In this activity, students use primary source documents in order to assess the validity of this statement: "British colonial and North American perceptions of each other created exonomic cooperation and social friction between the two groups prior to the American Revolution." Students will write an essay based on their analysis of the documents.

This unit is designed to teach about the causes and effects of the Great Depression, and provide an introduction to the use of primary sources in the study of history. This historical discovery approach will emphasize the role of the historian as detective using such skills as observation, discrimination, analysis, and synthesis to research and record history. Students will explore primary sources including photographs, poems, song lyrics, documents, maps, cartoons, as well as, secondary source texts in print and online.

In this lesson, students observe, record, analyze, and interpret a primary source to learn about the effects of the Great Depression. They will also compare and contrast their own lives with those of the children in the photo.

In this lesson, students will observe, analyze, and record observations of primary source photographs from 1933. They will also draw upon previously learned information from the colonial period to learn new information about the depression, bank closings, and how people used the old bartering system and compare and contrast the perspective of two different individuals.

In this lesson, students will present and explain their projects from the previous lesson. They will then practice analyzing another primary source from the same year, but with a different action and setting.

In this lesson, students use online sites to find primary sources from the period. They will then work collaboratively to analyze the primary sources they find and present their analysis to the class.

In this lesson, students pinpoint and list specific problems of the Great Depression using what they have learned from analyzing a variety of primary sources. They will then form research groups to learn about President Frankling Roosevelt and New Deal Legislation using internet sources.

In this lesson, students continue working in their research groups (formed in previous lesson) to learn about additional New Deal programs.

In this activity, students examine a print from a wood engraving titled "Emancipation" and answer a series of questions. The questions are designed to guide students into a deeper analysis of the source and sharpen associated cognitive skills.

In this lesson, students explore major events occurring at the end of World War II, including the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the forced relocation of Japanese Americans into internment camps, and America’s use of atomic weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Students will explore primary sources, read poetry and a narrative, and discuss the US government’s choices in depth while examining the affect on America, Japan, and the world community at large.

This lesson plan facilitates discussion with students about the challenges that faced George Washington as the first President of the United States.

In this lesson students look at primary source images and read short secondary texts to understand slave life. In the activity, the teacher models and students practice differentiating between different types of text (primary, secondary, etc.) they might encounter in the social studies classroom. Students show their understanding of a passage's central concepts by selecting words and phrases to compose a "found poem" about the main ideas of the text. This lesson was designed for struggling readers and ESL/ELL students.

Students will analyze documents pertaining to the woman suffrage movement as it intensified following passage of the 15th Amendment that guaranteed the right to vote for African American males. Documents were chosen to call attention to the struggle's length, the movement's techniques, and the variety of arguments for and against giving women the vote.

One of the most famous political speeches on freedom in the twentieth century was delivered by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union message to Congress. This lesson examines the rhetorical use of "freedom" with the objective of encouraging students to glimpse the broad range of hopes and aspirations that are expressed in the call of and for freedom.

This lesson focuses on the debates among the U.S. Founders surrounding the distribution of power between states and the federal government. Students learn about the pros and cons of state sovereignty vs. federalism and have the opportunity to argue different sides of the issue.

Students will explore the Articles of Confederation and the Articles' influence in revising the Constitution of 1787. Students will experience the sentiments of Federalists and Anti Federalists by participating in a partner debate as either North Carolina Federalist James Iredell or Anti Federalist Willie Jones.

Students read biographies of lesser-known female spies Lydia Darragh, Elizabeth Thompson, and Dicey Langston, all of whom contributed to the Revolutionary War effort in unusual ways. Students then analyze the actions of these women and identify and infer the consequences of their participation both to the conflict and in their personal lives.

This lesson examines primary sources from the Foundling Hospital in London and poses questions about how things were run and what life was like for a child under their care.

In this lesson students do a close reading of “Learning to Read,” a poem by Francis Watkins Harper about an elderly former slave which conveys the value of literacy to blacks during and after slavery. The activities also prompt students to examine the nature of literacy in the 21st century and the value they put upon it.

This interactive site provides primary resources and curator interviews designed to focus on the lunch counter as an object in historical context. Also provided are a lesson plan and annotated links to other online resources to expand student understanding of the topic.