712 government-civics-us results | sort by:

Advise the President - National Archives
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of these free resources to stimulate discussion on events in recent American history. These booklets are also useful in English/Language Arts lessons to teach students how to use information to support their opinion. Before beginning discussions, poll students to find out their first thoughts on possible options provided within each activity using Dotstorming, reviewed here,to enhance classroom technology. Then revisit their answers upon completion of all activities. As you work through the lesson, ask students to modify their technology use and create an infographic using Canva, reviewed here, to share an overview of the problem and possible options. As a final project, ask students to record podcasts using Anchor, reviewed here, to recreate their chosen dilemma and share information used in their decision-making process.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Saylor - Free Online Courses Built by Professors - Michael J Saylor
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Allow gifted students to enroll in courses that interest them or that provide enrichment beyond classroom content. Share with others in your building as a resource for professional development. Explore the topics yourself for some new, engaging topics to round out your own expertise. Allow students to enroll in a course that would fit into their career goals as an exploratory opportunity in that field.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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History Tools - David Voelker
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and save for use with American History units. Use online source documents in addition to materials currently used in class. Allow students to explore the online documents; then have students create a "word cloud" of key terms from any document using a site such as Tagul reviewed here. Post the clouds on your bulletin board for visual "review." Use the author's essay rubric and class participation information with your class for assessment and participation guidelines.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fiveable - Amanda Doamaral
Grades
10 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free resources found on Fiveable to guide instruction in your AP classes and to share with students to prepare for AP Exams. Include a link to weekly study plans on your class website to share with students. Encourage students to use online study tools to enhance learning. For example, use Knowt, reviewed here, to create quizzes from your documents and assess learning. Keep students motivated by designing Escape Room activities using Room Escape Maker, reviewed here. Use critical information required to pass the AP exam as questions to solve the puzzle to escape the room successfully. Enhance learning by having tech-savvy students create escape rooms for their peers to use as a study activity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Useful charts - UsefulCharts Publishing
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share a visual overview of a topic on projector or IWB before teaching or as a reference before lessons that zero in on subtopics. Use this site to teach data and the graphic display of data. Allow groups of students to choose a graphic and report to the class on how the data was made more meaningful using the graphics that were chosen. You may also want to share this link as a research tool for debates or presentations on science or social studies topics. Share the timeline or graphic on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Discuss the science, history, or math behind the data collected. Discuss other information and ways of presenting the information in order to create a more interesting graphic. Have students try their hand at creating an infographic using a tool such as Snappa, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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U.S. Political Conventions and Campaigns - Northeastern University
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Although lesson plans are geared to high school, this site is also useful for students in lower grades. Go directly to the quiz portion of each section, display on your interactive whiteboard, and take the quiz as a class as an overview of what students know about the election process. View sections on your interactive whiteboard to help students understand the different facets of a campaign. Assign students (or groups) different sections; then have them present information learned to their classmates. Create posters about the American political process using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What So Proudly We Hail: Making American Citizens Through Literature - Amy and Leon Kass
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
This comprehensive program can be a bit overwhelming at first look. You might want to pick just one, high interest short story lesson, perhaps Jack London's "To Build a Fire." This lesson and many others lends itself to small group discussion and work. The introduction makes observations and asks questions to encourage active reading and deep discussions that you may want to use as a class. Whether you and your students complete the lesson as a class or in small groups, you may want to use a program like Today's Meet reviewed here to enable all students to have a voice. If using small groups, have students post what the group decided are the answers on Today's Meet so everyone can see all answers. Where answers differ, have students go back into the reading and cite evidence to support their answer on Today's Meet for all to see. Teachers of gifted and music can choose selected ideas from this site, as well. A teaching team could make this site the focus of a year-long effort with so much material available. Upper elementary teachers and higher can make holidays and patriotic songs far more meaningful through close reading and class discussionsAdd your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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'45 Words' Video Lesson - NewseumED
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Whether studying the First Amendment or media literacy, upload this video to a tool such as EDPuzzle, reviewed here, to edit the video to show only portions you select, or to pause the video automatically and add questions for students to answer, and/or add your verbal comments. Some of the Discuss questions would be appropriate to insert after viewing parts of the video. Break students into small groups after the video and assign them different Discuss questions for reflection and investigation. Challenge small groups to create a presentation to share what they learned using a tool like slides, reviewed here. After watching and discussing the video, extend either a media literacy unit or a civics/government unit. Do this by asking students to view news articles in our present political situation i.e. election time, civil rights discussed, etc. Then have them compare how the news media during the late 1700s would have handled issues of today, and how politicians of the Federalist party would have reacted to our issues today. Alternatively, have students create a simple infographic comparing the problems in the news of then and now. Use a tool such as Infogram, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Boston Navy Yard - National Park Service
Grades
1 to 12Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Best and Worst Places to Grow Up: How Your Area Compares - New York Times
Grades
10 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share this interactive on students' devices for them to discuss in small groups. Share on a projector/interactive whiteboard for whole class discussion of the factors that might lead to these results. Why do poor children have greater income mobility than richer children in some areas? What about gender? What might be misleading about these statistics? Take a broad look at the country to talk about what cultural factors may be different in different areas. For a good exercise in digital citizenship and critical thinking, ask students to find out where the data came from and to write three questions that might dig into the "why" behind these stats. Ask them what else they would like to know after seeing this map -- and how it might influence their own decisions and future plans (if at all). In a government/civics class, the discussion naturally will move to how this information might influence elections and candidates' strategies in one county vs another. This same interactive is also important for teachers as professionals. Know your community and what happens to the children you teach. You may want to share it with administrators for some staff conversations about the impact of your school.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Manifest Destiny - The Story of the US Told in 141 Maps - Michael Porath
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use Manifest Destiny as a resource for any American History unit. Share the maps on your projector or interactive whiteboard. The many maps are an excellent visual demonstration of the growth of the US. Use information from the site to have students create timelines (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Timeline JS, reviewed here. Include this site in lessons about information literacy and evaluating sources in your history course. Challenge students to verify the accuracy of the information depicted. Was Wikipedia right?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What is Fiscal Policy? Interactive Teaching Tools - Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Engage students and extend their knowledge with the interactive offered on this site during your current finance lessons. Ask students to explain a financial concept using Google Drawings, reviewed here. If you need help this tool, you could watch an archived OK2Ask Google Drawings, here. Use Google Drawings with any appropriate image to add links to websites, videos, and images. Upon completion of your finance unit, ask students to create an interactive book using Ourboox, reviewed here. Ourboox offers tools for publishing digital books that include images, video, and audio in addition to textAdd your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Numbeo - Numbeo
Grades
9 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Send students to this site to research quality of life factors across the globe. How does the price of gas in Indonesia compare to the price of gas in their hometown? What income is required to rent an apartment in New York City? At another level of inquiry, WHY is the cost of living higher in some parts of the world than it is in others? What factors contribute to the quality of life? In a math class, use this data as "meat" to learn about comparing and displaying data. Your students will find the data interesting enough to pay attention.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Encyclopedia Virginia - Virginia Humanities
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this site to use for lesson planning and student research if you teach Social Studies in any state. Take advantage of the virtual tours on the site to provide a real look at historic sites that go beyond the pages of textbooks. Instead of reading stories found in textbooks, ask students to browse the site to find interesting events during the period being studied. Use these ideas as the basis for student research projects. Encourage students to imagine themselves as a participant in events in history. Ask students to extend learning by using this Headline Generator, reviewed here, as a story starter to retell and analyze moments in history. Share the site's podcasts in listening centers or as an option for flipped learning. Use the podcasts as models for students to create their own podcasts for retelling events in history through the perspective of someone alive during that time. Podcast Generator, reviewed here, will enhance learning and provides free tools for creating and sharing podcasts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Untold History - Driving Force Institute for Public Engagement
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
These short videos are perfect to use in many different classroom settings to engage students in various history topics. Share a video at the beginning of a lesson, then use Google Jamboard, reviewed here, to gather student's questions for further investigation of the concept. Extend learning by asking groups of students to go further in-depth to learn more about the content of the shared video. Have students share resources by creating a collection in Wakelet, reviewed here. Use Wakelet's templates as a starting point for student presentations. Enhance student learning by creating short video presentations based on a different unknown event in history. Use Renderforest, reviewed here, to create animated videos, or Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here, as a resource for easily creating video explanations.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Toporopa: Geography of Europe - Toporopa
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Create a link on classroom computers for students to explore these interactives. This site could be used in world cultures, world geography, world languages, science, government, and many other subjects. Have students try the games and then research further information. For example, after finding all European countries that have a reigning monarch, have students find further information on the monarchies. Challenge the students to use a tool like Slides, reviewed here to share their findings.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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iThrive Sim: Follow the Facts - ithrive games
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Engage your high school students with iThrive Sim: Follow the Facts. The game-based simulation includes teacher preparation, pre-simulation, and optional post-simulation activities. The entire simulation takes about two thirty-minute sessions total to play. Teachers should plan for the full simulation and activities to take at least five 45-minute class periods. A complete implementation guide is included. Civics topics include effective sourcing of information, SEL skills include understanding bias and collaboration.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Civil War 150 - Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about a Civil War soldier or important person from that time. Enhance learning by having students create timelines of Civil War events (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Timeline Infographic Templates, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NobelPrize.org - Nobel Media AB 2011
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Inspire your students to strive for excellence! Show students original, creative, thinking. Let students know they can understand the ideas awarded by trying the educational activities offered. Follow each year's announcements and award ceremonies. Use as an inspiration when beginning your own Nobel Prize winning awards competitions. Encourage students to use critical thinking skills to form opinions based on facts. Substitute pen and paper in your class by having students blog about what they are learning and understanding using Telegra.ph, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration. Extend learning by inviting pairs or small groups to use a tool like NoteJoy, reviewed here, to take notes and share links, documents, and images to organize for an interactive poster. Use Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here, for the poster. Gifted programs can easily incorporate many of the ideas into the curriculum. Lead your students to Nobel Award winning thinking.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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U.S. History for AP Students - Krista Ehinger
Grades
10 to 12In the Classroom
Be sure to create a link to this resource on your class website for students to use at home. Share this site with students for use throughout the year with all AP History topics. Have cooperative learning groups create podcasts demonstrating their understanding of one of the concepts. Use a site such as podOmatic, reviewed here. Have students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Venngage, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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