Greg Silver

This is a great group activity where students learn about the different perspectives of people involved in the slave trade. Students will read about four different people's accounts of the slave trade; a slave ship captain, a surgeon, a slave trader and a doctor. After reading the account of a character, students can fill in the graphic organizer based on that characters perspective. Students can then share their answers with the other members of their groups and compare the differences betwe

The story “How I Found America” is a story about Anzia Yezierska, a 13 year old Jewish girl living in Russia in 1901. It details the reasons why hundreds of thousands of people immigrated to the U.S. The reading is a primary source since it is a piece of the journal that she kept on her trip to America. In her journal she shows how her dream of freedom in America was different than how life really was for immigrants in the U.S.

This is a great reading activity that discusses changes in America's society during the 1950's. It goes through topics such as the baby boom, suburbanization, and the invention of television. It includes reading comprehension questions, new vocabulary words, and a critical thinking question that ties the content to the real world. I've also included a graphic organizer that also goes along with the reading. You can now supplement the reading comprehension questions with this graphic organizer

This product gives you two very different perspectives on the Korean War. One of the textbooks was written in communist North Korea, and the other textbook is written in democratic South Korea. Students have to look for clues within the text to determine which is which.

This activity allows students to read about the real life story of Olaudah Equiano, and African who was taken from his tribe and brought to the New World as a slave. His experiences open students eyes to exactly what the slave trade entailed.

These are great reading activities that I've used in both middle school and high school classrooms. The readings are easy for students to comprehend, and they introduce students to important new vocabulary words for each section. Each reading also includes a graphic organizer that can be used with the reading, or it can be supplemented with the reading. The graphic organizers have been extremely helpful for my lower-level students. Some of the readings also include a critical thinking question t

This reading details the reasons why the Chinese immigrants were willing to do the back-breaking work of building railroads while dealing with the deadly hazards that the job entailed.

This reading details the U.S. government's attempts to "Americanize" Native American tribes by forcing them to attend American schools.

This is a fun way to introduce and review the first 10 amendments to our Constitution. Students are given different real life situations, and they have to decide which amendment each situation is dealing with. To make it more personal, I put the names of my students in the situations. I've never had such a good time teaching the Bill of Rights!

This reading details the massive number of immigrants that entered America in the early 1900's. It gives students an overview of where these immigrants were coming from, why they were leaving their countries, and why they wanted to move to America.

This primary source gives students a look at the lengths that the American government was willing to go in order to secure the land that Native American tribes were living on. This is the story of the Ponca tribe that details just how brutal the resettlement was for their people.

The movie La Amistad is a true story about a group of African slaves who successfully revolted from their slave traders and ended up on the shore of Long Island. There is one scence from the movie that shows what life was like for slaves traveling the Middle Passage. A link to the scence is included, along with questions that makes students think about the treatment that these slaves received. Visuals are always great to reinforce the content.

5 different Supreme Court cases. Includes a description on the background information for each case, as well as an argument for each side's case. In the end the students have to decide which side was right for each of the 5 cases.