Curriculum Guides

The Sixteenth Amendment, establishing a federal income tax, was ratified in February 1913. Readings and activities in this guide for middle and high school students explore the connection between this amendment, the government, and the American public.  Students examine today’s politics of taxation and the history of Congress as the purse holder to explain how our government provides certain goods and services. Looking at receipts and exploring different sales taxes illustrate how taxes are part of American life.

Have you been to the Chesapeake Bay or fished in the Anacostia River? How are we doing meeting Clean Air Act and Safe Drinking Water Act goals? Conversations about handling clean water and its pollution occur in rural as well as urban and suburban areas.  In this guide, your class will learn more about these and more situations, their influence on clean water, and water treatment efforts. 

Primary documents — including diaries, photographs and eyewitness accounts — provide insight into the history of slavery in the District of Columbia and Lincoln's decision to end slavery in D.C. 

The Bloodshed and Emancipation curriculum guide contains resources to teach about slavery in the U.S., the steps to manumission and the Civil War from April 1862 to January 1863. For the youngest to the oldest students, teachers will find a word find and scrambled word puzzle, historic manumission documents and Civil War photographs, Washington Post articles and discussion questions, suggested activities and maps, Fourteenth Amendment background lessons, Your and Your Rights update and activities.