Educator Workshop Resources
American History
Explore the key debates that shaped the American Founding, the Civil War, and the Progressive Era through primary sources, classroom curriculum, and companion episodes of Civics in a Year.
Workshop Toolkit
Start with the core resources
Use the reader, podcast episodes, and Civic Literacy Curriculum together to move from historical content to primary-source analysis and classroom application.
Virtual Reader
Access the primary sources used throughout the American History educator workshop.
Open the workshop readerCivics in a Year
Pair the documents with short conversations that explain their historical and constitutional significance.
Browse all podcast episodesCivic Literacy Curriculum
Extend workshop learning with free lessons, primary sources, videos, activities, and discussion prompts.
Explore the full curriculumAmerican history is a continuing argument about how the nation should understand and apply its founding principles.
Workshop Overview
Three eras. One continuing American conversation.
This workshop strengthens content knowledge through close reading and discussion of major texts from three transformative periods in American history.
Each part asks educators to examine competing arguments in their historical setting, identify the constitutional principles at stake, and consider how those debates can become meaningful classroom inquiries.
The American Founding
Rights, representation, independence, constitutional design, federalism, and republican self-government.
Explore Part 1The Civil War
Slavery, union, executive power, emancipation, constitutional crisis, and Reconstruction.
Explore Part 2The Progressive Era
Industrialization, reform, regulation, administrative government, democracy, and presidential power.
Explore Part 3Part 1
The American Founding
How did Americans create a new constitutional republic?
Follow the transition from colonial resistance to independence and the creation of new state and national governments. Explore debates about rights, representation, federalism, constitutional design, and civic virtue.
Featured Texts
- Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
- Virginia Declaration of Rights
- Constitution of Pennsylvania
- Declaration of Independence Draft Revisions
- Constitution of Massachusetts
- Northwest Ordinance
- Madison, Vices of the Political System
- Washington's Farewell Address
Curriculum Alignment
Section 4Colonial Period and Independence
- Declaring Independence
- Declaration and Founding Ideals
- Antecedents to the Constitution
- Articles of Confederation
- Constitutional Convention
- Washington's Farewell Address
Podcast Companions
Workshop discussion questions
What rights did Americans believe they possessed before independence? How did state constitutions shape the federal Constitution? Why did the Articles of Confederation prove inadequate? What responsibilities does republican government require from citizens and leaders?
Suggested classroom inquiry
Ask students to compare language from the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and a revolutionary state constitution. Students can identify recurring principles and explain how each document applies those principles differently.
Part 2
The Civil War
Can a nation dedicated to liberty and equality survive division over slavery and union?
Examine the constitutional crisis of the Civil War, competing interpretations of the Declaration and Constitution, executive power during wartime, emancipation, and the meaning of Reconstruction.
Featured Texts
- Dred Scott v. Sandford
- Lincoln at Cooper Institute
- Democratic Platform of 1860
- Republican Platform of 1860
- Secession Declarations
- Lincoln's First Inaugural
- Corner Stone Speech
- Habeas Corpus Documents
- Emancipation Proclamation
- Lincoln's Second Inaugural
- Douglass, “Reconstruction”
Curriculum Alignment
Section 5The 1800s
- Slavery and the Constitution
- Secession
- Lincoln and the Union
- The Civil War
- Emancipation
- Reconstruction
- Frederick Douglass
- Reconstruction Amendments
Podcast Companions
Workshop discussion questions
How did participants describe the causes of secession? How did Lincoln understand the relationship between union and liberty? What constitutional authority supported emancipation? How did Reconstruction change the relationship between citizenship, rights, and federal power?
Suggested classroom inquiry
Pair Lincoln's First Inaugural with a secession declaration and the Corner Stone Speech. Ask students to identify each author's claims about slavery, union, constitutional authority, and the principles of the Declaration.
Part 3
The Progressive Era
How should government respond to the challenges of a modern industrial society?
Explore competing views of democracy, economic regulation, administrative government, constitutional interpretation, reform, and presidential leadership during the Progressive Era.
Featured Texts
- Altgeld, Address on the State of Illinois
- Lewelling, Farewell Address
- Hunt, Letters
- Lochner v. New York
- Wilson, “The Study of Administration”
- Croly, The Promise of American Life
- Wilson, What is Progress?
- Coolidge, 150th Anniversary Address
Curriculum Alignment
Section 6Recent American History
- Industrialization
- Progressive Reform
- Woodrow Wilson
- Constitutional Change in the Twentieth Century
- The Modern Presidency
- Franklin Roosevelt's Constitutional Revolution
Podcast Companions
Workshop discussion questions
What problems did Progressive reformers believe older constitutional arrangements could not solve? How did reformers differ over courts, federalism, administration, and presidential authority? What might be gained or lost when political decisions move from elected representatives to professional administrators?
Suggested classroom inquiry
Ask students to compare Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson on presidential power. Students can develop a claim about which approach best balances energetic leadership with constitutional limits.
Take It Back to Your Classroom
Turn the workshop into an inquiry
The materials can support a single lesson, a document-based question, a seminar, or a longer historical investigation.
Begin with a question
Introduce an essential question that presents a genuine historical or constitutional problem.
Read competing voices
Give students primary sources that represent distinct perspectives from the period.
Listen for context
Use a podcast episode to clarify background, vocabulary, and the significance of the debate.
Make an evidence-based claim
Ask students to answer the essential question using specific evidence from the documents.
Continue Your Learning
Connect history, civics, and classroom practice
Use the American History Reader, companion podcast episodes, and Civic Literacy Curriculum together to extend the workshop into your classroom.