middle school

If you’ve ever wrapped up your unit on the New Nation and immediately sensed glazed eyes as soon as you say “review day,” you are definitely in good company. The transition from the American Revolution to the early years of the United States — interpreting the Constitution, comparing the views of early leaders, and understanding how the first presidents shaped the nation — is rich with content but not always easy for students to hold onto. It’s full of big ideas and nuanced debates that middle schoolers often struggle to connect without a little extra support.

That was exactly my experience teaching the New Nation unit. We would spend weeks unpacking Hamilton vs. Jefferson, the creation of the federal government, and early precedents set by Washington and Adams, and students would seem to understand… until a review session exposed all the misconceptions. Suddenly we’d be revisiting questions like “Wait, who wanted a national bank again?” or “What was the Whiskey Rebellion about?” far more often than I’d like.