Introductory Note:
Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.
In this post, I limit myself to those specific aspects of the website which I find fit particularly well within our face-to-face class sessions (each student is required to bring a laptop to class) or as the basis for the students' regularly-assigned written reactions.
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I ask the students to work through the following links:
The Primary Sources section has useful entries, in particular:
Abigail Adams: "Remember the Ladies" letter
Alien Act
Sedition Act
II. Special Features
These special features are wonderful:
Online Poll
The Choice for Revolution
Dearest Friend (letters between John and Abigail Adams)
Adams and Jefferson
III. People & Events
For a quick look at nasty politics in Adams day, check out James Callender:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/adams/peopleevents/p_callender.html
These "Events" work well for a well-rounded view of John Adams:
The Courtship
The Boston Massacre
The Revolutionary War
"Remember the Ladies"
Declaration of Independence
The Presidency
The Alien and Sedition Acts
IV. Maps
The material within these interactive maps (look particularly at Boston and Philadelphia) is terrific. The material is connected to entries from the Adams
diary.
V. Timeline
This timeline is especially well detailed.
VI. Behind the Scenes--you can skip this section
VII. Teacher's Guide
I particularly like using these:
Teacher's Guide: Government
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/adams/tguide/index.html
Question #1
Teacher's Guide: Politics
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/adams/tguide/index.html
Question #1
Question #2
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Concluding Note:
I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.
1. The website spotlighted in this post fits within the following U.S. History survey course module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Revolution
2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT
