Teaching Guides Archives

Rights Matter: The Story of the Bill of Rights

Teaching Guide. By Nancy Murray. 2006. 69 pages.
A free, downloadable, student-friendly booklet on the Bill of Rights, available in English and Spanish.

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years

Teaching Guide. Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools. 2003. 192 pages.
Readings and lessons for grades 5 to 12 about the impact and legacy of the arrival of Columbus in the Americas.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Resistance in Paradise: Rethinking 100 Years of U.S. Involvement in the Caribbean and the Pacific

Teaching Guide. Edited by Debbie Wei and Rachel Kamel. 1998. 199 pages.
Readings and teaching ideas for high school students on the Spanish-American War.

Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution: An Inquiry Into the Civil War and Reconstruction

Teaching Guide. By American Social History Project with foreword by Eric Foner. 1996.
Primary documents, essays, and questions to teach the untold story of Reconstruction.

The Line Between Us (Book) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

The Line Between Us: Teaching About the Border and Mexican Immigration

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 2006. 160 pages. Rethinking Schools.
Lessons for teaching about the history of U.S.–Mexico relations and current border and immigration issues.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement

Teaching Guide. By Alan Stoskopf. Facing History and Ourselves. 2002.
Resources for teaching about the eugenics movement in the United States.

Columbus and Las Casas

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 15 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 1 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on Columbus' arrival in the "New World," and the contrasting accounts of Bartolome de Las Casas and Eduardo Galeano.

The Power in Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 1988. 184 pages.
Role plays and writing activities project high school students into real-life situations to explore the history and contemporary reality of employment (and unemployment) in the U.S.

Teaching Activity by Norm Diamond

Panama, the 1991 Gulf War, and the War at Home

Teaching Activity. By Robert Standish.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 22 of Voices of a People’s History of the United States on Panama, the 1991 Gulf War, and the War on the Poor in the United States.

Strikers and Populists in the Golden Age

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 18 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 11 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the Gilded Age.

Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching

Teaching Guide and Website. Edited by Deborah Menkart, Alana D. Murray, and Jenice L. View. 2024. 390 pages.
This second edition provides lessons and articles for K–12 educators on how to go beyond a heroes approach to the Civil Rights Movement, with a focus on education, economics, labor, youth, women, and culture.

Teaching Activity by Deborah Menkart

History in the Present Tense: Engaging Students Through Inquiry and Action

Teaching Guide. By Douglas Selwyn and Jan Maher. 2003.
A guide to a different way of teaching history—start from today and keep asking questions.

Caribbean Connections: Moving North

Teaching Guide. Edited by Catherine Sunshine and Keith Warner. 2005. 240 pages.
Literature and essays about Caribbean life in the United States.

Conexiones Caribenas: La Republica Dominicana

Teaching Guide. By Anne Gallin, Ruth Glasser and Jocelyn Santana. 2005.
Selected readings in Spanish from "Caribbean Connections: Dominican Republic."

Camouflaged: Investigating How the U.S. Military Affects You and Your Community

Teaching Guide. Edited by Edwin Mayorga, Bree Picower, and Seth Rader. 2008. 188 pages.
Tool for educators to help adolescents explore the role of the military in their lives and in their communities.

Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education, and Staff Development

Teaching Guide. Edited by Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart and Margo Okazawa-Rey. 2006. 436 pages.
Guide for teachers, administrators, and parents shows how to teach from a multicultural perspective that goes beyond the superficial "heroes and holidays" approach.

Teaching Activity by Deborah Menkart

Challenging Bill Clinton

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 17 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 23 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the Clinton presidency, as well as domestic opposition to his policies.

The Carter–Reagan–Bush Consensus

Teaching Activity. By Ron Perry.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 21 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the recently rising disparities in power, wealth and quality of life in America.

Losing Control in the 1970s

Teaching Activity. By Jennifer Rosebrook.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 20 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the legacy of scandal since the end of the Vietnam War and the Watergate break-in.

Women, Gays, and Other Voices of Resistance

Teaching Activity. By Jack Bareilles.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 19 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the emergence and legacy of the 1960s counterculture, as well as the movements it helped create.

Vietnam and Beyond: The Historic Resistance

Teaching Activity. By Mike Benbow and Robin Pickering. 17 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 18 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on opposition to the Vietnam War.

The Black Upsurge Against Racial Segregation

Teaching Activity. By Tasha Boettcher.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 17 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the long Civil Rights Movement in America.

World War II and McCarthyism

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 16 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on domestic opposition to the "good war" and the impact of McCarthyism.

From the Jazz Age to the Uprisings of the 1930s

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 20 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 15 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the economic and social realities of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the corresponding rise of unions and the Communist Party.

Protesting the First World War

Teaching Activity. By Colby Smart.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 14 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on anti-war efforts during the first World War, as well as the U.S. government's response.

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