This site offers readers a chance to hear the voices of people the history textbooks have traditionally left out. Interviews done in the 1930's with former slaves are transcribed on this site, some with photographs of the former slave included. The transcripts are difficult to read because of dialect, racial slurs, and some troubling content. With teacher assistance, though, I think these transcripts could help students better understand life for slaves in our country's history.
This site provides first-person accounts from former slaves. I have actually used this site in American Literature to show students what slaves went through. It gives them a voice and students have really connected with the slaves' stories. Students can find lots of material about slavery, but the first-person accounts make it much more personal.
This site is joint venture between the U.S. Institute of Museum & Library Services, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and National History Day. The site offers thousands of pages detailed eyewitness accounts from a number of different groups of people. The documents record the first encounters of the Native Americans and those coming into contact with them for the first time.
I chose this site because it has first-hand accounts of many famous historical events that might be pertinent in a history classroom. What could be more interesting for a student to read than an account of an event from someone who experienced it.
An excellent child friendly website for the student of Native Americans. Included on the site are links to many tribes, their legends, treaties and agreements.
This government website has an enormous amount of information about the history of the White House and the presidents. There are also pages about the administration, issues and photos/videos. I like the briefing room page with the latest news and current events. Students will like the first pets photo gallery.
Labeled "Facts and Fun for all Ages." Photos and basic information about the White House, the presidents, presidential pets and fun historical facts. Main focuses: presidents and White House. Visually pleasing, easy-to-use.
This site provides information about the various branches of the U.S. government, all of the U.S. presidents, the current administration, current issues, and the White House itself. It would be a good resource for social studies or history students
I was first attracted to this site because of the interactive game regarding healthy food choices. But there is so much more here such as a menu planner, a food pyramid tracker, podcasts for making healthy changes in diet, coloring sheets, worksheets, and other printed materials. I think any health teacher would love this site.
This site I found interesting because it contains of wealth of first-hand information such as speeches, testimonies, cases, and briefs on all sorts of topics. Some of the topics I found were H1N1 and the 9/11 backlash.
An incredible number of primary sources can be found on this site regarding our first president. I was impressed with the "Educational Resources" that take some primary sources and scaffold teachers' use of them with students in grades 3-5 and middle/high school.
Some key primary sources regarding the Vietnam War are included on the site along with some helpful suggestions for teachers. There are quite a few interesting reflections on the war and information from "the trenches" included on this site as well.
This site would be extremely useful for history teachers when teaching about Vietnam. There are letters, maps, as well as first-person accounts from people who were in Vietnam.
This website from the Immigration History Research Center and the University of Minnesota has collections of digitized letters written by immigrants and to immigrants. It contains original images of the letters as well as translations, since most letters are in languages other than English. This website allows students a first person perspective of the challenges faced by immigrants to the U.S.
This site is s group of newspaper and magazine articles from African American issues to cartoon historical articles. It includes magazines for fashion in the 30's and earlier. It has movie reviews and music history. In other words, just about anything in history that one would like to look up in the newspaper or magazines. These sites are very good for students to see first hand information about a particular time in history. These kinds of sites can be used for almost any kind of project the teacher can think up. The teacher librarian needs to be aware of at least a few of these different kinds of sites.
This site contains a vast amount of stories, documents and photographs of the Great Depression. Students will get a first hand account of trials and tribulations faced by so many Americans during the 1930's.
The Nobel home web site offers a generous supply of first hand information not only on the prize itself, but of the many men and women who have earned the prestigious prize. The entry here is of Herman Hesse, his autobiography sketch in his own words. The home page offers links to all winners in all areas, the sciences, literature, etc. A great resource for librarians as well as students, mostly appealing to high school and up, wanting more specific information on Nobel Laureates as well as the origination of the prize.
This is the official site for the state Govenor's mansion. It has photos of the mansion, and a virtual tour. There is also a section for reminiscences of various first ladies of Nebraska.
This is a great source when studying southern history, literature or culture. In this source you will find slave and other first-person narratives of the South, as well as a collection of southern literature. It could be used when studying the Civil War to get more of a southern point of view.
This is a great site for upper elementary through high school. There are numerous learning experiences from exploring a town which has been cleaned up, to learning to help the city budget enough to follow through with their plans of cleaning up the environment. There are activity areas as well as teacher information sections. I will be sharing this with the middle school science teachers I know.
This site has a lot of primary source documents about Wisconsin history, but which certainly pertain to the rest of the Midwest, too. The one linked to is of an 1838 newspaper article about the first careful investigation of effigy mounds undertaken in Wisconsin. Certainly this could be useful when studying Native American history, state history, or geography.
Thousands of narrative excerpts giving first person accounts of slavery and the individuals it affected. These are accounts of the cruelty and plantation life. There are also hundreds of photos of former slaves.
This site contains narratives of past slaves that were created in the late 1930's. This site, which is a part of the Library of Congress, provides excellent primary sources that respresent a group of people whose voice was often not heard. Teachers and students could use this site when studying the Civil War and slavery, the Civil Rights movement, writing using dialect, to partner with an historical fiction novel that touches on the subject of slavery, and more.
This site is a WEALTH of information on the history of the United States. It includes letters, documents, photos, audio and video that are all in the public domain (and there fore also legal to use) since they are all owned by the U.S. government. Using the search box will yield many results. My favorite search on this site is to find primary sources about the great depression. A search tip: be sure to click "gallery view" when you look at your search results. It helps you know what type of source you are looking at.
This site covers historical topics, contains historical images and has a special teacher page with lessons and materials that are ready to use in the classroom. I love this site and use it often especially when I need some extra material for historical holiday celebrations in the classroom.
This website has loads of links to primary sources on US history. I like the flexibility of the "more browse options" to find collections by time period, place or source format in addition to the browse by topic option. Source formats include books, periodicals, photos and film, some dating back to the 1400's. The "today in history" link is a good place to find daily tidbits to throw into lessons.
This site from the Library of Congress provides a vast collection of primary sources for educators. I like the way the site is organized so you can browse the collections by topic. One of the collection highlights is the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Abraham Lincoln. This is a collection of more than 11,100 items donated to the Library of Congress in 1953. This collections includes Lincoln's life, Presidency, slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Primary sources available from the Lincoln era include newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, and campaign tickets.
There is a lot on this website for students to search for primary and government documents. They are organized by topic or you can search for specifically what you need. This site is a great resource . There are many different ways you could use the documents found here.
This site provides information that teachers from many different disciplines could use in their classrooms. There's information about literature, the environment, immigration, as well as culture and sports. There's also a link specifically for teachers where they can get lesson plans and ideas for their classroom.
search: Oregon Trail
first person accounts and maps that help to explain trails and settlements
Lincoln Public - grade 4 - Social Studies
* Major rivers and terrain determined trail paths and settlement sites
* Motivation varied (Oregon = land, California = gold, Mormon = religious freedom)
There are some great sites at this source. Their topics run from Women's history to Native American history. There are even maps. This would be a big help for upper elementary to 12th grade.
This site includes diaries, autobiographies and travel accounts from ex-slaves. I would use this site in the study of the Civil War to give the students a better understanding of what the slaves thought of their situation.