Back to Standards Index: National Council for the Social Studies C3 Framework
Standards Index: D1.4.9-12.
Find lessons and videos that align with standards
Explain how supporting questions contribute to an inquiry and how, through engaging source work, new compelling and supporting questions emerge.

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The War on Terror and the Debate Over Torture
Students will learn about the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, focusing on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and the ensuing calls for accountability.

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Why Supreme Court Confirmations Have Become So Bitter: Mini-Lesson
Students will examine the nomination and confirmation process for Supreme Court Justices and learn why the judges often reveal so little.

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Genetically Modified Food
Students will learn how the rise of genetically modified food sparked controversy and transformed modern agriculture. They will also consider how the video could be updated to reflect more recent developments.

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Holocaust Survivors Fleeing Ukraine Find New Home in Germany
Students will examine the history of the Holocaust in Ukraine, and compare and contrast the current crisis in Ukraine.

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The Battle for Votes: Gerrymandering
Students will learn the causes and effects of gerrymandering, and how court decisions authorizing race-based gerrymandering have reshaped American politics and created complex legacies.

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Reagan: Foreign Policy and a Story from Central America (El Salvador)
Students will learn how President Reagan’s administration, trying to stop Soviet communist influence around the world, supported authoritarian regimes, and the impact that had in El Salvador and in the U.S. then and now.

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How the Military Response to 9/11 Led to Two Decades of War in Afghanistan
Students will learn how the U.S. military response to the 9/11 attacks led to decades of war and a chaotic ending."

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Aftermath of the War on Terror
Students will learn how the climate of fear and panic following the 9/11 attacks resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of innocent Arab immigrants.

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How Watergate and Citizens United Shaped Campaign Finance Law
Students will learn how the Watergate break-in changed the way political campaigns were funded, and what that means for today.

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Can You Spot Misinformation?
Students will learn how to fact-check a sensational story using a technique called lateral reading.

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Sanctuary Cities: An Uproar That Began Long Ago - Mini-Lesson
Students will learn about how as deportations of unauthorized immigrants rose under President Donald Trump, some churches and cities declared themselves sanctuaries and shielded migrants from immigration enforcement.

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1912 Republican Convention: TR Starts the Bull Moose Party
Students will learn how former President Theodore Roosevelt used the newly created direct primary system to challenge incumbent President William Howard Taft for the Republican Party’s nomination in 1912.

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How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees
Students will examine the question of what obligation countries have to refugees. As Afghan and Ukrainian migrants settle in the U.S., this video asks whether refugee resettlement is better now than it was for the Vietnamese 50 years ago.

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1968 Democratic National Convention: The Mess in Chicago
Students will learn how internal tensions over Vietnam and the cultural changes of the 1960s led to violence and chaos at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

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How a Folk Singer’s Murder Forced Chile to Confront Its Past: Mini-Lesson
Students will connect the events of the 1973 U.S.-backed Chilean military coup to the Cold War by focusing on the killing of folk singer and activist Victor Jara.

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American Reckoning
Students will learn about a little-known story of the civil rights movement told using excerpts from “American Reckoning," a Retro Report and PBS Frontline collaboration.

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1964 Republican Convention: Chaos & Conservatism
Students will learn how Senator Barry Goldwater’s nomination in 1964 led to a disastrous Republican convention and a Democratic landslide in November, but not without giving birth to the conservative movement that has come to dominate today’s Republican Party.

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Vincent Chin and Asian American Civil Rights
Students will learn about the case that set the precedent for racially motivated attacks against Asian Americans being prosecuted as hate crimes.

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Where's That Photo From? Identify the Source
Students will learn the skill of reverse image search and describe the process as applied to the provided examples.

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How to Fact-Check History
Students will learn about the methods professional news organizations and historians use to check facts and how that applies to their own work.

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9/11 Heroes: Surviving the Biggest Attack on U.S. Soil
Students will learn about Sept. 11, 2001, and specifically about the experience of some of the more than 2,000 New York City emergency workers who sped toward lower Manhattan.

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The Cold War in Latin America: Massacre in El Salvador
Students will learn about the Cold War in Latin America, with a focus on the El Mozote massacre in El Salvador.

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Unprepared: Lessons From Two Massive Oil Spills
Students will learn about the Exxon Valdez and BP Deepwater Horizon oil spills, as well as examining the long-term effects on ecosystems and coastal communities.

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Extremism in America
Students will explore the seeds of the extremist ideologies that continue to be influential today and the government’s failed attempts to stop the broader white supremacist movement.

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Dictators and Civil Wars: The Cold War in Latin America
Students will learn how driven by fears of the rise of Communism, the United States adopted a policy of containment, intervening in the politics of countries across the globe, including many countries in Latin America.

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Facing Eviction
Students will learn about housing insecurity during the Covid-19 pandemic and how eviction outcomes often came down to what county, or even city, a tenant lived in.

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Election of 1860: Slavery Splits the Democrats
Students will learn how the issue of slavery caused a split in the Democratic Party that led to the Civil War and paved the way for 50 years of Republican dominance in national politics.

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Immigration in the 1990s: Proposition 187
Students will learn about the anti-immigration movement in California in the 1990s, and why it is relevant today.