You should have been a fly on the wall yesterday, hearing the kids discuss the essay. Understanding the Federalist Papers enhances understanding of the Constitution. The essays are great in their references to multiple Federalist Papers. The materials are effective with students of varying abilities.
– Cheryl Cook-Kallio,
Irvington High School, Fremont, California
These materials encourage higher-order thinking skills and help students to develop their analytic writing ability.
– Kristie Barbee,
Waltrip High School, Houston, Texas
The Roots of Liberty offers teachers and students new ways of looking at the Federalist Papers. The materials are both comprehensive and comprehensible. Connect to Current Issues is particularly useful.
– Tom W. Glaser,
Mater Academy Charter High School, Hialeah Gardens, Florida
My Senior Honors Government students loved these materials. We will use these materials again next semester. Working with primary sources is a challenge for my students, but using the Analyze the Source questions worked out well.
– Michael Wilmoth,
Wellington High School,
Wellington, Kansa
The Roots of Liberty challenges students to think and evaluate–a good stretch for many of our students. The Analyze the Source activity encapsulates the issue AND requires students to employ critical thinking skills.
Falls Church, Virginia
The materials are well-organized. My students found them thoughtful and insightful. All parts were very user friendly. The students really liked the questions that accompany the excerpts from the Federalist Papers. The questions for the essays stretched my students. They were made to think! I like how the essays are organized: the lettered paragraphs make for easy reference. The Discussion Guide was a hit with my students.
– Mike Ortman,
The Roots of Liberty reader is a flexible tool that I was able to incorporate into a government class comprised of students with varied reading abilities. The manner in which the Roots of Liberty was compiled allowed students to analyze and explore the documents in a manageable and meaningful way. Overall, my students felt empowered that they were able to discuss and deliberate sophisticated topics originally presented by the Founding Fathers. I recommend Roots of Liberty to any American Government teacher and for students of any ability level.
– Pat Usher,
I like how the curriculum utilizes the Federalist Papers as a springboard to look at the original intent of our Constitution. I also like how the curriculum makes connections to historic cases throughout our Country’s later history and offers current events projects helping students see how the issues at our founding are still issues today.
– Homeschool Teacher,
This is a very important course to all students, and it is exciting to see that studying the Federalist Papers has been put into a beautifully organized course with a visual component.
I have homeschooled our children for the past fourteen years and been involved with teaching co op classes for many years, I have seen many courses that work well in the that setting and many that do not. I am very impressed by what I read and see in the Roots of Liberty course.
The Discussion Guide clearly outlines the teaching options as well as providing many opportunities for more research and analytical writing, for bridging this material to current events, and for questions. I especially appreciate the video segments which include vivid portraits and images of our American History from the 1700’s through the present. Additionally, the short length of the videos is just right for allotting classroom time for discussion following the video.
I believe this is excellent material, and I will highly recommend Roots of Liberty to our co op group.
– Laura Zishcke
Homeschool Teacher,