Group items tagged

From the site: "Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) uses properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. TwHP has created a variety of products and activities that help teachers bring historic places into the classroom." Including lesson plans and tips!

Lesson Plans: The Lesson Plans link has SO MANY lesson plans. They are designed at a middle school level but can easily be adapted (says them). The lesson plans are organized by Location/State; Theme; Time period; and Skill - meaning that you can click on any one of those subdivisions and search them that way. Very exciting! You should definitely check these out. Even if you're not in that state, they still have pictures, mapping materials, and activity ideas that you can use to incorporate geography into historic concepts. For example, the Battle of Bunker Hill lesson contains two maps (of Boston today and in 1775) and inquiry questions for these, a section of text (looks like a high school level to me) and inquiry questions for that AND three images (one a sketch of an encampment and two pictures) and inquiry questions for those. These might make fantastic "Do Now"s for the beginning of the lesson even if you didn't use any of the rest of the sites info. So neat!

Also they have lots of tips for how you can incorporate place into your lessons. AND! you can submit your own lessons. They take you through the TwHP lesson creation process and you can submit them.

The History Place is a privately-run website that provides content to educators on a wide variety of historical subject. I have included this section on the Irish Potato Famine, as it was one of the more compelling narratives I found on the internet.

This section of the National Council for the Social Studies website appears to be a little bit dated, but the materials that are presented seem to be a useful resource. It must be difficult for social studies teachers to tackle the tough subjects of current global conflict, terrorism, Afghanistan, Iraq, and September 11, 2001. I am sure many school districts are still using textbooks that were printed prior to 2001 or 2002, and just don't cover this relevant information. Some of the items listed on this page are basic and practical (maps, etc.) and others are a bit more engaging and dynamic, aiming to help students develop an emotional connection to the subject matter.

How might teachers use what's there, even if it is dated?

Global issues classes in high schools will probably cover this subject matter; mine did in-depth. Some of the resources could be useful as hand outs, especially the maps. As an example, maybe over the course of a week or so of instruction, a teacher using this site as a resource could put together a lesson that stretches over the 5 class meetings, chronologically examining the roots of the second War in Iraq, stemming from the Persian-Gulf war, through Clinton's involvement, to 9/11, terrorism, Al-Qaeda being used as a pretext for war, concluding with an examination of the anti-war movement and the short course of the "traditional" war against the Iraqi military. The following week could move in to the insurgency or another related topic. Basically, I see this website as a place where a teacher looking to present the outlined events can find some extra resources that won't be in most textbooks.

History Channel interactive "place-the-state" game.

This site is, overall, a little boring but it does what it's supposed to do. Sometimes getting students interested in geography is tricky but this game could increase student interest. Students will select a level, then drag and drop the states to their correct location on the map. There could be a little more information about each state (just to increase the amount of learning) but this is generally a good, basic, online learning game.

This is a great lesson for a middle school geography class that would get students thinking about peoples' motivations for migrating from one place to another. The lesson plan includes objectives and standards as well as the lesson procedure. There are also ideas for extension activities.

Because political cartoons are somewhat of special category of primary source images, I thought it would behoove us to find a particular strategy for analyzing and interpreting them - much along the same lines as the SOAPS method but one specifically designed for political cartoons. This lesson plan, and its "Cartoon Analysis Checklist" is a start.

Thanks for this add, I can use this for my lesson plan on Chinese immigration.

Winterthur (in Delaware) is the former country estate of Henry Francis duPont. He was one of the first avid collectors of American fine and decorative arts and the museum (aside from being a beautiful place to visit) is now a leading center for scholarship in the field. The museum has created packets of primary-source materials that can be used in classrooms if a field trip is not possible.

FREE is a website pool of teaching and learning resources from various branches of the federal government. From the website: "More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly. . . . FREE is maintained by Peter Kickbush and Kirk Winters, Office of Communications and Outreach, with support from the Development Services Team in the Office of the Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Education."

This site is amazing, I was just playing around with it and I am definitely using some of the resources for my unit. :)

The UN's Millennium Goals as they have constructed them for kids. It's still a ton of information and not in the easiest or most engaging format but it might be a great place for students to get started examining world issues like Hunger, HIV/AIDS or Infant Mortality and what they can do.

The Center for Global Studies is based out of the University of Illinois. Their resources primarily come from the University of Illinois but they also have videos and research submitted from other places. Always check the source! I find most of the information to be useful when thinking about world history and global studies type courses.

How might you or another social studies teacher use it in a class?

The New Deal Network is a site that I am using in preparing my curricular unit. The site has an archive with documents such as the Fire Side Chats with President F. Roosevelt, photographs, and audio tapes. I like this site because it really takes you to that place in time so that you can see and hear what was going on in the culture as well as in the government. The site also has lesson plans and resource links for educators.

Alan, that is so funny I just posted and noticed that you too had posted this site. It's great, don't you think? I am actually using a Fire Side Chat from FDR for one of my socratic seminars in my curricular unit. There is also a lesson plan about arts and the depression that I am going to adapt for the unit.

A reference site based on the study of the history, geography and cultures of the Indian Ocean and the peoples who used it. Has an interactive map divided into different historical periods and offers lesson plans for teachers.

A map of historical sites associated with the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-1960s.

Google Earth is a fantastic way to take students to any country in the world! As long as you have a computer and a projector, students can have amazing images of different countries. They also have features to help you study topography and maps.

Part of Enchantedlearning.com, this site has easily accessible and fairly comprehensive information about different topics. This page specifically is about explorers (clearly) and could be very useful as either a place to direct your students to for their own research OR a personal crash course.

"The United Nations Cyberschoolbus was created in 1996 as the online education component of the Global Teaching and Learning Project, whose mission is to promote education about international issues and the United Nations. The Global Teaching and Learning Project produces high quality teaching materials and activities designed for educational use (at primary, intermediate and secondary school levels) and for training teachers. The vision of this Project is to provide exceptional educational resources (both online and in print) to students growing up in a world undergoing increased globalization." \n\n "Within the Cyberschoolbus site there are a number of activities and projects that teach students about global issues in an interactive, engaging and fun way."

The ability to show students images of countries, places, cities, and landscapes.  An awesome way to show students the world without leaving the classroom.

The National Park Service provides a register of places that teachers can teach/take their students to in order to incorporate historic sites into their lessons. The website provides featured and current lesson plans and guides educators on how they can use it.