On American Identity, Diversity, and Common Ground

The anniversaries of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, and the signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787, provide us an opportunity to reflect upon who we are as Americans, examine our most fundamental values and principles and affirm our commitment to them, and evaluate progress toward the realization of American ideals and propose actions that might narrow the gap between these ideals and reality.

The following four lesson plan unit are designed to accomplish these goals.

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.

I have created a Google sites website that provides students with the opportunity to explore the United States becoming a world power independently. The predominant area of focus of this unit is U.S. Imperialism, and WWI.  I am currently employed at an alternative education high school and am going to be using this site to let the students complete the tasks at their own pace in order maximize learning as well a flexibility. I have included a study guide/ note taking guide, assessments, projects and other various assignments.

This lesson highlights the changing relationship between the city center and the suburb in the postwar decades, especially in the 1950s. Students will look at the legislation leading up to and including the Federal Highway Act of 1956. They will also examine documents about the history of Levittown, the most famous and most important of the postwar suburban planned developments.

Kick-off a research project on gender roles on the World War II home front with two brief video clips and a selection of primary sources. Once students have analyzed the photographs and wartime advertisements, begin a research project on women during World War II. This lesson plan (which includes background information and full-color primary sources) was produced to accompany the exhibition "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War," by the Smithsonian?s National Museum of American History.

This assignment will allow students to dig deeper into a theme/lens of American History 2.  This can be adapted to work with any time period or extended to last the entire semester to see change over time.  Students will incorporate research and writing, technology, and even art.  Students will research the time period through one of the following lenses: Conflict/War, Technology, Government and Policy, American Dream, American Identity.  For use with other units or time periods you could include Business and Economy.Students will create a webpage on a Google Site created by the teacher.  Students must include on their page a summary of their topic, a timeline, a student created video, and a student created visual.

Students will view a brief video about a singular cultural event that occurred in a decade, in this case the 1990s, in the United States and annotate the event for the who, what, where, when of the event and the impact of the event in 2019.  Each day has a specific video that the students will view, and they will submit the completed packet on the last class of the week.

Students will see and read about the differences in food manufacturing practices before and after the new food laws passed in 1906: the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

This lesson shows students how broadly the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941 empowered the federal government"”particularly the President"”and asks students to investigate how FDR promoted the program in speeches and then in photographs.

This Educator Notebook provides information on Women’s History in North Carolina for teachers to use as a resource, either as stand-alone units, or integrated into standard curriculum. Included is research from museum curators and educators, and articles published in the Tar Heel Junior Historian magazine which are written for students in grades 4-12. Lesson plans and suggested activities complement many of the topics. Adaptable to multiple ages, they meet curriculum goals set forth by the NC Department of Public Instruction and connect to classes in national and world history, geography, economics, and the arts, and can be part of any unit of social studies. This resource's link takes you to a very short form that gives you free downloadable access to the complete PDF book.

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun provides a compelling and honest look into one family's aspirations to move to another Chicago neighborhood and the thunderous crash of a reality that raises questions about for whom the "American Dream" is accessible.

In this lesson plan from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, students will identify and discuss the condition and aspirations of free African Americans in the years following the Civil War, identify the social factors that led to the rise of Jim Crow segregation and evaluate the effects of segregation.

Here is one of the strategies that we ought to be using in history and social studies classes because it lets us take advantage of a tool that students probably already possess ... namely, the story maps they've been using in English and Language Arts and Literature for years and years. When looking at stories and novels, students are often asked to focus on the "elements" of story: setting, characters, plot, and theme, among others. When we look at historical events, we're interested in the same things: where and when did the event take place? who was involved? what was the problem or goal that set events in motion? what were the key events? how was it resolved? and, for theme, so what? what's the universal truth, the reason this matters?

The Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the first half of the 20th Century is one of the pivotal social events in U.S. history, and helped to set the stage for the modern Civil Rights movement. By examining historical letters, pictures and editorial cartoons, students will come to understand the motivations behind the migration, and its lasting impact on small communities and cities.

America’s involvement in WWI left most Americans exhausted--in more ways than one. Soldiers returning home had suffered huge emotional distress from the war itself as well as from the physical injuries that many had suffered. Americans at home were deeply divided over the issues at the forefront of the League of Nations debate and the impact that the war had on thousands of immigrants with relatives overseas, many suffering in war-torn lands. Many Americans wished to return to what President Harding described as “normalcy.” Because of this desire by the American public, three trends in American society began to develop, both in rural towns and in urban areas across the country

In this lesson, students explore the historical context of Walt Whitman's concept of "democratic poetry" by reading his poetry and prose and by examining daguerreotypes taken circa 1850. Next, students will compare the poetic concepts and techniques behind Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" and Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again," and have an opportunity to apply similar concepts and techniques in creating a poem from their own experience.

A map of Washington DC was created in 1851 - a time of relative peace in the United States. Millard Fillmore was president, California had just become a state, and the Capitol building was undergoing an expansion project to accommodate the nation's growing size. By this point, Washington DC had been the nation's capital for about 60 years, although many buildings were newer than that since they had been destroyed in the "Burning of Washington" near the end of the War of 1812. In this lesson, successful students will use a "spyglass map" to explore the 1851 map in detail and compare and contrast with the present day layout and structure of Washington DC.

Students will learn about the key fronts of World War I and the impact of the United States' involvement.

GeoInquiries are designed to be fast and easy-to-use instructional resources that incorporate advanced web mapping technology. Each 15-minute activity in a collection is intended to be presented by the instructor from a single computer/projector classroom arrangement. No installation, fees, or logins are necessary to use these materials and software.