Review of The Mount Vernon Website

I chose to explore the Mt. Vernon website, simply because I'm a Jefferson fan and I wanted to compare and contrast with the Monticello site as a bit of friendly colonial competition.
I really enjoyed this site, and once I got past the capitalist hoopla the educational materials were aces.  Here are the highlights...

•  I especially liked the videos of the historical interpreters as I am constantly reminding kids that there is more to the story than what is in the history books and that these were real people. 
• Many, many lesson plans were just first rate and looked like actual fun.  I am particularly interested in political cartoons as it reiterates the above point.  To understand them, you have to have a pretty good working knowledge of the time period and this site has extensive lessons to make those links.
• There are some very, very good historical videos that could be integrated into my PPT or lectures that are free for educators to use.
• The lesson plans (multimedia or not) were created by their research fellows and as part of a summer program that they run for teachers.  The plans have been peer reviewed and tweaked in a very competitive workshop environment.  Barring me tweaking them for my own likes/dislikes they really are some sterling examples of best practice in history education.  I really liked that I can back up my reasoning to use these lesson plans with the academic weight of the people that created them.

Student Focus Group:  9-12 (and I think I could pull off advanced 8th)
Subject Alignment:  History, Social Studies, PolSys/Civ
Core Standards...
US History (GPS) SSUSH2-5

• Economy and Society in British North America
• Primary Causes of American Revolution
• Ideological, Military, and Diplomatic Aspects of American Revolution
• Key Events that brought about the adoption of the US Constitution

American Gov't/Civ (GPS) SSCG2-5

• Natural Rights Theory and nature of Gov't in relation to Declaration of Independence
• US Constitution
• Organization of US Gov't
• Federalist System of Gov't & Constitution

NSS-National Social Studies Standards:  NSS-C9-12.2-3

• Foundations of the American Political System
• Principles of Democracy

NL-ENG National Literacy Standard NL-ENG.K-12.5

• Communication Strategies

 

To be completely honest, I think this site probably hits EVERY core standard for SS,CG, and Literacy across the colonial studies board at some point.  The ones above were relevant to the lesson plans I was viewing regarding political cartoons.

 

Great site!  Will be poaching (with acknowledgement, of course!) for a very, very long time.