Historical Context and Roleplaying

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Teaching with Role Playing
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This website's videos document the practice of a 5th-grade teacher in New York teaching a unit titled Colonial New York: Developing Perspectives through Historical Role Play. This 14-week, standards-based unit covers colonial America up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The site provides a rich cache of materials documenting the teaching of the unit, including the teacher's initial plan; video clips of classroom activities and teacher reflections; classroom handouts and historical sources; and student work.

The site provides examples of two promising practices:

  1. Establishing an understanding of historical time and place before engaging in roleplaying activities or simulations; and
  2. Continuing to build student understanding of historical context as students elaborate roles and take on perspectives.
Understanding Daily Life

The teacher begins the unit with activities designed to establish a "sense of time and place" and help students understand colonial "daily life." Students then create colonial characters. Notably, the teacher structures activities so students are transported back into the colonial world before they are asked to identify and elaborate their imagined roles and lives.

To accomplish this, she plans trips to local historical sites, uses primary sources, and uses questions to frame individual lessons such as: What did colonial New York look like? What jobs did people have in colonial New York? How did people get what they needed?

Analyzing Issues and Events

After students create a colonial character, they learn about important issues and events of the time period, including the impact of the French-Indian War on British colonial policies, the colonists' responses, and the road to revolution. Students learn how taxes work, look at mercantilist laws, hold tavern meetings, and read Patrick Henry's famous speech and the Declaration of Independence. Threaded throughout this instruction is a back-and-forth between what happened and how students in their colonial roles would have experienced and thought about these events.

What's New?

Many history teachers use roleplaying activities. What is less commonly done, however, is what we find here: structuring learning activities so students' roles are closely tied to the time and place within which they are imagined. This website uncovers not only the deep exploration of historical context necessary to make roleplaying more historically accurate, but also some ways for teachers to structure and plan those necessary activities.

On the website, there are additional promising features, including a focus on the way the teacher adjusts her initial curriculum plan in response to what she learns about students' understanding through both formal and informal assessments.

Teachers' Use of Primary Sources

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Copies of the Constitution on a classroom table. NHEC
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To what extent do history/social studies teachers use primary sources in their classrooms? What impact has the availability of Web-based primary sources had on their practice?

To find out, David Hicks and Peter Doolittle of Virginia Tech University and John K. Lee of Georgia State University surveyed 158 high school history teachers. Their study revealed that even though most teachers used primary sources, there was no consensus about how to use such documents. Is the purpose of using primary sources to reinforce what is taught in the textbook, or is it to teach historical thinking? Are Web-based primary sources the same as text-based ones? And finally, how can teachers be well prepared to use primary sources?

Historical Information vs. Historical Interpretation

It is well known that primary sources are important for teaching historical thinking skills. Many teachers find them useful for engaging students in such tasks as historical interpretation. More frequently, however, documents are used to enrich a textbook account or to help students focus on essential facts and concepts. This study sought ways that teachers could work together to devise new approaches to using primary sources, including teaching historical thinking.

. . . documents are used to enrich a textbook account or to help students focus on essential facts and concepts.
Text vs. the Web

Many of the teachers surveyed were unfamiliar with several well-developed and notable digital resource centers. Most teachers, for instance, were unaware of sites like the Library of Congress’s American Memory site, the digital National Security Archive, History Net, and the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder. In addition, most had never used videos or photographs available from internet resources, primarily because they were unsure how to find them. This highlights the need for better dissemination of information to help teachers locate useful (and usable) primary sources.

. . . most had never used videos or photographs available from internet resources, primarily because they were unsure how to find them.
Obstacles and Dilemmas

Most teachers said they needed no additional training on how to use or locate primary sources, or in understanding the unique aspects of Web-based sources. Still, many indicated a desire for assistance in helping students develop historical thinking skills, and some teachers didn't consider the Web to be an organized repository of primary sources. Based on these responses, the study authors wanted to know how administrators could support history/social studies teachers in terms of ongoing training and professional development. When it comes to using primary sources to teach historical thinking and locating primary sources on the web, what specific things might help teachers enhance their skills?

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Screenshot, American Experience Homepage, Wyatt Earp
In the Classroom
  • Explore a few excellent collections of primary sources like the Library of Congress's American Memory, Our Documents, the National Archives, Digital History, and PBS's American Experience.
  • As you browse through available sources (don't forget these include photographs!), try to think of a historical question which the documents can help students answer. Would the documents, for example, allow students to answer a question about why the American Revolution was fought, or what caused the Great Depression? Look for primary sources that demand close reading or analysis for understanding, illuminate facets of a historical context, or lead to more questions.
  • Use Teachinghistory.org resources to help you find and use primary sources effectively. Search Website Reviews by topic or time to find primary source collections. See Using Primary Sources, Teaching Guides and Lesson Plan Reviews for methods and ideas about how to use primary sources with your students.
Sample Application

In responding to a question on why teachers didn't use Web-based historical primary sources, the three most frequent answers were:

  • "No time to search the web for primary sources."
  • "Too many web sites to locate suitable primary sources."
  • "Inappropriate preparation to use primary sources."

While the first two call for more resources that can help teachers navigate web-based primary sources, the third answer indicates a need for more professional development using primary sources. Consequently, school leaders and administrators should seek professional growth activities which not only help history/social studies teachers use primary sources effectively, but focus particularly on using Web-based resources.

Bibliography

David Hicks, Peter Doolittle, and John K. Lee, "Social Studies Teachers' Use of Classroom-Based and Web-Based Historical Primary Sources," Theory and Research in Social Education 32, no. 2 (2004), 213-247.

Constitution Day 2012: Founding Documents Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 08/26/2012 - 22:46
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Photo, Three Signs, Oct. 15, 2006, M.V. Jantzen, Flickr
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No one would argue that the U.S. Constitution isn't a founding document. But what is a founding document? The Constitution outlined the shape of the U.S. government, and put in writing the basic rights of U.S. citizens. But what else has it done?

The U.S. Constitution has served as the foundation for many discussions about the U.S. and its principles. Whether people speak out for change or to maintain the status quo, they refer to the Constitution. Throughout U.S. history, writers, artists, and orators have used the text and ideas of the Constitution as the backbone of arguments.

Have your students review the U.S. Constitution and its context. What ideas inspired the Constitution? Explore the Library of Congress's exhibit Creating the United States to find primary sources related to the Constitution, many written by the Founding Fathers.

The exhibit also includes documents that followed the Constitution, from 1788 through the 1980s. From cartoons questioning the constitutionality of the New Deal to translated versions of the Constitution published in other countries, students can see many ways in which national (and international) conversations have used the Constitution as a starting point.

Discover more documents that preceded and descended from the Constitution with resources from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Our Documents presents a timeline of 100 milestone documents in U.S. history. Where is the Constitution in this lineup? How does the Constitution show the influence of earlier documents? How do later documents show the influence of the Constitution? What documents on this website do your students think most influenced U.S. history? (Here's what the U.S. public thought in 2004.)

Deepen your class's exploration further with primary sources, lesson plans, quizzes, and more from our Constitution Day spotlight page. Drawing on these materials, your students can uncover connections between the Constitution and the Civil Rights Movement, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the Watergate scandal, and much more. The Constitution didn't just help found the U.S. government—it founded debates that shape the country.

For more information

Historian John Buescher provides one definition of a "founding document" in Ask a Historian.

This year, the National Endowment for the Humanities connects the Emancipation Proclamation and the Constitution with free resources for teachers.

Check out Constitution Day resources we recommended in 2010. They're just as valuable today!

Teaching the Emancipation Proclamation on Constitution Day

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Print, The day of Jubelo, c. 1865, Edmund Birckhead Bensell, LoC
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Are you ready for September 17? The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is. This year, the NEH will celebrate Constitution Day by honoring the Constitution together with another pivotal document from U.S. history: the Emancipation Proclamation. With the Proclamation's 150th anniversary approaching, Constitution Day is the perfect time to compare and contrast the promises made in the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation.

From the NEH's Emancipation Resource Portal, you can access resources and learn more about planned events. Highlights include:

  • A live, streamed performance on Constitution Day. A panel of Civil War scholars will "recreate the national scene and the dilemmas facing Americans on Sept. 22, 1862." Students will be able to submit questions via Twitter or email. (Register your "watch party" here.)
  • A contest asking students to interpret a primary source from the Freedmen and Southern Society Project or Visualizing Emancipation. (The contest is limited to students 18 years of age or older, but consider adapting the contest concept for your own school or classroom.)
  • Related lesson plans from EDSITEment.
  • An interactive timeline of emancipation from 1850 to 1877.

For more on the Emancipation Proclamation, check out materials highlighted here on Teachinghistory.org. Watch 8th-grade teacher Jason Fitzgerald introduce his students to the Proclamation using letters from Civil War soldiers. (Download the letters here as you listen to historian Chandra Manning analyze their contents.)

Or join historian John Buescher in this Ask a Historian as he considers what makes a document a founding document. Is it a document that stands for part of what the U.S. represents? A document from the country's founding?

As your students prepare for Constitution Day, the NEH's theme gives you the perfect chance to ask, "In what ways are the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation both founding documents?" Analyzing them together gives students a unique opportunity to explore the changing definition of "We the People."

Deciphering Primary Source Documents

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Digital image, 2010, War Department Correspondence, CHNM
Question

I'm trying to teach my secondary students how to read documents from the 18th century (such as letters) and notice how bogged down they get because of the complexity and length of the sentences. What tools or advice could I give that would help them develop this skill?

Answer

Ah yes…your question captures a problem many history teachers face. First, let us congratulate you on engaging your students in the raw materials of the discipline and persisting even when the going proves difficult. Syntax can be a major stumbling block for students when reading older texts: we recommend scaffolding and careful preparation of the documents to help your students meet the challenge.

Careful Preparation of Documents
See our guide on adapting and modifying documents for ways to make difficult documents more accessible for students. Keeping those documents short, defining difficult vocabulary, and even simplifying syntax (while letting students know that you’ve done so) can help. See the Reading Like a Historian curriculum from the Stanford History Education Group for examples of carefully prepared 18th century documents. The Hamilton vs. Jefferson plan includes two 18th century letters that have been modified. Find our entry about this curriculum here.

One thing to remember is that students need to experience some success with reading difficult documents to want to persevere with them. Carefully prepared documents, especially at the beginning of the school year, can be critical to this.

Scaffolding
There are many ways to support students’ reading of difficult documents. Here are a few strategies.

Background knowledge about what students are reading can help them make sense of the text. Consider what they need to know about the times and the event before they read and then use a short lecture, a headnote, a textbook excerpt, or another method to help them gain that background knowledge. Going a step further, for a very difficult document you may want to give them a short summary (1-3 sentences) of what the author is talking about.

Modeling how you read the document can be helpful too. This allows students to see how you also struggle with the language and the strategies you use to make sense of it, like rereading, monitoring your understanding, and asking questions. See this entry for an introduction to Reading Apprenticeship, an approach that focuses on reading and thinking aloud together to help students become better readers. Also see historicalthinkingmatters.org for examples of “think-alouds” where students and historians are shown making sense of historical documents using specific historical reading strategies. (find one example here.)

Use difficult syntax from our own times (a song or poem) to help students recognize their task and specific strategies for pushing through to understanding.

Teaching some explicit strategies can also help. This guide has ideas for teaching students to annotate documents, something that can help them learn to monitor their own understanding and seek out help when needed. Also see work done at the Oakland Unified School District in California for examples of guiding students to figure out what an excerpt says before any analysis. See an example here: scroll down to the question, “Was the creation of the U.S. Constitution good for the people of the United States?” Then look at the assessment and support materials for that question and you will find, on page 4, one example of how they do this.

A short introductory activity where you focus on the difficulties of making sense of unfamiliar syntax can be helpful. Use difficult syntax from our own times (a song or poem) to help students recognize their task and specific strategies for pushing through to understanding.

More Resources
In our lesson plan reviews, find plans that can inspire ways to work with text that is difficult for students. See this one on the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution or this one on the Declaration of Independence. Both of these are for younger students, but both show the necessities of slowing down to read the documents and focusing on short pieces of text.

You may want to also check out this response that reiterates some of what I've said here.

And remember, it’s the beginning of the year. You will, hopefully, have these students for many lessons and helping them learn to slow down, monitor their reading, and strategize when they are stuck will happen with multiple and varied chances to practice these skills.

Constitution Day 2010

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Photo, recommended reading, March 18, 2008, neon.mamacita, Flickr
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Every September 17, Constitution Day calls on teachers to memorialize—and critically engage with—Constitutional history in the classroom. But what approach to the Constitution should you take? What quality teaching resources are available? How can you interest your students in a document that is more than 200 years old?

In 2008, Teachinghistory.org published a roundup of Constitution Day resources. Many of those resources remain available, but online Constitution Day content continues to grow. Check out the sites below for materials that recount the Constitutional Convention of 1787, compare the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution, explore U.S. Supreme Court cases that have interpreted the Constitution, and apply the Constitution to contemporary debates.

Online Resources

The Library of Congress's Constitution Day page collects the full text of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Amendments, as well as the Federalist Papers and the Articles of Confederation. Lesson plans for grades 6–12 accompany the documents. The page also includes short suggested reading lists for elementary, middle, and high school, and links to relevant Library of Congress American Memory collections, such as Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention and the papers of James Madison, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. Also check out the Library's collection of primary sources "Creating the United States."

You can find an elegant, simple presentation of the Constitution on the National Archives' Constitution Day page. Check out their high-resolution PDF of the original document, part of NARA's 100 Milestone Documents exhibit.

If the Constitution is proving a difficult read for your students, try the National Constitution Center's Interactive Constitution. Search the text by keyword or topic, and click on passages that are unclear to find explanatory notes from Linda R. Monk's The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution. The Constitution Center also offers its own Constitution Day page, with a short video on the creation of the Constitution, interactive activities, and quizzes.

If you're not already familiar with EDSITEment, created by the National Endowment for the Humanities, take a look through their extensive collection of lesson plans. A quick search reveals more than 90 lessons related to the Constitution.

Interested in bringing home to students the Constitution's importance today? The New York Times' Constitution Day page links current events to the Constitution in more than 40 lesson plans. The Times also invites students to submit answers to questions such as "Should School Newspapers Be Subject to Prior Review?" and "What Cause Would You Rally Others to Support?"

Can't find anything here that sparks your interest or suits your classroom? Many more organizations and websites offer Constitution Day resources, including the Bill of Rights Institute, the American Historical Association, Annenberg Media, and Consource. (Check out our Lesson Plan Reviews for a review of a lesson plan from Consource on the Preamble to the Constitution.)

Teaching Resources for Constitution Day Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 08/03/2008 - 08:43
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constitution thumbnail
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September 17, 1787, was a seminal day for America.

Earlier that year in May, spurred by inadequacies in the Articles of Confederation and the need for a strong centralized government, 55 delegates representing 12 states met in Philadelphia to "take in to consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union."

In secret proceedings, the delegates argued and debated throughout the summer about the duties, responsibilities, form, and distribution of power in the new government. Then, on September 17, 39 of the delegates signed a four-page document— a Constitution consisting of a Preamble and seven articles proposing the infrastructure of American government. Then the ratification process began.

Constitution and Citizenship Day, initiated in 2005 and observed on September 17, commemorates the event and mandates that each educational institution receiving Federal funds conduct an educational program on the Constitution on that day. Background papers, interactive lesson plans, and supporting materials abound for classroom use. We mention only a few below.

Department of Education

At the Department of Education, the Teaching American History Team at the Office of Innovation lists several essential resources from Federal institutions, including FREE, the Department of Education's own internet library highlighting 28 diverse teaching resources on the Constitution.

The Teaching American History team also annotates the varied resources of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) including high resolution scans of the original signed Constitution with transcripts and factual support.

From the National Constitution Center to to iTunes

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia describes its facilities as the only museum devoted to the U.S. Constitution and the story of We, the people. But for those too far away to visit, the museum offers extensive materials for educators, including the Interactive Constitution, enabling keyword and topical exploration of the Constitution as well as analysis of landmark Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Constitution.

Have you attended iTunes University? The National Constitution Center is among the organizations presenting free audio files related to all aspects of the document and its meaning. Listen online or download We the People Stories where experts present ideas on everything from today's relevance of the Constitution, to talks about George Washington, the relationship of the Constitution to the Olympics, and presidential elections— few topical stones are left unturned. (This series is also available via podcasts.)

Do you know which Article of the Constitution created Congress or what the powers of Congress actually are? In its Capitol Classroom, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society challenges visitors to take a quiz to test Constitutional knowledge. Tiered levels offer questions appropriate to 8–11-year-olds through the Constitutional Scholar level.

Among its many resources, the Bill of Rights Institute offers a variety of educational resources free of charge. Weekly eLessons provide 20-minute discussion guides for middle and high school history and government teachers. Educating the Next Generation, a blog, highlights classroom applications and current resources.

The Library of Congress provides a consolidated listing of resources for teachers, including primary sources, lesson plans, Stories for Kids from America's Library, and links to American Memory Collections.

Discussions, Multimedia, and Lesson Plans

The National Endowment for the Humanities educational site, EdSITEment, consolidates comprehensive resources for teaching about the Constitution, amendments, and the people who made it happen. From lesson plans (K–12) to webography, from biographies and bibliography to teaching with art in the classroom, EdSITEment's presentation of resources offers a wealth of materials to deepen our understanding and approaches to teaching about this document and its meaning.

EdSITEment's inclusion of materials for elementary and middle school students is particularly valuable. A few of those resources are highlighted:

The Preamble to the Constitution: How Do You Make a More Perfect Union? helps students, grades 3–5, understand the purpose of the Constitution and the values and principles explicated in the Preamble.

The Constitutional Convention: What the Founding Fathers Said, designed for 6–8th graders, looks at transcriptions of debates of the Founding Fathers to learn how differences were resolved.

The Constitutional Convention: Four Founding Fathers You May Never Have Met is designed for 6–8th graders and introduces lesser-known key players in the development of the Constitution.

A roundtable discussion published in Common-place, the interactive, online journal, includes eight paired essays in which historians, political scientists, journalists, and lawyers examined the uses and abuses of the Constitution in contemporary American political affairs. Jill Lepore, Jack Rakove, and Linda Kerber are among the discussants.

The Social Studies and History resources of Annenberg Media: Learner.org include the Emmy-Award-winning series The Constitution: That Delicate Balance . In this series of free, video-on-demand presentations designed for high school and above, key political, legal, and media professionals engage in spontaneous and heated debates on controversial issues such as campaign spending, the right to die, school prayer, and immigration reform. The resources emphasize the impact of the Constitution on history and current affairs. The Annenberg Newsletter highlights additional resources.

Landmark Supreme Court Cases provides teachers with a full range of resources and activities to support the teaching of the impact of cases such as Marbury vs Madison, Plessy vs Ferguson, and Brown vs. Board of Education. Background summaries of individual cases and questions for three different reading levels are graded from the highest to those appropriate for ESOL students. Resources include many case-specific short activities and in-depth lessons that can be completed with students.

The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution: A Dissection

Teaser

Explore the meaning behind "We the People" and other nuances of the U.S. Constitution in this lesson for grades 4–9.

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Glass negative, James Madison, President of the United States, 1913, LOC
Website
Consource: The Constitutional Sources Project
Description

NOTE: Unpublished because ConSource website moved and does not appear to feature this link. Contacted ConSource about this and did not hear back.

In this classroom-tested lesson, students use primary sources and a close reading of the Preamble to the Constitution to better understand its meaning and significance.

Article Body

In this lesson, students use primary sources related to the U.S. Constitution (specifically, Madison’s notes on the convention) to better understand the Preamble to the Constitution. This provides a great opportunity to teach an important element of historical thinking—the use of multiple sources to better understand the significance and meaning of one source. This is also an important part of contextualizing documents, or understanding how they relate to events and conditions at the time they were written.

The lesson guides students through the process of closely reading an important historical text. The steps in the lesson are clear and easy to follow, and breaking the Preamble down one clause at a time gives students a great opportunity to understand the purpose of one of the most important documents in the history of the United States, in addition to helping them learn how to read a text closely and carefully. Additionally, the "check for understanding" questions after each clause give teachers multiple opportunities for evaluating students' comprehension and modifying instruction. Depending on students' levels of understanding, teachers may want to supplement the provided questions with more probing questions of their own.

Topic
U.S. Constitution, Preamble, primary sources
Time Estimate
One classroom session
flexibility_scale
5
digital image, We the People, 2010, NARA, The Charter of Freedom online exhibit
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes
The lesson contains a link to one source that provides context, but elsewhere on the site there exists a wealth of documents providing context for the Preamble to the Constitution.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes
The lesson is centered on a close reading of the Preamble to the Constitution. In addition, teachers may use the "check for understanding" questions provided throughout the lesson as writing prompts.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes
While the explanations of each clause will facilitate understanding of the Preamble, teachers will want to develop ways to scaffold the other documents to make them more accessible to students.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

Yes
While no assessment is included in the lesson, teachers could easily develop an assessment using the "check for understanding" questions.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes

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Colonial Williamsburg's Electronic Field Trip: Gift to the Nation

Description

Logo, Gift to the Nation, Colonial Williamsburg

From September 6–30, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation will offer complimentary access to the first in its annual series of electronic field trips, A More Perfect Union, aimed at grades 4–8. Streaming video draws students in to the conflict and compromises that accompanied the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. In addition to the video, Colonial Williamsburg is also offering a teacher guide and student Web activities, including the opportunity to email Benjamin Franklin, free of charge to any school, home school family, or individual interested in learning more about the story of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

To learn more about the program:

  • Watch a sample from the first of three eight-minute acts.
  • Review an outline of the program's content and learning objectives.
  • Try "Crisis in the Confederation." This interactive introduces students to the problems Congress faced about the Articles of Confederation.

Check the logo to register for complimentary access, courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg! Please note that you may register now, but you will only be able to access the site after Sept. 6.

Resources for Units on Early American Government

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Print, Louis XVI, King of France, New York Public Library
Question

As a student teacher, I am planning a unit on a textbook chapter that focuses on the origins of American government (MacGruder’s American Government, Prentice Hall) for a 12th-grade honors class. The chapter is divided into sections that cover such topics as historical documents and types of governments within colonial America, the causes of Independence, the Declaration of Independence, a student's look at the critical period, the Articles of Confederation, and the creation and ratification of the Constitution.

I need to plan a 1.5-2 week unit that assigns students to read the textbook at home, and prepare an interactive and project-based classroom activity that unites the ideas of this unit. Any suggestions?

Answer

There are lots of great resources on the Web for planning a unit on the origins of American government. A good place to start is the National Archives website, which has some excellent resources for teachers. For your purposes, the Teaching with Documents: Images of the American Revolution page is most relevant, while the American Revolution section gives background information, primary documents, teaching activities, and worksheets.

Another good resource for teachers is EDSITEment, a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Their Voices of the American Revolution page gathers resources from a wide variety of websites and includes different activities for the classroom. The Colonial Broadsides and the American Revolution page, though designed for middle school teachers, has resources that could be adapted for older students.

Also consider the colleges and universities that have participated in the Teaching American History program. Many of these schools have web pages where participants post materials and lesson plans. Fitchburg State College, for instance, offers teacher-created plans on the American Revolution that you can browse.

The National Park Service provides great resources for history and social studies teachers. Their Teacher’s Guide to the American Revolution includes five separate lessons as well as primary source documents. Though sometimes lengthy, these units are packed with interesting details and materials.

A peerless source of classroom materials is the Public Broadcasting System. Among PBS web pages that focus on the American Revolution is Rediscovering George Washington, which includes a unit on Washington as military leader during the war for independence. Another excellent site is Africans in America, which comes with a teacher’s guide, complete with lessons, questions, activities, and resources.

Though it doesn't feature lesson plans, TeacherServe, a project of the National Humanities Center, can guide you to useful resources that focus on the Revolution and the Colonial era. Their section on religion, Divining America: Religion in American History, contains essays that offer different perspectives on the importance of religion during the period.

This is a mere sampling of what's out there on the origins of our democracy. Good luck with your unit planning!

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