The Real Story of the American Revolution

America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty

Teachers: Click here to request -- from the Sons of the American Revolution -- a free CD containing the lesson plans and teaching aids from America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty Lesson Plans for Three Age Groups There are three independent sets of lesson plans -- for elementary school, middle school, and high school. The elementary school set includes all sections of the elementary school curriculum. Lesson plans correlate to the Core Knowledge standards applicable to teachers throughout the United States. The middle and high school sets correlate with national curriculum standards, including thematic strands and performance expectations, of the National Council for the Social Studies. Each unit lists relevant or correlating resources including books, articles, and websites. Themes: Students have the opportunity to define, understand, and examine the four underlying, philosophical themes of the AHEF curriculum Freedom Unity Progress Responsibility These are important for citizens individually and for our nation as a whole. The lessons include related quotes by well-known figures, think-aloud activities, posters, and writing assignments for personal application. Topics: The set of lesson plans for each age level has a foreword: "The Miracle of America" and a preface: "From Oppression to Freedom". Some topics are used in several educational levels and some are used only once. Topics with the same title in different education levels have different texts suitable for the age group involved. E = Elementary School Edition M = Middle School Edition H = High School Edition Level - Era --------------------------------- Theme ....H 1620 - The Mayflower Compact ----- Responsibility E.... 1762 - George Washington --------- Responsibility EMH 1776 - The Declaration of Independence ----- Freedom ..M.. 1776 - Lives, Fortunes, Sacred Honor ----- Freedom E.... 1776 - The Declaration in Visual Art ----- Freedom E.... 1776 - A Famous Signature --------- Responsibility EM.. 1776 - The Monarch Game ---------- Freedom & Progress E.... 1782 - The Great Seal ------------------ Unity ....H 1787 - Federalist 47 -------------------- Responsibility E.... 1787 - American Presidents --------- Progress EM.. 1789 - Thanksgiving -------------------- Unity ....H 1791 - The First Amendment -------- Unity EM.. 1792 - The United States Flag ----- Freedom & Unity ....H 1794 - Entrepreneurs in History ----- Progress . . . . . . Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, . . . . . . James Hill, John D. Rockerfeller EM.. 1814 - The Star Spangled Banner ----- Unity ..M.. 1861 - The Gettysburg Address ----- Responsibility ..M.. 1864 - The National Motto ------------- Progress EM.. 1886 - The Statute of Liberty --------- Freedom EM.. 1892 - The Pledge of Allegiance ----- Unity E.... 1895 - America the Beautiful ---------- Freedom & Progress ....H 1916 - American's Creed --------------- Responsibility ....H 1976 - The Federal Flag Code ------- Freedom ....H 1998 - Religious Expression in Public Schools ----- Unity EMH 2000 - What is an American? -------- Responsibility & Unity History of the Lesson Plans The best friends for teaching America's heritage have been American school teachers, but teachers have been severely handicapped because of inadequate textbooks and inadequate time to develop their own lesson plans. Rod Paige, Superintendent of the Houston Independent School District (and later U.S. Secretary of Education), several other professionals, the American Heritage Education Foundation of Houston TX, and the McNair Foundation, addressed this need by developing and distributing to HISD Social Science teachers high quality American heritage lesson plans for elementary school, middle school, and high school. The Houston Independent School District was the first to use these lesson plans. A survey conducted after the initial use of these lessons plans showed that they had been effective in raising awareness of America's heritage and in increasing Social Science grades. By 2004 over 50,000 CDs (each containing the material for all three educational levels) had been distributed to schools nationwide.

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