Primary Source

Our best selling three-part Reconstruction series now bundled and discounted for you! These lessons incorporate high quality primary sources. Part I is intended to help students understand the idea that the nation needed to be rebuilt physically, economically, and socially after the Civil War. Part II is intended to help students understand the how the South was rebuilt. The Freedmen’s Bureau worked to integrate blacks into society, while the system of sharecropping was intended to help restore

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students understand how the nation was rebuilt during Reconstruction (Freedmen's Bureau, sharecropping). Students are asked to study images of the nation's recovery in action, then write captions for a newspaper to demonstrate their understanding. This Reconstruction activity can be used by itself, but works even better with the three-part series on Reconstruction now available in a bundle set at our store, Primary Source. Part I asks

Our best selling two-part Reconstruction Amendments series now bundled and discounted for you! These lessons incorporate six high quality primary sources. Part I is intended to help students understand the purpose of the three amendments made to the Constitution during Reconstruction. Part II asks students to examine the Southern reaction to the Reconstruction amendments. In both lessons, students are asked to define the amendments in their own words, then demonstrate their comprehension by mat

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students understand the purpose of the three amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th) made to the Constitution during Reconstruction. Students are asked to define the amendments in their own words, then match a primary source document to the amendment. A worksheet, three large format primary sources for projection, and cuttable icons are included. This activity can be used by itself, but works even better with Reconstruction Amendments Part I

This Primary Source activity is intended to help students understand the United States’ role at the end of World War I, particularly in regards to joining the League of Nations. It asks students to evaluate a political cartoon in light of what they have learned about World War I. This activity should be used near the conclusion of a unit on World War I and can be extended by asking students to create their own political cartoon. Please be sure to rate this activity when you use it! We really app

Our best selling 3-part Industrialization and the Progressive Era series now bundled and discounted for you! These original activities by Primary Source are intended to help students understand problems of Industrialization including child labor, tenement living, and unsafe working conditions. These lessons incorporate high quality primary sources. Please be sure to rate these activities when you use them! We really appreciate your feedback. •These activities can be used as a formative or summa

This original activity by Primary Source asks students to consider if Reconstruction worked when presented with the advent of Jim Crow laws and voting restrictions intended to disenfranchise black men. Students compare the quality of a white school and a colored school in the same county to determine if separate really was equal. This Reconstruction activity can be used by itself, but works even better with the three-part series on Reconstruction now available in a bundle set at our store, Prima

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students understand the fact that while slavery was legally over, African Americans still faced great discrimination and even grave danger in their daily lives in the years following the Civil War. Students are asked to analyze Thomas Nast's "Worse than Slavery" political cartoon from Harper's Weekly. Follow-up questions are included for the cartoon. This lesson incorporates high quality primary sources. Please be sure to rate this a

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students understand that one of the aims of Progressive reforms was to improve working conditions. It specifically features the tragedy at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Students are asked to analyze photographs of the factory before and after the fire to consider changes to working conditions that had to be made. This lesson incorporates high quality primary sources. Please be sure to rate this activity when you use it! We really ap

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students understand that one of the aims of Progressive reforms was to improve living conditions. Students are asked to analyze photographs of tenement conditions before and after reforms to the living conditions were enacted. This lesson incorporates high quality primary sources. Please be sure to rate this activity when you use it! We really appreciate your feedback. •This activity can be used as a formative or summative assessment

This activity is intended to help students understand monopolies, how they led to the rise of Big Business in the beginning of the 20th Century, and their impact on consumers. This activity can be used when teaching the concept of monopolies, or as a lead-in to teaching the Progressive Era. Prior knowledge of the concept of capitalism and consumers is highly recommended. Students will analyze a political cartoon about the Standard Oil company, then complete a tactile processing activity to under

This activity is intended to help students understand and sequence significant events in World War II by analyzing primary sources. This activity can be used as a pre-assessment at the start of a World War II unit, as a formative/summative assessment before moving on to turning points, or as an end of unit review. This activity features documents related to five significant events in the war: • German hyperinflation • The German invasion of Poland • The German invasion of France • President Roos

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students understand the changing role of women during WWII. Students are asked to analyze an image of a female riveter, then study the lyrics of the song, "Rosie the Riveter" to describe the social and economic changes occurring for women and the U.S. in general during wartime. This lesson incorporates high quality primary sources. Please be sure to rate this activity when you use it! We really appreciate your feedback. •This activit

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students understand that one of the aims of Progressive reforms was to end child labor. Students are asked to analyze photographs of children at work, then write captions for a newspaper to convince the nation of the need for reform. This lesson incorporates high quality primary sources. Please be sure to rate this activity when you use it! We really appreciate your feedback. •This activity can be used as a formative assessment •This

This original activity by Primary Source has students examine the Southern reaction to the Reconstruction amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th). Students are asked to define the amendments in their own words, then match a primary source document to the amendment. A worksheet, three large format primary sources for projection, and cuttable icons are included. This activity can be used by itself, but works even better with Reconstruction Amendments Part I, an activity that helps students understand th

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students understand the idea that the nation needed to be rebuilt physically, economically, and socially after the Civil War. Students are asked to analyze photographs from after the Civil War, then determine what kind of assistance the people in the photos would need to get back on their feet again. This Reconstruction activity can be used by itself, but works even better with the three-part series on Reconstruction now available in

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students identify primary and secondary sources.Teachers should select three to four examples of primary sources and three to four examples of secondary sources relevant to the topic they are teaching. Review the differences between primary and secondary sources before the activity begins (included with lesson) •This activity can be completed individually or in pairs •This activity works well in an interactive notebook •This activity

This original activity by Primary Source is intended to help students understand the meaning of emancipation. Students are asked to compare and contrast life for African Americans before and after emancipation by analyzing a cartoon by Thomas Nast. This lesson incorporates high quality primary sources. Please be sure to rate this activity when you use it! We really appreciate your feedback. •This activity can be used as a formative assessment •This activity can be completed individually or in

This activity is intended to help students clarify the different paths to equality espoused by the Civil Rights leaders Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, and should be used following a lesson on the two men. Teachers will need to present the six quotes by Washington and Du Bois included with this lesson. Several suggestions for how to do this are included. Students will be assessed on their understanding of the differences between the two men by classifying each quote as belonging to Wash