This teacher's guide accompanies the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) two-part videotape documentary that uses portraits and paintings, original architectural drawings and excerpts from Thomas Jefferson's journals, letters, scientific papers, and political writings to tell the story of this remarkable yet contradictory man. The guide introduces the documentary's major themes through 5 lessons which focus on the events, people, and philosophies that shaped Jefferson's life. Because portraits are used throughout the documentary to portray Jefferson at various stages in his life, this guide includes an introductory lesson on how to view and interpret portraits. Each subsequent lesson gives an activity that asks students to consider how they might, through the use of portraits, portray Jefferson at various stages of his life. The lessons are: (1) "Images of Jefferson"; (2) "Liberty: Our Sacred Honor"; (3) "The Head and the Heart"; (4) "Age of Experiments"; and (5) "The Pursuit of Happiness." Each lesson includes background information, discussion questions, activities for individual, small group, or whole class involvement, and a bibliography. The accompanying video segment index indicates the volume, hour, minute and second that material about a key event, theme, place, or person featured in the video will occur. There are an alphabetical index and a subject index focusing on events, issues, organizations and groups, people, and places. (MM)