Liberty and Equality

Liberty and Equality consists of twenty-five primary-source-based classroom exercises. Each exercise consists of an original (primary) source, a set of questions that guide students to an understanding of the source, and an extended exercise in which students apply the lessons of the source in a larger context. Questions are designed to move students from lower-level (facts and dates) to higher-level (analysis and synthesis) thinking. Each of the twenty-five lessons requires writing as part of the exercise. All exercises are based on the Colorado Model Content Standards in History and Reading and Writing. Some also pertain to standards in Geography, Economics, and Political Science. Although the exercises utilize local primary sources, Liberty and Equality provides a set of teacher-created, ready-made, primary-source based exercises in United States history for use in classrooms across the nation.HOW TO USE THIS BOOKLiberty and Equality is divided into two parts. The first consists of the classroom exercises, the questions, and the extended exercises. The second part contains the answers/responses for each question in each exercise and the standards that apply. The titles of the exercises in the answer section are the same as their counterparts in the first section and are listed in the same order. We suggest that teachers download the book and duplicate sufficient quantities of the original source and the questions for their students. There is no need to worry about copyright infringement.The owners and authors of the documents and the exercises have provided written permission to copy their work freely. The exercises in Liberty and Equality are designed for each student to have a copy of the document alongside the set of questions that pertain to the source. This reduces confusion and increases the skills and abilities necessary to decipher and analyze the original sources.We encourage the practice of each student manipulating the original source individually and then sharing both the process and the results with the rest of the class. In using this method over the last ten years, we have found that original source exercises are best utilized in class and not as homework, as students attempt to “find the answers” via the internet rather than through analysis of the sources.Overall, we hope that you and your students find the sources and the exercises to be both fun and educational. The teachers who created them found that compiling the exercises rejuvenated their interest in, and love for, history. We trust that it will have the same effect for you and your students.