This is a series of American history academic units based on local history resources available in Berkshire county. Each of these units is designed according to the Wiggins and McTighe Understanding By Design, and looks at essential questions for understanding the specific content areas.

Each unit is designed to be used by a classroom teacher and can be used with any US History textbook. I have included a series of resources that can be used by the classroom teacher for their own information or to incorporate into their presentation of material.  Vocabulary, general factual information, and formal assessments should be drawn from the text book used in each district.  Specific readings are drawn from educational and government websites and from African American Heritage in the Upper Housatonic Valley by David Levinson, editor.  I was able to find images under the public domain through http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page to help illustrate the lesson plans and activities. 

Also I've included a specific lesson example drawing upon local history resources as an example lesson. These should be used as part of the overall unit structure and incorporated into the material being presented.  There are a lot of resources presented within these units that can form the basis of your own units or lesson plans, and are linked to both the Massachusetts and the National Standards for social studies.  Modifications and accommodations should be incorporated as part of the day-to-day instruction for students and can easily be applied to the material presented here. Some of these units do rely on site visits, but I have provided pictures of the sites, when applicable, to help frame the unit. The local history material is based on Brown's principles outlined in Locating Resources for the Teaching of Local History and I've tried to incorporate as many of the ideas presented there to approach the topics.