FoundingDocs2013

This is the National Archives' "Charters of Freedom" website. In addition to having full transcriptions of the DOI, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, there are links to many ancillary materials as well. Included in the site are lesson suggestions, other primary source materials, and scholarly essays about the legacy of our Founding Documents.

Elementary students can use this website to understand how a bill becomes a law. The process is broken down in child friendly language and there is a great interactive glossary. Students can hover the mouse over a word and the definition will pop up.

This is awesome Laura! Great find!

This website breaks down Thomas Jefferson's role in writing the Declaration of Independence using child friendly language for elementary students. Other areas of the website include more background information on Jefferson and Monticello.

This is a helpful elementary level lesson so that students can understand the five rights contained in the First Amendment.

This website is a real "go-to" for me when looking for visuals to enhance my teaching. It has resources from all eras, and there are some hard to find images here. Could help teachers at any level.

This site is great for resources on teaching the First Amendment. There are lessons for a range of ability levels and connections to Supreme Court cases. Lessons also encourage students to examine the First Amendment's present-day relevancy.

Wow. I came across the site when I clicked on a link in the CUNY website, and I was blown away. I am amazed that I haven't come across this website before (I bet most of you have). It's got a plethora of primary sources on revolutionary and post-revolutionary America, as well as many other eras throughout American history. It also has teaching tools and lesson plans. I think that what I like the most about it is how well organized it seems to be. I will definitely be using this!

Indeed, bookmark this site because it has just about anything you might want. It, and the archives, are the staples for US history teachers.

This site is incredible and so easy to use. Thanks for sharing it!

The 14th Amendment granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to African-Americans and slaves who had been emancipated after the American Civil War. This simple overview of the 14th Amendment and Brown vs Board of Education would be appropriate for elementary students. It does have short advertisements.

This short videoblog with Kenneth C. Davis sparks interest in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution by discussing the Loving case for interracial marriage.

This site is all annotated primary documents from around the world. There are some really interesting things to explore. It would be a fun way to introduce students to primary sources. It also might provide some interesting things to show students to enhance your teaching.

A short video that breaks down the Bill of Rights and makes the ten amendments comprehensible for English language learners.

Thanks for bringing your ELL world into this course.

This lesson on Scholastic's website makes women's suffrage comprehensible for early elementary students. There is also an interactive component all about Effie Hobby.

Very accessible for elementary students. Good lesson.

Good summary of major actions and players with links to more detailed accounts.

Dense reading. Perhaps best for teacher background.

This website focuses on an aspect of voting that we may not usually talk about with our students, but is arguably extremely important: the mechanics of voting. It takes you through a history of voting technology, from wooden ballot boxes, to gear and lever, to punch cards, to electronic voting. It would be a great way to explore the many influences that decide an election, and to question power in our democracy with students.

I think you are right. Middle schoolers, particularly, will be interested to know exactly how voting technology has developed.

I went searching for a useful article on the Shelby County v. Holder decision. I wanted to supplement the material provided in the Middle School Lesson for this week, which covered a history of voting rights in America. The materials did not go so far as to include this recent development, which arguable disenfranchised a large portion of Americans. I would read this article with the students and then add a character for "period 4" in the lesson who, students would realize, may be disenfranchised by this 2013 Supreme Court decision.

And make sure students realize the close proximity in date of this article and story. This is as current as it gets.

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.

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.

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.

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?