American History

Students will research a major battle of the Civil War and prepare a resource paper that outlines all aspects of the battle: the overall military objectives, the reasons for troop placement, the personalities and goals of the overall commanders on both s

The purpose of this activity is to better acquaint the student with the problems faced by Kansas settlers. Decisions made by our countries leaders have to be well thought out or they may come back to haunt us.

During the lesson students will learn how to analyze primary sources, search for and find bias, decide which sources are most reliable, and create a blog post with their findings. This lesson is about the Border War in Kansas and Missouri.

Students will have to research the Bleeding Kansas era as to events, people, and outcomes, giving them a better understanding as to the important of the era in American history.

Most students would rather read fiction. The idea is for them to use fiction to learn history; thus increasing their understanding of history, and increasing the amount of reading they do.

This is a technology based, two-day project that requires a direct instructional approach with a lecture and about a day and a half of using artifacts and primary sources to look at Missouri's involvement in the Civil War.

Students will examine primary sources, both written and visual aids, in class to evaluate and create an opinion on General Thomas Ewing's Order No. 11 and determine the overall purpose of the order and create an argument as to whether or not it was justified, fair, and successful.

This lesson will allow students to participate in history within the context of an ordinary person (Margaret Hays) and then create history with the student becoming the primary source for events they are witnessing. Hopefully, the lesson will help build a connection to the past and encourage more participation in civic policy and interest in current events.

The lesson will be an individual assignment that will lead into group discussion. The lesson will be based on the reading of two primary sources (John Brown Speech to the Court and the Kansas Emigrant Song by J.G. Whittier) and completing a written document analysis worksheet on both. 

For this lesson, the student will create a mock Facebook page for a historical figure from Missouri during the Civil War time period.