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The following teaching units were co-developed by the Organization of American Historians and the National Center for History in the Schools (NCHS) at the University of California, Los Angeles. The following units are based on primary documents for U.S. history at the precollegiate level and were written by teams of teachers and historians. Each unit contains reproducible images and lesson plans for use in the classroom.

Causes of the American Revolution: Focus on Boston

grades: 8-12 | pages: 97 | price: $13.50

By focusing on the Stamp Act riots, the Boston Massacre and other fiery incidents, students will use documentary materials to examine the events that defined British colonial relations between 1763 and 1775. The unit is designed so that it can be easily modified for use in a variety of secondary classroom situations. Drawing on testimony from court records newspaper reports, private correspondence, Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre, and contemporary cartoons, the lesson plans will give students a "you-are-there" approach to the causes of the American Revolution.

The Great Depression and the Arts

grades: 9-12 | pages: 108 | price: $13.50

Students use a variety of documents to examine how the Great Depression and the New Deal impacted artistic expression in the 1930s. The lessons in the unit explore the film script of The Plow that Broke the Plains, a New Deal documentary on the drought and Dust Bowl; John Steinbeck's The Harvest Gypsies, feature stories on the condition of migrant workers; John Ford's classic movie The Grapes of Wrath based on Steinbeck's popular novel; and the New Deal's "Living Newspaper" plays "Power" and "One Third of a Nation" promoting New Deal programs. Students also read excerpts from witnesses called before the House Un-American Activities Committee examining allegations that the Federal Theatre Project used government funds to produce propaganda plays and promote socialist programs. Students assess the degree to which government agencies used the arts to propagandize New Deal Programs and are challenged to debate issues relating to government's role in supporting the arts.

Read before you buy! We have the following sections of the depression teaching unit available online in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

•   Table of Contents
•   Introduction
•   Lesson 2

Commemorative Sculpture in the United States

grades: 9-12 | pages: 60 | price: $11.50

Public memorials and sculptures not only tell about the deeds of the past, but they help us examine society at the time these memorials were dedicated. This unit helps students see and understand the importance of commemorative public sculpture in the United States and explain how certain major themes in United States history have been commemorated. The unit begins with an examination of why we commemorate and focuses on several public memorials including the Minuteman Statue at Concord, the Memorial to Union and Confederate soldiers, and the Lincoln Memorial. The unit brings into focus how our democratic principles are embodied in public sculpture and monuments through a wide range and variety of images of individuals from across the United States.

Read before you buy! We have the following sections of the sculpture unit available online in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

•   Table of Contents
•   Introduction
•   Lesson 6

World's Fairs and the Dawning of "The American Century"

grades: 9-12 | pages: 66 | price: $12.00

The unit examines the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago through a variety of primary source materials, including guide books and pamphlets speeches, cartoons, and newspaper accounts of the fairs. Materials in this unit are designed to help students consider the role the World's Fair movement played in reconstructing the American "national" culture after the Civil War, the extent to which the fairs encouraged both American technological progress and an attitude of cultural superiority, and the relationship between one of the fairs' messages and the growing interest in American overseas expansion.

The Antebellum Women's Movement, 1820 to 1860

grades: 6-8 | pages: 70 | price: $12.00

This unit examines how the industrial revolution and the abolition movement led to changes in women's roles both within and outside the home. Letters of a young woman employed in Lowell, Massachusetts, interviews with former slaves, handbills, songs, and resolutions from abolitionist and women's rights conventions help students fathom the experiences women faced in laboring to achieve equal status in antebellum American society. Students analyze and evaluate the impact of the women's rights movement in the antebellum era and link past and present by drawing connections to contemporary society.

Read before you buy! We have the following sections of the Antebellum Women's teaching unit available online in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

•   Table of Contents
•   Introduction
•   Lesson 3

Early Chinese Immigration and the
Process of Exclusion

grades: 8-12 | pages: 60 | price: $11.50

Students use statistics, legislation, personal letters, and political cartoons to examine the challenges that early Chinese immigrants had to overcome in order to make a significant contribution to the industrial development of late nineteenth-century America. Students read translated works of early Chinese immigrants who describe their experience on "Gold Mountain." Poems and letters express the hope and dreams of immigrants as well as their shock and frustration at their treat meet. Each of the selected documents give students the opportunity to explore the historical context of popular sentiment and local and national policy that isolated and excluded early Chinese immigrants from the mainstream.

Read before you buy! We have the following sections of the Chinese teaching unit available online in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

•   Table of Contents
•   Introduction
•   Lesson 1