Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Rhetoric can be a difficult concept for students to grasp in isolation. This collection of full-text speeches and audio/video clips from political speeches, legal proceedings, interviews, debates, news broadcasts, and movies can really get the discussion going in speech and composition class! Definitions/interpretations of rhetoric are provided, along with a few interactive activities that make students think. A great resource for analyzing how wordsmiths use language to elicit a desired response from the audience. Created for American Rhetoric by Michael Eidenmuller. MP3 player required.

tag(s): debate (42), politics (118), speech (69), speeches (23)

The University of Michigan chronicles the landmark Supreme Court case in this on-line archive. Historical events related to this case are documented through articles and images from 1896 (Plessy v. Ferguson) to the present. Main areas of interest on the site include Supreme Court cases, school integration efforts, and recent re-segregation trends in American schools. Use as a springboard for a discussion on Civil Rights or the American Justice System.

tag(s): civil rights (209), segregation (18), supreme court (27)

Although this resource was created for the 2004 Presidential Election, the background information is valuable for teaching about elections in general and for comparing elections as part of U.S. history. Encourage your students to examine and discuss the key issues that are driving candidates in the 2004 Presidential Election. This site includes National Public Radio audio files, links to NPR stories, and overviews of many topics from health care and the economy to the occupation of Iraq. An excellent resource for a high school "mock election" activity.

tag(s): elections (82), iraq (26)

This is a thematic look at the conduct and evolution of the American presidency since the founding of the republic. It examines the executive structures that manage domestic, economic, foreign, and legislative activities in more than enough detail for secondary students. Even a quick tour will demonstrate the current complexity of the executive branch. Be sure to check out Issues and Policy form the menu in the upper left corner.

tag(s): presidents (135)

Founded by television producer Norman Lear, Declare Yourself is a non-profit, nonpartisan effort to register young adults to vote in the 2004 elections. The site offers a variety of voter registration strategies, information, and schedules for a "Declaration of Independence" voting registration tour.

tag(s): politics (118)

The PBS Frontline series regularly challenges viewers' assumptions about controversial issues. This teacher portal for the series offers direct access to supplementary materials for many current and past programs, all sorted by subject area. If your field is government or social studies and you enjoy letting students wrestle with ideas, you will find lots of possibilities in this one.

tag(s): politics (118)

Deceptively simple and not at all pretty, this site offers a wealth of information on the historical governance of scores of countries. (Where else could you find a chronological list of the prime ministers of Spain?) It doesn't offer complete histories, but secondary students studying the history of other countries may find its synopsis-by-ruler an interesting starting point.

tag(s): countries (73), presidents (135)

This site from the University of Chicago offers links to the philosophical and political source documents on which the Constitution is based. Click the Contents link in the upper right corner and find a wealth of content in this one. Faculty who want to explore the origins of American government will find this site useful both for its thematic organizational structure and its wealth of resources. Secondary students will likely need some guidance in working with these materials.

One of the more complete election sites, Vote Smart offers a wide array of campaign information at federal, state, and local levels. There are also backgrounders on the election process, the Electoral College, and election laws and voting.

tag(s): college (45), elections (82), electoral college (22)

Whether as a comprehensive source for research or as a primer for studies on the first amendment's guaranteed freedoms of speech, press, religious liberty, assembly and petition, this site has wonderful resources for civics and government courses. The site also has a variety of print and web-resources available for further study of first amendment issues, including links to a number of Supreme Court documents.

tag(s): bill of rights (33), constitution (96)

This is an interesting collection of primary resources for those interested in British History ; the site has the texts of over 100,000 proceedings of London's Central Criminal Court. There is also a good introduction in the "For Schools" section on how to structure a legal and civic history lessons using the site. The teacher's page is geared towards British Curriculum standards, but it is still helpful in describing the site's application to British History.

tag(s): britain (26), courts (20), england (50), great britain (16)

Cmprising the period from May through October, 1787, this site contains the daily journals of James Madison in which he discusses the progress of the Constitutional Convention. Students interested in first-hand accounts of the forming of the American Government will find these journals great reading. High ideals notwithstanding, they show that the art of compromise was alive and well at the birth of the federal government.

tag(s): constitution (96)

This site offers one-stop shopping for a history of the Supreme Court and the ways in which it operates. There are additional links from this site to more complete anthologies of court decisions and their interpretation. Middle schoolers could use elements of this one for basic research about the separation of powers and branches of government; high school students should find many uses for the additional materials.

tag(s): constitution (96), supreme court (27)

Here's a site that offers the core body of essential Supreme Court decisions in a single presentation that includes lots of supporting context. In addition to the decisions themselves, there are supplementary resources, activities, and interpretive documents. There's also a thematic organization that makes identification of specific cases easier.

tag(s): constitution (96), supreme court (27)

From the 1880s to the 1940s, the Chinese Exclusion act prevented immigrants of Chinese descent from gaining full citizenship. The site includes background information on how the act came to be, as well as a discussion of its repercussions.

tag(s): chinese (45), immigration (68), migration (45)

Prepared as background material to the increasing tensions in Iraq and the rest of the mideast, this page offers summaries of military capabilities of the various nations that have troops in the area. These pages offer reams of information on capabilitivies, training, missions, etc. Though at the time of this update, the actual Fact File uses Flash, there is plenty of information on the rest of the site to make your visit worthwhile.

tag(s): middle east (50)

Prepared as background material to the increasing tensions in Iraq and the rest of the mideast, this BBC map collection offers surprisingly detailed information on force strengths in various mideastern nations. The page includes links to similarly detailed information on other aspects of this looming conflict.

tag(s): middle east (50)

The concept of "a just war" has been debated for decades as a logical way to establish whether the use of force in a specific situation carries any moral weight. This page from the Carter Center reprints an Op-Ed article by former president Jimmy Carter in which he asserts that current operations in Iraq fail the "just war" test on several grounds. Lots of interesting discussion possibilities with this one.

tag(s): ethics (21)

This news page from IAEA's web site includes both background and current information on the agencies efforts in Iraq and North Korea, as well as information on other activities designed to halt the destructive proliferation of nuclear capabilities.

tag(s): energy (133), united nations (6)

This one is different; it's a site built around exposing students to issues in history that have tested ethical and behavioral boundaries. Focusing on topics like anti-Semitism, eugenics, and genocide, the content requires students to think about the moral, political, and practical effects of actions by individuals and nations. The structure varies by subject area, and there is a combination of free and "registration required" areas. Secondary history and social sciences teachers will want to browse this one thoroughly.

tag(s): ethics (21), news (229)