The Gilder Lehrman Institute's family-friendly US history resources offers programs and resources — all available free of charge — that families can take part in, including a just-announced Online History School.
Self-Paced Courses are offered with reoccurring events such as Book Breaks and Inside the Vault that individual students — or the entire family — can take part in. This summer, online programs for middle, and high school students are being offered with Gilder Lehrman. Each of our five summer courses will include live online presentations anchored in primary source documents on topics such as AP US History, American film, American song, and more. Explore courses and sign up here.
Current Events – June 2020 8th grade U.S. History is taught with a social justice lens.
Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-05-30/dont-understand-the-protests-what-youre-seeing-is-people-pushed-to-the-edge LATimes Opinion, Kareem Abdul Jabar, May 30, 2020
Words Matter when talking about race and unrest, experts say
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/31/george-floyd-riots-violence-looting-words-matter-experts-say/5290908002/ USA Today, Alia E. Dastigir, May 31, 2020
Let’s get to the root of racial injustice – TedTalk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aCn72iXO9s Megan Ming Francis 2016
Becoming Equal Under the Law – highlights past events and racially discriminating laws in U.S.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omHiPZbfKZQ
Zinn Ed Project https://www.zinnedproject.org/ Search website by Era or Themes: African American, Democracy & Citizenship, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance
1. ‘We had set ourselves Free’: Lessons on the Civil Rights Movement, explore roles of people involved in the Civil Rights Movement beyond the familiar heroes
https://www.zinnedproject.org/?s=we+had+set+ourselves+free
2. U.S. Mexico War:”We Take Nothing by Conquest. Thank God” – review the historical context about the line that separates Mexico and the U.S. through a number of individuals
https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/us-mexico-war-tea-party/
3. A War to Free Slaves – examine excerpts from Lincoln’s first inaugural address, 13th amendment and Emancipation Proclamation to explore some of the myths about the Civil War https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/war-to-free-the-slaves
The U.S. History 8th grade team encourages students to explore topics of interest and to begin habits of mind that require learning new information, reflecting, critical thinking and supporting their claims or ideas with corroborated evidence from multiple sources. The following websites have a wealth of material for incoming and exiting 8th grade U.S. History students:
1. Choices Program from Brown University https://choices.cis-qas.brown.edu/
2. Teaching Tolerance https://www.tolerance.org/ - see magazines, podcasts, publications
· one unit of lessons uses photographs to teach social justice
· https://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources/tolerance-lessons/using-photographs-to-teach-social-justice
3. The Media and Bias: Explore the Power of the Media https://criticalmediaproject.org/.
· Go to Race and Ethnicity, topic overview, read through content
· Watch video: I’m Black, but I am not
· This website also provides topics on age, class, disability, gender, LGBTQ, and religion. Click on the tab “all” and you can narrow your search to a subtopic topic that most interests you.
4. Activism: Do YOU want to “do something”? https://www.dosomething.org/us
· Scroll through many campaigns this site developed to find one of interest
· Find Disrupt Racism on home page first listing – read 1 or all 5 articles
· Reflect: What did you learn? Is it important to “do something” on this topic?
· Create a Graphic Organizer that outlines the major points of the article.
· Share, reflect and discuss what you have learned, read, or your thoughts
5. U.S. Constitution – how does this document inform me as an American citizen?
· Click on https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/the-constitution
· See sections of the Constitution; Click on the Preamble:
· Read articles and decide whether you agree or disagree with article authors
· Scroll down to “Media Library,” , choose a topic of interest to you and/or choose the type of media you are learn from the best (podcast, town hall video, blog post, educational video).
· Does the topic connect to today? How? Is this topic useful to share? with whom?
· Continue exploring each section of the Constitution
· Reflection: How do these topics effect me? How can learning about these topics allow me to be an informed citizen?