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Stage a Debate: A Primer for Teachers (Lincoln-Douglas Debate Format)
For a comprehensive overview of debate styles and formats, look at this resource. It details the Lincoln-Douglas debate format (one-to-one debate with specific, timed rounds of points, cross-examination, and rebuttals). You can also find...
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Classroom Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Unfamiliar with the Lincoln-Douglas Debate format? Check out this resource that details the procedures of the debate, the roles and responsibilities of each participant, and the timing of each round.
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The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858
Eleventh graders examine transcripts of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates and create a platform for each candidate in the 1858 Senate race.
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School Uniforms: Debating the Issue and Creating an Advertisement
Fifth graders debate the issue of school uniforms. They research, finding supporting evidence supporting their stance. Using the Lincoln-Douglas form of debate, 5th graders discuss the positive and negative issues of the topic. They...
Curated OER
Role Play Debate
Suggested topics for a role play debate include school uniforms and culpability for drunk driving, but any issue of interest to your class will work. What are the hot issues in your community or on the news right now? Class members...
Curated OER
36 Public Policy Questions to Energize Your Government/History Classroom Debates
Need topics that are sure to engage your debaters? This list of public policy questions includes such topics as school mascots, regulation of major league baseball, physician-assisted suicide, and violence in video games. A great...
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Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858
Students examine the transcripts of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates and create a platform for each candidate in the 1858 Senate race. They utilize the candidates' arguments to explore the historical and political impact.
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The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858: Interactive Map Activity
Eleventh graders utilize an interactive map to explore the 1858 Senate campaign in Illinois and how factors such as population, transportation, and party strongholds can affect campaign strategies.
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The Union is Perpetual: Lincoln is Elected
Students view primary documents about the race for President in the time of Abraham Lincoln. For this election lesson, students prepare arguments for and against Lincoln using an analysis sheet. Students create a poster or cartoon to...
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The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858: Interactive Map Activity
Students utilize an interactive map to explore the 1858 Senate campaign in Illinois. They examine how factors such as population, transportation, and party strongholds can affect campaign strategies. Students write an essay discussing...
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The Life Masks of Lincoln
Learners analyze two life masks of Abraham Lincoln. In this Life Masks of Lincoln lesson students determine which events during his presidency formed the change in Lincoln's countenance. Lastly learners create a timeline of important...
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...
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The Union is Perpetual: Lincoln is Elected
Students take a closer look at the election of Abraham Lincoln. In this historical analysis lesson, students analyze letters, political cartoons, and campaign materials from Lincoln's campaign. Analysis worksheets are included.
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Lincoln: The Constitution & the Civil War
Students examine the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. In this Abraham Lincoln activity, students analyze the political and constitutional issues that Lincoln dealt with during his time in the White House as they play an online game and...
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: Popular Sovereignty and the Political Polarization over Slavery
Students read selections from the Declaration of Independence, Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and the Wilmot Proviso of 1846. They contrast the maps of 1820 and 1854 to analyze developments in the national debate over slavery. They...
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Lincoln, Patriotism and Protest
Eleventh graders explore arguments surrounding Abraham Lincoln's opposition to the Mexican War. They compare the arguments surrounding Lincoln's opposition to war with those surrounding war protestors during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
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Debates Over Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus
Eighth graders study the concept of Habeas Corpus. In this Civil War lesson, 8th graders research the reasons for and against suspending the writ of habeas corpus. Students analyze various documents.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: Popular Sovereignty and the Political Polarization over Slavery
Why did Stephen Douglas support the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? Why did Abraham Lincoln oppose it? Young historians examine how the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 affected the political balance between free and slave states and explore how...
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Abraham Lincoln, the 1860 Election, and the Future of the American Union and Slavery
Students examine the political alternatives regarding the spread of slavery and the preservation of the American union facing the American people in the decade leading up to the 1860 presidential election.
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The Gettysburg Address
Students examine Lincoln's life. In this U.S. history lesson, students examine facts about Abraham Lincoln and then complete 6 extension activities that require them to complete research regarding the Civil War.
University of California
The Civil War: Secession of the South
Was the Southern states' decision to secede from the Union protected by the United States Constitution? Eighth graders discuss the constitutionality of the South's justification for secession, particularly the secession of South...
What So Proudly We Hail
The Meaning of America: Equality
What if society sought equality by handicapping the gifted and dispelling any traces of diversity? Kurt Vonnegut Jr. offers one possible answer to this question through his incredibly engaging and thought-provoking satirical...
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The Cherokee Removal
Eleventh graders examine the issue of Cherokee removal from the perspectives of Andrew Jackson, members of Congress, and members of the Cherokee nation. They adopt the perspectives and engage in debate over the issue of Cherokee removal.
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The Anti-Slavery Movement
Eleventh graders as a class create and write a constitution for an anti-slavery society. They investigate demographics of slavery, treatment of slaves, the colonization movement, and women in the abolition movement, and present their...