The curated resources linked below are an initial sample of the resources coming from a collaborative and rigorous review process with the EAD Content Curation Task Force.
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Filter Bubbles
Grades 9–12:
Lesson Plan/Games + Interactive/Resource Collection
Source: High Resolves
Students investigate how 'filter bubbles' shape the way individuals perceive the world and others. Using the Blue Feed/Red Feed tool that showcases contrasting social media feeds, students understand the impact on individuals and society. Students brainstorm strategies that will help them ‘burst’ their filter bubbles and become active consumers of news and information.
Learning Objectives:Students will be able to understand the power of a single perspective to shape opinion.Students will be able to reflect on the impact of filter bubbles for both individuals and society.Students will be able to identify strategies to become more active and informed consumers of news.
Related Skills: Analyzing Texts, Images, or Videos, Media Literacy, Taking Informed Action
Aligned to State Standards: ALL 50 States
Note: State alignment defined by submitter and should always be checked.
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The Roadmap
HDQ1.4B How have changes in the media affected American civic experience?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
CDQ1.4D What are the opportunities and responsibilities of citizenship and civic agency in the 21st century?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
HDQ7.4A What issues in current elections or local, state, national, or international decision-making are of most interest to you?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
HDQ7.4C How have the ideologies of America's political parties changed over time?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
High Resolves
High Resolves
High Resolves design and deliver curriculum based on proven design principles from learning science, behavioural economics, social psychology, and neuroscience.
The curriculum focuses on learning experiences around citizenship, leadership, and empowering students to take part in their communities.
See the full resource at composereducation.org
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The Media and Elections: How does the media in its various forms impact elections and influence voters? How has the impact of the media changed over the course of American history?
Primary Sources Spotlight Kit
Source: Education for American Democracy
United States political elections have a long and complicated history with the media, with everything from newspapers to political cartoons to radio and television affecting the tenor and tone of elections and influencing voters. This spotlight kit focuses on the 1800 Presidential Election, the 1860 Presidential Election, and the 1960 Presidential Election, and provides primary sources directly related to these events. These three elections represent significant moments in American history; their undercurrents of political division, social upheaval, and unrest echo in contemporary political campaigns and debates.
The resources in this spotlight kit are intended for classroom use, and are shared here under a CC-BY-SA license. Teachers, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.
Jessica Culver
Jessica Culver (Ozark, AR) teaches social studies, including Civics/Economics and concurrent college credit history courses, at Ozark High School in Ozark, Arkansas. Jessica holds an undergraduate degree in Social Studies Education, a graduate degree in History, and a graduate degree in Education/Library Media, all from Arkansas Tech University. She is a certified yoga instructor, a 2020-2021 Fulbright Teacher for Global Classrooms, a 2021-2022 U.S. Institute of Peace Teacher, a member of the National Constitution Center’s Teacher Advisory Council, a National History Day Teacher, and Economics Arkansas Master Economics Teacher, a National Geographic Educator, a Take Charge Today National Master Educator, a recipient of the 2021 Arkansas Ag in the Classroom award, and a nominee for the 2021 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year National History Day award. Jessica is also active with the Bill of Rights Institute and the Jump$tart organization. Her students received recognition in 2021 with the Goethe-Institut’s “Our Sustainable Future” international competition for their work on environment and sustainability.
EAD, Education Task Force
Marc Turner
Marc Turner (Columbia, SC) teaches U.S. History, U.S. Government, and Macroeconomics at the AP and Honors level at Spring Hill High School in Chapin, South Carolina. After 28 years in education, Marc has just about done it all. He has taught at the middle school, high school, and collegiate level. He is the President of the South Carolina Council for Social Studies and the Co-Chair of the South Carolina Council for History Education. Marc presents at state and national conferences, is a National Board Certified Teacher, a Fulbright Teacher Exchange alumnus, a James Madison Fellow, supports National History Day, and sponsors the Mock Trial and We the People programs at Spring Hill. Currently, he is pursuing a master’s degree in American History and Government from Ashland University.
EAD, Education Task Force
Meredith Gavrin
Meredith Gavrin (New Haven, CT) has worked in the field of education for 30 years, primarily as both a teacher and school administrator. After teaching in New York City Public Schools, she co-founded New Haven Academy, an interdistrict magnet high school in New Haven, Connecticut, where she continues to work as an administrator and teaches one Civics class to seniors. She is also a member of the Advisory Group for the Partner Schools Network of Facing History and Ourselves and a board member of the Fund for Women and Girls at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. She also served on the Fall 2021 EAD Educator Task Force.
EAD, Education Task Force
The Roadmap
HDQ1.4A How did past generations of Americans understand and answer calls to civic duty in civil society, religious communities, and politics?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
HDQ1.4B How have changes in the media affected American civic experience?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
CDQ1.4C What is the shape of civil society in the U.S.?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
CDQ4.3F Which rights have been most prominent in American thinking and debates?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
HDQ5.4B Are there specific moments of political and social change that constitute refoundings? Why? Or why not?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
HDQ5.4C To what degree should such moments be understood as extensions of the original founding story or revolutions against it?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
CDQ5.4A What is an informal constitution and how does it change?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
HDQ7.4A How can your learning from U.S. history suggest strategies for how to address our shared contemporary problems?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
HDQ7.4B To what extent have political parties both transformed American political institutions and also maintained the status quo?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
HDQ7.4C How have the ideologies of America's political parties changed over time?
See question inside The Interactive Roadmap or Resource Library
More
The resources in this spotlight kit are intended for classroom use. Teachers, if your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.
- Primary Resources by Era/Date1800 Presidential Campaign (6)1860 Presidential Campaign (7)1960 Presidential Campaign (7)
- All 20 Primary Resources“Thoughts, on the subject of the ensuing election…”, 1800“Thoughts, on the subject of the ensuing election, addressed to the party in the state of New-York, who claim exclusively the appellation of federalists “... April 1, 1800.Transcript
Excerpt: “At a time when the eyes of all genuine Americans are wet with sorrow for the loss of a WASHINGTON, it is particularly incumbent upon you…to remember not only what you owe to the example of his life, but what is due also to the authority of his opinions…..Before, therefore, you adopt the nomination of a single candidate, test his principles, private and public, with those of a WASHINGTON. Is he a moral man, and a friend to religion? If he is not, reject him….
….Does he, in fine, think it just, proper, or prudent, that Mr. ADAMS should be continued four other years in office, and that the many extraordinary blessings of his Presidency, which have been detailed, should be continued with him. If he does, reject him…surely it is time for Mr. Adams to retire, and do this when he may, he will carry with him an abundant share, both of public honours and public money.”
The Election of 1800 was a bitter partisan battle. This article highlights the opposition felt towards incumbent president John Adams, focusing on both political and moral failings on his behalf. Adams would go on to lose New York’s vote and the presidency.
1The resources in this spotlight kit are intended for classroom use. Teachers, if your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.
CitePrintShareThoughts, on the subject of the ensuing election, addressed to the party in the state of New-York, who claim exclusively the appellation of federalists ... April 1, . {Albany Printed by Barber & Southwick } Positive Photostat. Albany, 1800. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.1130010b/
(An April 1800 broadside containing opinions and persuasive writing concerning the upcoming presidential election.)
Unknown, “The Providential Detection,” 1800“The Providential Detection,” 1800In this cartoon from 1797, as Monticello Classroom explains, "Jefferson’s political enemies portrayed the then-vice-president as dangerously pro-French, un-Christian, and un-American. Jefferson kneels ready to sacrifice the U.S. Constitution …[as] God and an American eagle oppose him, as Satan happily looks on.”
CitePrintShareUnknown, “The Providential Detection,” Presidential Campaigns: A Cartoon History, 1789-1976, accessed February 3, 2022, http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/presidentialcartoons/items/show/25.
“Providential Detection,” Monticello Classroom, https://classroom.monticello.org/media-item/the-providential-detection/. Accessed May 16, 2022.
Anonymous, “Mad Tom in a Rage,” 1800Anonymous, “Mad Tom in a Rage,” 1800Thomas Paine did not hesitate to critique John Adams and the federalist party during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. As a result, federalists published this image of Thomas Paine working with the devil to bring down the Nation.
CitePrintShareAnonymous, “Mad Tom in a Rage,” Presidential Campaigns: A Cartoon History, 1789-1976, accessed February 3, 2022, http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/presidentialcartoons/items/show/30.
“Extract from the Election Law of Pennsylvania,” 1799“Extract from the Election Law of Pennsylvania,” 1799According to the Library of Congress, “State and federal laws governing elections and citizenship are listed in this anonymous broadside, clearly published with an eye to the elections leading up to the national presidential election of 1800. In Pennsylvania, Federalists and Republicans battled to elect supporters for the state legislature so that they could control the selection of presidential electors. In the end, Pennsylvania’s electors split their votes between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”
CitePrintShareExtract from the Election Law of Pennsylvania, 1799. [Philadelphia: 1799]. Broadside. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (097.04.00) [Digital ID# us0097_04]
The National Intelligencer and Washington Advertise, November 07, 1800From “The National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser,” November 7, 1800TranscriptExcerpt:
“...from what I have stated you can vote only either for Mr. Pinckney or Mr. Jefferson; for Mr. Adams is out of the question.
If, for the above reasons you do not think that Mr. Pinckney will make a good President, Mr. Jefferson is your only resource.
Examine his character. His friends believe him not only wise but honest; they believe him to be a true friend to his country; they believe him to be a genuine republican. His enemies acknowledge his talents, his dignity of public as well as private character. All agree that he is independent. He is the friend of peace with all the world. Such a man must be your friend.”
Newspapers during the Election of 1800 were very partisan and did not shy away from personal and private attacks on candidates. Samuel Harrison Smith started the National Intelligencer as a Republican affiliated paper at the behest of Thomas Jefferson.
1“About The national intelligencer and Washington advertiser. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1800-1810,” The National Intelligencer, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045242/. Accessed May 16, 2022.James Calendar Pamphlet, Prospect Before Us, 1800-1801James Calendar pamphlet, “ Prospect Before Us,” 1800-1801TranscriptExcerpt:
“...Unless the next election for president shall pitch the whole gang of stock-jobbers over the precipice of perdition, every cent in America lies at the mercy of Mr. Adams.
Men of Virginia! Pause and ponder upon those instructive cyphers, and these incontestible facts….judge without regard to the prattle of a president, the prattle of that strange compound of ignorance and ferocity, of deceit and weakness; without regard to that hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”
James Calendar was a partisan editor who wrote this piece denouncing John Adams on the basis of his moral failings.
Louis Maurer, “The National Game. Three 'Outs' and One 'Run' (Abraham winning the Ball).,” 1860“The National Game. Three 'Outs' and One 'Run' (Abraham winning the Ball),” 1860The election of 1860 came with stark partisanship between candidates Abraham LIncoln, John Bell, Stephen A. Douglas, and John C. Breckinridge. In this cartoon, Lincoln wins “The National Game” by using his "good bat" –– a wooden rail labeled "Equal Rights and Free Territory.”
CitePrintShareLouis Maurer, “The National Game. Three 'Outs' and One 'Run' (Abraham winning the Ball),” Presidential Campaigns: A Cartoon History, 1789-1976, accessed February 3, 2022, http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/presidentialcartoons/items/show/95.
Unknown, “The Political Rail Splitter,” 1860“The Political Rail Splitter,” 1860This political cartoon is anti-Lincoln, pointing to his leadership as the reason for the South seceding from the Union.
CitePrintShareUnknown, “The Political Rail Splitter,” Presidential Campaigns: A Cartoon History, 1789-1976, accessed February 3, 2022, http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/presidentialcartoons/items/show/103.
Louis Maurer, “Storming the Castle,” 1860“Storming the Castle,” 1860In this cartoon, Lincoln is dressed as a “Wide Awake,” a member of a Republican-supporting youth group in the North. In the background, we see incumbent James Buchanan helping the other presidential candidates through the window of the White House. This depicts the partisan splits leading up to the 1860 election.
CitePrintShareLouis Maurer, “Storming the Castle,” Presidential Campaigns: A Cartoon History, 1789-1976, accessed February 3, 2022, http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/presidentialcartoons/items/show/101.
“[Dividing the] National [Map],” 1860“[Dividing the] national [map],” 1860The intense partisan debates around the Election of 1860 alluded to the coming violence and secession of the Civil War. In this cartoon, each candidate works to pull the “National Map” further apart.
CitePrintShareDividing the National Map. United States, 1860. [Cincinnati?: s.n] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008661606/.
Frederick Douglass. “The Late Election” 1860Frederick Douglass wrote a series of editorials in Douglass' Monthly. This excerpt from one editorial, entitled “The Late Election” and published in December of 1860, explains the famed abolitionist’s support for Abraham Lincoln and his sense of what will follow for the nation. While Douglass argued that Lincoln did not go far enough, he nonetheless characterizes Lincoln’s election as a turning point.
“What, then, has been gained to the anti-slavery cause by the election of Mr. Lincoln? Not much, in itself considered, but very much when viewed in the light of its relations and bearings. For fifty years the country has taken the law from the lips of an exacting, haughty and imperious slave oligarchy. The masters of slaves have been masters of the Republic. Their authority was almost undisputed, and their power irresistible. They were the President makers of the Republic, and no aspirant dared to hope for success against their frown. Lincoln's election has vitiated their authority, and broken their power. It has taught the North its strength, and shown the South its weakness. More important still, it has demonstrated the possibility of electing, if not an Abolitionist, at least an anti-slavery reputation to the Presidency of the United States. The years are few since it was thought possible that the Northern people could be wrought up to the exercise of such startling courage. Hitherto the threat of disunion has been as potent over the politicians of the North, as the cat-o'-nine-tails is over the backs of the slaves. Mr. Lincoln's election breaks this enchantment, dispels this terrible nightmare, and awakes the nation to the consciousness of new powers, and the possibility of a higher destiny than the perpetual bondage to an ignoble fear.”– Frederick Douglass, “The Late Election,” 1860
CitePrintShareDouglass, Frederick. “The Late Election.” University of Rochester Frederick Douglass Project, December 1860, https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/4404. Accessed 13 December 2022.
Grand procession of Wide-Awakes at New York on the evening of October 3, .Republican Wide Awakes in N.Y. - Lincoln-Hamlin Campaign Printing-House Square Park Row and Nassau St. , 1860“Grand procession of Wide-Awakes at New York on the evening of October 3, 1860”The “Wide-Awakes,” a youth movement, formed first in Hartford, Connecticut in 1860. Influenced by published writings and songs about their movement, clubs formed throughout the north and midwest. The groups were Republican-leaning, abolitionist, and increasingly paramilitary over the course of the year leading up to the election.
This image ran in Harper’s Weekly and shows the Wide-Awakes carrying torches and wearing uniform capes at a rally in New York.
CitePrintShareGrand procession of Wide-Awakes at New York on the evening of October 3, .Republican Wide Awakes in N.Y. - Lincoln-Hamlin Campaign Printing-House Square Park Row and Nassau St., 1860. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/99614201/.
Speech by H. Ford Douglas to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, July 1860H. Ford Douglas, like Frederick Douglass (no relation) a Black abolitionist, opposed Lincoln’s candidacy. Douglas felt strongly that Lincoln and the Republican Party were not prepared to go far enough to abolish slavery and extend the rights of citizenship to Black Americans. This speech was delivered to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and published in The Liberator.
“I do not believe in the anti-slavery of Abraham Lincoln, because he is on the side of this Slave Power of which I am speaking, that has possession of the Federal Government. What does he propose to do? Simply to let the people and the Territories regulatetheir domestic institutions in their own way. In the great debate between Lincoln and Douglas in Illinois, when he was interrogated as to whether he was in favor of the admission of more slave States into the Union, he said, that so long as we owned the territories, he did not see any other way of doing than to admit those States when they made application,
WITH OR WITHOUT SLAVERY…
Then, there is another item which I want to bring out in this connection. I am a colored man; I am an American citizen; and I think that I am entitled to exercise the elective franchise. I am about twenty-eight years old, and I would like to vote very much.
I think I am old enough to vote, and I think that, if I had a vote to give, I should know enough to place it on the side of freedom. (Applause.) No party, it seems to me, is entitled to the sympathy of anti-
slavery men, unless that party is willing to extend to the black man all the rights of a citizen.”
– Speech by H. Ford Douglas to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, July 1860
CitePrintShare“Black Abolitionist Archive | H. Ford Douglass :: UDM Libraries / Instructional Design Studio.” University of Detroit Mercy Libraries, https://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?collectionCode=baa&record_id=386. Accessed 13 December 2022.
First Kennedy-Nixon Debate, 26 September 1960Kennedy v. Nixon: the first 1960 Presidential DebatePrior to this event, presidential candidates had never before debated on television. Television introduced new challenges and offered new opportunities to the candidates; their appearances, body language, expressions, and live interactions were now broadcast to a wide audience for immediate scrutiny.
Viewable with the link above or hereCitePrintShareJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. First Kennedy-Nixon Debate, 26 September 1960 | JFK Library. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/TNC/TNC-172/TNC-172.
Note for items from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum: Copyright for this item is held by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Non-exclusive licensing rights are held by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Inc.
Letter to the National Broadcasting Company regarding televised presidential debates, 1960Letter to the National Broadcasting Company regarding televised presidential debatesThis letter concerns the use of television for the presidential debate, and the work required with ABC, NBC, and CBS to televise these debates.
CitePrintShareJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Television Debates: Correspondence.| JFK Library. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKCAMP1960/1051/JFKCAMP1960-1051-021
Description of John F. Kennedy’s television appearance, 1960Description of John F. Kennedy’s television appearance, 1960This document describes an appearance by John F. Kennedy, then a candidate, on television. The importance of the new medium is emphasized in phrases such as, “Senator Kennedy . . . makes a planned, strong, and dramatic closing statement . . . which excites and brings the audience to its feet.”
CitePrintShareJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Television. Television Files from Papers of John F. Kennedy. Pre-Presidential Papers. Presidential Campaign Files, 1960. JFK Library. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2022, from https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKCAMP1960/0993/JFKCAMP1960-0993-008.
“A Long, Hard Row to Hoe: Women’s Political Progress is Slow,” Evening Star, 10 July 1960This news article, published forty years after women received the right to vote, describes the limited role women have in the 1960 political conventions and campaign.
CitePrintShareEvening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 10 July 1960. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1960-07-10/ed-1/seq-74/
Nixon, Richard. “Draft Letter From Richard M. Nixon To Jackie Robinson,” November 4, 1960Draft Letter From Richard M. Nixon To Jackie Robinson, November 4, 1960.Message from Nixon to the pathbreaking Black baseball player Jackie Robinson on his contributions to the 1960 campaign, with a reference to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being jailed in Georgia.
CitePrintShareNixon, Richard. “Draft Letter From Richard M. Nixon To Jackie Robinson, November 4, 1960.” Today's Document from the National Archives. www.archives.gov. Accessed February 15, 2022. https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=1104.
Jacob Burck, “Glad to See they're Finally Coming to Grips,” 1960"Glad to See they're Finally Coming to Grips,"This political cartoon is a commentary on the televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Television was a new medium in the 1960 presidential election; in the image, patriotic icons Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty watch the candidates wrestle on a giant television.
CitePrintShareJacob Burck, “Glad to See they're Finally Coming to Grips,” Presidential Campaigns: A Cartoon History, 1789-1976, accessed February 3, 2022, http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/presidentialcartoons/items/show/270.
Robert Osborn, “The Image of Nixon Isn't Entirely Clear,” 1960“The Image of Nixon Isn't Entirely Clear”Political cartoon of presidential candidate Richard Nixon, from the 1960 presidential election.
CitePrintShareRobert Osborn, “The Image of Nixon Isn't Entirely Clear,” Presidential Campaigns: A Cartoon History, 1789-1976, accessed February 3, 2022, http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/presidentialcartoons/items/show/272.
![“[Dividing the] National [Map],” 1860](/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Dividing-the-National-Map-1860.jpg)
Education for American Democracy
Education for American Democracy
As part of the dissemination of the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, we organized an Educator Task Force (ETF).
Members of the early ETF curated an initial collection of over 500 instructional resources aligned to the seven themes and five design challenges.
In addition to this collection, ETF members recently built robust, diverse, and accessible primary source collections, known as Spotlight Kits, that provide rich avenues for inquiry and that braid U.S. history and civic learning throughout.
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