FoundingDocs2013

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 is an article about the election of 2008. However it goes into the history of how Douglass and Stanton were close allies and then ended up not being so.

Great website from NPS. Information on the connection between women's rights and rights of African Americans. Info of Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls.

A printable PDF timeline of voting rights from the Northern California Citizenship Project's Mobilize the Immigrant Vote 2004 Capacity Building Series. Formatted in a very readable graphic organizer that can be cut and pasted as part of a larger visual timeline project, or simply as a reading resource. Timeline entry summaries are concise yet cogent and range from 1776 to 2002. It could be interesting to have students conduct research to fill in the gap from 2002 to present.

A great resource that chronicles policies and events related to the subject of voting rights.

This page includes a range of posts supporting "yes" and "no" views on whether kids should have the right to vote. Teachers could use the page as supplemental reading for a Voting Rights lesson, as a scaffold to a whole-class debate, or as a model for creating a class blog where students can debate the topic.

Provides a lengthy background on history of the Women's Suffrage Movement, but I particularly like the primary source documents at the end which include excerpts from an assortment of players in the movement in the early 1900's.

I came across this lesson plan through a CUNY link in the optional reading for Session 5. I think it combines excellent primary sources (e.g., James Madison's notes regarding how to establish an electoral process) with incredibly creative activities to help students understand the advantages and disadvantages of the electoral college. I'm excited to try this out with my class this year!

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.

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!

I don't think I need to write a description for this. It could be useful in engaging soon to be young voters on the importance of active citizenship through voting.

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

Dense reading. Perhaps best for teacher background.

An overhwleming topic. this page focuses on the aspect of suffrage as addressed by reconstruction and provides great background knowledge for students going into the study of the civil rights movement.

Growing Voters is a curriculum initiative project created by Lesley University Professor Jo-Anne Hart. Its purpose is to provide free ideas, activities, and tools directly for teachers to help grow in students the habit of participation and ultimately incubate pre-eligible voters.

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.

This is a great site that offers kid-firendly information about voting and voting rights.  It is interactive with timelines, history, ways to get involved and personal stories.

There has been a lot of controversy over Judge Thomas' attendance and remarks at this dinner. An interesting conversation to have with students about the idea of impartiality and how our experiences shape our choices.

This lesson, provided by the Smithsonian, allows the students to learn about a person who may have been in a Revolutionary War-era camp and what their experience might have been like.

This is a lesson plan that focuses on freedom of religion, specifically as it pertains to school prayer in the case of Engel v. Vitale (1962). It looks like a case in which students can really invest themselves, and has additional cases to build off of in extension opportunities.

I found this link based off of my previous link of Washington's letter to the Jews of Newport. This is a collection of 50 critical primary sources that trace America's growth from the Declaration through the 1980s. It's interesting to see their choices of documents to include, and the story it tells of American history.