Stanford University
Beyond the Bubble: Edison and the Kansas Housewife
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a letter from a Mrs. W.C. Lathrop to Thomas Edison thanking him for inventing her electric appliances and making her life easier. They are then presented with some contextual facts, and...
Stanford University
Beyond the Bubble: John Brown's Legacy
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students answer questions about a poster for a play written in 1936 that celebrates the abolitionist John Brown, who tried to start a slave revolt in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859.
Stanford University
Beyond the Bubble: Morale After Fredericksburg
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students examine a letter from Joseph F. Green, a soldier in the Union Army, to his friend Julia Reynolds on January 2, 1863. In it he describes low morale among Union soldiers after the Battle of...
Stanford University
Beyond the Bubble: Opposition to the Philippine American War
[Free Registration/Login Required] Assesses students' ability to use evidence to support a historical argument. Students are presented with two documents that provide different perspectives on the war in the Philippines. Students are...
Stanford University
Beyond the Bubble: Slave Quarters
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students examine a photograph of former slave quarters in Georgia and answer questions about the living conditions of slaves. They will also observe how the fact that the photograph was taken decades...
Stanford University
Beyond the Bubble: The First Thanksgiving
[Free Registration/Login Required] This history assessment measures students' ability to source a document, in this case a painting of the first Thanksgiving celebration. When historians interpret a document, they look at who wrote it...
Stanford University
Beyond the Bubble: Unions in Paterson, New Jersey
[Free Registration/Login Required] An excerpt from an interview with a textile factory worker named Marianna Costa. In the interview, Costa talks about working conditions at the Arrow Piece Dye Works in Paterson, New Jersey, prior to the...
CPALMS
Cpalms: Close Reading Exemplar: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students will learn about the life of Frederick Douglass, his personal experience of the slave system, and the discrimination and prejudice he faced from those around him. This intensive lesson exemplar...
PBS
Pbs: Ken Burns America
Find assets by location and call up specific item information including films, connected themes and related classroom resources. A wealth of primary source images from events in American history.
Stanford University
Sheg: Reading Like a Historian: Booker T. Washington vs w.e.b. Du Bois
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry lesson allows students to read a speech of Booker T. Washington's and a selection...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Evaluating Sources
[Free Registration/Login Required] Are all historical sources equally trustworthy? How might the reliability of a historical document be affected by the circumstances under which it was created? For this activity, students sharpen their...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Historical Thinking
[Free Registration/Login Required] This chart elaborates on the historical reading skills of sourcing, corroboration, contextualization, and close reading. In addition to questions that relate to each skill, the chart includes...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Louisiana Purchase
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary sources to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. For this document-based inquiry lesson, a timeline of the Louisiana Purchase along with letters by Federalist leaders...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Manifest Destiny
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students use primary source documents to investigate central historical questions. In this investigation students use nineteenth-century maps and art, and consider the roots of American exceptionalism.
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Mapping the New World
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry lesson allows students study two 17th-century maps of Virginia and think...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Radical Reconstruction
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students use primary source documents to investigate central historical questions. In this investigation students read speeches by Thaddeus Stevens and Andrew Johnson in order to explore why the Radical...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Sharecropping
[Free Registration/Login Required] Learners solve a problem surrounding a historical question by reading primary source documents. This historical inquiry instructional activity allows students to critically evaluate their classroom...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Snapshot Autobiography
[Free Registration/Login Required] What is history? And why do historical accounts differ? In this lesson, students create brief autobiographies and then reflect on the process to better understand how history is written. Exploring these...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Stamp Act
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students solve a problem surrounding a historical question by reading primary source documents. This historical inquiry lesson allows students to engage in key aspects of historical thinking as they...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian:sourcing Classroom Poster
[Free Registration/Login Required] Sourcing asks students to consider who wrote a document as well as the circumstances of its creation. Who authored a given document? When? For what purpose? This poster reminds students before reading a...
Stanford University
Sheg: Reading Like a Historian: Federalists & Anti Federalists
[Free Registration/Login Required] Young scholars solve a problem surrounding a historical question by reading primary source documents. This historical inquiry lesson allows students to read Federalist and Anti-Federalist positions from...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: The Puritans
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students solve a problem surrounding a historical question by reading primary source documents. This historical inquiry lesson allows students to source, corroborate, and contextualize speeches from...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian:examining Passenger Lists
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students use primary source documents to investigate central historical questions. In this investigation, students critically examine the passenger lists of ships headed to New England and Virginia to...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Great Awakening
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students solve a problem surrounding a historical question by reading primary source documents. This historical inquiry lesson plan about the Great Awakening allows students to critically examine three...