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 compelling question by annotating the question and completing an anticipation guide about educational justice.
![Kristina Vancil speaking to students in a Chicago classroom](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-02/SL_190523_0534.jpg?h=a49d782d&itok=KUtAJGSJ)
Studs Terkel Interview with Virginia Foster Durr
In an interview with Studs Terkel, Virginia Foster Durr, a prominent American civil rights activist, reflects on life during the Great Depression, particularly the way that people on government relief felt shame and guilt over their own suffering and poverty, rather than blaming the capitalist system.
![Mockingbird Graphic.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/WebRedesign_Wrapper-card_Mockingbird.jpeg?h=24afd704&itok=qskeXCqD)
Teaching Farewell to Manzanar
Use this guide to Jeanne Wakatsuki's memoir about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II to develop students' literacy skills and increase understanding of this history.
![Teaching Farewell To Manzanar graphic.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Manzanar_Large2.jpeg?h=01ac081b&itok=UHFGvzoO)
Teaching Mockingbird
Use this resource to transform how you teach Harper Lee’s novel by integrating historical context, documents, and sources that reflect the African American voices absent from Mockingbird's narration.
![Mockingbird Graphic.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/WebRedesign_Wrapper-card_Mockingbird.jpeg?h=24afd704&itok=qskeXCqD)
Choices in Little Rock
This unit investigates the choices made by the Little Rock Nine and others in the Little Rock community during the civil rights movement during efforts to desegregate Central High School in 1957.
![Cropped Choices at Little Rock.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Cropped%20Choices%20at%20Little%20Rock.jpg?h=ebd685d1&itok=wjhHdNdc)
Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies: Choices in Little Rock
This resource provides writing prompts and strategies that align our Choices in Little Rock unit with the expectations of the Common Core State Standards.
![Students write at their desks.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-07/Chicago_Classroom_2019_FH2101681.jpeg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=pItuRsH2)
Lost in Translation
Rapper Ruby Ibarra reflects on her Filipino-American experience and the role of language in a spoken-word poem.
![Two students look at each other in conversation. One student is also taking notes.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/ClassroomEvent_2018_%20FH287178.jpg?h=a141e9ea&itok=CX7H4ckw)
Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies: Civil Rights Historical Investigation
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This resource connects our Civil Rights Historical Investigations unit with writing prompts that align with the expectations of the Common Core State Standards.
![Common Core: Civil Rights Cover](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/CommonCoreCivilRights_cvr.png?h=88ddef7e&itok=4J-1TEKp)
Democracy in Action: A Study Guide to Accompany the Film Freedom Riders
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Use this guide to the documentary film Freedom Riders to help students explore the stories of the brave activists who challenged segregation in the South in 1961.
![Democracy in Action: A Study Guide to Accompany the Film Freedom Riders](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Democracy_in_Action.jpg?h=50887407&itok=CFLQDGyp)
Glenn Ligon, Untitled - Four Etchings [A]
In this white on black etching, Glenn Ligon repeats "I do not always feel colored," a phrase from Zora Neale Hurston's essay "How It Feels to Be Colored Me."
![Black ink etching on white paper with the words "I do not always feel colored" written repeatedly. The ink gets smudged and illegible toward the end](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/D11335_Medium_res.jpg?h=38731381&itok=Jh7iUy6T)
Why MLK Encouraged 225,000 Chicago Kids to Cut Class in 1963
Learn about the 1963 Chicago Public School Boycott, when students demanded better schools for black neighborhoods and equal opportunity for all.
![Crowd fills LaSalle Street between City Hall and building housing Board of Education as hundreds of demonstrators marched in Chicago on Oct. 22, 1963 following a one-day boycott of public schools.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Democracy_1963_AfricanAmericanIntegrationAntiSchoolBoycott1963IL_FH2169828.jpg?h=12de4a96&itok=CAfhRaQg)