| Facing History and Ourselves

Activity

Students are introduced to the themes of the compelling question by responding to a quote from James Baldwin that sparks their thinking about the complexities and contradictions within US history.

Photo of student listening to student-led teaching session

Activity

Students explore the supporting question "What does the Declaration of Independence state about the nation’s founding ideals?"

United States Declaration of Independence

Activity

Students explore the supporting question "What contradictions existed between the ideals and the reality of the founding of the United States?"

Photo shows a group of African American slaves posed around a horse-drawn cart, with a building in the background, at the Cassina Point plantation of James Hopkinson on Edisto Island, South Carolina.

Guide

In this classroom video, students create identity charts for different civil rights activists.

Reading

Reflect on how individuals, communities, and nations decide who has rights that are worthy of respect and protection with this introduction to the concept of the "universe of obligation."

Integrated classroom listening to lecture.

Assessment

Students culminate their arc of inquiry into the US founding by completing a C3-aligned Summative Performance Task and Taking Informed Action.

Reading

Reflect on the choices and actions of two Germans who had to decide whether or not to pledge an oath of loyalty to Hitler (Spanish available).

Reading

Learn about the concessions that the Treaty of Versailles required from Germany after its defeat in World War I (Spanish available).

Map showing empires in existence pre-WWI in 1914.

Reading

Gain insight into the death and destruction of World War I with firsthand accounts from former soldiers.

Reading

Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie challenges us to consider the power of stories to influence identity, shape stereotypes, and build paths to empathy (Spanish available).

Video

This clip from the documentary "The Vote" explores how the Fifteenth Amendment created conflict within the women’s suffrage movement.

Reading

Gain insight into the death and destruction of World War I with firsthand accounts from former soldiers.

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Educator Competency

Staging the Compelling Question

Supporting Question 1: The Nation’s Founding Ideals

Supporting Question 2: Founding Ideals Versus Realities

Identity Charts for Historical Figures

Universe of Obligation

Summative Performance Task & Taking Informed Action

Do You Take the Oath? (Abridged)

Negotiating Peace (Abridged)

The Brutal Realities of World War I (Abridged)

Reading: The Danger of a Single Story (Abridged)

The Racial Divide in the Women’s Suffrage Movement

The Brutal Realities of World War I