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)
Supporting Question 2: Defining Democracy
Students explore the supporting question, “What can democracy mean in the United States?”
![Definition of Democracy](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-06/iStock-531943280.jpg?h=4362216e&itok=juTZbmTu)
Supporting Question 3: Using Democratic Tools to Pursue Freedom
Students explore the supporting question, “How have people used the tools of democracy to fight for their freedoms in the United States?”
![Supporters of the Grape Boycott demonstrate in Toronto, Ontario, December, 1968. Jessica Govea is in the center, front row (wearing poncho).](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-06/UnitedFarmworkers.jpg?h=deb88887&itok=22kEDdQ_)
The First South Carolina Legislature
This image shows 63 members of South Carolina’s 1868 state legislature, the first state legislature with a Black majority.
![African American and Radical Republican members of the South Carolina Legislature in the 1870s.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/REC_03_First_South.jpg?h=e4d64d67&itok=cL1yI8GT)
The First South Carolina Legislature (en español)
This image, captioned in Spanish, shows 63 members of South Carolina’s 1968 state legislature, the first state legislature with a Black majority.
![African American and Radical Republican members of the South Carolina Legislature in the 1870s.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/REC_03_First_South.jpg?h=e4d64d67&itok=cL1yI8GT)
Glenn Ligon, Untitled - Four Etchings [D]
In this second black-on-black etching, Glenn Ligon also uses Ralph Ellison's quote from the prologue of his novel, Invisible Man (1952), though this one uses the complete quote, which ends "...figments of their imagination-indeed everything."
![Black on black etching that begins with "I am the Invisible Man…"](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/D11338_Medium_res_0.jpg?h=c978a40d&itok=EVvkRRuT)
UDHR Infographic
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. It states the basic rights and freedoms to which all people are entitled.
![The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. It states the basic rights and freedoms to which all people are entitled.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/UDHR_Infographic_1.jpg?h=85eae72e&itok=qU3cRgNE)
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)
Glenn Ligon, Untitled - Four Etchings [B]
This black-on-white etching quotes Zora Neale Hurston's essay "How It Feels to be Colored Me."
![A black ink etching on white paper with the words, "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background" repeatedly printed. The words smudge and get blacker at the end](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/D11336_Medium_res.jpg?h=a6843db5&itok=YsJY4iEp)
Glenn Ligon, Untitled - Four Etchings [C]
In this black-on-black etching, Glenn Ligon uses Ralph Ellison's quote from the prologue of his novel, Invisible Man (1952): "I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus side-shows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only themselves, or figments of their imagina-"
![Black on Black etching that says, "“I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/D11337_Medium_res_0.jpg?h=c978a40d&itok=rRnW4TXY)