Supreme Court Historical Society

Image
Annotation

This site is designed to preserve and disseminate the history of the Supreme Court, from its first session in 1789 to the present. The main section presents the history of the Court, including a detailed timeline with biographical sketches of the chief and associate justices and the history of major decisions during the tenure of each Chief Justice. "How the Court Works" includes 17 short essays (150-700 words each) on the term of the justices, the types of cases they hear, and the role of the Chief Justice. In this section, users will find the text of opinions from 411 cases (130 from the Warren Court, 160 from the Burger Court, and 121 from the first seven years of the Rehnquist Court) heard by the Supreme Court between 1955 and 1993. There are also recordings of 10 sample cases, including Roe v. Wade. "Publications" features four articles, Historical Society yearbooks from 1976 to 1990, and six digitized volumes that include the memoirs of Henry Billings Brown. For students and instructors, the "Learning Center" is an excellent resource. It presents three cases for and about students and four landmark cases that illustrate the development of the Court's gender discrimination doctrine. There are also activities and lesson plans on key Supreme Court cases, for example Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. The site provides several quizzes, along with a multimedia presentation about President Franklin Roosevelt and the 1937 Supreme Court controversy. This material will be useful to anyone interested in studying the Supreme Court, the court's history, and various justices.

Landmark Supreme Court Cases

Image
Annotation

This teaching site was developed "to support the teaching of landmark Supreme Court cases, helping students explore the key issues of each case." The site features 17 pivotal Supreme Court cases, including Marbury v. Madison (1803), McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), Korematsu v. United States (1944), Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Miranda v. Arizona (1966), and Roe v. Wade (1973). Each case offers a "resources" section featuring such material as teaching recommendations, background summaries, a link to the full-text majority opinion, and excerpts from the majority and dissenting opinions. An "activities" section contains short activities and in-depth lessons. The site also includes instructions for general teaching strategies, including moot court, political cartoon analysis, and website evaluation. The site also offers material on key concepts of constitutional law including federalism, separation of powers and checks and balances, equal protection of the laws, judicial review, due process, the commerce clause, and the necessary and proper clause. An excellent resource for teaching the legal history of these important Supreme Court cases and the issues surrounding them.

Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems

Teaser

Learn about the experiences of immigrants detained at Angel Island and how this impacted their opinion of the US.

lesson_image
Description

Students explore the immigrant experience at Angel Island through the analysis of poetry written by immigrants during detention at the San Francisco Bay island.

Article Body

Many U.S. history classrooms devote significant time to understanding the immigrant experience. In teaching the immigrant experience, however, many classrooms focus exclusively on European immigration through Ellis Island. This lesson, The Story Behind the Poems, provides students with an excellent opportunity to learn about Asian immigration through Angel Island, and the ways in which the Asian immigrant experience differed from the European immigrant experience. The topics covered in this lesson would be an excellent addition to a unit on immigration, and would couple nicely with lessons on Chinese Exclusion and nativism in the West. The lesson first provides students with excellent historical background through an on-line video about Angel Island. The lesson then positions students to better understand the Asian immigrant experience through an analysis of poetry left by Asian immigrants on the cell walls of Angel Island. The poetry analysis allows students to connect with the words of the immigrants and hone the skill of analyzing the perspective of an author in a literary piece from the past. The lesson is highly structured and provides plenty of guidance for teachers who are not experienced in using poems as primary historical documents. The lesson includes sample questions to pose with students while analyzing the poems and also provides students with a graphic organizer to help them organize their thoughts as they prepare to write a reflection on a poem.

Topic
Immigration; Asian American history; western settlement
Time Estimate
1-2 50-minute periods
flexibility_scale
4
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes The background and resources are historically accurate and contain links to supplementary materials.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes A high-quality video introduces students to the immigrant experience at Angel Island and is also a great resource for teachers who are teaching about Angel Island for the first time. Comparative immigration timelines are also excellent resources.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes Students interpret poems and write a reflection on the meaning of the poem and the perspective of the author.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes The poetry analysis requires close attention to meaning and intent.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes This lesson is appropriate for the students in late elementary to early middle school.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes Materials include teacher guidelines for helping students analyze the poems and a graphic organizer to help students organize and focus their thoughts about the poems.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No Students are assessed based on in-class discussion and a written reflection about the poems. However, the lesson does not provide specific criteria for assessing performance on the reflection.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes The lesson-plan is clear and can be easily adapted to a wide variety of classroom settings.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes The lesson aims to 1) teach about the Angel Island experience, and 2) provide opportunities to analyze and interpret poetry. The lesson progresses logically to these goals.

Civilian Conservation Corps

Teaser

Examine the role of African Americans in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

lesson_image
Description

Students engage in a sophisticated exploration of the African American experience with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression.

Article Body

The strength of this 2–4 day lesson is that it presents students with primary source documents representing multiple perspectives. These documents can help build students' understanding of the issues surrounding African American employment in the CCC. The documents also provide an excellent platform for students to explore the sticky political and civil rights issues facing the Roosevelt administration as it attempted to hold together a precarious political coalition that included both large numbers of African Americans and conservative Southern Democrats opposed to civil rights reforms. The lesson is comprised of four activities. Each activity is well structured and provides detailed procedures for classroom teachers. Teachers will use class discussions to assess student learning. The lesson closes with a solid writing prompt that encourages students to use documentary evidence to construct a historical argument. The lesson plan does not, however, provide resources for teachers to help students construct a high-quality historical essay. We suspect that teachers may need to provide guidance and assistance for writing the essay beyond that which is described in the lesson.

Topic
Civilian Conservation Corps; New Deal, Civil Rights
Time Estimate
2-4 Days
flexibility_scale
4
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes Historical background is detailed and accurate. Most documents are from the American Memory collection of the Library of Congress.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes Lesson includes a brief overview for students.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes Lesson centers on reading and interpreting documents. It ends with a writing assignment that requires students to use textual evidence to support their answers.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes Students use evidence from primary documents to build understanding of the African American Experience in the CCC and its political and social ramifications.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes Guiding questions require close reading of both source and perspective.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes Appropriate for 9–12 U.S. history classrooms. Could be adapted for higher-level middle school classrooms.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes Activities 1, 2, and 3 include excellent guided questions for use in class discussion or small group exploration. Activity 3 provides strategies to help students analyze a primary document.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No Assessment is conducted primarily through class discussion. However, a final essay question encourages students to use historical evidence. No evaluation criteria are included.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes Activities are clear and explicit. Of course, teachers may need to adapt the lesson to meet student needs. Lesson presents teachers with the option to use electronic tools to help manage documents and student work if they set up a free user account.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes The four activities are well structured and the activities progress logically.

Reading and Thinking Aloud to Understand

Image
Article Body

This 11th-grade honors U.S. history class, using Reading Apprenticeship techniques developed by WestEd, shows students engaged in the process of reading primary source documents as a means of better understanding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The students in this video are in an honors classroom. The class is in an ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse school in a high immigrant, rural community. This video provides examples of two promising practices:

  • Putting students in pairs to conduct "read aloud/think aloud" work
  • Providing students with strategic vocabulary for reading primary sources
Content

Students in this lesson are in the middle of a week-long unit on Japanese American internment. Focusing on the question of the constitutionality of relocating and interning these citizens, students read several primary source documents, including the Constitution and opinions from Korematsu vs. the United States, a 1944 Supreme Court case challenging the internment.

Read Aloud/Think Aloud

Students work together in pairs to summarize excerpts from the Constitution relevant to the internment. They take turns reading aloud to each other and talk through the process of reading. As they do, they verbalize their reading and thinking processes, defining terms, connecting the text to prior knowledge, analyzing the meaning of the text, and asking questions about difficult passages as they go.

Strategic Vocabulary

Before, during, and after her students read, the instructor signals key terms that need definition (e.g., ex post fact, bill of attainder, vested). While the read aloud/think aloud strategy helps students make sense of difficult texts, they still need assistance with advanced language and sophisticated concepts. By identifying and defining key terms for students, the instructor helps them decode the documents.

What's Notable?

Many teachers ask students to read primary source documents. But students often struggle with complex language and difficult concepts, often missing the connection with the material they are studying. What makes this class unique is the way the instructor structures the class in order to support student reading.

Civil Rights and Incarceration

Teaser

What were the consequences of and motivations for Japanese American removal during World War II?

lesson_image
Description

Students analyze the consequences of the removal of Japanese Americans in the western United States to relocation centers during World War II.

Article Body

In this lesson students view and take notes on a 10-minute newsreel describing the evacuation and relocation of Japanese Americans from western states during World War II. Students analyze the movie using a handout. Questions focus students' attention on analyzing the government's case for the necessity of the incarceration. This newsreel activity and a set of introductory readings, pictures, and interviews make up the recommended core of the lesson. Most of the remaining eight activities, by contrast, illustrate the Japanese American perspective on the incarceration. Each activity is organized around a different type of primary source, including photographs, diaries, autobiographies, poetry, and theater. Classroom activities range from analyzing textual and visual sources to performing scripted dramatic readings. Some activities include potentially challenging reading material, but teachers can tailor the lesson to the needs of their students by choosing from the many options available. We think that teachers will appreciate the diversity, high quality, clear presentation, and emotional resonance of the materials provided by this lesson.

Topic
Japanese American Internment; World War II; Civil Rights
Time Estimate
1-6 class sessions (or longer)
flexibility_scale
5
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes Materials used in the lesson have been well researched. Content and materials on the Densho site are very thorough. Check out other resources and causes of incarceration.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes Students are required to study an introductory section, The Incarceration Years, before beginning film analysis.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes Newsreel activity requires students write a film review. Optional activities may include reading primary sources and offer additional writing assignments.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes Constructing interpretations and evidence-based judgments about the incarceration is central to most of the activities.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes Each activity is organized around a different type of source. Much of the lesson encourages students to think critically about what can be learned from different source materials.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes The basic newsreel and introductory activities would be appropriate for any high school class. Other activities range in difficulty, including some that would challenge Advanced Placement history students.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes A variety of worksheets and suggested discussion questions are provided to scaffold student thinking.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No Not all activities include assessment strategies.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes The lesson provides clear directions. Detailed advice on how to use the lesson in any classroom is provided on the site.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes Learning objectives are explicitly stated.

American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936

Image
Annotation

These approximately 4,500 photographs document natural environments, ecologies, and plant communities in the United States at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Produced by American botanists between 1891 and 1936, the photos describe various ecosystems and landforms across the United States. Users can search for specific plants and some animals as well as for landforms, natural events, and weather patterns.

The collection is a bit odd in that it mixes genres and types. Clicking on the region "Pennsylvania" produces eight images, ranging from pictures of dogwoods to a photo of tree rings to three pictures of the Pittsburgh flood. A timeline and an essay on "Ecology and the American Environment" provide valuable background information as well as a bibliography. These materials are useful as record of early environmental thinking as well as a document of vanished landscapes.

Profiles in Science

Image
Annotation

These documents, exhibits, photographs, and essays tell the history of 26 prominent 20th-century scientists, physicians, and experts in biomedical research and public health. The site is divided thematically into "Biomedical Research," "Health and Medicine," and "Fostering Science and Health." The collections include published and unpublished items, such as books, journals, pamphlets, diaries, letters, manuscripts, photographs, audiotapes, video clips, and other materials. Each exhibit includes introductory narratives and biographies of each scientist and a selection of noteworthy documents. The collections are particularly strong in cellular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, with attention to health and medical research policy, application of computers in medicine, science education, and the history of modern science.

The History of Social Security

Image
Annotation

The Social Security program and the institutional history of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and its contribution to the welfare of the American public are presented on this site. It contains a vast collection of oral histories, audio recordings, and primary documents of the SSA. The audio and video clip section includes radio debates on the merits of the Social Security program taped during 1935, Lyndon B. Johnson's remarks on the passage of the Medicare bill in 1965, and Ronald Reagan's remarks at the signing of the Social Security Amendments of 1983. Also available are Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon's recorded telephone conversations that reference Social Security and Medicare. Another notable feature is the 37 oral history interviews conducted by SSA in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Additional oral history collections are featured, providing information about the 1977 creation of Health Care Financing Administration and policy issues involving the Medicare and Social Security programs.

Time Archive, 1923 to Present

Image
Annotation

Time magazine published its first edition on March 23, 1923. This website features all 4,428 Time magazine covers published since that time. Covers can be searched by keyword or browsed by year.

Exploring Time covers from the early years shows that individuals (generally men in political leadership positions) were featured up until the late 1960s. Indeed, House of Representatives Speaker Joseph G. Cannon occupies Time's first cover, China's General Chiang Kai-shek appears several times between the late 1920s and 1940s, African leaders surface at decolonization in the late 1950s, and Ralph Nader can be found trumpeting the "consumer revolt" on a cover from December 1969.

Those interested in U.S. foreign policy (search China, Russia, Vietnam, or Latin America), popular culture and entertainment, the environment, religion, and legal history also will find valuable resources. Within each keyword search, suggestions for related topics are helpful.