Focused Learning Lesson: American History

America was founded by dreamers, and the American dream still resonates in our country today. Track the American dream from its Puritan beginnings to its optimistic descendants with a activity that focuses on speeches by John F. Kennedy...

Class members research African American inventors, the challenges they faced in their attempts to patent their works, and the importance of their inventions to the development of technology. After a brief introduction to inventors Elijah...

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...

Rather than simply summarizing the events that led to the American Revolution, have your learners listen as John Green offers some interesting points to be used as discussion or writing prompts in your review of the war. Green details...

Is the modern American identity an outgrowth of European civilization, or is it a unique result of westward expansion? Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History raises an important question about the...

Has the United States always been an empire? This video is packed with information on America's endeavors during the age of new imperialism, including the displacement of indigenous peoples through territorial acquisition, how wars were...

Compare and contrast old and modern historical accounts of the life of Thomas Jefferson. Learners begin by evaluating the responsibilities of history textbooks in reporting historical events, people, and eras. Next, they discuss how new...

African-American history is an integral part of what America is. Learners examine important events, read informational texts, and create quilts depicting specific eras in African-American history. Each image created for the quilt will be...

This compelling plan based on the letters in the book Dear Miss Breed engages readers in learning what it was like for Japanese Americans following the attacks at Pearl Harbor. After reading the letters, young scholars will partake in...

Was nonviolent resistance the best means of securing civil rights for black Americans in the 1960s? In this highly engaging and informative lesson, your young historians will closely analyze several key documents from the civil rights...