Highland is here to help your students learn no matter where you are located! Our educator resources give teachers access to historical documents and images for learning about key topics, including the formation of American identity, the complexities of slavery, and how the young United States forged its way into a powerful Atlantic world.
The resources below are building blocks for thoughtful and engaging primary source activities, tailored for fourth grade students and above. Each module also includes a bibliography for further reading.
Highland’s teacher resources align with the following Virginia Standards of Learning:
Virginia Studies
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- 1607 through the American Revolution
- Political Growth and Westward Expansion: 1775 to the mid-1800s
United States History I
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- Colonial America and the American Revolution
- A New Nation and Its Expansion
United States History II
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- Westward Expansion and its Impact on Indigenous People
Civics and Economics
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- American Constitutional Government
Virginia and United States History
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- Early America Through the Founding of the Nation
Did you know that many of our nation’s most significant documents are freely available for you to explore? Follow this link to learn more about the National Archives’ America’s 100 Docs project.
Ready to put your decision making skills to the test? Enhance your understanding of the questions, conflicts, and compromises that James Monroe and his contemporaries faced with these iCivics games, videos, and resources.
These Teacher Resources were done in partnership with Hampton Kennedy from the Blue Ridge School. Hampton has previously worked at schools in North Carolina and New Hampshire and has taught world history, civics, economics, and United States history, although America’s early republic remains his favorite topic of study. Hampton earned a Master’s degree in history from Norwich University and a Bachelor’s degree in history education from Appalachian State University. He is an outdoorsman and hiker, avidly exploring places as local as Shenandoah National Park and as far away as the Himalayan Mountains.
Hampton would like to extend a special thanks to the following institutions for their support and permission to reproduce their manuscript holdings for this educational project: The American Numismatic Society, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, The James Monroe Museum, The James Monroe Papers at Mary Washington University, The Library of Congress, The Library of Virginia, The National Archives and Records Administration, The New York Public Library, The University of Virginia, The University of Wisconsin, and The White House Historical Association.