An American Ballad - Lesson 1

The post-Revolutionary Period of 1781-1787, also known as the Critical Period, is the focus of a series of lessons that prompt class members to examine primary source documents that reveal the instability of the period of the Articles of...

What were the conditions that led to the American Revolution? What are the conditions that lead to revolution in other times and places? Class members examine primary source materials and use evidence drawn from these documents to craft...

Wouldn't it be great to live an a community without pain, without danger? Such a society is the goal of the community in The Giver. Using Lois Lowry's dystopian novel as the core text, class members read primary source materials about...

Who was George Washington? What were the events and principles that formed his character and made him the man he was? To gain insight into this amazing individual, pupils examine multiple primary source materials, from his childhood...

As an introduction to argument writing, groups examine two argument essays, observing how the writers state their claims and organize and support their ideas. Individuals then craft an argument essay, taking a position on the question of...

Readers learn about sharecropping in the South in a unit about Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying. Focusing on the period after Civil War Reconstruction but before the Civil Rights Movement, a set of handouts help to establish the...

Examine the mythology of the American West with Arthur Chapman's poem "Out Where the West Begins." Learners read the poem, answer text-dependent questions, and take some notes on a few more questions to prepare for a class discussion.

Jonathan Edwards' "Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God" and Anne Bradstreet's "Upon the Burning of Our House" provide learners with an opportunity to develop their close reading skills. Groups identify the figurative language and appeals...

Was the House Un-American Activities Committee justified in investigating subversive influences in the entertainment industry? Part two of the three-part series of lessons that examine the anti-communism movement after World War II,...

To conclude a three-part unit that examines how different writers express their views on the American Puritan tradition, class members compare the views of Ralph Waldo Emerson as expressed in his essay on "Self-Reliance" with those...