Teaching the 250th with Historic Places: A Field Guide to Lessons for America’s Semiquincentennial contains lessons designed to give students both a sense of place and the big themes in American history. The lesson plans will help students evaluate the values of the Declaration of Independence through a diverse set of historical places. These lessons are inquiry-based, student-centered and built on primary source documents. Most of them will give students extensions to explore these themes in their own community.
The ideas from the Declaration or Constitution can often feel abstract to students. Here, four themes categorize the documents: liberty, equality, memory, and belonging. Anchoring these themes in specific places help students connect to the past. The guide will highlight specific lessons in different eras of American history that showcase these themes. Teaching with Historic Places lessons give a nuanced picture of the struggles and triumphs of different generations of Americans to form “a more perfect Union.”