Reading Like a Historian: Stanford University

You gotta love Stanford University. Their education group has created a site called "Reading like a Historian." They created lessons for world history, each of which revolves around a central question, and uses primary documents to analyze the question. Their World History site is divided into three periods (ancient, medieval, and modern). Because I teach a section of World 9, I clicked on Ancient and downloaded a lesson on the Roman Emperor Augustus. Other lessons include the Dark Ages, the First Crusade, the Black Death,  and Martin Luther. The modern period includes the Reign of Terror, Factory Life, Battle of Adwa,  Battle of Somme, Appeasement, Invasion of Nanking, Nazi Propaganda, India Partition, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

The lesson I downloaded asks students to figure out what kind of leader Augustus was and includes 6 documents, two of which are images. Students complete a chart with three questions for each document--based on the document, what kind of leader was Augustus, what evidence supports these reasons and is the document reliable. The documents are short and manageable for 9th graders.

The site is free but you have to register. This stuff is really great. Check it out. Below is a quick view of the Alexander lesson. My thanks to Jeff Feinstein for finding and sending me the link.
Augustus Lesson Plan