Slavery was abolished in the United States, on this day, in 1865

Slavery in the United States was a form of unfree labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 18 1865.

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Abolishing Slavery in America
Subject: US History
Objectives: Students will:
- Learn what happened aboard the slave vessels Zong and Amistad.
- Consider what each incident reveals about views of slavery in Great Britain and the United States.
Concepts / Vocabulary: John Quincy Adams, Amistad, Cinque, Luke Collingwood, slavery
Grade Level: 9-12
Materials: Abolishing Slavery in America program, computers with access to the Internet.
Time Needed: Three 50-minute class periods
Provided by: Discovery Education
Link: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/abolishingSlavery/

 

The United States Bill of Rights came into effect, on this day, 219 years ago

The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. They were introduced by James Madison to the First United States Congress in 1789 as a series of legislative articles, and came into effect as Constitutional Amendments on December 15, 1791, through the process of ratification by three-fourths of the States.

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Bill of Rights
Subject: Government / US History
Objectives: Students will:
- identify freedoms afforded by the Bill of Rights.
- explain how the government protects individual rights.
- analyze the importance of freedom of the press.
Concepts / Vocabulary: Bill of Rights, amendments, freedom, civics, government
Grade Level: 9-12
Materials: computers with access to the Internet.
Handouts: Worksheet
Time Needed: Two 50-minute class periods
Provided by: Education World (Author: Adam Burkett, a student at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.)
Year: 2004
Link: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tsl/archives/04-1/lesson012.shtml

 

John Lennon, best known as one of the founding members of The Beatles, was fatally shot 30 years ago

John Lennon (1940 – 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Along with fellow Beatle Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved as a teenager in the skiffle craze; his first band, The Quarrymen, evolved into The Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as Give Peace a Chance and Imagine. He moved to New York City in 1971, where his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon's administration to deport him, while his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement.

Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to his family, but re-emerged in 1980 with a new album, Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release, on 8 December 1980.

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: John Lennon’s Imagine and the Vietnam War
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will:
- understand to what extent the song Imagine is about the Vietnam War and how strongly John Lennon was opposed to it.
- communicate about Imagine in English.
- enrich English language vocabulary.
Concepts / Vocabulary: Vietnam War
Grade Level: 10-12
Subject: ESL / English / Language Arts
Materials: John Lennon's - Imagine, computers with access to the Internet.
Time Needed: Two 50-minute class periods
Provided by: Nelly Thomas
Link: http://nellythomas.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/an-example-of-a-lesson-plan.pdf

 

Mark Twain, best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, was born 175 years ago

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 – 1910) known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Twain was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Twain was popular, and his wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers. Upon his death he was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Mark Twain and the American West
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will:
- understand the distinctively American voice of Mark Twain;
- see how Twain's writing was molded by his adventures in the American West and how his work has since shaped our perceptions of the West;
- understand the rapid Westward expansion of America in the 19th century.
Grade Level: 8-12
Subject: Language Arts / History
Materials: Copies of Mark Twain's Roughing It, computers with access to the Internet.
Time Needed: Up to three class periods
Provided by: PBS (Author: Joan Brodsky Schur, Village Community School in New York City)
Link: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/lesson_plans/lesson02.htm

 

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species Was Published 151 Years Ago

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) was an English naturalist who established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The scientific community and much of the general public came to accept evolution as a fact in his lifetime, but it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed that natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin's theory is simply stated in the introduction of his book: "As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form."

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Evolution
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will understand that:
- Darwin's theory of evolution (1859) has been accepted but also debated.
- Many scientists—botanist, zoologists, geologists, geneticists—have contributed to the study of evolution.
Concepts / Vocabulary: naturalist, evolution, natural selection, heredity, artificial selection, mutate, sociobiology, genetic code, eugenics.
Grade Level: 9-12
Subject: Biology / Animals
Materials: Reference materials about the history of evolution, computers with access to the Internet; roll paper, rulers, index cards.
Time Needed: Two class periods
Provided by: Discovery Education (Author: Lisa Lyle Wu, science teacher, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia.)
Link: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/greatbooks-originofspecies/

 

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species Was Published 151 Years Ago

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) was an English naturalist who established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The scientific community and much of the general public came to accept evolution as a fact in his lifetime, but it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed that natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin's theory is simply stated in the introduction of his book: "As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form."

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Evolution
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will understand that:
- Darwin's theory of evolution (1859) has been accepted but also debated.
- Many scientists—botanist, zoologists, geologists, geneticists—have contributed to the study of evolution.
Concepts / Vocabulary: naturalist, evolution, natural selection, heredity, artificial selection, mutate, sociobiology, genetic code, eugenics.
Grade Level: 9-12
Subject: Biology / Animals
Materials: Reference materials about the history of evolution, computers with access to the Internet; roll paper, rulers, index cards.
Time Needed: Two class periods
Provided by: Discovery Education (Author: Lisa Lyle Wu, science teacher, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia.)
Link: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/greatbooks-originofspecies/

 

The U.S. Congress Held Its First Session in Washington, D.C., 210 Years Ago

A few milestones:

First Continental Congress - September 5, 1774
Second Continental Congress - May 10, 1775
Articles of Confederation - March, 1781
Constitutional Convention - May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia
U.S. Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C. - November 17, 1800

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Congressional Committees and the Legislative Process
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will:
- understand the legislative process of the United States Congress;
- examine the role that Congressional committees play in legislative process.
Concepts / Vocabulary: Standing Committee, Select Committee, Joint Committee, Conference Committee, written comment, hearing, markup, report.
Grade Level: 10-12
Subject: U.S. History - Civics and U.S. Government
Time Needed: Two to three class periods
Provided by: EDSITEment
Year: 2002
Link: http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=284