Prerequisite: Students need to know the function of each of the branches of government. In this activity, students examine documents from U.S. history to examples of specific "checks and balances."

In this activity students will analyze documents that span the course of American history to see examples of "checks and balances" between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches in action. Students will then match the documents they have examined with an appropriate description of the branches of government involved in the action.

Students compare military recruitment posters for African Americans used for both the Union and Confederate armies. They analyze how the language reflects differences is attitude and perspective.

Students analyze two photographs and make a T-chart to list characteristics of urban and rural life in the early 1900s in New York.

Using primary resources, students analyze WW1 era posters and infer the audience, purpose, and effectiveness of trying to get Americans to conserve food during this time. Online resource. Offers discussion questions.

In small groups, students analyze the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th amendment, and General Order #3 in terms of tone, audience, and message, focusing on similarities and differences.

In this activity (which is appropriate for introducing the Constitution) students match primary source documents to clauses from Article 1 of the Constitution. Students find six pairs, which reveal the powers of Congress. Online resource.

In this activity students will analyze documents that span the course of American history to determine their connection to the U.S. Constitution. Students will then make connections between the primary sources they have examined and sections of the Constitution, and determine the big idea(s) found in the Constitution exemplified by each.

In this activity students will connect primary sources with specific sections of the Constitution.

In this activity students will analyze the Senate Journal of the First Congress and identify how the document demonstrates content contained within Article II of the Constitution in action.

This activity is designed to prepare students for the Constitution-in-Action Lab at the National Archives in Washington, DC. It is a part of a package of activities associated with the lab experience.

In this activity students will analyze the Oaths of Senators for the Impeachment Trial of William Jefferson Clinton and identify how the document demonstrates content contained within Article I, sections 1-7 of the Constitution in action.

This activity is designed to prepare students for the Constitution-in-Action Lab at the National Archives in Washington, DC. It is a part of a package of activities associated with the lab experience.

In this activity students will analyze the Declaration of Intention for Albert Einstein and identify how the document demonstrates content contained within Article I, sections 8-10 of the Constitution in action.

This activity is designed to prepare students for the Constitution-in-Action Lab at the National Archives in Washington, DC. It is a part of a package of activities associated with the lab experience.

The Constitution acted like a colossal merger, uniting a group of states with different interests, laws, and cultures. Under Americaâ"s first national government, the Articles of Confederation, the states acted together only for specific purposes. The Constitution united its citizens as members of a whole, vesting the power of the union in the people. Without it, the American Experiment might have ended as quickly as it had begun.

In this activity, students analyze a photograph and infer the experiences of a Chinese man who was used in an ethnographic display. Primary resources used. Appropriate for teaching the effects of imperialism or how cultures viewed one another as "other." Online resource.

This document was identified by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2016 Summer Workshop at the Truman Library.

This lesson provides fliers and other documents related to the demonstration in Memphis on March 28, 1968. On that day, students near the end of the march broke windows of businesses. Looting ensued. The march was halted. King was deeply distressed by the violence. He and fellow leaders negotiated a commitment to nonviolence among disagreeing factions in Memphis, and another march was planned for April 8. On April 4, as he stepped out of his motel room to go to dinner, he was assassinated.

The Declaration of Independence states the principles on which our government, and our identity as Americans, are based. This source provides a transcript of the document, pictures of the original, and links to additional sources to help understand The Declaration as a whole.

The National Archives provides primary source sets, educator resources and articles, and printable primary sources analysis sheets. This page on the site outlines how to analyze primary source documents. Document analysis is the first step in working with primary sources. Teach your students to think through primary source documents for contextual understanding and to extract information to make informed judgments.