Resource Library
Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students.
We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.
Introducing Our US History Curriculum Collection
Draw from this flexible curriculum collection as you plan any middle or high school US history course. Featuring units, C3-style inquiries, and case studies, the collection will help you explore themes of democracy and freedom with your students throughout the year.
Exploring the Concept of Identity (Adapted Version)
Adapted for English Learners and readers who benefit from scaffolding, this informational text introduces students to the relationship between social identity and personal identity. It includes simplified text, definitions, and reflection questions with sentence stems.
AJ from Washington, DC
In this personal narrative, a young adult shares their story, including their experience with gender identity and sexual orientation.
Lauren from Providence, RI
In this personal narrative, a young adult reflects on the assumptions made about her as the daughter of a Chinese parent and her experience living with cerebral palsy.
My Dell Hid My Privilege and My Mac Hid My Financial Need
In this personal narrative, a young adult reflects on their experience reckoning with social class and privilege while attending boarding school.
Historical Background: The Indian Act and the Indian Residential Schools
Go deeper into the history of the Indian Act and the founding of the Residential Schools system.
Introduction: Stolen Lives
Read a foreword by Theodore Fontaine and other introductory material that will help you begin exploring this book.
Dispossession, Destruction, and the Reserves
Reserves existed in Africa, in the British American colonies, and in Canada, where the colonizers had to address the people they dispossessed— people who seemingly stood in the way of the political and economic plans of European settlers.
Defining the Indian
Two main pieces of legislation laid the foundation for what was to be the new Dominion’s policy regarding relations with First Nations: the Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869.
Banning Indigenous Culture
The ultimate goal of the Indian Act has always been the assimilation of the Indigenous Peoples as separate nations into mainstream Canada.
Traditional Education
The idea that Western culture was superior and that the Indigenous Peoples needed to be Christianized and civilized came from the biases of Europeans and their unwillingness to appreciate the complex, largely unwritten teaching processes inside indigenous communities.
Aggressive Assimilation
The key to this policy was a system of industrial schools where religious instruction and skills training would help the Native Americans catch up with the demands of Western society.