Noting that textbooks for grades 3 through 8 often exclude the War of 1812, the Smithsonian’s History Explorer website designed this lesson to teach students about the origins and outcomes of this pivotal event in American history. This lesson also provides students with historical context for understanding one of the most popular and enduring texts in American history: "The Star-Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key.

The strength of this lesson is that it provides a succinct, yet informative, narrative of the causes, course, and consequences of the War of 1812. This overview, which examines the origins of the national anthem, could be used as a basis for a lecture or directly given to students as a handout.

The discussion questions at the end of the narrative focus on the American and British motives for going to war and the importance of Washington, DC in the war. While these questions summarize important content, we recommend that teachers use the information from this lesson to help students analyze "The Star-Spangled Banner" as an historical text. For that purpose, the lesson contains several links to both background information and resources pertaining to both the anthem and the flag. (Note that this interactive feature also helps students understand the nature of historic preservation.)

This lesson provides such rich contextual information about the War of 1812 and about Francis Scott Key that we recommend modifying it and using it to inquire about the origins of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as it relates to the War of 1812.

This lesson provides an excellent opportunity to teach students how to analyze historical photographs. Focusing on one photograph of a piece of Civil War artillery (though making use of a variety of other images), the lesson guides students step by step in carefully analyzing various elements of the photograph. Different portions of the image are isolated, and students answer questions about details in that portion of the image. Some questions may be difficult for students, and even teachers, to answer on their own, but answers to the questions are provided. This portion of the process would be a great opportunity for teachers to encourage students to make educated guesses in response to the more difficult questions before checking their answers.

While the lesson focuses on one particular photograph, it includes a remarkably useful collection of Civil War photographs to provide context for the featured image. We especially like the encouragement given students to re-evaluate their conclusions about the first image after looking at subsequent pictures. Openness to new evidence and new conclusions is an attitude that is important for students of history to maintain.

In addition to being a great lesson for teaching close analysis, this lesson also provides an excellent link between a single source and a much larger theme. It bridges two important topics in American history—the Civil War and Industrialization. The lesson concludes with a class discussion surrounding a set of questions about how the process of industrialization influenced the way in which the Civil War was waged. So often in our classrooms, historical events and themes turn into discrete, isolated units; this lesson provides a valuable reminder that all of the periods and events we study are interconnected: students have the opportunity to see how industrialization influenced the process and outcome of the war, and perhaps even how the war in many ways drove industrialization.

This lesson provides a great opportunity for students to engage in real historical inquiry with prepared sources. The lesson is displayed in three locations on the site: the student view, which guides the student through the activity; the teacher view, which provides additional background information; and a PDF file that contains scripted instructions for the lesson.

Students first read a textbook passage about the Jamestown colony in 1609 and 1610. They then discuss how the writers of the textbook might have obtained their information, and go on to analyze primary source documents that expand upon the textbook account. Students essentially "do history" as they use a variety of sources to answer a clear, concise historical question—one that can be answered in multiple ways with the given data.

Another strength of this lesson is the document collection itself. A wide variety of primary sources offer greater insight into the reasons for the food shortage that resulted in the death of over 400 colonists in Jamestown during the winter of 1609–1610. Particularly helpful to teachers with struggling readers is the fact that the lesson includes not only the original documents, but also "modern" versions of the documents, written in language much more accessible to students.

While the detective log graphic organizer included in the lesson provides space for students to record source information, and the lesson itself provides a great exercise in sourcing, the documents themselves contain little source information. We recommend that teachers support students in using the available information about each document to understand its perspective and meaning. In general, the lesson provides good opportunities to engage in historical inquiry, to open up and go beyond the textbook, and to use primary sources to analyze the causes of an event.