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Teaching with Integrity: Confronting a Nation's Past
Grades K–12:
Video/Teacher Resource
Source: American Historical Association
Teaching with Integrity: Confronting a Nation's Past
Grades K–12: Video/Teacher Resource
Katharina Matro, a high school social studies teacher who grew up in Germany, explains how consistent and open education about the Holocaust has shaped her own commitment to democracy and her love of country. Matro also serves as a member of the Teaching Division of the American Historical Association's governing council.
Learning Objective:Through "Teaching History with Integrity," the AHA provides resources and support for history educators facing intensifying controversies about the teaching of the American past.
Founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the American Historical Association provides leadership for the discipline and promotes the critical role of historical thinking in public life. The Association defends academic freedom, develops professional standards, supports innovative scholarship and teaching, and helps to sustain and enhance the work of historians. As the largest membership association of professional historians in the world (over 11,500 members), the AHA serves historians in a wide variety of professions and represents every historical era and geographical area.
Source: Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Document-Based Question: The March on Washington
Grades 9–12: Assessment
This activity and resource collection guides students through answering a document-based question about the March on Washington. Using 6 supporting documents/images and a page of historical background, students answer the question, "Is the March on Washington evidence of the power of grassroots organizing or of charismatic leadership?"
The Smithsonian National Museum of American History explore fundamental American ideals and ideas—such as democracy, opportunity, and freedom—and major themes in American history and culture, from European contact in the Americas to the present day. It provides public programs that help connect visitors to the rich and diverse stories of our nation’s past.
This lesson plan attempts to dissolve the artificial boundary between domestic and international affairs in the postwar period to show students how we choose to discuss history. Students will examine a variety of primary source documents used inside the United States and abroad during the Cold War and the concurrent civil rights movement, to see how these documents can be used as evidence for both Cold War and civil rights issues in several different ways.
EDSITEment offers free resources for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality K-12 humanities education materials in the subject areas of history and social studies, literature and language arts, foreign languages, arts, and culture. All websites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom.
This twelfth grade annotated inquiry leads students through an investigation of a hotly debated issue in the United States: the gender wage gap. The compelling question “What should we do about the gender wage gap?” asks students to grapple not only with how to quantify and interpret the gap but also to consider ways of addressing the problem.
C3 Teachers aims to support educators using the C3 Framework. The C3 inquiry arc outlines the social studies habits of mind, disciplinary tools and conceptual content that students need to prepare for college, careers, and most importantly, civic life. Educators use C3 Teachers and the accompanying pedagogical resources to guide inquiry-based classrooms.
This unit looks at migration patterns in the United States in from the 18th century through the 20th century. Students will look at the interactions between Native people and European settlers in the cessions of Indigenous lands. They will also engage with the forced migration of enslaved people into the South.
Learning Objectives:Media LiteracyHistorical Thinking SkillsEngaging in Difficult Conversations
Related Skills: Understanding Diverse Perspectives, Taking Informed Action
New American History explores America’s past, harnessing the power of digital media, curiosity and inquiry. Its core projects include Bunk, a curated remix of contemporary online content, and American Panorama, an interactive digital atlas.
NewseumED.org offers free resources to cultivate the First Amendment and media literacy skills essential to civic life. Learn how to authenticate, analyze and evaluate information from a variety of sources and put current events in historical context through standards-aligned lesson plans, videos, primary sources, virtual classes and programs.
Source: C-SPAN Television Networks/C-SPAN Classroom
Lesson Plan: The Emmett Till Story
Grades 6–12: Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students will view videos to hear eyewitness accounts of what occurred while Emmett Till was visiting family in Mississippi. They will learn about the timeline of events, how they unfolded and the subsequent trial for the men involved. Students will also consider the impact this had on the Civil Rights movement and the legacy.
Related Skills: Analyzing Texts, Images, or Videos, Media Literacy, Historical Thinking Skills
C-SPAN Classroom is a free membership service for social studies teachers to enhance the teaching of social studies through C-SPAN's primary source programming and websites.
Should the Federal Government Regulate States’ Election Procedures?
Grades 9–12:
Lesson Plan
Source: C-SPAN Television Networks/C-SPAN Classroom
Should the Federal Government Regulate States’ Election Procedures?
Grades 9–12: Lesson Plan
Students will be able to identify and explain aspects of the election regulation debate including its potential impact on voter turnout, election transparency, and voting equity.
Related Skills: Analyzing Texts, Images, or Videos
C-SPAN Classroom is a free membership service for social studies teachers to enhance the teaching of social studies through C-SPAN's primary source programming and websites.
C-SPAN Classroom is a free membership service for social studies teachers to enhance the teaching of social studies through C-SPAN's primary source programming and websites.
Download the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap and Report Documents
Get the Roadmap and Report to unlock the work of over 300 leading scholars, educators, practitioners, and others who spent thousands of hours preparing this robust framework and guiding principles. The time is now to prioritize history and civics.
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We the People
This theme explores the idea of “the people” as a political concept–not just a group of people who share a landscape but a group of people who share political ideals and institutions.
This theme explores how social arrangements and conflicts have combined with political institutions to shape American life from the earliest colonial period to the present, investigates which moments of change have most defined the country, and builds understanding of how American political institutions and society changes.
This theme explores the contemporary terrain of civic participation and civic agency, investigating how historical narratives shape current political arguments, how values and information shape policy arguments, and how the American people continues to renew or remake itself in pursuit of fulfillment of the promise of constitutional democracy.
This theme explores the relationship between self-government and civic participation, drawing on the discipline of history to explore how citizens’ active engagement has mattered for American society and on the discipline of civics to explore the principles, values, habits, and skills that support productive engagement in a healthy, resilient constitutional democracy. This theme focuses attention on the overarching goal of engaging young people as civic participants and preparing them to assume that role successfully.
This theme begins from the recognition that American civic experience is tied to a particular place, and explores the history of how the United States has come to develop the physical and geographical shape it has, the complex experiences of harm and benefit which that history has delivered to different portions of the American population, and the civics questions of how political communities form in the first place, become connected to specific places, and develop membership rules. The theme also takes up the question of our contemporary responsibility to the natural world.
This theme explores the place of the U.S. and the American people in a global context, investigating key historical events in international affairs,and building understanding of the principles, values, and laws at stake in debates about America’s role in the world.
The Seven Themes provide the organizational framework for the Roadmap. They map out the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students should be able to explore in order to be engaged in informed, authentic, and healthy civic participation. Importantly, they are neither standards nor curriculum, but rather a starting point for the design of standards, curricula, resources, and lessons.
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Driving questions provide a glimpse into the types of inquiries that teachers can write and develop in support of in-depth civic learning. Think of them as a starting point in your curricular design. Learn more about inquiry-based learning in the Pedagogy Companion.
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Sample guiding questions are designed to foster classroom discussion, and can be starting points for one or multiple lessons. It is important to note that the sample guiding questions provided in the Roadmap are NOT an exhaustive list of questions. There are many other great topics and questions that can be explored.
The Seven Themes provide the organizational framework for the Roadmap. They map out the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students should be able to explore in order to be engaged in informed, authentic, and healthy civic participation. Importantly, they are neither standards nor curriculum, but rather a starting point for the design of standards, curricula, resources, and lessons.
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The Five Design Challenges
America’s constitutional politics are rife with tensions and complexities.Our Design Challenges, which are arranged alongside our Themes, identify and clarify the most significant tensions that writers of standards, curricula, texts, lessons, and assessments will grapple with. In proactively recognizing and acknowledging these challenges, educators will help students better understand the complicated issues that arise in American history and civics.
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Motivating Agency, Sustaining the Republic
How can we help students understand the full context for their roles as civic participants without creating paralysis or a sense of the insignificance of their own agency in relation to the magnitude of our society, the globe, and shared challenges?
How can we help students become engaged citizens who also sustain civil disagreement, civic friendship, and thus American constitutional democracy?
How can we help students pursue civic action that is authentic, responsible, and informed?
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America’s Plural Yet Shared Story
How can we integrate the perspectives of Americans from all different backgrounds when narrating a history of the U.S. and explicating the content of the philosophical foundations of American constitutional democracy?
How can we do so consistently across all historical periods and conceptual content?
How can this more plural and more complete story of our history and foundations also be a common story, the shared inheritance of all Americans?
How do we simultaneously teach the value and the danger of compromise for a free, diverse, and self-governing people?
How do we help students make sense of the paradox that Americans continuously disagree about the ideal shape of self-government but also agree to preserve shared institutions?
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Civic Honesty, Reflective Patriotism
How can we offer an account of U.S. constitutional democracy that is simultaneously honest about the wrongs of the past without falling into cynicism, and appreciative of the founding of the United States without tipping into adulation?
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Balancing the Concrete & the Abstract
How can we support instructors in helping students move between concrete, narrative, and chronological learning and thematic and abstract or conceptual learning?
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Each theme is supported by key concepts that map out the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students should be able to explore in order to be engaged in informed, authentic, and healthy civic participation. They are vertically spiraled and developed to apply to K—5 and 6—12. Importantly, they are not standards, but rather offer a vision for the integration of history and civics throughout grades K—12.
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Helping Students Participate
How can I learn to understand my role as a citizen even if I’m not old enough to take part in government? How can I get excited to solve challenges that seem too big to fix?
How can I learn how to work together with people whose opinions are different from my own?
How can I be inspired to want to take civic actions on my own?
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America’s Shared Story
How can I learn about the role of my culture and other cultures in American history?
How can I see that America’s story is shared by all?
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Thinking About Compromise
How can teachers teach the good and bad sides of compromise?
How can I make sense of Americans who believe in one government but disagree about what it should do?
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Honest Patriotism
How can I learn an honest story about America that admits failure and celebrates praise?
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Balancing Time & Theme
How can teachers help me connect historical events over time and themes?
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The Six Pedagogical Principles
EAD teacher draws on six pedagogical principles that are connected sequentially.
Six Core Pedagogical Principles are part of our Pedagogy Companion. The Pedagogical Principles are designed to focus educators’ effort on techniques that best support the learning and development of student agency required of history and civic education.
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This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
EAD teachers commit to learn about and teach full and multifaceted historical and civic narratives. They appreciate student diversity and assume all students’ capacity for learning complex and rigorous content. EAD teachers focus on inclusion and equity in both content and approach as they spiral instruction across grade bands, increasing complexity and depth about relevant history and contemporary issues.
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This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Growth Mindset and Capacity Building
EAD teachers have a growth mindset for themselves and their students, meaning that they engage in continuous self-reflection and cultivate self-knowledge. They learn and adopt content as well as practices that help all learners of diverse backgrounds reach excellence. EAD teachers need continuous and rigorous professional development (PD) and access to professional learning communities (PLCs) that offer peer support and mentoring opportunities, especially about content, pedagogical approaches, and instruction-embedded assessments.
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This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Building an EAD-Ready Classroom and School
EAD teachers cultivate and sustain a learning environment by partnering with administrators, students, and families to conduct deep inquiry about the multifaceted stories of American constitutional democracy. They set expectations that all students know they belong and contribute to the classroom community. Students establish ownership and responsibility for their learning through mutual respect and an inclusive culture that enables students to engage courageously in rigorous discussion.
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This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Inquiry as the Primary Mode for Learning
EAD teachers not only use the EAD Roadmap inquiry prompts as entry points to teaching full and complex content, but also cultivate students’ capacity to develop their own deep and critical inquiries about American history, civic life, and their identities and communities. They embrace these rigorous inquiries as a way to advance students’ historical and civic knowledge, and to connect that knowledge to themselves and their communities. They also help students cultivate empathy across differences and inquisitiveness to ask difficult questions, which are core to historical understanding and constructive civic participation.
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This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Practice of Constitutional Democracy and Student Agency
EAD teachers use their content knowledge and classroom leadership to model our constitutional principle of “We the People” through democratic practices and promoting civic responsibilities, civil rights, and civic friendship in their classrooms. EAD teachers deepen students’ grasp of content and concepts by creating student opportunities to engage with real-world events and problem-solving about issues in their communities by taking informed action to create a more perfect union.
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This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Assess, Reflect, and Improve
EAD teachers use assessments as a tool to ensure all students understand civics content and concepts and apply civics skills and agency. Students have the opportunity to reflect on their learning and give feedback to their teachers in higher-order thinking exercises that enhance as well as measure learning. EAD teachers analyze and utilize feedback and assessment for self-reflection and improving instruction.
X
This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
EAD teachers commit to learn about and teach full and multifaceted historical and civic narratives. They appreciate student diversity and assume all students’ capacity for learning complex and rigorous content. EAD teachers focus on inclusion and equity in both content and approach as they spiral instruction across grade bands, increasing complexity and depth about relevant history and contemporary issues.
X
This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Growth Mindset and Capacity Building
EAD teachers have a growth mindset for themselves and their students, meaning that they engage in continuous self-reflection and cultivate self-knowledge. They learn and adopt content as well as practices that help all learners of diverse backgrounds reach excellence. EAD teachers need continuous and rigorous professional development (PD) and access to professional learning communities (PLCs) that offer peer support and mentoring opportunities, especially about content, pedagogical approaches, and instruction-embedded assessments.
X
This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Building an EAD-Ready Classroom and School
EAD teachers cultivate and sustain a learning environment by partnering with administrators, students, and families to conduct deep inquiry about the multifaceted stories of American constitutional democracy. They set expectations that all students know they belong and contribute to the classroom community. Students establish ownership and responsibility for their learning through mutual respect and an inclusive culture that enables students to engage courageously in rigorous discussion.
X
This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Inquiry as the Primary Mode for Learning
EAD teachers not only use the EAD Roadmap inquiry prompts as entry points to teaching full and complex content, but also cultivate students’ capacity to develop their own deep and critical inquiries about American history, civic life, and their identities and communities. They embrace these rigorous inquiries as a way to advance students’ historical and civic knowledge, and to connect that knowledge to themselves and their communities. They also help students cultivate empathy across differences and inquisitiveness to ask difficult questions, which are core to historical understanding and constructive civic participation.
X
This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Practice of Constitutional Democracy and Student Agency
EAD teachers use their content knowledge and classroom leadership to model our constitutional principle of “We the People” through democratic practices and promoting civic responsibilities, civil rights, and civic friendship in their classrooms. EAD teachers deepen students’ grasp of content and concepts by creating student opportunities to engage with real-world events and problem-solving about issues in their communities by taking informed action to create a more perfect union.
X
This resource aligns with the core pedagogical principle of:
Assess, Reflect, and Improve
EAD teachers use assessments as a tool to ensure all students understand civics content and concepts and apply civics skills and agency. Students have the opportunity to reflect on their learning and give feedback to their teachers in higher-order thinking exercises that enhance as well as measure learning. EAD teachers analyze and utilize feedback and assessment for self-reflection and improving instruction.
