Second Party SystemAll 5 grade bands · K-2 through APFree download
1840
Lesson plan.
William Henry Harrison vs Martin Van Buren — William Henry Harrison and the Whigs defeated incumbent Van Buren with the first modern media campaign, the famous 'Log Cabin and Hard Cider' campaign portraying Harrison as a rough frontier hero. The Panic of 1837 had devastated Van Buren's popularity. Voter turnout surged to 80%, reflecting the maturation of mass-participation politics. Harrison died of pneumonia just 31 days after his inauguration, leaving John Tyler — a Democrat in Whig clothing — as president.
What is in each packet
Cover
Cycle metadata + band eyebrow
Lesson plan
Instructor — timing, materials, standards
Reading
Sized to grade band (K-2: ~250 words → AP: ~650)
Background
Curated cycles — 5-7 vocab terms + primary-source excerpt
Student worksheet
K-2: 3 questions → AP: 8, mixed format
Answer key
Instructor — rationale on every item
Discussion prompts
3 prompts tied to era
DBQ (AP only)
Long-essay + 5-point rubric + second source