Movements for Equality Thematic Unit Bundle for US History - Print & Digital

Have you been looking for a meaningful way to teach your students about the diverse and rich movements for equality in US History? Do you want your students to go deeper into the content, learning about each movement and also comparing them? Do you want your students use a variety of primary sources that feature voices from people who led or were involved with these movements?

Then this Thematic Movements for Equality Unit Bundle is for you! In this awesome approach to teaching US History, students learn about an important theme in each unit from the late 1800s to present. In this case, students will explore the movements for equality of a variety of people groups. Students will dig deep into African American civil rights from slavery to affirmative action, women's rights from suffrage to #metoo, Chicano Rights from early immigration to Cesar Chavez's 1990 speech, Native American rights from the arrival of the Europeans to Congressmen Campbell's 2004 speech, LGBTQ+ rights from 1691 to 2015, and more!

This thematic unit bundle is specially designed to activate more student engagement, collaboration, inquiry, and source analysis in your classroom. At the same time, it utilizes multiple learning styles through a variety of teaching strategies, including a highly engaging introductory lesson that asks students to examine their own stereotypes, engaging lectures complete with student fill in notes and think-pair-shares, analysis of primary and secondary sources (sometimes using collaborative learning stations), a unique Socratic Seminar where students will conduct deeper research into a people group of their choice while comparing the movements they've already learned about, a presentation of their annotated timelines for the Civil Rights Movement, creating a job resume outlining the accomplishments of a major Civil Rights leader, student-created news articles about types of discrimination they may not have been aware of, an interactive timeline activity featuring events in LGBTQ+ history, plenty of inquiry led research opportunities, critical thinking quizzes and unit exam, and more! The unit exam asks students to not just regurgitate information, but to truly understand it and make connections on a deeper level. Critical thinking is definitely required!

For my class, this is the fifth unit in our thematically arranged US History curriculum.

My philosophy is that lessons should always be engaging, educational, student-centered, and very low prep. Therefore, there is not a lot of prep work involved in any of the lessons.

The best part is that you can use this unit bundle for distance or digital learning! All lessons have student resources that come in a printable PDF version (not editable) AND a Google Slides or Docs version. Students just make a copy and they can use all the included resources!

Please view individual lessons prior to purchasing. Not every lesson includes a lecture. Material is taught in a variety of ways.

Note: if you use every lesson in this bundle, this unit will likely take you 5.5 weeks to complete.

What to Expect:

• 9 Warm Ups
• 17 Essential Questions
• Engaging Lectures (with Think-Pair-Shares)
• Student Fill In Notes for Lectures (including Warm Ups)
• Student Research Activities
• Engaging Activities including a stereotypes activity, Socratic Seminar, creating news articles, annotated timeline project, creating protest posters, learning stations, listening to a podcast, & more
• Primary & Secondary Sources (analyzed in learning stations, as a class, or individually)
• 1 Unit Exam & Review Guide
• 2 Multiple Choice Quizzes
• Daily Lesson Plans
• Suggested Order of Lessons

*View each included resource individually to see which resources are editable. All lecture PPTs, quizzes, exams, and most projects are editable. Most other resources are not.

To reduce tech issues, please be sure to have the most recent free version of Adobe Reader downloaded. More help linked here.

Note: all Google Drive versions appear in the lesson plans of each individual lesson. As of right now, there is no way to copy a folder in Google Drive so for right now you will need to open the lesson plan and make a copy of each digital resource using the provided links and instructions.

Materials Needed (if using print versions):

• Blank printer paper
• Computers for research, activities, & projects
• Ability to project onto the board or use a doc camera
• Markers, colored pens, highlighters and/or colored pencils
• Post-its (one lesson only)

You might also enjoy:

• Founding Documents Introductory Unit Bundle
• Executive Branch US History Thematic Unit Bundle
• US Economy Thematic Bundle for US History
• Immigration & Migration Thematic Bundle for US History
• US History Semester One Ultimate Thematic Course Bundle
• Ultimate Economics Semester Course Bundle

Want to learn more about teaching US History thematically? Check out my free US History Thematic curriculum map.

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