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Lesson Plans The Living Symbol Suggested Grade Level: 9-10 How does an individual become the embodiment of a nation? Can the process be reversed to permit a glimpse into the human life underlying the symbol? Goals: To examine the life and legend of George Washington as reflected in his writings and in popular commemorations of his accomplishments; to investigate his contribution to the legend that has grown up around him; to explore some of the meanings that have been attached to Washington through the course of American history; to present a statement of findings. Skills: Assessing documentary sources; critical analysis of texts and images; critical thinking; Internet research. Cultural Change Suggested Grade Level: 10-12 Political developments leave a clear trace in the life of a nation, usually marked by legislative mileposts like the Fourteenth Amendment, which dictates equal protection for all, and the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. But such developments have a cultural dimension as well, often evident in the attitudes and assumptions implicit in political arguments. Goals: To examine some of the arguments used to win the vote for American women; to explore the cultural dimension of these arguments as reflected in their characterization of men and women; to weigh the rhetorical impact these arguments had in their time by writing counter-arguments from several standpoints; to think critically about the relationship between political ideas and cultural attitudes. Skills: Close textual analysis; evaluation of evidence and reasoning; development of sound arguments; critical thinking; Internet research. Civil War Gazette Grade Level: 8 Goal/Purpose: You are a team of newspaper reporters, living in the civil war era. Battles are raging all around you: brother pitted against brother; father against son; neighbor against neighbor. Golden meadows and rolling hills you and your friends once played in are becoming soaked in crimson with the blood of a nation's most valued resource; it's citizenry. What was once a courageous new union is now being torn apart before your own eyes. Develop a keen sense of historical empathy Understand the meaning of time and chronology Analyze cause and effect Recognize history as common memory, with polictical implications Images at War Suggested Grade Level: 9-12 Visual materials can speak of the past with such immediacy that we feel ourselves in the presence of those times, drawn to knowledge by the power of emotion. Yet, like all documentary materials, images of the past carry contextual information which, after careful analysis, may reveal as much about the past as the evidence presented to our eyes. Goals: To examine American attitudes toward war as revealed in Civil War photographs and World War II homefront posters; to explore ways in which the experience of war has helped shape the American social and cultural identity; to gain experience interpreting archival images; to organize a statement of findings. Skills: Assessing primary documents; critical thinking; critical analysis of media; Internet research. Attitudes Toward Emancipation Suggested Grade Level: 9-12 The Emancipation Proclamation carried Americans across an important frontier in the political growth of the nation. Through the Internet, students can return to this frontier and explore the many obstacles and alternatives we faced in making this passage toward "a more perfect Union." Goals: To evaluate the provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation; to trace the stages that led to Lincoln's formulation of this policy; to explore the range of contemporary public opinion on the issue of emancipation; to document the multifaceted significance of the Emancipation Proclamation within the context of the Civil War era. Skills: Historical comprehension; historical analysis and interpretation; historical research; Internet research skills. The Fight for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War This lesson correlates to the National History Standards. Era 5 - Civil War and Reconstruction (1850 - 1877) Standard II.A - Demonstrate understanding of how the resources of the Union and the Confederacy affected the course of the war. This lesson correlates to the National Standards for Civics and Government. Standard II.B.1 - Explain how a history of slavery distinguishes American society from other societies. Standard II.D.3 - Evaluate, take, and defend positions on what the fundamental values and principles of American political life are and their importance to the maintenance of constitutional democracy. Regulating Freedom of Speech Suggested Grade Level: 9-12 Freedom of speech is a fundamental American right, and regulation of that freedom has been a fundamental responsibility of the Supreme Court throughout our history. With the Internet, students can observe firsthand how today's Court exercises this responsibility at a time when technology has extended the freedom to speak in ways our nation's founders could not have imagined. Goals: To trace the judicial review process within the Supreme Court from determination of facts through oral argument and the delivery of a written opinion; to examine the nature and limits of the Constitutional right to freedom of speech; to explore the nature and purpose of dissent within the context of Supreme Court rulings. Skills: Analysis and interpretation of facts; comprehension and analysis of oral argument; issues-analysis and decision-making; Internet research skills. Worth a Thousand Words: Depression-era Photographs Suggested Grade Level: 9-12 Throughout the Great Depression, the federal government employed photographers to document the need for New Deal programs and the extent of these programs' successes. Today, through the Internet, students can view this record of an era and see for themselves how Americans faced the challenge of those testing times. Goals: To gain insight into New Deal programs and the experience of Depression-era Americans; to recognize the distinction between observation and inference when drawing information from documentary photographs; to recognize some ways the photographer can influence interpretation of documentary photographs; to gain experience in critical thinking about media. Skills: Historical comprehension; historical analysis and interpretation; visual literacy; historical research; Internet research skills. "The Valley of the Shadow Project" From The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia. The project is intended for secondary schools, community colleges, libraries, and universities. The Valley of the Shadow Project takes two communities, one Northern and one Southern, through the experience of the American Civil War. The project is a hypermedia archive of thousands of sources for the period before, during, and after the Civil War for Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Those sources include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population census, agricultural census, and military records. Students can explore every dimension of the conflict and write their own histories, reconstructing the life stories of women, African Americans, farmers, politicians, soldiers, and families. Launching the new United States Navy The Amistad Case Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment From the National Archives and Records Administration's Digital Classroom. Features primary sources and teaching activities correlating to the National Standards for History and the National Standards for Civics and Government. Instructors are incouraged to visit the AskEric Lesson Plans homepage featuring lesson plans for The Arts, Mathematics, Educational Technology, Physical Education, Foreign Language, Science, Health, Social Studies, Interdisciplinary, Vocational Education, and Language Arts. Introduction to the Elementary School Curriculum K - 2 Introduction to the Middle School Curriculum Introduction to the High School Curriculum The CROSSROADS curriculum is the collaborative product of the entire middle school social studies department at Niskayuna School District. The goal of these units of instruction is to translate the work of Project Historian Richard B. Bernstein into materials that will promote successful classroom instruction. The department prepared for this curriculum project throughout the 1992-93 school year. In meetings with the project historian, as well as members of the elementary, high school, and college teams, teachers began to think about historical periods in terms of how best to teach them to middle level students. Several separate department meetings were also held at which teachers examined the task and prepared for the activities of the summer. During six weeks of the summer of 1993, the first draft of the curriculum was written by teachers working in teams. Field testing took place during the 1993-94 school year in both middle schools in the Niskayuna district as well as by teachers in Burnt Hills (New York) and two schools in Ohio. Revisions based on field testing and reviews by the project's Advisory Board led to a second draft written in the summer of 1994 and field tested in the 1994-95 school year. AskEric Lesson Plans: The CROSSROADS homepage also includes Background Materials, Essays and a Postsecondary Curriculum. A Practical Experiment in Colonization Grade Level/Subject: 8 - 12 Description: Following the study of the establishment of the English colonies (1500-1733) many students in American History have great difficulty in comprehending the obstacles and problems that had to be overcome to accomplish the founding of an early colony. Goal: The purpose of this activity is to provide an opportunity for American History students to gain practical experience in the basic types of challenges that may exist in the establishment of any early colony. An AskEric Lesson Plan . Role Playing the Civil War Grade Level: Appropriate for grades 5 & 7. Description: To help students comprehend the time frame of colonization to the present we begin with a blank bulletin board with a skeletal outline of the United States. We fill portions as colonies become states. We continue along the same flow into the Civil War unit. Students are really getting excited about the growth of the United States. They understand the time, effort, and work required to bring us as a nation to the point of the Civil War. Goal: The purpose of this unit is to provide a frame for the students to use in evaluating both points of view in the Civil War. An AskEric Lesson Plan

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