Civic Literacy Curriculum: Table of Contents

Section 1

Principles of the American Republic

Section 2

Systems of Government

Section 2

Continued

Section 3

Rights and Responsibilities

  • Q63: Suffrage Amendments to the Constitution
    • Exercise: Write an editorial on voting
    • Primary sources utilized: 
      • U.S. Constitution
  • Q64: Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens
    • ​​​​​​​​​​​​Exercise: Write a public service announcement about jury duty
    • Primary sources utilized: 
      • Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, “The Jury Considered as a Political Institution”
  • Q65: The Bill of Rights
    • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Exercise: Give a speech on which individual liberty in the Bill of Rights is most important
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • U.S. Bill of Rights
  • Q66: The Pledge of Allegiance
    • Exercise: Learn about folding the American flag
    • Primary sources utilized
      • U.S. Flag Code
  • Q67-68: US Citizenship
    • Exercise: Take an abridged citizenship test
  • Q69-70: Civic Participation
    • ​​​​​​​Exercise: Assess the free speech and workplace case study
  • Q71: Federal Taxation
    • Exercise: Study the federal budget
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Congressional Budget Office Data 2019
  • Q72: Selective Service
    • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Exercise: Participate in the guided readings on the passage of the 26th Amendment

Section 4

Colonial Period and Independence

  • Q73: English Colonists
    • Exercise: Make an advertisement convincing a British citizen to move to America
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Mayflower Compact 
      • Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)
      • Christopher Columbus’s Journal
      • Letters to Walter Raleigh
  • Q74: Indigenous Peoples
    • Exercise: Tweet about an imaginary encounter between pilgrims and indigenous people
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Christopher Columbus’s Journal
      • Letters to Walter Raleigh
  • Q75: African Slaves
    • Exercise: Participate in the guided readings of Frederick Douglass’ Speeches
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
      • Is the Constitution Proslavery or Antislavery
  • Q76-77 & 80: The American Revolution
    • Exercise: Analyze the journal of a revolutionary soldier
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Declarations and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
      • Journal of James Thacher
  • Q78: The Declaration of Independence
    • Exercise: Join a scavenger hunt about how the Declaration of Independence shaped the constitution
    • Primary sources utilized: 
      • Declaration of Independence
      • U.S. Constitution
  • Q79: Drafting the Declaration of Independence
    • Exercise: Compare different drafts of the Declaration of Independence
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Declaration of Independence, Jefferson’s First Draft
      • Declaration of Independence, Revised Committee Version
      • Declaration of Independence, Congressional Revision
  • Q81: The Thirteen States
    • Exercise: Compare the following five revolutionary state constitutions
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Constitutions of Pennsylvania (1776), Virginia (1776), New York (1777), Georgia (1777), South Carolina (1778), Massachusetts (1780), and New Hampshire (1784)
  • Q82: The Constitutional Convention
    • Exercise: Create a Venn diagram comparing the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Articles of Confederation
      • U.S. Constitution
      • Federalist 32, 39, 45, 51, 62 (excerpts)
      • James Madison, Vices of the Political System of the United States
      • Richard Henry Lee to George Mason on the Convention
  • Q83-84: The Federalist Papers
    • Exercise: Analyze the arguments of Federalist 10
    • Primary sources utilized
      • Federalist 10
  • Q85: Benjamin Franklin
    • Exercise: Design a Benjamin Franklin meme 
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Poor Richard’s Almanac
  • Q86: George Washington
    • Exercise: Tweet George Washington’s Farewell Address
    • Primary sources utilized
      • George Washington, Farewell Address
  • Q87: Thomas Jefferson
    • Exercise: Debate over the constitutionality of the National Bank
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton on the Bank
  • Q88: James Madison
    • Exercise: Compare different drafts of Bill of Rights amendments
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Amendments Recommended by the State Ratifying Conventions and Amendments Proposed by James Madison (1788-89)
      • Madison’s Speech Proposing Amendments to the Constitution (June 8, 1789) (optional)
      • Madison on Constitutional Interpretation
      • Debate in the House of Representatives, Annals of Congress (1796)
      • Letter to John Jackson (1821); Letter to Thomas Ritchie (1821); 
      • Letter to Henry Lee (1824)
  • Q89: Alexander Hamilton
    • Exercise: Participate in the guided readings of the Debate over the Neutrality Proclamation
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • James Madison, Helvidius. 1
      • Alexander Hamilton, Pacificus. 1

Section 5

The 1800s

  • Q90: The Louisiana Territory
    • Exercise: Explore National Archives Maps of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition
  • Q91: Wars of the 1800s
    • Exercise: Create a timeline of major American wars in the 1800s
  • Q92-93 & 96: The Civil War
    • Exercise: Participate in the guided readings on why the south seceded
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Secession Declarations from Mississippi and Georgia 
      • Alexander Stephens, Cornerstone Speech
      • 1860 Republican Party Platform
      • Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
  • Q94-95: Abraham Lincoln
    • Exercise: Annotate the Emancipation Proclamation and related documents
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Emancipation Proclamation
      • Letter to James C. Conkling, August 26, 1863
      • Letter to Treasury Secretary (and future Chief Justice) Salmon Chase, September 2, 1863
      • Letter to Albert G. Hodges, editor of Frankfort (KY) Commonwealth, April 4, 1864 
  • Q97-98: The Reconstruction Amendments
    • Exercise: Participate in the guided readings of the Dred Scott Case
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Dred Scott v. Sandford (Taney, McLean, and Curtis excerpts)
      • Abraham Lincoln, Speech on the Dred Scott Case
      • Frederick Douglass, Reconstruction
  • Q99 & 102: Women’s Suffrage and Susan B. Anthony
    • Exercise: Participate in the guided readings of the Seneca Falls Declaration
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Seneca Falls Declaration

Section 6

Recent American History

  • Q100: Wars of the 1900s
    • Exercise: Create a timeline of major American wars in the 1800s
  • Q101: Woodrow Wilson and World War I
    • Exercise: Write a persuasive speech for or against the league of nations
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Woodrow Wilson, Fourteen Points
      • Covenant of the League of Nations
      • Henry Cabot Lodge, Speeches on the League of Nations
      • Lodge Reservations
  • Q103-105: The Great Depression, World War II, and Franklin Roosevelt
    • Exercise: Participate in the guided readings of Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats
    • Primary sources utilized
      • Arsenal of Democracy 
      • Attack on Pearl Harbor
      • Fireside Chat on the War with Japan
  • Q106: World War II
    • Exercise: Map out the Axis invasions
  • Q107: Dwight Eisenhower
    • Exercise: Participate in the guided readings of Eisenhower’s Farewell Address
    • Primary sources utilized
      • Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address
  • Q108: The Soviet Union
    • Exercise: Annotate Revelations from the Soviet Archives
    • Primary sources utilized: 
      • Library of Congress Collection: Revelations from the Soviet Archives
  • Q109-111: Communism and the Cold War
    • Exercise: Participate in the guided readings of Communist Manifesto
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto
      • Library of Congress Collection: Revelations from the Soviet Archives
  • Q112-113: The Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.
    • Exercise: Annotate speeches written by Martin Luther King Jr.
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream
      • Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail
  • Q114-116: Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
    • Exercise: Write a presidential speech responding to Al Qaeda attack in 2001
    • Primary sources utilized:
      • George Bush, Address to the Nation, September 11, 2001
  • Q117: American Indian Tribes
    • Exercise: Participate in the guided readings of indigenous. perspectives on American history
    • Primary sources utilized: 
      • An indigenous. view of the American Revolution, Buckongahelas (Delaware, 1781)
      • An indigenous. Constitution (Cherokee Constitution, 1827)
      • An indigenous. view of Indian Removal: Letters from Chief John Ross (Cherokee, 1836)