These primary sources follow the content and narrative structure of the Annenberg Classroom film “The 19th Amendment: A Woman’s Right to Vote.”

Handout includes poems, songs, photos, papers, as well as highlights important people and events associated with the 19th amendment.

In this lesson, students interrogate their own assumptions about Abraham Lincoln in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of who Lincoln was. They investigate primary source documents in order to analyze the elements of Lincoln's life that have become legend and those that have been forgotten by history.

Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) uses historic places in National Parks and in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. TwHP has created a variety of products and activities that help teachers bring historic places into the classroom.

Here you’ll find place-based educational resources relating to African American history and culture; including lesson plans and "Curiosity Kits" that are a series of articles that students can read individually or in a small group, in order to spark historical thinking.

The beaded bandolier bag is a distinctive form created by American Indians in the Great Lakes and Plains regions beginning in the mid-19th century. These large, vividly colored and intricately beaded bags were a central element of men’s formal dress for dances and ceremonies.

You may recall the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) from the 1992 film, A League of Their Own starring Geena Davis and Tom Hanks. Who will ever forget that “there’s no crying in baseball!” But did you know the AAGPBL has deep roots in the upper Midwest, including Wisconsin? This online exhibit pairs research and primary sources, documenting the AAGPBL in Wisconsin.

This lesson asks students to interrogate six historical documents that show differing opinions about the conflict in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. Students are then asked to draw connections to modern day movements.

Objectives: At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1. Analyze written documents for position of writer and content
2. Synthesize a historical position based upon document analysis
3. Connect historical struggles for equality with current movements

Essential Questions:
1. What effect did the media have on public perception during the Birmingham protest of racial segregation in 1963?2
2. What equality struggles have the media brought into the national spotlight in recent times?

The BlackPast has an interactive African American history timeline that can be used to contextualize the history being studied. BlackPast has an extensive database to search within. The website is in encyclopedia format and has both written and primary visual sources available. A narrative written by professional historians accompanies each source.By clicking the "African-American History" link at the top of the page you can see a drop down menu with multiple types of primary sources, timeline, documents and speeches, and links to other museums and records.

This lesson introduces students to the complexity of history by focusing on the diverse activities of Black women in the nineteenth century. Historians have traditionally ignored free black women during this period, and furthermore oversimplified the lives of slave women. Using a variety of sources and documents, students will learn that many Black women, whether born slaves, free, or freed in later life, resisted the system that oppressed them, earned degrees, and became politically active before, during, and after the Civil War.
Students will learn how to read and interpret various primary and secondary sources and how to use them to draw conclusions about the issues that the authors faced during the nineteenth century.
Students will read historical narratives imaginatively and in their proper context.
Students will view evidence of historical perspectives and draw upon visual and literary sources while studying the lives of nineteenth-century black feminists, the issues they faced, and their methods for solving them.

CAP is a free project-based learning program for civics and government. Think of it as a culmination of students’ social studies education, a chance for them to apply what they have learned to the real world and impact an issue that matters to them.

From the CAP curriculum, you will first teach three lessons that are tied to government/civics content. These lessons provide content that students will need to start their own CAP projects. Once students start working on their own CAP issues, you will teach two more lessons that focus on policy analysis.

A CAP project is an issue or problem students select, research and then identify propose and submit a solution for.

CAP provides a bundle of additional lessons for you to choose from, based on the needs and interests of your students.

Students could select issues related to school, community, or even national or global issues. CAP students identify an issue or problem that matters to them, connect it to public policy, then take “civic actions” to try to impact their selected issue/problem. It is up to you, the teacher, if you want to limit the scale of the issues they choose.

In any case, it is key that you require students to make the connection to public policy if you are integrating CAP into your government course.

The Problem: When evidence is attractively presented, convincingly stated, or aligns with our beliefs, it can be tempting to accept it without stopping to ask whether the evidence comes from a trustworthy source or directly supports the claims being made. When evidence takes the form of statistics or infographics, it can be particularly tempting to accept it without fully evaluating it.
This lesson gives students a chance to practice evaluating evidence based on its reliability and relevance. Students work in groups to evaluate several examples of online evidence and engage in class discussions about the strength of the evidence.

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 one of the main concepts. Registration is required and free.

The Problem: Wikipedia contains a vast supply of information and is the 5th most trafficked website in the world. Still, many teachers advise students against using it. If students learn to use Wikipedia wisely, it can be a powerful resource for lateral reading, verifying claims, and a starting point for research.

This lesson introduces students to Wikipedia’s standard of verifiability, which requires article authors to provide reliable citations to support claims they make. By following these citations, students can verify the claims in Wikipedia and locate a variety of reliable resources. Students practice verifying claims on Wikipedia by following its citations.

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 one of the main concepts. Registration is required and free.

"Teach students about civic participation and the role it has played in our judicial history with this two-part lesson comprising historic cases, a classroom mock trial, and a research project. Objective: Your students will analyze the impact of historic cases and the role of civic participation in these cases. Students will also demonstrate their understanding of the basic elements of a trial through a mock trial proceeding.
Time: Two class periods
Materials: Student Worksheets #1 and #2, access to online resources, paper, pencil or pen"

As part of a greater classwide congressional simulation, this assessment could be used to guide student research and essay writing.

Four Presidents called Illinois home – Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. Each presided over the country at a unique time in U.S. history, and this can be seen in the messages they communicated to the nation in their inaugural addresses. All four were reelected to a second term in office. Analysis of each president’s 1st and 2nd inaugural addresses provides an opportunity to compare and contrast the priorities, goals and intentions he outlined, as well as how the nation may have been changing at that time.

Website with different lessons focusing on:
1.Analyze primary and secondary sources representing conflicting points of view to determine the proper role of government regarding the rights of individuals.
2.Analyze primary and secondary sources representing conflicting points of view to determine the Constitutionality of an issue.
3.Assess the short and long-term consequences of decisions made during the writing of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
4.Compare the components of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights with the Constitutions of other nations.
5.Evaluate contemporary and personal connections to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
6.Compose a reflection and assessment of the significance of Constitution Day and the U.S. Constitution.

This website is a collection of various primary sources that have been digitized. This specific module looks at photographs, videos, posters, documents, etc related to activism in the United States. This includes the Civil Rights Movements, Civil Rights Demonstrations, Civil Rights Actions, Martin Luther King, Jr., Education Activism, Anti-War Activism, Women’s Activism, LGBT Activism. There are several other primary source sets as well.

Students explore the Founding Era legacies of assembly and petition and how those legacies informed the creation of
these often-overlooked aspects of the First Amendment. They will complete a close reading activity to compare and
contrast ideas presented in the Interactive Constitution and describe the ways these rights have been interpreted by
the Court and used by citizens at various points throughout U.S. history. They will evaluate the constitutionality of
assembly and petition rights in the modern era through an in-class, civil dialogue addressing questions about time,
place, and manner restrictions; counter-protests; protests on college campuses; and other relevant assembly and
petition questions

Many Americans struggle with understanding the language and subsequent interpretation of the Constitution, especially when it come to the rights encapsulated in the First Amendment. While many Americans can agree that speech should be protected, there are disagreements over when, where, and how speech can be limited or restricted. This lesson encourages students to examine their own assumptions and to deepen their understanding of current, accepted interpretations of speech rights under the First Amendment including when and where speech is protected and/or limited. It should reinforce the robustness of the First Amendment protections of speech.

This lesson is designed to introduce students to the Constitution. It can be used as a one-day lesson to fulfill the Constitution Day requirement or as a means to begin a conversation about the framers of the Constitution. It has been carefully designed to highlight the three spheres of civic education as detailed by the National Constitution Center; that is, the lesson includes civic knowledge, active citizenship, and democratic deliberation.

The Founders’ Library refers to the prior knowledge the Founding Fathers brought to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Students will examine these ideas and use them to analyze the Constitution and Bill of Rights. At the same time, students will be considering ideas and information that relate to their own lives.

Students will finish the lesson by considering the idea of prior knowledge. Each student will be asked to think of books, music, movies, or television shows that impact ideas about the United States. The combination of personal experience and the critical examination of the Constitution will allow the students to have a deeper understanding of the creative imagination that was necessary to write and debate the Constitution of the United States

This lesson is designed for one forty-five minute high school class period. It does not have to be limited to the social studies classroom, but can be completed in a variety of settings from a small seminar to a traditional humanities classroom.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History houses primary source documents and quality lesson plans. This link connects teachers to 31 pre-made lesson plans aimed at 9-12 grade students in relation to African American HIstory and the use of primary sources. You will need to create an account, but all resources are free.