Trade is a Two-way Street (and More)

Students activate prior knowledge about French and English history. In this historical fiction literacy lesson, students list information they know about the French Revolution and the history of England. Students contribute ideas to...

Economist Adam Smith supported free enterprise, he but critiqued mercantilism. These two ideas—seemingly contradictory—may be difficult for some young historians to grasp. A reading that explores these ideas guides scholars in unraveling...

Theodore Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores were both born in 1858, and both came to the Dakota territory in 1883, but they influenced the developing country of America in different ways. Elementary and middle schoolers apply written and...

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...

Designed to help readers recognize the point of view of the author of a primary source documents and analyze how that point of view influences the reliability of a text, young historians examine two personal letters, one written by...

Was American politics always bound to the two-party system? Learn how the two-party system developed, why third parties tend not to do so well, and all the various political parties that have emerged throughout US history. Each party is...

Having a government may feel complicated and cumbersome, but as John Locke contends in his Two Treatises of Government, it is better than allowing human nature to regulate itself. A short video presents high schoolers with an explanation...

Actual ship diagrams and a table of voyage data gives young historians an authentic glimpse of on-board experiences during the Atlantic Slave Trade. The class examines a projected diagram of the slave ship Brooks, recording thoughts....

Young scholars discuss the factors that can lead to war, and the motivations of countries going into war. They research two viewpoints on Texas during the Mexican War and participate in a debate with their classmates.

Learners read excerpts from Peter Hessler's River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze and discuss his difficulties in learning the language, cultural clashes and how cultural perceptions shape our understanding of the world.