About Teaching 250
Teaching250 is a collaborative project bringing together established national civic education organizations and classroom teachers to develop high-quality, nonpartisan instructional resources in advance of America’s 250th anniversary. This initiative was made possible through a 2025 Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics Award—an annual recognition for Civics Renewal Network members from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
Supported by this award, educators worked alongside partners from the Civics Renewal Network to create inquiry-based lessons that help students explore America’s founding principles through primary sources and engaging classroom activities.
To learn more about the organizations that contributed resources to Teaching250, please explore our Civics Renewal Network partners. Each lesson page also includes links to partner organizations where you can find additional classroom materials and resources.
Featured Lesson Plans
Washington’s Legacy
In this lesson students will examine the foreign policy advice of President George Washington and then evaluate the policies for four other US presidents to analyze if they followed his advice.
It Makes Sense! Common, That Is!
Students will trace the establishment of Republicanism in history using the primary sources including the Mayflower Compact, Common Sense, Declaration Of Independence, Articles Of Confederation, Constitution.
An Unfinished Promise
In this lesson, students will first explore three primary sources that help students think about what the founding generation thought about the idea and ideal of equality. Students engage in inquiry by using the text of the primary sources to generate an answer to the first compelling question. Students then use evidence and reasoning to support their claim. In the second part of the lesson, students investigate additional primary sources to see how the ideals of human equality in the Declaration of Independence have inspired change throughout American history.