolt and the Dred Scott argument....