Lesson Plans
Women’s Rights: Seneca Falls & Beyond
Students investigate a key event in the history of women's rights and the importance of commemorating the struggle for equal rights, then consider possible contributions to help ensure a future with greater equality.
Chinese Citizenship in Hawaii
Students analyze early 19th-century arguments against citizenship for Chinese immigrants to Hawaii and one journalist's rebuttal to that "defense", then investigate arguments for and against an immigrant group in America today and compare the historical and contemporary debates.
Shrinking Glaciers
Students analyze historical and contemporary maps to calculate glacier loss on Mount Rainier over time, then explore ideas for slowing glacier loss.
Bonus Veterans
Students analyze primary sources to learn about the Bonus Army and to consider the question, How does informing ourselves about the past guide us in the future?
Why We Can’t . . .
Students investigate how a powerful slogan was used by civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and consider how it might be applicable to a contemporary issue.
Civil Rights and Civic Action
Students deepen their understanding and personal integration of the concept of commitment to civic service by examining the historic contribution of young people in shaping positive changes in America using primary sources from the Library of Congress. Students explore the civic service accomplishments of young people to help bring about social change and identify the potential of young people in creating positive change through civic service. Students then identify characteristics of civic activists as well as current problems or causes about which they are passionate and draft an action plan to affect change.
Speaking Out: Four Freedoms Then and Now
Students analyze a part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech and use primary sources from the Library of Congress to gain historical context. Next, students explore sources from the Library to draw conclusions about the impact of the speech on American culture at the time. Students then write their own “Four Freedoms” speech, outlining four freedoms they believe Americans should keep front-of-mind today.
Espionage, Sedition, Censorship, and Speaking Up
Students analyze a political cartoon created by William Allen Rogers during World War I to give context to press censorship during that war. Next, students explore additional sources from the Library of Congress to analyze how censorship worked both before and after the passage of the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917-18. Finally, students compose their own “email to the editor” of a local newspaper or online news source, expressing their own views about the importance of freedom of the press and their informed opinion of press censorship in wartime.
Carbon Footprints, Climate, and Civic Causes
Students make connections between environmental science and civics as a means to impact the environment and the quality of life using sources from the Library of Congress and science concepts to consider the role as civic environmentalists. Students identify how humans have influenced climate change since the Industrial Revolution and a variety of methods that will give students the power to affect the climate of tomorrow. Students then calculate their own carbon footprint and use the EPA material to create an action plan to impact change.
Data Analysis to Drive Civic Action
Students consider civic action through primary source analysis, then examine and interpret data and use knowledge of civic life, politics, and government to discuss potential civic engagement.