The outline includes recommendations for both a one semester (18 week) course and a full-year (36 week) course. The full-year course suggests analyzing topics in greater depth and engaging in additional projects and simulations. Selection of appropriate textbooks is the responsibility of individual districts and schools. It is recommended that teachers begin with Unit 1, but after that, the units can be done in any order.

Each of the five units are organized around “driving questions.” These questions relate to the key concepts and core materials (largely primary sources) that help students engage with relevant material to answer the driving questions. Further, each unit contains connections to modern topics so that students can relate their historical understandings
to the world in which they live, and there are recommended assessment activities that utilize higher order thinking and inquiry skills. A significant number of recommended resources can be found on WISELearn, the DPI Open-Educational Resources (OER) platform, with materials specifically aligned to this scope and sequence. Each unit is also supported by associated standards building out detailed content recommendations related to the theme.

Finally, teachers should utilize the Wisconsin Recommended Civics Education Pedagogy and Practices in designing their course, to ensure that the course utilizes these research-based and standards-aligned approaches for teaching civics in an engaging and culturally responsive way.

This lesson features the history of political polling in the United States going back to the 19th century and the development and use of polling since then.

This lesson is the first part of the History's Mysteries Unit, "What Makes a Good Leader?" In this introductory lesson, students what qualities a good leader possesses. They also explore how different leaders in different situations such as a classroom, neighborhood, or local government are likely to have different skill sets.
Other lessons in this unit include:
-History's Mysteries: Grade 1, Unit 2, Mystery #2-Why Did People Think George Washington was a Good Leader?
History's Mysteries: Grade 1 Unit 2, Mystery #3-Do Good Leaders Always Do Good Things?

This unit is one of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Teaching Literacy through History resources, designed to align with the Common Core State Standards. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and evaluate original materials of historical significance. Through a step-by-step process, students will acquire the skills to analyze, assess, and develop knowledgeable and well-reasoned viewpoints on primary and secondary sources.
After completing this lesson, students will understand how the Electoral College system was established and how it functions in determining who will be the President and Vice President of the United States. The students will demonstrate their understanding by responding in writing to questions that are designed to make them use textual evidence to support their answers.

From website: the students will explore what it means to them to be an American. They will reflect on their own identities and family histories to better understand their experience. Individually and as a group, students will develop a definition of what it means to be an American and add to that definition throughout the year.

This lesson focuses on the American Revolution, which encouraged the founding fathers' desire to create a government that would, as stated in the Preamble, insure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences.

This WebQuest has students explore immigration and why people "came to America". It also has students look at what it means to be a citizen, what the requirements are, and the process of naturalization that new citizens take part it.

Instructor Notes: Teachers can assign this content to their students in iCivics account and then Clicking the Assign button on this activity. Teachers will then have the option to add a Class into iCivics OR Sync a roster from Google Classroom. This will allow teachers to see student's responses. There are also Downloadable Resources available to support this learning activity.

Students analyze documents from the holdings of the National Archives to assess the impact of legalized racial segregation on the lives of Black Americans from 1944 – 1960. Students analyze historical documents and discuss how Jim Crow, a system of laws and practices set in place to maintain white supremacy, limited the freedom of African Americans. These documents from 1944 – 1960 express the words and actions of people or institutions working to either remove or reinforce race-based barriers to equality.

Guiding Question
How did Jim Crow laws and practices limit the freedom of Black Americans?

This site challenges visitors to test their knowledge about inaugurations and presidential history with a 10 question quiz.

This webquest has students explore the process of a trial, explains the difference between civil and criminal and the differece between trial and appellate court. This webquest will pose questions, problems, or scenarios and then provide students with a web link or resource to explore to compose their response.

Instructor Notes: Teachers can assign this content to their students in iCivics account and then Clicking the Assign button on this activity. Teachers will then have the option to add a Class into iCivics OR Sync a roster from Google Classroom. This will allow teachers to see student's responses. There are also Downloadable Resources available to support this learning activity.

This class introduces students to innovative as well as classic approaches to studying U.S. government. The writing assignments will help you explore, through a variety of lenses, statis and change in the American political system over the last three decades. In the end each student will have a solid grounding in our national political institutions and processes, sharper reading and writing skills, and insight into approaching politics critically and analytically.

The Rule of Law is an important concept in understanding the Constitution; however, it is difficult for many people to define. Documents from the era of the drafting and ratification of the Constitution have been debated throughout history, as scholars and leaders have grappled over the proper relationship between the government and the governed. Moreover, the Rule of Law was established in the U.S. Constitution and enforced in the judicial system of the United States through judicial review. The first day of this lesson uses historical quotations to help students develop understandings of conceptions of the Rule of Law. In the second day of the lesson, through small group work and class-wide collaboration analyzing Supreme Court cases, students will reflect on how their understandings of Rule of Law relate to the Constitution, the judicial system, and their daily lives. (National Constitution Center)

This lesson introduces students to lateral reading, a strategy for investigating who's behind an unfamiliar online source by leaving the webpage and opening a new browser tab to see what trusted websites say about the unknown source. Students watch the teacher model lateral reading and then have a chance to practice the strategy to determine who is behind a website and, ultimately, whether that website is trustworthy.

Note: Civic Online Reasoning is motivated by three driving questions: Who's behind the information, What's the evidence and What do other sources say? This lesson is an introduction to the first concept. Registration is required and free.

This lesson is an introduction to a strategy that helps students evaluate where web baed information come from and whether it is trustworthy.

Lateral Reading is a strategy for investigating a website or post by going outside the site to determine who is behind a website and its information and deciding if it can be trusted.

Teacher and Student materials are included in this lesson.

This is Lesson Three in the Introduction to the Civic Online Reasoning method of evaluating online resources.

Students will be introduced to the important of verifying and supporting information with multiple information sources. This lesson is to be taught after Who's Behind the Information Saturday School and What's the Evidence lessons. Students will use the fictional scenario and resources to support claims and evidence presented in the information sources.

Teacher and Student materials are included in this lesson.

This is Lesson Two in the Introduction to the Civic Online Reasoning method of evaluating online resources.

Students will practice anaylzing evidence to be able to evaluate online information. This lesson is to be taught after Who's Behind the Information Saturday School lesson. Students will use the fictional scenario and resources to analyze and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the information source and the evidence itself.

Teacher and Student materials are included in this lesson.

Since information is always influenced by its author, analyzing who's behind the information should be a priority when evaluating online content. But too often, students attempt to evaluate information based on elements other than the source, such as the contents of a website, its appearance, or the evidence it supplies. In this lesson, students learn why the source of information is so important and practice analyzing information based on who's behind it.

Note: Civic Online Reasoning is motivated by three driving questions: Who's behind the information, What's the evidence and What do other sources say? This lesson is an introduction to the first concept. Registration is required and free.

This is Lesson One in the Introduction to the Civic Online Reasoning method of evaluating online resources.

Students will practice examining three sources around a fictional scenario, mandatory Saturday school, in this lesson to determine who is behind the information and how their motivation could affect their information.

Teacher and Student materials are included in this lesson.

Anthony’s speech helps students understand the Constitution as a living document. She uses a variety of techniques of legal reasoning and interpretation to challenge other, exclusionary uses of the document. She bases an argument for change on an interpretation of a founding document.
Reconstruction is a challenging era for students to understand. Anthony’s speech captures the complexities of the Reconstruction Amendments and how they opened new avenues for disenfranchised groups to assert their rights. It also explores the interrelationship of the women’s suffragists with other movements. Anthony highlights the cultural, social, and political aspects of women’s struggle for equal rights. The speech does not simply assert women’s right to vote, but also more broadly addresses the subordinate position of women within the home and in other areas of public policy.

This lesson offers primary documents illustrating how this groundbreaking African American baseball player advocated for civil rights. It incorporates the material into lessons on civil rights history, character education, and civic responsibility.