This is the page created by Bill Carey of TN History for Kids to assist Robertson County middle school teachers.
Here are suggestions arranged by topic and standard:
SIXTH/SEVENTH GRADES
Mick Jagger, lead singer of the Rolling Stones, visits the Parthenon. Your students should do the same! PHOTO: Mick Jagger’s Twitter Feed
Standard 6.01
Be aware that there are people in Tennessee who are not happy with the use of the abbreviations BCE and CE. A leader at the Tennessee General Assembly sent a letter to the standards review committee about this exact topic.
So make sure you teach your students what BC, BCE, AD and CE all mean.
Standards 6.22, 6.28, 6.29, 6.59, 7.08 and 7.16
….cover the “origins and central features” of Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Shintoism and Islam.
Let me give you some background about why these standards are worded as they are, be because some parents may ask:
These standards exist because religion is hugely important in world culture. You cannot explain world history without talking about religion.
These standards are in the order that they are because of the order in which they developed.
The standards review committee that created the current social studies document was aware that the wording of these standards had caused controversy. That’s why all 6 of these “world religion” standards have the same format (Describe the origins and central features; Key Persons, Sacred Texts, Basic Beliefs).
Standard 6.49
Middle Tennesseans are privileged to have the only full-sized replica of the Greek Parthenon in the world. The Nashville Parthenon has a wonderful staff and programs, which is why I recommend that EVERY SIXTH GRADER IN THE NASHVILLE MSA TAKE A FIELD TRIP THERE.
In addition to that field trip, or in place of that field trip, I recommend:
Click here for the virtual tour of the Parthenon on the TN History for Kids webpage. The best part of this virtual tour is the photo of Mick Jagger, who visited the Parthenon on his most recently concert in Nashville. Today is July 31, 2024, and I intend to update and expand this virtual tour during the next few weeks.
Also, click here for a series of wonderful videos for students hosted by Katie Petrole at the Parthenon.
The opening scene from the 1939 movie Hunchback of Notre Dame
Standard 7.44
.. mentions Gutenberg’s Printing Press.
The first five minutes of the 1939 movie Hunchback of Notre Dame does a great job of putting the Gutenberg’s Printing Press in historical context. Your students may agree, and they may love seeing part of a great old movie.
Click here to see this opening scene.
Standards 7.58 through 7.61
…are hugely important.
Standard 7.59 is also a mess, because it does not have all these explorers in the correct order. I’ve created a quiz that has notes at the end of it which I took listening to a college course on this subject and they may prove to be of value
Click here to see it.
In regards to Columbus, TN History for Kids recently created a booklet that contains the page to the left and to the right. Feel free to click on them and go over this with your students.
Also, TN History for Kids has a virtual tour “In Search of de Soto,” since he ventured through present-day Tennessee. Click here to see it.
EIGHTH GRADE
You will see many references below to two booklets.
Free and Independent State (on the right) is a 96-page paperback booklet we wrote, and produced to help high school students teach the Tennessee specific topics in the 8th grade US history class.
Comet, Earthquake and Fire Canoe (on the left) is a booklet we wrote and produced to help early U.S. history students understand (and come to love) early U.S. history. Click to learn more about how to obtain them.
Standard 8.14
Chapter One of Comet Earthquake (called “Sliced-Up Snake Changes the World”) gives a rather entertaining explanation of why the “Join or Die Political Cartoon” topic keeps coming up.
Standard 8.15
The victims of the Boston Massacre are buried with 11 year old Christopher Seider (THFK photo)
.. mentions the Boston Massacre.
Chapter Two of Comet Earthquake (called “First Casualty of the Revolution”) is about how the death of an 11-year-old boy led to the Boston Massacre.
Speaking of the Boston Massacre, there are several clips from the HBO miniseries John Adams that describe in vivid detail what happened and how Adams was the defense attorney for the accused British soldiers in their subsequent trial. This miniseries was not completely true to events, but it was generally based on facts, and I think some of these scenes will make your students better appreciate the Revolutionary War.
Click here to see the short scene where Adams runs up to the scene of the massacre, and here for a longer scene during the trial itself.
Standards 8.19 and 8.20
…. discuss the struggles of loyalists, patriots, and the Continental Army. I’d like to reference two things: The first is Chapter 4 of Comet Earthquake, which points out that twice as many American soldiers died in prisoner of war death ships than in all the battles of the Revolution combined.
The second is an important point: American soldiers weren’t paid much at all during the Revolutionary War. However, after the war, many were awarded with LAND GRANTS in places such as Middle Tennessee. These land grants were often 640 acres and were given to veterans who either had to move to the site of the land grant and “improve” the land, or veterans could sell them if they chose. Pretty much every square inch of Robertson County was originally part of a Revolutionary War land grant.
Kings Mountain battlefield is in South Carolina
Standard 8.20
Click here for a virtual tour of Kings Mountain battlefield.
Standard 8.21
Chapter 5 of Comet Earthquake (“Remember the Unpaid War Hero” is a different take on Shays Rebellion that I think your students will like to read.
Standard 8.28
The process under which the Southwest Territory became the state of Tennessee is an important standard to TN History for Kids.
We recommend chapter 6 of Free and Independent State (called “A State Not Yet Complete”). Also, every fall, I do a student open-house presentation about how Tennessee became a state. It is very interesting, and involves a lot of stories of violence between “settlers” and Creeks, Cherokees, Shawnees, etc. Keep an eye out for it.
I highly recommend teachers use this map (created by the Bureau of American Ethnology) when they talk about Tennessee becoming a state.
In 1796, the most recent treaty that had been signed with Native Americans was the Treaty of the Holston. As best I can tell, about 3/4 of what is now the state of Tennessee was owned by the Cherokee, Chickasaw or Creek nations in 1796.
Standard 8.34
The rise of Memphis is a topic of chapter 8 of Free and Independent State (called the “Land of Hardwood and Cotton”)
This is the photograph that started John Baker’s fascination with the Wessyngton Plantation (PHOTO: TN State Library and Archives)
Standard 8.36
.. is about slavery and the Nat Turner Rebellion.
I recommend all teachers sit through my presentation called “Teaching about Slavery: Dos and Don’ts.” (See the top of the right column.)
An 1807 runaway slave ad
Chapter 9 of Free and Independent State is all about slavery in Tennessee.
I am posting on the left and right runaway slave ads that were published that concerned enslaved people in Robertson County.
An 1842 runaway slave ad
You may or may not want to show these to your students. But they remind us that slavery existed in and around Springfield, and that many of the enslaved people hated it so much that they risked their lives to get away.
Finally, I can’t emphasize this enough:
HAVE YOUR STUDENTS READ THE VIRTUAL TOUR “IN SEARCH OF SLAVERY AND WESSYNGTON.” This is an amazing Robertson County story that John Baker has brought to life.
Nashville Republican Banner newspaper, Dec. 4, 1856
Standard 8.39
.. is about immigration into the United States before the Civil War.
Before Ellis Island became the landing point for immigrants into this country, CASTLE GARDEN was the place immigrants landed in New York. On the right you will see one of many articles in the newspaper about immigration into Castle Garden. Remember that the fact that these immigrants landed in the North and not in the South would be very important during the Civil War!
On the left you will see one of many articles that reflects immigrants who moved to Tennessee and some of the problems that they faced. Irish immigrants were heavily recruited by the companies that built the first railroad in Tennessee, which was the one that connected Nashville to Chattanooga. This article describes one the many riots that took place between the immigrants and the people who were living in Tennessee before them.
Standard 8.47
… is about the Indian Removal Act and the subsequent Trail of Tears.
Chapter 11 of Free and Independent State (“Red Clay to Trail of Tears”) covers these standards pretty well.
We also have four virtual tours we recommend that students take:
Click here to take the virtual tour of New Echota, in Georgia.
Click here to take the virtual tour of Red Clay, in Tennessee.
Click here to take a tour of the Cherokee Indian Museum, in North Carolina.
And click here to take a tour of the Chickasaw Indian Nation.
Standard 8.48
… is about the Tennessee Constitution of 1834, and I am not a fan of this standard.
It is true that the Tennessee Constitution of 1834 extended voting rights to white, male men who didn’t own property. But the Constitution of 1834 also eliminated voting rights for free Black men — many of whom had vote in Tennessee prior to this time.
The Tennessee Constitution of 1834 stated that the General Assembly could NOT pass any law restricting the rights of slaveholders to own slaves. This “locked” Tennessee in as a slave state, which would be important in 1861.
The reason Standard 8.48 points out that the Tennessee Constitution of 1834 was important because it “expanded voting rights for non-property owners” is because that is what the Tennessee Blue Book says. So teach your students this, but also tell them about what it said about slavery.
Standard 8.51
…is about the Texas War and the Alamo.
This is the subject of chapter 10 in Free and Independent State; the subject of this virtual tour; and the subject of this video (called “Remember the Tennesseans”) that we filmed at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
Your students will be AMAZED to hear the story behind these ships in San Francisco Bay.
Standard 8.55
— is about the California Gold Rush.
This might at first feel like a subject that TN History for Kids knows little about, but in October 2023, we did a two-hour Zoom inservice from the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park in California, where gold was discovered. It was hosted by the park rangers there.
Click here to see that Zoom inservice, and here to see a page we put together that summarizes what we learned that day in Question and Answer format.
Visitors traditionally place pennies atop Dred Scott’s grave.
Standard 8.59
… is about the Dred Scott decision.
A few years ago I was in St. Louis and put together an entire virtual tour that tries to tell the whole Dred Scott story from beginning to end at an 8th grade level. Click here to see it.
Standard 8.63
….is about the various battles of the U.S. Civil War. Be aware that on our website, we have virtual tours of the following battles:
Also, chapter 14 of Free and Independent State (“The Icon About Whom We Still Fight”) is entirely about Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Standard 8.64
…is about the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most misunderstood documents in world history.
First of all, please don’t tell your students that the Emancipation Proclamation “freed the slaves” — because that is simply not true. The proclamation did considerably less than that, and Tennessee was exempt from it, but it did send the Civil War on a course where it was more about slavery than it had been.
A few years ago I wrote a column about this subject and have tried to simplify it since. I’ve done the best I can to make this understandable. Click here to see it:
