US National Archives
Docsteach: Analyzing a Letter to Congress About Bloody Sunday
In this activity, students will focus on a letter written to Congress about Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. Students will determine that, due to television coverage, the author, Mrs. Jackson, was very aware of the events that day even...
US National Archives
Docsteach: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which brought an official end to the Mexican-American War, was signed on February 2, 1848. This activity asks students to read and analyze the treaty to explain the overall message and tone.
US National Archives
Docsteach: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
In this activity students will analyze a two-page poster that the Government used to recruit recently freed slaves to fight for the Union Army during the Civil War. The poster refers to the Emancipation Proclamation and to President...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Documenting Key Presidential Decisions
In this activity, students will identify and analyze documents related to key presidential decisions. Through close examination of the documents, students will determine which president was involved. Students will then identify the...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Half Right, Half Wrong: Analyzing a Letter About Ford Pardoning Nixon
In this activity, students will analyze a document sent from a child to President Gerald Ford in 1974. Anthony Ferreira wrote to the president to express his opinion regarding the pardon of Richard Nixon.
US National Archives
Docsteach: Petition Against Annexation of Hawaii
This activity explores a petition signed by over 21,000 native Hawaiians against a treaty that would have annexed Hawaii to the United States.
US National Archives
Docsteach: Confronting Work Place Discrimination on the World War Ii Home Front
In this activity, students will analyze primary sources and evaluate the degree to which they demonstrate Civil Rights advances following President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1941 Executive Order providing equal opportunity in defense...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Apollo Soyuz: Space Age Detente
In July 1975, the first joint Soviet-American spacecraft docking took place. In this activity, students will analyze the way that government officials in both the United States and the Soviet Union valued space exploration for more than...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Oh Freedom! Sought Under the Fugitive Slave Act
This activity includes primary sources from the official records of the U.S. District Court at Boston that tell the story of William and Ellen Craft, a young couple from Macon, GA, who escaped to freedom in Boston in 1848. Students will...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Twelve Years a Slave
Students will examine several documents related to the life of Solomon Northup, whose life story is told in his autobiography Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841...
US National Archives
Docsteach: What Kind of Leader Was General Douglas Mac Arthur?
In this activity, students will analyze video clips, photographs, and written documents related to General Douglas MacArthur to explore the controversy surrounding his career, especially the decision by President Harry S. Truman to...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Road to Revolution: Patriotism or Treason?
Students will analyze the causes of the American Revolution and examine them from various points of view. Perspectives include the Sons of Liberty, loyalists living in the colonies, patriots, and British citizens living in England.
US National Archives
Docsteach: The Settlement of the American West
Students will analyze primary sources with an eye for cause-and-effect relationships.They will identify the roles of government policy and technological improvements in the settlement of the West, and explain their impact on Native...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Senators' Pay in the First Congress
In this activity, students will analyze a primary source document to find relevant historical data and calculate how much United States Senators were paid in the first Federal Congress.
US National Archives
Docsteach: Comparing Civil War Recruitment Posters
Students will compare and contrast military recruitment posters to analyze various perspectives regarding the role of African Americans during the Civil War. They will determine the purpose of each poster - one recruiting black men for...
US National Archives
Docsteach: What Else Was Happening During the Civil War Era?
The years leading up to, during, and following the Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877) are most often remembered for the tension between North and South, the question of slavery, President Lincoln, and social and political changes...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Birth of the Environmental Protection Agency (Epa)
By the late 1960s, issues of unchecked land development, urban decay, and air, noise, and water pollution came to Americans' attention. In November 1971, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a large-scale...
US National Archives
Docsteach: How Effective Were the Efforts of the Freedmen's Bureau?
In this activity, students will analyze documents from the War Department's Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands - better known as the Freedmen's Bureau - that Congress established on March 3, 1865, as the Civil War was...
US National Archives
Docsteach: To What Extent Was Reconstruction a Revolution? (Part 1)
Young scholars will examine several historical congressional records from the Reconstruction period to assess whether they show evidence that the Reconstruction period of American history should or should not be viewed as a revolution....
US National Archives
Docsteach: Wwi America: Babe Ruth's Draft Card
Students will examine the language of the WWI draft card for George Herman 'Babe' Ruth to try and determine differences between American society during World War I and the present day.
US National Archives
Docsteach: A Famous Person and Event Revealed: Examining an Arrest Record
This activity requires students to examine the arrest record of an un-named person. Students will analyze and evaluate the data contained in the document, applying prior knowledge, to discern what happened in the incident and the...
US National Archives
Docsteach: A Famous Person and Event Revealed: Examining Where Rosa Parks Sat
In this activity, students will examine a diagram of the bus in which Rosa Parks took a seat. Ms. Parks' name has been blacked out. Students will analyze and evaluate the document, then apply prior knowledge to discern what this document...
US National Archives
Docsteach: To What Extent Was Reconstruction a Revolution? (Part 2)
This activity is a continuation of the instructional activity for Part 1. In it, students will examine the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and determine whether their analysis of this document changes their responses to the guiding question in...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Effects of Food Regulation in the Progressive Era
In this activity, 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.