Civil Service Reform: Senate Debates

The strategies civil rights activists Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois proposed for blacks to achieve racial progress is the focus of an activity in which class groups identify the strategies as well as the benefits and drawbacks...

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...

The American Civil War was a complex test of a relatively young democracy in the mid-nineteenth century. Discuss the events and factors that led to the Civil War with a thorough slideshow presentation.

Eleventh graders outline civil service reform proposals made by Senators during debates on Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. They interpret 1883 Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act to see if it incorporated Senators' proposals or...

Eleventh graders examine the type of political reform in the 1800s. In groups, they analyze the Pendleton Civil Service Act and two other economic acts. To end the lesson plan, they take a quiz and discuss the impact of the acts on the...

Students investigate the campaign contribution scandal in Illinois during the 1990s. They listen to a teacher-led discussion, answer discussion questions, compare/contrast two reform acts, and write their own civil service law.

Young historians research the debate over slavery; some students take the pro-slavery side and others the anti-slavery side. They take the role of a character such as a plantation owner, a legislator, a free Black, a slave, or a northern...

Students investigate Supreme Court cases regarding the treatment of spies. For this traitors and spies lesson, students examine the Ex Parte Milligan (1866) and Ex Parte Quirin (1942) cases. Students discover the details and rulings on...

High schoolers investigate Woodrow Wilson's ideas for peace through the League of Nations. They examine how he attempted to encourage American support for the League and the opposition to it that was found in the Senate.

Students calculate how much of each paycheck is deducted into the Medicare system, explain the need for health insurance and Medicare, and work in small groups to develop their own plan to reform Medicare.