By examining Lincoln's three most famous speeches the Gettysburg Address and the First and Second Inaugural Addresses in addition to a little known fragment on the Constitution, union, and liberty, students trace what these documents say regarding the significance of union to the prospects for American self-government.

This cross-curricular resource contains a primary source text on the Civil War, along with text-dependent questions, an academic vocabulary list, and a writing prompt that goes along with the text, including student responses. Students read Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address independently, then as a class before beginning work.

In this activity, students watch a short clip from the ASHP documentary 1877: The Grand Army of Starvationto learn about the impact of railroad expansion on Americans and the nation as a whole. After watching the clip, students complete the “Technological Turning Points and their Impact” worksheet in order to examine the positive and negative effects of the railroad.

This lesson and resource helps students strengthen their persuasive writing by identifying and responding to counterarguments.

In this lesson, students view archival photographs, combine their efforts to comb through a database of more than 2,000 archival newspaper accounts about race relations in the United States, and read newspaper articles written from different points of view about post-war riots in Chicago.

Late in 1917, the War Department created two all-black infantry divisions. The 93rd Infantry Division received unanimous praise for its performance in combat, fighting as part of France's 4th Army. In this lesson, students combine their research in a variety of sources, including firsthand accounts, to develop a hypothesis evaluating contradictory statements about the performance of the 92nd Infantry Division in World War I.

About one-third of Patriot soldiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill were African Americans. Census data also reveal that there were slaves and free Blacks living in the North in 1790 and later years. What were the experiences of African-American individuals in the North in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War?

In this Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide, indepth discussion questions guide students through exploration of Rick Bragg's All Over but the Shoutin', a haunting memoir about growing up dirt-poor in the deep South, and about struggling to leave the past behind while still deeply tied to it through bonds of love and responsibility.

This online interactive lesson from the United Kingdom's National Archives guides students through several primary sources in this case study about the Allies at War - What the Public Did Not See to answer the big question, "How strong was the wartime friendship between Britain, the USA, and the USSR 1941-45?" 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 unit, students examine the powers of the executive branch with careful analysis of the president's war powers. Primary documents are used to establish arguments for and against the expansion of presidential prerogative.

In this Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide, the questions, discussion topics, author biography, and suggested reading list will enhance student reading of An American Story by Debra J. Dickerson. Dickerson's frank, thought provoking, and ultimately triumphant memoir traces her spirited rise from the poor, black, working class of St. Louis in the 1960s to the ranks of the educated, middle-class, professional elite.

Students will read three short stories about women, written in different historical periods. Students will read each story and discuss the development of female characters in a particular setting, the role of women, gender differences, and society's expectations.

In this two day lesson plan, students will delve into an analysis of Joseph McCarthy's speech, "Enemies from Within" and identify reasoning, bias, rhetorical devices, and relationships between ideas.

Students will apply analytical skills to an exploration of the early Renaissance painting "Death and the Miser" by Hieronymous Bosch. Students will sketch and label the painting using an interactive tool to explore its elements, apply literary analyses tools to their interpretation, predict the painting's plot, and conclude the unit by creating a project that identifies and explains their interpretation of the painting.

This lesson introduces students to Oscar Wilde's public persona by studying the articles and images used to advertise his American tour in 1882. Students analyze the ways that these texts both promote and discredit Wilde. Students then conduct research followed by the production of a podcast which compares various images of Wilde.

This page contains a teacher's guide for Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. The guide includes background information on the time period and on Anne Frank's life, prompts for writing and discussion, vocabulary words, and supplemental information and resources to extend knowledge of World War 2 and the Holocaust and their timelines.

This page contains notes on Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, with strategies for approach, lesson ideas, suggestions for discussion and projects, and ways to tie the content to modern day issues.

Few geo-political events have resonated through the past 70 years like Neville Chamberlain?s decision to pursue the policy of appeasement in reaction to German aggression leading up to the Second World War. Leaders throughout the world have invoked appeasement to justify military action ever since. The decisions that went into Chamberlain?s policy, however, were far from straightforward. Historians have continually debated and reinterpreted these events. In this lesson, students address the issue of appeasement and explore and weigh evidence against and in favor of the policy.

In this lesson, students attempt to formulate their own declaration before examining the Declaration of Independence. Through a close reading of the document, they come to an understanding of how its structure forms a coherent, lucid, and powerful argument for independence.

Learn about the checks and balances system of the three branches of the U.S. government.