This online textbook is designed for grade 8 and up and covers all of North Carolina history, from the arrival of the first people some 12,000 years ago to the present. There are eleven parts, organized chronologically, a collection of primary sources, readings, and multimedia that can be rearranged to meet the needs of the classroom. Special web-based tools aid reading and model historical inquiry, helping students build critical thinking and literacy skills.

Containing more than 50 articles from the award-winning Tar Heel Junior Historian magazine and over 40 lesson plans, this multidisciplinary Educator Notebook will enrich your exploration of North Carolina and American history with diverse perspectives. This resource's link takes you to a very short form that gives you free downloadable access to the complete PDF book.

During the week, students will spend 10-12 minutes in both watching and annotating a video from www.history.com relating to a specific decade's historical and/or cultural developments and events.

Students will watch various documentary videos (10-12 minutes) about significant events in the United States in the 1990s. For each short video, students will complete a graphic organizer. Students will then engage in discussions with their peers about the documentaries using a set of predetermined questions and through a variety of suggested discussion strategies.

In this lesson, students will be divided into groups and asked to analyze and evaluate editorial cartoons pertaining to late 19th and early 20th century American imperialism. Students are expected to determine the perspective of the artists. After group evaluation, students will present their finding to the entire class.

In this lesson, students will use use editorial cartoons dealing with the anti-Vietnam conflict movement in order to determine aspects of this protest movement. They will consider the causes, forms and effectiveness of protest as depicted in editorial cartoons.

In this lesson, students use primary sources to answer the essential question: Was the bracero program an exploitation of or an opportunity for Mexican laborers? Students will justify their answer with evidence from the analysis of the primary sources.

In this lesson, students will analyze editorial cartoons that will enable them to explain the abuses of big business and determine the effects of their abuses. Students will identify the role of labor unions in
American society and better understand the role of government in the free enterprise system.

In this lesson, students will examine political cartoons from 1979-1990 and analyze the events and issues leading up to the collapse of the USSR.

In this activity, students analyze a comic strip from the early 1900s. The image serves as a jumping off point for further discussion of the rapid rise of mass popular culture in American cities in the early 20th century. As an extension, students can be asked to research and write a short report on another example of 20th century visual culture that explores some of the same themes.

With this digital collection, students will explore the subject of Chicago and the Great Migration through four specific topics: the race riots of 1919, travel, literary culture, and community organizing. Historian Arnold R. Hirsch explains in The Encyclopedia of Chicago that the covenants were “rare in Chicago before the 1920s, their widespread use followed the Great Migration of southern blacks.”

In this lesson, students will use editorial cartons dealing with the American Civil Rights movement in order to determine some of the major aspects of this social movement. They will discuss a pair of cartoons in groups and present their findings to the class.

In this activity, students study a civilian defense pamphlet 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 Teaching with the News lesson, students explore the human, economic, social, and political costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is an extension activity included for advanced students.

In this activity students create a political cartoon about one of five key historical understandings of the Philippine-American War. This activity and its materials are Smartboard-friendly but can be completed without a Smartboard. This activity is designed to accompany the film Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs, and Empire 1898-1904, but it can be adapted if the teacher does not have access to the film. To plan their cartoons, students will need scissors and glue or tape.

In this activity, students use primary source documents in order to respond to the statement: "Analyze the extent to which western expansion affected the lives of Native Americans during the period 1860–90 and evaluate the role of the federal government in those effects." Students will write an essay based on their analysis of the documents.

In this activity, students use primary source documents in order to respond to this statement: "Assess the social, political, and economic impact of the development of the Federal Interstate Highway System from 1940 to the mid-1960s." Students will write an essay based on their analysis of the documents.

In this lesson, students will analyze the Allied war aims, strategies and major turning points of the war by reading the prescribed text pages and participate in class discussions and by defining terms and names into notebooks. They will describe the impact of events on the people at the home front by creating cartoons summarizing events depicted in the New York Times articles and describe the role and sacrifices of members of the American armed forces by writing a letter home from the perspective of a D-Day survivor.

In this activity, students consider arguments for and against unrestricted immigration during the Ellis Island era. Students analyze political cartoons, letters, newspaper articles, posters, and other sources, noting evidence in the documents to support the viewpoints of the various figures in the 1903 cartoon "The Immigrant." This activity also includes modifications for low-level readers.

In this activity, students study an image 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.