Students learn about and discuss the history of apartheid in South Africa, the long struggle against it, and Nelson Mandela's legacy as a leader in that struggle.

The New Deal and World War II unit features lessons ranging from Social Security to the dropping of the atomic bomb. It includes a Structured Academic Controversy examining whether the New Deal was a success, and an Inquiry into Japanese-Americans internment during the war. In the Social Security lesson plan, students evaluate historical claims and examine primary documents from the period. Students explore causes of the Zoot Suit Riots in California, and take part in a structured role-play where groups are asked to choose an image that commemorates the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

These lessons focus on events surrounding the Cold War. The first is an inquiry into its causes, comparing Soviet and American perspectives. Opening Up the Textbook lessons ask students to question textbook accounts of the CIA's covert operations in Guatemala, and compare how North and South Korean textbooks cover the Korean War. Students analyze declassified government documents about the Cuban Missile Crisis, and try to determine whether the U.S. intended to escalate military operations in Vietnam before the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. In the lesson on Truman and MacArthur, students gauge public response to MacArthur's dismissal by analyzing memos and letters sent to President Truman.

In this unit, students explore social, cultural, and political events that helped define America in the decades following the Second World War. The lesson on the Civil Rights movement revolves around the question: Why did the Montgomery Bus Boycott succeed? In another, students compare speeches by JFK and John Lewis regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the Women in the 1950s lesson plan, students use secondary sources and popular images to explore whether "the happy housewife" was reality or perception. Finally, students will encounter opposing views on whether the Great Society was successful, and what led many Americans came to oppose the Vietnam War.

The Reading Like a Historian curriculum turns students into historical investigators. Students may find this change jarring after a steady diet of reading a textbook and answering questions. The three lessons in the Introduction--Lunchroom Fight, Evaluating Sources, and Snapshot Autobiography--help students recognize skills of historical inquiry they already practice everyday, such as reconciling conflicting claims and evaluating the reliability of narrative accounts. The challenge is to apply these skills while reading. Reading Like a Historian classroom posters remind students what questions they should be asking as they read historical documents.

The lessons in the Colonial Unit introduce students to many of the themes in the curriculum. In the Pocahontas lesson, students question Disney's account of Pocahontas's encounter with John Smith. Students engage in three additional inquiries: one about the Puritans, one about the causes of King Philip's War, and one about the causes of the Salem Witch trials. The Colonial Unit is unique in that it introduces students to different types of historical evidence such as maps and passenger lists, and asks students to consider what claims can be made on the basis of these special documents.

The Revolution and Early America Unit covers the standard eighteenth century topics that would appear in any textbook. These lessons, however, will push students to dig deeper as they read the documents and develop historical arguments about topics ranging from the Great Awakening (why was George Whitefield so popular?) to the Stamp Act (why were Colonists upset about the Stamp Act?) to the Constitution (why did the Founding Fathers keep slavery in the Constitution?). Each lesson offers primary documents that promote conflicting interpretations. The unit will introduce students to historiography, as they contrast Bernard Bailyn's interpretaton of the Declaration of Independence to Howard Zinn's account. These lessons will emphasize the historical reading skills students will practice all year.

Unit 4 primarily cover topics dealing with westward expansion during the nineteenth century. The exceptions are the lessons on Nat Turner and Irish immigration. These are included for chronological reasons, and to show students how historical trends can occur simultaneously. Both themes (slavery and immigration) are revisited in Units 5 and 6. This unit features several elaborate lesson structures: a Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) and and Inquiry. In the SAC on Lewis and Clark, students debate whether or not Lewis and Clark were respectful to the Native Americans they encountered on their journey, while the Inquiry asks students to investigate what motivated Texans to declare their independence. Several lessons, especially on Manifest Destiny and Indian Removal, ask students to consider the perspectives of historical actors whose world views may seem foreign or even incomprehensible.

In the Civil War and Reconstruction unit, students engage in contentious historiographic debates about the period--Was Lincoln a racist? Was Reconstruction a success or failure? Was John Brown a "misguided fanatic"? Did Lincoln free the slaves, or did the slaves free themselves? The unit includes two Structured Academic Controversy lessons, an Opening Up the Textbook lesson on sharecropping, and a look at Thomas Nast's political cartoons.

The Gilded Age unit brings awareness to the turbulant changes that characterized the end of the nineteenth century. Students investigate the rise and fall of the Populist movement, the textbook's account of the Battle of Little Bighorn, the lead-up to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the historic labor clashes surrounding Homestead, Haymarket, and Pullman. Three lessons--Populism and the Election of 1896, the Homestead Strike, and the Pullman Strike--help students develop the skill of close reading as they carefully go rthough documents and interpret the author's rhetorical choices.

The American Imperialism Unit covers the Spanish-American War and the War in the Philippines. The lessons approach historical inquiry from different angles: one asks students to contrast newspaper accounts of the explosion of the Maine, while a more elaborate inquiry lesson delves into the causes of the Spanish-American War. In a third lesson students examine pro- and anti-imperialism political cartoons of the period. Finally, students are asked to interpret some of the brutal actions that took place in the Philippines.

This unit explores perspectives on the central issues of the Progressive Era. Students examine the middle class reformers' attitudes towards immigrants; draw inferences about historical context by analyzing documents that relate to segregation of San Francisco schools in 1906; and question the reliability of Jacob Riis's photographs as accounts of the past. The unit includes cognitive modeling lessons - one that compares the perspectives of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois, and one that juxtaposes muckracking journalist Lincoln Steffens with political boss George Plunkitt. The Background on Woman Suffrage prepares students for the Anti-Suffragists lesson plan on why Americans opposed woman suffrage.

The World War I and 1920s unit explores political, social, and cultural tensions that gripped a rapidly modernizing America. Lessons ask historical questions about key events: Why did the U.S. enter the First World War? Why did Congress reject the League of Nations? What caused the Palmer Raids? Were those who criticized U.S. involvement in World War I anti-American? Why was Marcus Garvey a controversial figure? What was life like for Mexican and Mexican-American laborers during the 1920s? Why was the Butler Act controversial? What led to the 18th Amendment? Included is an Opening Up the Textbook lesson on the causes of the 1919 Chicago Race Riots.

People make the past come alive as students research and then share stories about famous Americans who promoted democratic ideals.