FoundingDocs2013

Washington's 1790 letter to the Jews of Newport, RI, in which he alludes to First Amendment freedoms of religion. Great resource for tracing freedom of religion throughout history

This has really good articles from the NYT detailing the passage of the 19th Amendment from 1919-1920. It encompasses state votes, changes that were defeated, the signing of the resolution and more. It speaks to suffrage and questions the human welfare of women.

This was from the link in the high school lesson plan, which now works. The item labeled "The Split over Suffrage" has what looks to be a very interesting lesson for the Reconstruction period

The split between Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony is an interesting topic for high school students who can differentiate between the nuances of belief systems among these players.

The prompt this week for the ACLU link had to do with how we might use timelines in class to explore voting rights, and that reminded me of this wonderful websites. It allows you to create your own dynamic timeline for students to explore, and it also allows students to create their own timelines. It's easy to use and visually very friendly.

The New York Times has a great map section for the Electoral College. If you type in Electoral Map in the search bar of the New York Times it will be give you various maps of the past few elections (presidential, midterm, governors, etc.). A great visual for students to understand voting patterns, etc.

This is a somewhat scholarly look at how African Americans, artisans and small farmers viewed the Constitution. Great for your own background or to give honors or AP kids something to think about and wrestle with. Not your typical point of view!

Great 20 minute video on Gideon v. Wainwright created by the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands Seminars - The Judicial Branch. They try to "jazz" it up using graphics and music, but it's a great review of how one man can change the constitution. This is part of a 3 DVD series. Worth getting.

Albert, thanks for sharing this. It is totally appropriate for a high school classroom and shows how even the most common of people can influence the law of the land.

Simple, elegant timeline of major voting events in US history. This would be a great review for students studying the evolution of voting in the United States. It does not get bogged down in the details.

I like that you, as the teacher, can pick and choose the events you want to include, given your student population.

Great primary visuals from the time period regarding the Chinese "invasion" of California. The visuals are from various publications. Students could categorize the arguments according to economic, political, cultural reasons as a take home assignment.

Great audio recordings on the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 - they are somewhat hard to hear, but they provide a behind the scenes look on how they passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Students could listen to them and get a sense on how deals are presented, made and discussed behind closed doors.

This City University of New York page explores the history of Puerto Ricans in relation to US citizenship and the right to vote.

This gives a sample of the most celebrated documents and milestones in history. I thought it was interesting to be able to click on a plethora of links not on just the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constittution, Bill of Rights but also links to the Emancipation Proclamation, Social Security Act, FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech and much more.

The National Archives is truly a remarkable site. Remember when we had to teach history without the richness of all the documents we can now get online?

This primary source document on the 15h Amendment speaks volumes when it states "Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. There are Historical Collection links as well.

In my search for court cases that would both illustrate the 'enduring legacy' of the Bill of Rights' and be of interest and relevant to younger students, I found this site. Very clear, brief explanations on a timeline of court rulings re: educaction, some of them centering around children's rights.

This chart shows how many electoral votes each state had between 1981-90, 91-2000, and 2001-10. Could be useful when teaching contemporary elections - and could be particularly helpful when looking at demographic patterns - inferences galore to be made!

Here is a nice opinion piece by the NYT regarding the Electoral College: http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000001821730/electoral-college-101.html?ref=electoralcollege

Albert, I loved this article and the trailer. The best quote from the trailer is the last line: Interviewer: What is democracy? Kid: It's a type of ... disease.

There is a lot to improve on here - but also a lot of great essential questions. A really good starting point for someone new to the course or profession - and interesting food for thought for the veterans!

I initially had trouble finding the lesson linked to in week 5's session. I searched the website for the title of the lesson mentioned on the syllabus. This is the lesson that came up in my search.

This link has the famous "remember the ladies" exchange between John Adams and Abigail and also has a letter that Adams wrote justifying the limitation of voting rights to property-holding men, which was brought to mind by this week's topic

Another good resource site and interesting lesson plans that focus on the Chinese experience in America. This could provide more background information for you as you get into the Chinese Exclusion Act and how citizenship was denied to Asian Americans for many years.

If you click on the resource section on the left side of the website there are great timelines and resources regarding the Chinese in America. There is census data and a list of organizations that can help you with resources. There is a lot to dig through on this site, but worth the effort.