LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

CEU courses open for enrollment

The Civil Rights Movement in Context
Investigate the precursors to the Civil Rights Movement, its leadership, its opposition, and its legacy, including lesser-studied events of the movement and primary sources.
Take this course: Begins February 2.

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Goodbye, Bill Of Rights!
Students will enact a scene demonstrating life without one of the first ten amendments. Students will be put into groups of three or four and assigned a specific amendment to research.
Format: lesson plan (grade 10 Social Studies)
By Greg Simmons.
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights as approved by Congress in 1789, including two amendments not in the first ten ratified by the states.
Format: image/constitution
Bill of Rights
Format: image/constitution
The Bill of Rights
In Revolutionary North Carolina, page 6.7
The text of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, with historical commentary.
Format: constitution
Honor Guard protecting the North Carolina Bill of Rights
Honor Guard protecting the North Carolina Bill of Rights
A Honor Guard protects the North Carolina Bill of Rights. They are wearing colonial-style uniforms. For a few weeks, the document was displayed in various places throughout North Carolina, including here, at the historic Chowan County Courthouse in Edenton,...
Format: image/photograph
The Bill of Rights and the U.S. Supreme Court
In this lesson, students work in groups and individually to understand how the Constitution/Bill of Rights is a living document and how Supreme Court decisions protect the rights of all Americans.
Format: lesson plan (grade 10 Social Studies)
By Grace Wasserman.
The U.S. Constitution
On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine of the fifty-five delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the Constitution of the United States of America. Since 2005, Constitution Day has been officially celebrated every September 17. This collection of resources offers many different ways to teach about the Constitution and its impact on students' lives.
Format: bibliography/help
"I Declare, I believe this document May Flower!"
The learner will apply ideas of self-government as expressed in America's founding documents. To be used with/for SLD and other exceptional students.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 Social Studies)
By Gary Peterson.
The five parts of the Fifth
This lesson will focus on the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution and its intent to provide due process to citizens. Students will engage in writing, discussion, cooperative learning, art, and theatrical activities in gaining an understanding of the Amendment and its concepts.
Format: lesson plan (grade 10 Social Studies)
By Keith Leary.
Celebrating the freedom to read
Banned Books Week teaches the importance of our First Amendment rights and draws attention to the danger of restricting information in a free society.
By Melissa Thibault.
Dorothea Dix Hospital
In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 11.7
Dorothea Dix, a reformer from New England, came to North Carolina in the 1840s to campaign for a state mental hospital that would provide humane care to the mentally ill. Her efforts resulted in the construction of Dix Hill Asylum (now called Dorothea Dix Hospital) which opened in 1856.
Format: article
A Pledge to Violate the Stamp Act
In Revolutionary North Carolina, page 2.5
In 1766, during the colonial protests of the Stamp Act, some residents of eastern North Carolina, including many colonial leaders, signed this pledge to refuse to pay the tax. Primary source includes historical commentary.
Format: newspaper
Paving the road to the Constitution
Students will be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation as related to the United States and North Carolina. Students will be able to demonstrate an argument for or against ratification of the United States Constitution.
Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)
By Kim Bennett.
North Carolina demands a declaration of rights
In Revolutionary North Carolina, page 6.6
North Carolina initially rejected the United States Constitution, insisting that it be amended and that a Declaration of Rights be added. The text of the proposed declaration and amendments is provided here with historical commentary noting which provisions found their way into the Bill of Rights.
Format: document
The Regulators organize
In Revolutionary North Carolina, page 1.3
Subscription to an organization of Regulators, January 1768. The subscribers agreed to resist paying taxes and fees they considred unlawful and to petition their representatives to change laws they considered unfair. Primary source includes historical commentary.
Format: declaration
John Adams Hyman
In North Carolina in the Civil War and Reconstruction, page 9.12
John Adams Hyman, a former slave, became the first black U.S. Representative from North Carolina, serving from 1873 to 1875.
Format: biography
Women, then and now
In this lesson, students will analyze images and a home demonstration pamphlet, a Cooperative Extension Work document from the Green 'N' Growing collection at Special Collections Research Center at North Carolina State University Libraries. The primary sources will help students assess the roles, opportunities, and achievements of women beginning in 1950.
Format: lesson plan (grade 11–12 Social Studies)
By Lisa Stamey.
Cherokee Nation v. the State of Georgia, 1831
In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 10.6
When Georgia tried to subject the Cherokee to state law, they sued the state in federal court. The Supreme Court ruled against them in 1831, in this decision written by Chief Justice John Marshall. Includes historical commentary.
Format: court decision
Commentary and sidebar notes by L. Maren Wood and David Walbert.
Eli Whitney and the cotton gin
In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 2.5
In 1794, inventor Eli Whitney patented his cotton gin, a machine for removing seeds from cotton. The invention made cotton production -- and with it, slave labor -- far more profitable, and it helped to cement the South's status as an agricultural region and a slave society.
Format: article
Revolutionary North Carolina
Primary sources and readings explore North Carolina in the era of the American Revolution. Topics include the Regulators, the resistance to Great Britain, the War for Indpendence, and the creation of new governments.
Format: book (multiple pages)