Share some great Google Forms practices with your students through this amazing post from Control Alt Achieve.

One of the ironies of the Civil War was that in a fight to end slavery, African-Americans were initially denied the right to participate. During the first two years of fighting, President Abraham Lincoln claimed the fight was to save the Union, and that African-Americans had no place in the war. However, with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, the objectives of the war changed and African-American regiments were formed.

Constitutional amendments were ratified during and after the Civil War to protect the natural and civil rights of African Americans. Despite these legal protections, the condition of African Americans significantly worsened in the last few decades of the nineteenth century. In the late nineteenth century, the promise of emancipation and Reconstruction went largely unfulfilled and was even reversed in the lives of African Americans. Southern blacks suffered from horrific violence, political disfranchisement, economic discrimination, and legal segregation. Ironically, the new wave of racial discrimination that was introduced was part of an attempt to bring harmony between the races and order to American society.

Less can often be more—especially as students explore the theme of a work of literature through analytical writing. Writing haiku offers a student in the final draft stages of a paper an innovative way to determine if the paper says what he/she means it to say. Students can “lose their way” when writing analytical papers, resulting in wordy, tangled papers with the thesis obscured. To alleviate this problem, students create haiku that, in seventeen syllables, encapsulate the heart of the paper. Because of its brevity, haiku promotes clarity of thought. It further challenges students to work on focused revision.

In this lesson, students will study the life of Alexander Hamilton. Students will learn about his reasoning in supporting a single and powerful executive leader, his role at the Constitutional Convention, and the role he played in shaping the new United States government.

In this lesson, students will learn about the humble beginnings, prolific writing, and remarkable accomplishments of Alexander Hamilton. After watching a biographical video, they will examine a memorial portrait of Hamilton and read excerpts from his best-known work, The Federalist Papers. Using their newfound knowledge of Hamilton, they will brainstorm ideas for their own version of a Broadway show based on his life.

Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s “founding fathers,” rose from his non-traditional roots as a boy in the Caribbean to become one of the most important figures in the founding of our country. Using video segments from the PBS program Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton, this activity encourages students to explore the conditions and circumstances of Hamilton’s youth and the strengths he carried with him into his adult life. As a culmination, students are encouraged to reflect on their own lives and think about how, like Hamilton, they might translate their childhood experiences into success later in life.

In the early republic, Congress was a colorful, exciting, unpredictable, and contentious branch of the United States government. The members constantly quarreled but often deliberated and compromised through persuasive oratory and rational conversation. Congress was divided by party and sectionalism, but was guided through these difficulties by legislative statesmen. The Congress continued to function as the undisputed law making body of the people of the United States. Even during some of its most tumultuous years, from 1789 until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1860, the Congress effectively governed the nation.

Share some great Google Sites practices with your students through this amazing post from Control Alt Achieve.

American history is filled with examples of the nationâ"s leaders and other citizens demonstrating civic virtues.

Prior to the arrival of European colonization on the North American continent, the ecological bio-diversity was much richer than we currently know in the 21st Century. Prior to the colonization animals such as the American Bison (Bison bison), Eastern Elk (Cervus canadensis canadiensis), Eastern Cougar (Puma concolor couguar), and Wolf (Canis lupus) were commonly seen across the North American continent. However, with the colonization from the old world came old world prejudices and practices. Within two hundred and fifty years all of these species were eradicated from the Eastern United States or extinct. Over the course of the last century an effort has been made to halt the loss of the North American fauna with the creation of national parks and animal preservation habitats, and in the last half of 20th century work was being done to reintroduce that fauna back to its natural habitat. This process has been used with several different species; however, no species has been given as much attention in the Eastern United States as that of the American Elk.

This detailed lesson plan (33 pages) allows students to critically examine how individuals shape history. They play a game, discuss, vote, interact, examine bias, and evaluate ideas of others.

These lesson plans encourage students to explore the contributions to society made by prominent Americans from all walks of life. Each lesson plan includes a short video, as well as a written primary sources activity, a visual primary source activity, and a culminating activity. The videos are designed to help students understand how the character traits of these Americans contributed to their achievements. Materials are targeted at Grades 3-7.

This online lesson provides perspectives from Native American community members, documents, maps, images, and activities to help students and teachers understand an important and difficult chapter in United States history. Explore the vast scope of removal and its effects on Native Nations.

Students should be familiar with the increasing tensions between American Indians and U.S. settlers discussed in the Chapter 5 Introductory Essay: 1800-1828 and the following Narratives: The Lewis and Clark Expedition ,Old Hickory: Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans , and Tecumseh and the Prophet.

Lesson 1 outlines the main themes of the Being an American curriculum and introduces the final capstone project, in which students will capture and synthesize ideas from the lessons.

Advancements in transportation have played a key role in the growth of our nation. U.S.government policies have also had a considerable impact on the development of transport as we know it today. In this series of three lessons,the students examine transportation and its impact on our nation (and vice versa) since the United States declared its independence in 1776.

Students read, analyze, and discuss medieval English ballads and then list characteristics of the genre. They then emphasize the narrative characteristics of ballads by choosing a ballad to act out. Using the Venn diagram tool, students next compare medieval ballads with modern ones. After familiarizing themselves with ballad themes and forms, students write their own original ballads, which they will perform in small groups. Finally, students engage in self-reflection on their group performances and on the literary characteristics of their ballads.