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Teaching Resources

Welcome to the Emerging America resource library. Browse our ever-growing collection of primary source sets, lesson plans, classroom assessments, and more, developed by teachers and edited for quality and consistency. Use the controls in the blue box to search and filter by Type, Subject, Time Period, and Grade Level. NOTE: Use the website search engine (above) to find resources–such as apps and curriculum from other organizations–that appear only in the blog.
Newspaper advertisement from 1767 with woodcut of sailing ship advertising goods for sale

Explore primary sources to learn about daily life in Colonial Massachusetts.

Students will practice with posing questions about primary source documents and then analyzing the resources to learn more about life in Colonial Massachusetts. Students will summarize their learning in the final lesson.

What was everyday life like for people who lived near the ocean in Massachusetts…

Parchment-colored printing of the first ten amendments of the US Constitution with ornamental printing.

Explore the First Amendment free speech rights
of students...through analysis of Supreme Court decisions.

Students will practice summarizing interpretations of Freedoms of Speech under
the First Amendment.

Should schools be able to limit student speech?

In this sequence of lessons, students will explore the first amendment free speech rights of students…

Men in suits, some wearing a minister's clerical collar, carry picket signs reading "Segregation is Morally Wrong" in front of a Woolworths store.

Explore primary sources connected to the Civil Rights movement.

The English Learner Collaborations project of the Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies commissioned the development of lessons to illustrate applying English Language Development (ELD) teacher resources to History and Social Studies content.

By the end of the sequence of lessons linked…

A streetcar with a masked conductor welcoming two passengers in hats and overcoats, one also wearing a mask.

This teaching resource is a blog post that receives periodic updates. Its introduction reads, in part: 

On this page, we feature resources for teachers of History, Social Studies, and Civics who are designing curriculum in the context of the pandemic, both for students who may be learning from home, and for students navigating a changing environment no…

Front page of Black Panther Party newspaper with headlines about 504 protests

This lesson has a sharable ready-made album of primary sources with an introduction essay by the author!

Using primary and secondary sources about protests by members of the Disability Rights Movement, students identify strategic actions taken by activists and evaluate them as to the…