Lesson Plans

Early National

Analyzing the Culture of Jacksonian America

Students will analyze music to see what it reveals about the culture of Americans during the Jacksonian era. Songs and poems that will be analyzed will be "America (My Country 'tis of Thee)", "Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold," "Song for Independence," "Zip Coon," "My Old Kentucky Home," and "Camptown...

Cherokee Removal

This unit will focus on the Cherokee Removal. Students will explore and examine the Trail of Tears as well as the political decisions which motivated the journey...

Examination of 19th Century Life in an American Textile Mill

Students will analyze eight primary source documents from workers, visitors, and managements of the Lowell Textile Mill. The documents detail living and working conditions, wages, and leisure time during the 1830, 1840, and 1850s at the...

Jacksonian Democracy?

Students will engage in a structured academic controversy over the question of whether or not Andrew Jackson deserves to be on the $20 bill. Students will debate in groups the complexities of Andrew Jackson to reach a conclusion about whether or not Andrew Jackson should be celebrated today as a champion of democracy. Through participation in this lesson students will examine the issues of presentism in judging history, and prepare to think in the mindset of those living in the mid 19th century and to think for themselves in the present. The lesson will conclude with students writing an essay in which they use the documents associated with the lesson to construct and support their...

Seminole Resistance to the Indian Removal Act

As an extension of the Unit 8 Sequence 3 lesson on “The Trail of Tears” students would analyze primary sources dealing with the Second Seminole War for point of view and use primary sources as a basis for role play interviews where students take on different roles of characters involved in the war and are interviewed by reporter for Harper’s...

The Best Way to Govern? Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists

This lesson asks students to consider how much power government should have by comparing the writings of the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists during the ratification process for the Constitution. Specifically, this lesson will focus on analyzing an excerpt of the Anti-Federalist writings of Patrick Henry and an excerpt of Federalist...

The Internal Slave Trade in the 19th Century

This lesson is designed for an AP Prep Class but could be modified to apply to a GT (gifted and talented) or an on-level class; though the latter will require manipulation of sources and/or use of more supportive reading instruction. The lesson covers the internal slave trade between the old eastern seaboard slave states and the rising slave states of the old southwest. It focuses on the economic and social history of the trade rather than the political implications.

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The War of 1812

Students will examine the causes of the war; read an overview about fighting the war, which includes an analysis of the Battles of New Orleans and Baltimore and their significance; and will analyze the war’s legacy and its effect on American...

Trees of Temperance

Students studying the growth and changes in American society from 1815-1850 will learn about the many reform movements that worked to improve American society. The background information on the many reform movements in most middle school textbooks is lacking in depth and does not show how the very nature of some reform movements raised serious constitutional issues. This lesson is designed to expand students understanding of the Temperance movement, and allow them to infer what constitutional issues might be in question as a result of the movement's goals. Students will analyze, compare, and contrast primary documents (photos) of the Tree of Temperance and In-temperance to better understand the views and attitudes of Americans in this...

Who Do We Hate And Why?

Chapter 14 of the MCPS 8th grade history textbook, Creating America, focuses on cultural societal changes in America during the era from 1820 to 1860. The section of the chapter identifies groups immigrants who settled in the United States. It describes both push and pull factors that led to our first huge wave of immigration. This lesson is designed to compliment this section of the textbook by introducing students to a brief history of immigration and the resulting consequences of hostility toward immigrants from some native born...

Why was there a Campaign for a National Thanksgiving Holiday during the Jacksonian Era?

This lesson will examine Sarah Josepha Buell Hale's contribution to the invention of Thanksgiving, in order to examine the social, moral and ethical virtues middle class Americans advanced during the Jacksonian era. The students will analyze primary sources to examine S.J.B.H., as a social reformer during the Second Great Awakening, contribution to the invention of Thanksgiving in order to critique social, moral, and ethical virtues middle class Americans advanced during the Jacksonian...