In this lesson, students will recognize and discuss the role of protest songs in the Birmingham youth movement. Then, they will identify their own political agendas and write protest songs.

In this lesson, students discuss the meaning of “A More Perfect Union,” a speech about race made by then-Senator Barack Obama, during the 2008 Democratic primary campaign. Students will also examine and assess how textbooks position groups differently in our national historical narrative — and how this positioning affects our understanding of ourselves.

While Paul Revere's ride is the most famous event of its kind in American history, other Americans made similar rides during the Revolutionary period. After learning about some less well known but no less colorful rides that occurred in other locations, students gather evidence to support an argument about why at least one of these "other riders" does or does not deserve to be better known.

This resource includes two nonfiction texts, a link to a video, and 17 text-dependent questions (including one optional constructed-response prompt for students). Also includes explanatory information for teachers regarding alignment to the CCSS.

American author Pearl S. Buck spent most of her life in China. She returned to America in 1934, "an immigrant among immigrants"¦in my native land." In this lesson, students will explore American attitudes toward immigration in the 1930s through Pearl S. Buck's essay, "On Discovering America." They will explore the meaning of the term "American" in this context and look at how the media portrayed immigrants.

Behind many of the apparently simple stories of Robert Frost's poems are unexpected questions and mysteries. In this lesson, students analyze what speakers include or omit from their narrative accounts, make inferences about speakers' motivations, and find evidence for their inferences in the words of the poem.

Poets achieve popular acclaim only when they express clear and widely shared emotions with a forceful, distinctive, and memorable voice. But what is meant by voice in poetry, and what qualities have made the voice of Langston Hughes a favorite for so many people?

Speech writing is a rhetorical art and provides the content for these scaffolded lessons that support the increased cognitive rigor of literacy standards with presidential writings.

This is a collection of six primary sources from the United States and Soviet Union about the U2 incident during the Cold War.

The Committee of Public Safety's assumption of political power and rule between 1793 and 1794 marked what was arguably the most radical phase of the French Revolution. The Committee justified its excesses as necessary to protect against domestic and foreign counter-revolutionaries. In this lesson, students question the motives of the Committee through analyzing excerpts from the "Decree Against Profiteers" and "Law of Suspects."

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 6th Grade Math.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade ELA. 

In this lesson, students investigate where on the bus Rosa Parks sat on the day of her arrest. They explore two primary documents—one that contests and one that supports—the account presented in the textbook. First, the teacher elicits students’ beliefs about where Rosa Parks sat, and asks where students learned their information. Then, students read a textbook passage and two conflicting primary documents. Finally, students decide which of the primary documents they believe is more trustworthy and write a paragraph defending their choice.

This lesson starts with what students know about Rosa Parks and then uses a series of three primary sources to complicate Rosa Parks’ story. Students read a sample textbook excerpt that includes the familiar narrative; then, after reading and analyzing each primary source, they consider how it compares with that narrative. Using think-alouds from the site, students see historians considering and analyzing significant passages from these documents. Finally, using evidence from both the primary sources and textbook account, students create their own brief narratives of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

This online interactive lesson from the United Kingdom's National Archives guides students through several primary sources in this case study about the Russian Civil War to answer the big question, "Did the Cold War really start in the period 1919-39?" There is a worksheet, glossary, and timeline provided to assist students in their analysis. You must click on the picture of each primary source to access it.

In this lesson, students consider the historical context that framed and stirred public interest in the Scopes trial. They watch a short introductory movie, read eight documents, answer guiding questions, and prepare to complete the final essay assignment using their notes. Students listen to a historian think aloud about excerpts from the documents to see analytical reading in action. They use a graphic organizer to guide their note taking. Finally, students write an essay using evidence from these documents to craft an argument that considers the historical context of the Scopes trial.

In this lesson students use a statement from the American Federation of Teachers and an editorial from the Chicago Defender to expand upon the textbook’s depiction of the Scopes trial as a clash between “creationists” and “evolutionists.” First, students read and analyze a passage from a selected textbook. Then they read documents showing different perspectives on the Scopes trial. Finally, each student writes a letter to the textbook publisher suggesting ways to edit the textbook using evidence from these primary documents.

In this lesson, students use primary source documents to compare perspectives on helping the poor during the Great Depression. Students will examine different approaches to relief presented in two primary documents, answer questions relating to the documents, and explain which approach they think best and why.

In this lesson, students learn about the rivaling policy proposals for aid to the aged in the early 1930s. They examine a poster for the Social Security Act that was created by the Social Security Board. Then, they design posters for the different policies proposed by Huey Long and Francis Townsend. Finally, students analyze posters from other eras of American history.

In this lesson, students engage in an inquiry focused upon different historical interpretations of Social Security and the New Deal. They examine the different ways that historians Carl Degler, Barton Bernstein, and Anthony Badger have addressed the question: Did the Social Security Act and the New Deal fundamentally change the role of American government in the economy? Students learn elements of historiography—in particular that interpretations of history may differ, in part, due to the evidence used by historians and their particular perspectives. Finally, students answer the inquiry question themselves and support their arguments with evidence from both primary and secondary documents.