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 explore the compelling question, “How can we make real the ideals of democracy and freedom?”
![Student and teacher in a classroom](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-06/Community_Teach_In_FH2185452.jpeg?h=ddfec3f4&itok=gg3IvWas)
Supporting Question 1: Defining Freedom
Students explore the supporting question, “What can freedom mean in the United States?”
![Norman Rockwell, The Saturday Evening Post March 13, 1943](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-07/Freedom_from_fear.png?h=8f326fd3&itok=hJMGduZU)
Introducing Freedom Dreams: Culminating Lesson
Students create a definition for “freedom dreaming” and are introduced to the prompt for the “My Freedom Dream” capstone project.
![Langston Hughes](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-09/NPG_72_82_Hughes_resized.jpg?h=4d2e25f8&itok=cDk9z6sl)
Exploring the Freedom Dreams of Past Generations: Culminating Lesson
Students analyze how the people and groups they studied in US history pursued their freedom dreams.
![People marching from Selma to Montgomery](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-09/900px-Selma_to_Montgomery_Marches.jpg?h=d01a05a4&itok=AvjXCyS9)
Enacting Freedom Dreams: Culminating Lesson
In this culminating lesson, students explore how present-day people are enacting freedom dreams and consider what kind of civic actor they want to be.
![An educator stands at the head of a table filled with students in conversation.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-08/2017_classroomimage_FH256889_3200_1600_3.png?h=b7ec06ca&itok=R-YT_W1W)
“My Freedom Dream” Capstone Project
Students expand on the learning they have gained in their year-long study of US History to develop and share their own “freedom dream.”
![Students in class](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-09/SL_190522_0713.jpg?h=a49d782d&itok=GbpachDa)
Women Rise Up Against Apartheid and Change the Movement
Activist Frances Baard details the struggle of Black South African women under apartheid and their active participation in anti-apartheid demonstrations, including the multiracial 1956 Women’s March on Pretoria.
![Frances Baard (1909–1997) worked as a domestic servant and then a teacher before turning to activism as a result of her experience of oppression and exploitation in South Africa.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Democracy_1960_FrancesBaard_FH281818.jpg?h=04d92ac6&itok=Lpncs4vZ)
Mandela's Strategic Decision
Examine Nelson Mandela’s emotional rejection of a 1985 offer by the South African government to free him if he renounced violence and abstained from politics.
!["A young Nelson Mandela poses for a photograph in Umtata shortly before moving to Fort Beaufort to attend Healdtown Comprehensive School. "](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Nelson_Mandela_Medium_res.jpg?h=623540e1&itok=0V950_BY)
Posters from the Freedom Struggle in the 1980s
Look at a selection of anti-apartheid posters that show the diverse range of messages and issues covered within the movement.
![The Durban strikes of 1973, and the subsequent formation of new trade unions, were instrumental in causing the first seams of apartheid to break apart.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Democracy_1973_DurbanStrikes_FH282023.jpg?h=ae1281eb&itok=_wD8vdVT)
Selling Progress: A South African Filmstrip for American Students
Read the transcript of a video the South African government sent to American students as a way to convince the international community of the benefits of apartheid.
![Group of people waving South African flags in back lit.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Democracy_2018_SouthAfricaConfrontingApartheidBannerunedited_FH282249.jpg?h=40d6a7d7&itok=gii2H08Z)
Police at Battle of Cable Street
Demonstrators barricaded the streets in London's East End where Fascist leader Oswald Mosley and the Blackshirts had planned a march.
![Police destroy barricades blocking the street from a fascist march](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Police_at_the_Battle_of_Cable_Street_FH2116833.jpg?h=01b11b5d&itok=Y1sk-tjZ)