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  1. Lessons and work done during the 2009 - 2010 school year.
    1. I wanted to thank the WA branch of the Colonial Dames of America for their funding/support of my work in helping to develop and work with a cadre of other Social Studies teachers and professors in the Washington D.C. area during the past year. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards was in the process of revising the Social Studies/History standards and I was invited to be part of the development of this document. Attached is the approved Board PDF Social Studies/History Document. For more information about the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards visit: http://nbpts.org/ .
  2. Lessons created during the 2008 - 2009 school year.
    1. Washington State History through the Arts. The purpose of this project is to encourage the integration of arts into core subjects and provide a framework and examples of effective arts content infusion as an instructional strategy for use by Washington State History teachers. This curriculum will allow students to understand the curriculum more completely as well as develop cognitive and social skills. Although this curriculum was created for Washington State History, it can easily be adaptable to any history course.Word or PDF.
    2. Using three grants (2005, 2007, and 2008), one teacher wrote a complete book called Creating America. Focusing on U.S. history from the earliest explorers to 1900, this resource book for teachers includes over 50 lessons, each with suggested resources and activities (PDF). It is a companion piece to Decade Days, published by Good Apple Press in 2000.
  3. Lessons created during the 2007 - 08 school year.
    1. The first lesson I created asks students to analyze the 1860 census data from Kansas, Missouri and Oregon in regard to the number of slaves in those areas. Most notably, while the status of Kansas entering the Union caused contentions as to whether or not it would enter as a free or slave state, it only had two slaves living in the state in 1860. The second lesson plan asks students to analyze Julia Ward Howe's song memorializing the death of Abolitionist John Brown, questioning whether Brown was or was not a martyr and why he had such a strong following. Both files are Word documents.
    2. I attended a National Endowment for the Humanities summer workshop in DC focusing on Race and Place. Here is a lesson plan and power point to help you and your classes.
    3. Native American Issues pdf. Classroom discussion around important issues relating to Native Americans in Washington.
  4. Lessons created during the 2006 - 2007 school year.
    1. My students use colonial names for the duration of this unit. They journal for about two months as colonists using a sprinkling of colonial words, first deciding whether or not to go to the New World (using the Colonial Dilemma in "family" groups). They journal about the decision, what to bring, what it feels like getting ready, saying goodbye to friends and neighbors, hearing other languages for the first time on the boat, getting seasick, eating wormy food, surviving a storm, dealing with a death while on the journey, reaching their new home, surviving the starving time during the first winter, watching their colony build up, interactions with the natives, etc. They are required to make colonial Valentines, etc.
    2. Funding from the grant was used by this teacher to take a class and purchase software in order to create her web site -- Historian in Residence which has lessons and classroom information.
    3. Here is a lesson about the Fugitive Slave Act for middle school students.
    4. This lesson is fourth in a series of eight 75-minute sessions. The focus of this series of lessons is: The enduring American values that began shaping our country from the first footfalls in the Southern, Northern and Middle Colonies. In this lesson, we begin to focus on the value of "freedom of religion".
    5. Take an roadtrip with your students.
    6. Fifth grade teachers put together this lesson about explorers.
    7. A high school teacher from Kent created the following four lessons:
    8. Colonial Seals--A primary document analysis where students are asked to compare and contrast the company seals of the Virginia Company of London and the Massachusetts Bay Company, which funded the founding of Jamestown, VA and the Massachusetts Bay colonies, respectively. Word
    9. NEH Jefferson Project--A summer assignment for incoming 11th grade Advanced Placement US History students. The project asks students to use Thomas Jefferson as a lens for viewing the new nation. Students watch a documentary film on Jefferson, read scholars' interviews regarding Jefferson, and then write their own evaluative essay. Word
    10. NEH Jefferson Project Worksheet--A worksheet which accompanies the above project. Word
    11. Penn's Letter--A primary document analysis where students are asked to evaluate the reasons for settling Pennsylvania. Word
  5. Lessons created during the 2005 - 2006 school year.
    1. Who was the greatest American Revolutionary? Word.
    2. This teacher made two lessons. The first was created after attending a workshop at St. Mary's college in Maryland. In the first lesson, students compare and contrast the founding of the first four British North American colonies, using both primary sources (like the Maryland Act for Religious Toleration) and secondary sources such as student textbooks. The second lesson was created while attending a workshop at George Washington's home, Mount Vernon. In the lesson, students are asked to determine core "American" rights through their study of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the events that led to the American Revolution. Both lessons are aimed at 11th grade US history students.
    3. A Civil War lesson. (Word. doc.)
    4. A High School teacher attended the "Can We Talk" workshop on classroom discussions at the University of Washington this past summer.. One of the discussion models that we have been using from this workshop is Socratic Seminar. Attached are some teacher resources and plans developed for using Socratic Seminar in a U.S. History classroom. These are Word documents: Seminar -- Student --Address -- Preamble -- Naturalization. These are PowerPoints: Preamble -- Oath -- Gettysburg.
    5. How Clothes Speak. Men's Fashion of the Antebellum Period: lesson -- PowerPoint.
    6. An Ethnographic Investigation into the Lives of Our Native Americans Past and Present from a Junior High School teacher. Lesson.
    7. Jamestown Relay. Word