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Lesson Plans

Discovery Era Lesson Plans


Native American culture and life

Many Tribes

Other Worlds: The travels of Columbus

Traditions and Languages of Three Native Cultures: Tlingit, Lakota, & Cherokee

What Was Columbus Thinking?



Colonial Era Lesson Plans


American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins

Colonizing the Bay

Early Multi-National Influences in the United States

Jamestown Changes

Mapping Colonial New England: Looking at the Landscape of New England

Voices of the American Revolution

The American War for Independence

Religion in 18th Century America

William Penn’s Peaceable Kingdom


Founding Era Lesson Plans





Background on the Patriot Attitude Toward the Monarchy

Before and Beyond the Constitution

Benjamin Franklin’s Many “Hats”

The Constitutional Convention of 1787

The Constitutional Convention: Four Founding Fathers You May Never Have Met

The Constitutional Convention: What the Founding Fathers Said

The Federalist and Anti-federalist Debates on Diversity and the Extended Republic

The Federalist Debates: Balancing Power Between State and Federal Governments

The First American Party System: Events, Issues, and Positions

James Madison: From Father of the Constitution to President

Jefferson vs. Franklin: Revolutionary Philosophers

The Preamble to the Constitution: How Do You Make a More Perfect Union?

Sue Leeson’s lesson plan on the Constitutional Convention:

Lesson Plan A (66) Lesson Plan B (52) Lesson Plan C (43) Constitutional Convention Presentation (55)


Expansion Era Lesson Plans




On This Day With Lewis and Clark

On the Oregon Trail

Go West: Imagining the Oregon Trail

If You Were a Pioneer on the Oregon Trail

Life on the Great Plains


Civil War and Reconstruction Era Lesson Plans




Abraham Lincoln on the American Union: “A Word Fitly Spoken”

African-American Communities in the North Before the Civil War

The Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom’s First Steps

Images at War

Life in the North and South 1847-1861: Before Brother Fought Brother

Lincoln Goes to War

Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address: We Must Not Be Enemies

The American Civil War: A “Terrible Swift Sword”

The Battle Over Reconstruction



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Participate in the New Grant

The High Desert ESD is accepting applications for teachers who want to participate in Cohort 1 (elementary school teachers) beginning Fall 2009. Get information and the application documents here

Find out more

The Teaching American History Grant is a wonderful opportunity for teachers to enrich their understanding of American history and increase their abilities to teach it. Find out more about the grant here.