Defining the American Dream

The California Gold Rush was not just an opportunity for the male gold miners sifting for shiny nuggets. Small groups read accounts of the ways women took advantage of the influx of workers to run hotels, bake pies, and wading out into...

What do Boston Harbor, the Electoral College, and Chief Powhatan have in common? They all represent vital moments in American history—and they are all clues in a thorough and challenging crossword puzzle about the United States...

How does Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun factor into a discussion of the American dream? High schoolers define the American dream and recognize the historical setting of the play. Additionally, they identify forms of...

Students are introduced to the ideas of the American Dream at the turn of the century. They present their ideas on the American Dream at the turn of the century through a person characterized in Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology.

Students compare contemporary cultural differences with historical differences based on population percentage. In this cross-curriculum Gold Rush/math lesson plan, students analyze aspects of California's Gold Rush population and...

Students define the American dream. In this primary research instructional activity, students search the Library of Congress digital collections for primary sources regarding the ideal of the American dream.  Students create...

Students describe the concept of the American Dream and explain how it is related to immigration.

Need an online resource to supplement the paper textbook in your classroom? An all-encompassing website covers historical events throughout the last half of the second millenium, leading right up to the third. From the pre-Columbian...

Students explore the American dream. In this contemporary music lesson, students analyze the lyrics of songs by Neil Diamond, Bruce Springsteen, and David Massengill. Students create 3-D representations of the American dream and write...

Students write a speech.  In this dreams activity, students define the word dreams and list their own dreams.  Students read and discuss Langston Hughes work, read and discuss excerpts from speeches by JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr.,...