Examine a collection of primary source documents about railroads in the United States.

Examine a collection of primary source documents about trolleys and streetcars in American history.

This lesson looks at how proponents of slavery in antebellum America defended it as a positive good. America in Class Lessons are tailored to meet the Common Core State Standards. The Lessons present challenging primary resources in a classroom-ready format, with background information and analytical strategies that enable teachers and students to subject texts and images to the close reading called for in the Standards.

Cartoons in Sunday comic strips make us laugh. Political cartoons in the front section of the newspaper challenge us to think.

Because political cartoons present a particular point of view or story through symbolism and caricature, they are a particularly effective method for teaching history.

By interpreting political cartoons, students are encouraged to discover different points of view on the same historical event.

The three political cartoons in this section focus on Robert M. La Follette; they offer an additional opportunity to explore the progressive era in Wisconsin. Suggested activities, brief histories of each cartoon, a one-page biography of La Follette, and an introduction to cartoon analysis are also included.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Puerto Rican migration to the US. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

The Gilded Age unit brings awareness to the turbulant changes that characterized the end of the nineteenth century. Students investigate the rise and fall of the Populist movement, the textbook's account of the Battle of Little Bighorn, the lead-up to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the historic labor clashes surrounding Homestead, Haymarket, and Pullman. Three lessons--Populism and the Election of 1896, the Homestead Strike, and the Pullman Strike--help students develop the skill of close reading as they carefully go rthough documents and interpret the author's rhetorical choices.

Recollection Wisconsin brings together digital cultural heritage resources from Wisconsin libraries, archives, museums and historical societies and shares them with the world in partnership with the Digital Public Library of America. The webpage provides different 4-8ideas for teaching about Wisconsin history.

(Taken directly from website) 
The constitutional amendments passed during Reconstruction vastly expanded former slaves' rights and opportunities. At the same time, the Black Codes passed in most Southern towns, cities, and states curtailed those rights and opportunities. The tension between African Americans' federal and local rights raises questions about the impact of Reconstruction on the freedom of former slaves. In this structured academic controversy, students examine constitutional amendments, a Black Code, a personal account of a former slave, and other documents to answer the question: “Were African Americans free during Reconstruction?"

In this lesson, students will understand some of the struggles and prejudices Native Americans faced
in 19th-century Wisconsin. They will also be able to articulate the various concerns expressed in 19th-century
petitions as they relate to the Native American relationship with white Colonizers.

Note: Primary source materials such as petitions, letters, and diaries capture history as it happened, and
many customs, terms, social mores, and attitudes that are considered offensive now were
commonplace at the time. Please read through the primary source material before assigning it to
your class.

This lesson looks at how some American Christians in the nineteenth century came to see slavery as something that needed to be abolished. America in Class Lessons are tailored to meet the Common Core State Standards. The Lessons present challenging primary resources in a classroom-ready format, with background information and analytical strategies that enable teachers and students to subject texts and images to the close reading called for in the Standards.

This collection uses primary sources to explore the rise of conservatism in the US in the 1980s. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore the events that led up to the American Revolutionary War. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore the early history of Rock and Roll music. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

By reading primary sources outlining the rights of prisoners of war, along with the primary accounts of American prisoners of war held by the Japanese, students should critically assess the nature of violations committed by the Japanese forces during World War II. Through this assessment, the students should be able to determine the specific ways Japanese forces violated the rights of American POWs. Students should also consider how the Geneva Conventions, and Japan’s lack of ratification, apply to the debates that surrounded Japanese war crimes at the postwar Tokyo Trials.

This collection uses primary sources to explore The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.