BRI Is Here For You As The School Year Begins
<p><em>By Mary Patterson</em></p>
<p>It’s back to school season! All the pool toys are on clearance, and they already put out the Halloween candy, so you know it’s time.</p>
<p>I hope the summer provided you with enough time to restore your spirit and/or lick your wounds. I personally always needed to do a bit of both, but I was always excited for the fresh start of a new year! Standards and policies coming from on high were always changing, in my experience. But by relying on big themes in my classroom I found a meaningful, consistent way to help my students develop critical thinking skills.</p>
<p>At the Bill of Rights Institute, we call these big themes our <a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/principles-and-virtues">Founding principles and civic virtues</a>. With these, you have a ready-made anchor for your history and civics classrooms, and the start of the year is a great time to introduce them!</p>
<p>Our recently updated <a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/curricula/heroes-villains">Heroes and Villains curriculum</a> uses the stories of famous characters to teach about the importance of virtues like courage and responsibility, among others. Two of my favorite characters are <a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/lessons/james-armistead-and-courage">James Armistead Lafayette</a>, a double agent during the American Revolution, and <a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/lessons/boss-tweed-and-immoderation">Boss Tweed</a>, the archetype of a politician who went too far. Using these virtues as a touchstone throughout the year can help students make connections to people in the past and, we hope, emphasize the importance of embodying these traits in their own lives.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/lessons/american-principles-and-virtues">introductory lesson in our Being an American curriculum</a> also helps your setup by using Founding principles and civic virtues as your anchor for the school year. Even if you do not implement the <a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/curricula/being-an-american">full curriculum</a>, you can always come back to this question: “What does ’being an American’ mean to me?”</p>
<p>To generate discussion and reflection among your students, this is a question you can ask throughout the school year and even have the students look at how (or if) their answers changed by the time May or June rolls around.</p>
<p>Know that all of us at BRI are rooting for you as you start the school year! Here are a few playlists I made that are content-specific to starting both an American history survey course and a general government class. I hope they offer some inspiration, or a Hail Mary pass when you really just need a day to catch your breath!</p>
<p>As Eisenhower said to the Allied troops before D-Day:</p>
<p><em>I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!</em></p>
<p><em>Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.</em></p>
<p> If you find yourself learning from your principal that you will be teaching AP US History next week (has this happened to anyone else?), check out our <a href="https://sway.office.com/gFcQ86EO887NFqEQ?ref=Link">scope and sequence</a> for <a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness">Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness</a>, BRI’s comprehensive digital U.S. history resource.</p>
<p><strong>Additional Resources</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/playlists/a4BEY0000000NmB2AU">My Colonial History Favorites (c. 1491-1750)</a><br />For those of you who start teaching American history at the very beginning!</p>
<p><a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/playlists/a4BEY0000000NmG2AU">My Reconstruction Favorites (c. 1865-1896)</a><br />For those of you who get TWO years to teach U.S. history! #Jealous</p>
<p><a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/playlists/a4BEY0000000NmL2AU">Civics 101</a><br />Foundational activities and resources for a standard-level government or civics class.</p>
<p><em>Mary Patterson is a Senior Content Specialist at the Bill of Rights Institute. She is also a former history and government teacher.</em></p>
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