Resource Library
Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students.
We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.
![A group of high school students sit at desks in conversation.](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_480/public/2023-10/AdobeStock_254378868.jpg?itok=f6YAphey)
Introducing Our US History Curriculum Collection
Draw from this flexible curriculum collection as you plan any middle or high school US history course. Featuring units, C3-style inquiries, and case studies, the collection will help you explore themes of democracy and freedom with your students throughout the year.
Staging the Compelling Question
Students are introduced to the themes of the compelling question by responding to a quote from James Baldwin that sparks their thinking about the complexities and contradictions within US history.
![Photo of student listening to student-led teaching session](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-11/SL_190522_0700%20%281%29.jpg?h=4362216e&itok=glf-JB3p)
Supporting Question 1: The Nation’s Founding Ideals
Students explore the supporting question "What does the Declaration of Independence state about the nation’s founding ideals?"
![United States Declaration of Independence](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-11/master-rbc-rbc0001-2004-2004pe76546-001%20%281%29.jpg?h=4ec2df74&itok=6j3UL0rd)
Supporting Question 2: Founding Ideals Versus Realities
Students explore the supporting question "What contradictions existed between the ideals and the reality of the founding of the United States?"
![Photo shows a group of African American slaves posed around a horse-drawn cart, with a building in the background, at the Cassina Point plantation of James Hopkinson on Edisto Island, South Carolina.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-11/service-pnp-ppmsca-39500-39590v.jpg?h=fd5c1401&itok=K1ckwjtu)
The 1968 East LA School Walkouts
Students learn about education, identity, and activism through an exploration of the East Los Angeles school walkouts, when thousands of students protested unequal educational opportunities for Mexican American students.
![John Ortiz, Mexican-American student leader at James A. Garfield High School, addressing assembled students during a walkout.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/1968_LAStudentWalkoutatGarfieldHigh_FH2169821.jpg?h=61a57aa7&itok=I40HzuJ5)
California Grape Workers’ Strike: 1965–66
Students explore the first year of the Delano grape strike, when grape workers in California's San Joaquin Valley went on strike to demand higher wages and better work conditions.
![Dolores Huerta and others hold up "Huelga" signs as part of the grape strike.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/1965_GrapeStrikeDelanoCalifornia_FH2121754.jpg?h=ae158943&itok=JphiCAwe)
Why Identity Matters
Students reflect on how aspects of their identities are more visible or felt in certain situations and read an informational text to help them consider the interplay between individual identity and social identity.
Enacting Freedom
Students consider what it means to be free by learning about the choices and aspirations of freedpeople immediately after Emancipation.
![Black students standing outside in front of a clapboard school house](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Civil_Rights_1900_The_School_at_Pinehurst_Summerville_SC_FH2174932.jpg?h=539e276e&itok=BkLqdaXv)
Western Imperialism and Nation Building in Japan and China
Students are introduced to the history of Western imperialism in East Asia and its influence on the identities and ambitions of Japan and China.
![An Ukiyo-e of the Utagawa school depicting foreigners in Japan, including Russians, Dutch, British, Americans, French and Chinese. A closeup of the Dutch, Americans and Chinese in the center of the picture](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Foreign_nations_in_Japan.jpg?h=bb3745a7&itok=kNJq-Ev3)
Telling Our Histories
Students connect themes from the film to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's concept of “single stories," and then consider what it would take to tell more equitable and accurate narratives.
![View of people on a city street.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/2016_TellingOurHistories_card_FH2173875.jpg?h=ac1fc4d9&itok=2zsh7JUC)
Watching Who Will Write Our History
Students view the film, analyze a primary source from the Oyneg Shabes archive, and consider why it matters who tells the stories of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
![A man rolling up a scroll.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/2022_ScreenShot2022-06-10at10.11.31AM_FH2174132.jpg?h=ae1281eb&itok=llfRTLHU)
#IfTheyGunnedMeDown
Students explore the potential negative impact of images through the social media protest #IfTheyGunnedMeDown and develop a decision-making process for choosing imagery to represent controversial events.
![National President of Black Lawyers for Justice, carries a picture of Michael Brown as he leads demonstrators on a march.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/2014_CurfewSetAfterViolentProtestsFlareAmidOverMichaelBrownShooting_FH2173438.jpg?h=24afd704&itok=E8IzzWCR)