Social Studies

This is the web site of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The organization is dedicated to the study of American History and aims to promote this study among teachers, students, scholars and the general public. Their website provides something of a one stop shop for American History. They have a store where you can buy history related items, there is an document repository and an area for educators. It's pretty great.

The website for Colonial Williamsburg is in a word, sweet. Not only do they have areas for teachers and other research but they offer a ton of multimedia items. There's a daily today in the 1770's newsletter that has selections from the Virginia Gazette and that's just the beginning of the "wealth of online resources" (there words not mine) that they provide. What makes it so great is that Colonial Williamsburg is relatively speaking, so close! Using this website when teaching about 18th century life and then taking a field trip there would be a great way to tie everything together.

Great resource on globalization. I used the issues briefs for my unit plan. They have different collections of articles about various global issues. Supposedly they are academic and opinionless, which is nice because it gives more balance than most of the other stuff you get. :-)

Oh. But the lesson plans are for college level so . . . I wouldn't use those. Or you could adapt them. :-)

This website deals with the History of Jim Crow and has many valuable resources for teachers. The History and Geography sections of this website are quite rich in information and I think well-organized and easy to use. The website provides the in-depth essays and/or other materials to be used in the lessons. The American Literature section provides some interesting unit and lesson plans for well-known books such as A Raisin in the Sun and To Kill a Mockingbird. The Teacher Resources section provides a variety of lessons… some involve images, music, literature, simulations, etc. Quite a few seem to incorporate the PBS series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Overall, I am very impressed with this website. My favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird and I think the Unit on this book is interesting in the way they link it to an integrated literature/social studies unit on the case of the Scottsboro Boys and life in the 1930s.

So rad! Social Justice lesson plans on current events. AHHHHH!!! I looked through a few. Looks like they just have articles and then questions on them. So they'll pick a topic and then amass a number of readings on it and write critical thinking questions. So rad. One of the lessons is how to teach Freire to 5th graders. I'm in love! Happy Thanksgiving!

Laura, This is awesome and perfect for one lesson in my curricular unit..thanks a bunch!

This is the site that the government has created to provide the average citizen with information regarding the "stimulus plan," which is actually called the Recovery Act. I must warn you that it is NOT an exciting site; however, it is useful if teaching government or making comparisons with other economic crises. For example, there is a ticker that is updated regularly and displays the number of jobs that have been created or saved from the money provided by the stimulus package. One can track awarded funds and used funds by state, project or recipient. For example, in Washington, DC approximately 2300 jobs have been created or saved and American University was awarded and received about 2.5 billion dollars from the recovery act. As I said, it is not exciting but certainly informative.

Ooops. Make the 2.5 MILLION not BILLION.

Goldmine! Annotated Civics Website Collection. Links to some fantastic civic resources - with brief descriptions of each. A nice collection of current issues, civic procedures and ESOL resources. Also some interesting websites about civics for folks with limited resources/incomes - hmmm . . .

Ok so this is not as ridiculous as the last video I posted I swear (but it's still a little ridiculous). This guy performs a rap about Alexander Hamilton in the character of Aaron Burr. Definitely a way to make learning about an important man a little more fun. Probably only for high school students though as there's some minor language in it.

This is the awesomest thing I've ever seen. Ever. I s just too good.

This website has a lot of Russian history resources - I know I didn't cover a lot of Russian history in school, and it's a topic that I could use a little help in. Primary resources are also available.

I know we've all heard about the rather controversial Capital Gains program - where DCPS is paying students cash awards for good academic performance and behavior - but I wasn't certain how much anyone really knew about the specifics of the program. I just recently learned that my own school - Emery Educational Campus - is participating in Capital Gains. I can say that my own students do not seem to take the program very seriously, or at the very least not enough to study more to make certain they perform well on the mandatory assessments (said one student: "I don't really care about the extra money").

They have "Tech Tickets" at McKinley, it's just a huge joke because the rewards are like breakfast with Mr. Pinder the principal, who they hate. Last Wednesday, they started joking around about starting a black market for tech tickets, at least they are inventive about it. But it doesn't motivate them.

This article is hilarious and should ABSOLUTELY be used in US Government to point out WHY students should learn the Constitution. Oh. Onion. How dear you are to my heart!

Someone showed that to me last night and I laughed so hard! The Onion is so funny.

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.

Created by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and historians, the New Deal Network is a great online resource for the era. Check out the documents sections where they have materials organized by topic. (e.g. Japanese Internment, Tennessee Valley Authority, Anti-Semitism). This could be an important resource for teachers preparing lessons as well as student research.

According to this article, long term papers in English and History classes are being shoved out because of standards limitations. Low income, middle class, upper class students all cannot write an essay to save their lives in college and beyond. Joellen and I were highly disturbed that the undergraduates in our Civil War class couldn't deal with footnotes and basic principles of writing. Professor Kraut was also infuriated. If there is anything more risking to our nation, it's poor writing!

I agree with you on the importance of writing longer research essays in high school. The process of writing a long essay is a thorough exercise in understanding something in your own way, and it can be so satisfying upon completion. (like that student in the piece that was GLoWing...i like that feeling)

Michelle Lee, a middle school teacher in Michigan, wrote this interdisciplinary lesson plan for teaching the American Revolution. There are some great ideas for incorporating geography, math, sociology, language arts, phys ed, and music into the social studies/history classroom. -----------Once you click the link, hit the full text button on the right hand side.-----------

So this site has a survey that students from different countries around the world have taken about citizenship. You can sign up for free as a teacher and there are two different projects. 1. Survey - See what your students think are the most important responsibilities of citizenship and how they compare to students in other places around the world. There is also a reflective essay assignment for students if you like. 2. Memory Bank - Students record stories of civic engagement from around their own neighborhoods and upload them to the site. Currently there are none up. But yours could be the first!

I found this article about individual teachers selling their lesson plans online to be very interesting. Over the past few years, many teachers have started selling their lesson plans online rather than just sharing them on free websites. One teacher has earned $36,000 in a year selling lesson plans. This trend has caused some school districts to question the idea of who owns material developed for public school classrooms and whether or not school districts should share some of the profits. Others worry that selling the lesson plans harms the idea of free swapping and sharing. But, some teachers argue that it validates their efforts and shows that people recognize their hard work and expertise. Whether using free or bought lessons from online, I did find the teachers who argued that they enjoy comparing their lessons and getting ideas to be very compelling.

This history channel website gives online history games (I think this could act as a fun homework assignment to reinforce a lesson already given, or to get kids excite about a unit.)

My search for information on how schools are funded also turned up this website, which has video links to each of the episodes from "Where We Stand: America's Schools in the 21st Century." Each of the clips are certainly interesting, though not really telling us anything we don't already know. The fifth segment deals with the question of how we finance education.