This program brings The Nation Magazine’s renowned archives to life in high school classrooms. Since its first issue in July 1865—just weeks after the end of the Civil War—The Nation Magazine has offered critical insight into the most important events in American life and has featured the writing of some of the most influential thought-leaders of American history. The writing of luminaries such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, WEB Du Bois, William Pickens, and James Baldwin, provide authentic insight and reflect upon the struggles, triumphs, events, and conflicts throughout American history.
With more than 50 pages of material—including both student materials and teacher resources—Nation Classroom frames iconic archival selections of the magazine with the goal of making it as easy as possible for teachers to assign Nation articles as primary resources.
The first three teaching modules focus on three distinct eras in U.S. history: (1) The Post-Civil War Era and Realities of Reconstruction; (2) Return from World War I, Jim Crow and the Harlem Renaissance; and (3) Civil Rights, Civil Strife: Landmark Movement Moments.
Each module contains the following:
- An introduction to the time period
- Multiple excerpts from original Nation articles along with original, full-text PDF versions.
- Vocabulary lists
- Questions to help students develop insights and analytical skills
- Practice activities for testing mastery of those skills
Teacher Modules are password-protected and include all content on student pages, plus:
- Lesson plans for direct teaching of the content
- Discussion questions to pose before and after reading of the magazine articles
- Definitions of selected vocabulary from the excerpts
- Model responses to questions