AHA Today regularly features the resources available on EDSITEment. We’ve profiled their monthly calendars and their thematic lesson plans (for example: the Olympics, the Civil War, the presidents). And while we’ve mentioned in the past that EDSITEment has quite a collection of Advanced Placement U.S. History lesson plans, today we take a closer look.
AP U.S. History Lesson Plans
All of EDSITEment’s AP U.S. history lesson plans are centered on primary source documents but also include secondary sources. The lessons incorporate audio files, images, maps, timelines, and more. Read the AP U.S. History lesson plan introduction page to learn more about the quality of these lesson plans. In short, they are scholar-reviewed, designed by teachers, structured with questions and objectives, teach students to evaluate historical content, and are engaging.
Here are the historical periods and topics covered by EDSITEment’s AP U.S. history lesson plans:
- Transatlantic Encounters and Colonial Beginnings
These lesson plans cover the Magna Carta, the New World, and Spanish missions to the New World. - Colonial North America
Lessons on John Winthrop’s “Model of Christian Charity” sermon, 17th century maps of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, works by William Penn and David Pastorius, and the Salem Witch trials. - American Revolutionary Era
Sixteen lessons covering topics of religion, Tom Paine and Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, the American War for Independence, George Washington, slavery, Native Americans, and British colonial policies. - The Early Republic
Extensive coverage of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Federalist and Anti-federalist debates, the Whiskey Rebellion, the Sedition Act, the Supreme Court, the American party system, James Madison, and Alexis de Tocqueville. - The Transformation of Politics in Antebellum America
Numerous lessons on: the Monroe Doctrine and the presidential elections of 1824, 1828, and 1840. - The Transformation of the Economy and Society in Antebellum America
Curriculum for teaching the First Industrial Revolution and life during 1847-1861. - The Crisis of the Union
Lessons on the Missouri Compromise, slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and Lincoln and the 1860 election. - The Civil War
Teaching the Civil War from North and South perspectives, as well as through the battles, the First Inaugural Address, the Gettysburg Address, the Second Inaugural Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and The Red Badge of Courage. - Reconstruction
Lessons on the Reconstruction, covering the aftermath of the war, the politics of Reconstruction, and the aftermath of Reconstruction. - Industrial America in the Late Nineteenth Century
Looking at how the Industrial Revolution changed the American lifestyle. - The Emergence of America as a World Power
Seventeen lessons covering WWI, African-American soldiers in WWI, the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations, and Woodrow Wilson. - The New Era: 1920s
Lessons on Birth of a Nation, the NAACP, rights, and anti-lynching campaigns. - FDR, The Great Depression, and the New Deal
Coverage of FDR’s Fireside Chats, the Social Security Act, African-Americans and the New Deal, the Lend-Lease Act, Eleanor Roosevelt and social reform, photographs from the Depression, FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech, the Dust Bowl, NAACP, and the U.S. and Europe 1921-1941. - The Second World War
Lessons on Pearl Harbor, WWII, American diplomacy, the Home Front, and Norman Rockwell’s painting of The Four Freedoms. - The Cold War
Teaching students about the origins of the Cold War, anticommunism, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the Korean War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. - The Turbulent 1960s
Exploring topics of the Civil Rights Movement, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Scottsboro Boys Trial, and legislation from JFK and LBJ. - The United States in the Post-Cold War World
One lesson that takes a look at the election of President Barack Obama in historical context.
This post first appeared on AHA Today.
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