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)
Reexamining History: How Can We Engage with the Stories We’re Told?
This lesson prepares young people to be critical consumers of stories they are told about the UK’s past and encourages them to consider how unpicking historical narratives can be an act of justice and a catalyst for action.
![Coins of Queen Victoria, King Edward and East India company.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/shutterstock_1157950465_Medium_res.jpg?h=c9f93661&itok=NCwl8oO9)
Sources: The Hope and Fragility of Multiracial Democracy
These sources help students explore the history of democratic and anti-democratic efforts in the United States.
Say, Mean, Matter: The Hope and Fragility of Multiracial Democracy
This handout contains a graphic organizer that helps students analyze key quotes from the sources in Handout 1.
Hawaii’s Legacy of Colonialism
Use this timeline and article excerpt to help students understand Native Hawaiians' protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea.
![Demonstrators gather to block a road at the base of Mauna Kea](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/IndigenousRights_AP_19196579152982_full-res.jpg?h=b6580eb4&itok=Muc3hfzj)
Night
This work by Elie Wiesel reveals his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–45, at the height of the Holocaust.
![Book cover for Night.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-08/night_cover.jpeg?h=9a268611&itok=IQ-5ItC7)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Six-year-old Scout is forced to face a new, frightening side of her rural southern town when her attorney father defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.
![Book cover for To Kill a Mockingbird.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-08/To-Kill-a-Mockingbird_cover.jpg?h=93a59db9&itok=RhySK1E2)
The Invasion of America
This video shows how the United States seized over 1.5 billion acres from America's Indigenous people by treaty and executive order between 1776 and 1887.
![](/sites/default/files/brightcove/videos/images/posters/image_1472.jpg)
A Strength of My Neighborhood
A high school student describes how his neighborhood in Los Angeles helps him feel connected to the traditions of his family’s “old world” heritage in Mexico.
![Female student learning in a classroom.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/2015_AD9A0664_FH221025.jpg?h=59f9d53c&itok=m4cVPcs7)