Second Party SystemAll 5 grade bands · K-2 through APFree download
1848
Lesson plan.
Zachary Taylor vs Lewis Cass — War hero Zachary Taylor won for the Whigs despite having no political record, while the slavery question fractured both major parties. The Free Soil Party, running former president Martin Van Buren on an anti-slavery-expansion platform, won 10% of the popular vote and no electoral votes but drew enough support from Democrats in New York to help Taylor win that state. Taylor died of illness in July 1850, leaving Millard Fillmore to handle the Compromise of 1850.
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