Classroom Materials
Founding Fathers & Their Families
Abigail Adams, The Writer: "my pen is always freer than my tongue"
Level: High School
Subject: English
Using Abigail Adams's correspondence and diaries, students will explore primary source documents to learn about the historical, cultural, and ethical role of women in early America.
John Adams's Views on Citizenship: Lesson for Contemporary America
Level: High School
Subject: United States History
Engage students in an exploration of John Adams’s thinking about the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a republic.
Adams Family Foreign Policy: Letters and Diaries from Europe
Level: High School
Subject: United States History
Investigate the political lives of three generations of Adams family members and their combined efforts in the realm of American foreign policy between 1781 and 1863.
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Birth of Party Politics in America
Level: High School
Subject: United States History
Learn how the Federalist and Republican parties, represented by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, were founded, what they believed, and their struggle for the hearts and minds of the American people.
John Quincy Adams: One President's Adolescence
Level: High School
Subject: United States History
Read Adams family letters and diaries spanning the years 1773 to 1782, a crucial time in the life of both young John Quincy Adams and of the young republic.
The Adams Family of Massachusetts: A Legacy of Justice in Action
Level: Elementary & Middle School
Subject: United States History
Help students learn to use primary sources as they discover John Adams’s philosophy of justice by unraveling the events leading up to the Boston Massacre, and explore the life of John Quincy Adams and his work against slavery.
Era of the American Revolution
From Tea to Shining Sea: The Boston Tea Party
Level: High School
Subject: United States History & Economics
Investigate primary source documents to discern the different economic, political, and social factors that created the tension leading up to the Boston Tea Party.
The Siege of Boston
Level: High School
Subject: United States History
Examine primary sources in order to better understand daily life for civilians and soldiers during the Siege of Boston, 19 April 1775—17 March 1776.
Abigail's War: The American Revolution through the Eyes of Abigail Adams
Level: Elementary School
Subject: United States History, Math, Language Arts
This activity book, based on letters exchanged between John and Abigail Adams, promotes writing and mathematical skills at the same time as it helps students relate to the world of the American Revolution.
Johnny Tremain and the Members of the Long-Room Club
Level: Middle School
Subject: United States History, Language Arts
Students will become familiar with Boston in the 1770s, and, using primary sources, discover what really happened at the Boston Tea Party. This series of lessons centers around the characters in Esther Forbes's novel Johnny Tremain, comparing them to members of the Long Room Club, the actual group on which Forbes's Boston Observers were based.
Slavery and Antislavery
Creative Collaborators and Communicators: Abolitionists and Their Propaganda
Level: Middle School
Subject: United States History
Evaluate various types of antislavery propaganda (including images, artifacts, letters, speeches, poems, and other published works) in order to become familiar with the techniques that abolitionists used to share their messages.
The Role of Massachusetts Women in Abolition and Suffrage Movements
Level: High School
Subject: United States History
Explore the evolving role of Massachusetts women in the abolition and suffrage movements through a variety of primary source materials.
Civil War
To Arms! Civil War Recruiting in Massachusetts
Level: Middle School
Subject: United States History
This primary source set allows students to investigate recruiting broadsides and images from the early years of the Civil War.