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Standards Index: CCSS.ELA.LITERACY.RI.11-12.3:

Find lessons and videos that align with CCSS.ELA.LITERACY.RI.11-12.3:

Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequences of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact or develop over the course of a text.

Image from  1976 Republican Convention: Ford vs Reagan

1976 Republican Convention: Ford vs Reagan

Students will learn the context surrounding the battle between Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention, one of the only party conventions in modern history in which an active contest for delegates at the convention determined the outcome.
Image from 2004 Democratic Convention: The Importance of the Keynote Speech

2004 Democratic Convention: The Importance of the Keynote Speech

Students will learn how the communications professionals at national party conventions choose speakers and coordinate messaging, and how Barack Obama was chosen in 2004 to make the keynote speech that launched his national political career and changed the course of American history.
Image from Atomic Fears and the Arms Race: Nuclear Testing

Atomic Fears and the Arms Race: Nuclear Testing

Students will learn how the nuclear arms race impacted different aspects of society – including soldiers who were exposed to radiation during early atomic testing – and how it continues to impact them today.
Image from Campaigns and Elections: The 2000 Election

Campaigns and Elections: The 2000 Election

Students will learn why the 2000 presidential election, a race between George W. Bush and Al Gore, was decided by the Supreme Court, and how that led to changes that continue to influence our elections today.
Image from Conspiracy Theories: From JFK’s Assassination to Today

Conspiracy Theories: From JFK’s Assassination to Today

Students will learn about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, including surrounding conspiracy theories, to explore the deeply ingrained American tendency to mistrust government – a characteristic of our national political culture that is as old as the Revolution.
Image from Coronavirus: Lessons From Past Epidemics

Coronavirus: Lessons From Past Epidemics

Students will learn lessons from history for dealing with the coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic by understanding the connections to previous global public health campaigns to eradicate smallpox and polio.
Image from Dr. Martin Luther King at Gee’s Bend

Dr. Martin Luther King at Gee’s Bend

Students will learn the history of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight for voting rights in Gee’s Bend, Ala., a town whose status today shows both the achievements and unfinished work of King’s movement.
Image from Ecology: The Yellowstone Wildfires of 1988

Ecology: The Yellowstone Wildfires of 1988

Students will learn how the Yellowstone fires of 1988 created a national controversy that challenged long-held assumptions about the role that fires should play in forestry policy.
Image from Emergence of the AIDS Crisis

Emergence of the AIDS Crisis

Students will learn the historical context of the AIDS crisis in the United States in the 1980s, and where it stands today.
Image from Exploring the Impact of Campaign Ads

Exploring the Impact of Campaign Ads

Students will learn how famous campaign ads like the "Daisy," "Morning in America" and "Willie Horton," changed how political advertisements were made, and in doing so changed the course of history.
Image from Extremism, ISIS and the Doomsday Cults of the 1970s

Extremism, ISIS and the Doomsday Cults of the 1970s

Students will learn how the wave of extreme cults that swept the U.S. in the 1970s holds surprising lessons for confronting 21st century international terrorism.
Image from George C. Wallace and the Politics of Segregation

George C. Wallace and the Politics of Segregation

Students will learn how Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s evolving positions on race reveal both the intensity of the white backlash to desegregation during the 60s and the growing political power of the black community during the 70s and early 80s.
Image from How Watergate and Citizens United Shaped Campaign Finance Law

How Watergate and Citizens United Shaped Campaign Finance Law

Students will learn how the Watergate break-in and the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon changed the way political campaigns were funded, and what that means for today.
Image from Human Geography: The Population Bomb

Human Geography: The Population Bomb

Students will learn why concerns about population growth first emerged in the 1970s, why predictions about population were wrong, and what that means for today.
Image from Influencing Public Policy: Food Safety

Influencing Public Policy: Food Safety

Students will learn how human-made catastrophes can help to shape federal policy on food safety.
Image from Influencing Public Policy: The Story of Thalidomide

Influencing Public Policy: The Story of Thalidomide

Students will learn how a prescription medication’s devastating side effects shocked the nation decades ago and led to today’s federal drug safety guidelines.
Image from Influencing Public Policy: Vaccines

Influencing Public Policy: Vaccines

Students will learn about the importance to public health of vaccines. They will gain news literacy by examining troubled reporting and public health messaging around the measles vaccine, and discover why we’re dealing with the repercussions today.
Image from Jimmy Carter and the Rise of Evangelical Voters

Jimmy Carter and the Rise of Evangelical Voters

Students will learn how the cultural and political trends of the 1960s and 1970s led to heightened political engagement among evangelical Christians and the emergence of a powerful new conservative movement.
Image from Journalism and Media Literacy: McDonald’s Hot Coffee

Journalism and Media Literacy: McDonald’s Hot Coffee

Students will learn how an attention-grabbing news story can easily be misunderstood, resulting in a false narrative that becomes deeply ingrained in the national culture. Journalism students will learn the importance of providing context.
Image from Love Canal and the Environmental Protection Agency

Love Canal and the Environmental Protection Agency

Students will learn how toxic waste dumped under the community of Love Canal led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program.
Image from Nuclear Power: From Three Mile Island to Fukushima

Nuclear Power: From Three Mile Island to Fukushima

Students will learn how nuclear energy’s prospects were dimmed by accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima, and how modern concerns over climate change have sparked a complex debate about the future of nuclear energy.
Image from Political Debates and the Kennedy-Nixon Debate

Political Debates and the Kennedy-Nixon Debate

Students will learn how televised political debates have impacted modern politics, with an emphasis on the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debate, and their importance to campaigns and elections today.
Image from Presidents v. Press: How the Pentagon Papers Leak Set Up First Amendment Showdowns

Presidents v. Press: How the Pentagon Papers Leak Set Up First Amendment Showdowns

Students will learn about the Pentagon Papers during Nixon’s presidency, the long history of U.S. presidents battling national security leaks and the role of a free press in America’s democracy.
Image from Protests For Racial Justice: A Long History

Protests For Racial Justice: A Long History

Students will learn how current protests against police violence and racial inequality are connected to the past, and about the White House commission that released a report in the aftermath of the major urban disorders of 1967.
Image from Public Policy: Welfare Reform

Public Policy: Welfare Reform

Students will learn how President Bill Clinton signed a welfare bill to reform a program created as part of the New Deal in 1935; and how the bill has reshaped the relationship between poor Americans and the government.
Image from Race, the Media and the Myth of the ‘Crack Baby’

Race, the Media and the Myth of the ‘Crack Baby’

Students will learn how the news media contributed to a false narrative about the fate of babies born to mothers with addiction problems, what that narrative teaches us about the role of perspective and historical context, and how that false narrative continues to influence us today.
Image from Second Wave Feminism, the Equal Rights Amendment and Phyllis Schlafly

Second Wave Feminism, the Equal Rights Amendment and Phyllis Schlafly

Students will learn about the battle in the 1970s between feminists and a group led by the conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly over the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed Constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women.
Image from Suffrage for Black Women

Suffrage for Black Women

Students will learn how Black women have often been at the forefront of activism and advocacy relating to ballot access, voter suppression, and the right to vote.
Image from The Arab-Israeli War: America’s Role

The Arab-Israeli War: America’s Role

Students will learn about the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, why the United States remained neutral and how the violation of that neutrality by a small group of Americans played a role in Israel’s victory.
Image from The Birth of Party Conventions: the Anti-Masonic Party (1831)

The Birth of Party Conventions: the Anti-Masonic Party (1831)

Students will learn why the populist and conspiracy-obsessed Anti-Masonic Party held America’s first political party convention, a democratizing innovation that changed forever the way Americans choose their presidents.
Image from The Birth of the Environmental Movement: DDT and Rachel Carson

The Birth of the Environmental Movement: DDT and Rachel Carson

Students will learn how the U.S. government came to develop environmental protection policies and what that means today as we struggle to balance the risk between pesticides and disease.
Image from The Civil Rights Movement Expands: Busing

The Civil Rights Movement Expands: Busing

Students will learn what happened in 1971 when the U.S. Supreme Court authorized the use of cross-town busing to desegregate schools, and why much of the integration achieved through busing has unraveled in the last two decades.
Image from The Civil Rights Movement: Black Power and Sports

The Civil Rights Movement: Black Power and Sports

Students will learn about protests in the 1960s among black athletes including Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali and members of the 1968 U.S. Olympics team, and how their actions relate to modern protestors like Colin Kaepernick.
Image from The Clinton Presidency:  “Zero Tolerance”

The Clinton Presidency: “Zero Tolerance”

Students will learn the social and political forces that led schools to adopt “zero tolerance” discipline policies in the 1980s and 1990s, and the racially unequal consequences of these policies today.
Image from The Cold War and the Nuclear Weapons Threat

The Cold War and the Nuclear Weapons Threat

Students will learn about the Cold War-era nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, and its connection to the threat of nuclear conflict today.
Image from The Cold War Space Race

The Cold War Space Race

Students will learn how the United States space program was fueled by Cold War rivalry, and how the U.S. government leveraged the program’s success in its public relations battle with the Soviet Union.
Image from The Cold War: From the Truman Doctrine to the Berlin Airlift

The Cold War: From the Truman Doctrine to the Berlin Airlift

Students will learn how the Berlin Airlift helped protect Berlin from Soviet control, contributed to the rise of NATO and set the tone for the Cold War.
Image from The End of the Cold War: Nuclear Winter

The End of the Cold War: Nuclear Winter

Students will learn how a scientific theory of “nuclear winter” shifted the debate over nuclear weapons in the 1980s, and how that hypothesis connects to the 21st century challenge of climate change.
Image from The Environment and Natural Resources: Wild Horses

The Environment and Natural Resources: Wild Horses

Students will learn about efforts in the early 1970s to enhance environmental regulation and species protections and what happens when those policies lead to conflict – in this case over the wild horse.
Image from The Geography of Racism: Housing Policy

The Geography of Racism: Housing Policy

Students will learn how racism became ingrained in the geography of American cities, and how innovative housing policies and data science are being used to counteract this.
Image from The Korean War

The Korean War

Students will learn how President Harry Truman’s use of presidential power during the Korean War continues to influence U.S. foreign policy and military engagements around the world today.
Image from The Moral Panic Over “Superpredators”

The Moral Panic Over “Superpredators”

Students will learn how politicians of both parties used flawed predictions about the rise of a new class of youthful offenders known as superpredators to justify a series of dramatic changes to the nation’s criminal justice system during the 1990s.
Image from The Second Amendment: Siege at Waco

The Second Amendment: Siege at Waco

Students will learn how the federal government’s botched raid on the compound of the Branch Davidian religious sect in 1993 led to decades of controversy over Second Amendment rights.
Image from The Space Race: The Challenger Tragedy

The Space Race: The Challenger Tragedy

Students will learn about the development of the nation’s space program, including a seminal event during Ronald Reagan’s presidency: the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and its lasting aftermath.
Image from The War on Drugs: The New Face of Heroin

The War on Drugs: The New Face of Heroin

Students will learn the origin and racial context of America’s multi-decade war on drugs, and the impact the changing demographics of heroin users have had on the debate and public policy.
Image from Vietnam War: Agent Orange

Vietnam War: Agent Orange

Students will learn why the U.S. military decided to spray a defoliant chemical called Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, and the lingering effects of that decision decades later.
Image from Watts Uprising and the Militarization of Policing

Watts Uprising and the Militarization of Policing

Students will learn how racial discontent in the 1960s led to the creation of the nation’s first SWAT team, how the War on Drugs of the 1980s caused SWAT teams to be repurposed for drug raids, and how, in recent years, the SWAT approach to policing has fueled a nationwide trend: the militarization of local police departments.