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Useful Charts YouTube Channel - Matt Baker
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Include links to videos found on this channel to help students understand the complicated family trees found throughout history. After watching the videos, ask students to use an organizational tool such as Genially, reviewed here, to diagram family trees for American Presidents, European Royalty, Asian Dynasties, or other ruling families. When finished, use a timeline creator such as Vizzio, reviewed here, and find the "layered timeline" to view information in chronological order that includes additional information such as text, images, and primary documents.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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100 Years of Parcels, Packages, and Packets, Oh My! - Smithsonian National Postal Museum
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
The ability to mail packages across the country is an important factor in the growth of the US and has contributed to an ever-more-mobile society. Incorporate some of the historic images here into a discussion of changes in transportation and communication over the 20th and early 21st centuries. Ask students to brainstorm the items in their own bedrooms that might have arrived via Parcel Post. How would their lives be different without package delivery? Why is it important for the US Government to be involved in package delivery? Have students share their findings and thoughts by creating online posters individually or together as a class. Use a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here) or PicLits (reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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1619 in America: 400 years ago, a ship arrived in Virginia, bearing human cargo - USA Today
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share this article with students during your studies of American History, Civil Rights, and slavery. Consider using Wakelet, reviewed here, to curate and share information with students such as videos, articles, and other media. Engage students by creating interactive timelines using Canva Timeline Templates, reviewed here, or eStory, reviewed here, to deepen understanding and provide historical context to the events of 1619. Take advantage of the 1619 Project Curriculum, reviewed here, to find additional resources for students in all grades.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Plainest Demands of Justice: Documents for Dialogue on the African American Experience - Bill of Rights Institute
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and save these lessons to supplement your current American History curriculum. Each lesson includes links to primary source documents; use these resources to find materials not typically available in a broader curriculum. Engage students in the lesson activities and introductory essays using Pear Deck, reviewed here, to create interactive presentations that include guiding questions, videos, and formative assessment questions. Extend learning by asking individual students or groups to present their concluding analysis as a multimedia presentation with their peers. For example, Lesson 1 includes six questions for the concluding analysis activity. Assign a question to six different groups of students and ask them to share their responses through a video presentation created with Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here, or as a website created with Google Sites, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Teaching with Primary Sources - Almetria Vaba
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of these free investigations to incorporate into your current lessons or as a starting point to introduce the use of primary sources. Consider using the PBS activities as an alternative to a typical research paper by taking advantage of technology tools to enhance learning. Have students create a bibliography of sources using Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Share a citation tool such as Cite This For Me, reviewed here, for students to use when citing and creating bibliographies of online documents. Encourage students to collaborate and discuss primary sources using Fiskkit, reviewed here. Copy the URL of an online resource into Fiskkit and share with students. Students then click on portions of the article to highlight and discuss relevant information found. Encourage students to delve further into any topic using Ted-Ed Clubs, reviewed here. This site allows you to create clubs with up to 50 members. Members participate in up to 13 sessions based on TED Talks by collaborating and discussing topics of interest.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Becoming Us - National Museum of American History
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Incorporate the free resources found on the site to teach immigration and migration accurately and inclusively. Many of the activities connect to items found at the Smithsonian Learning Lab, reviewed here, that features digital resources from the Smithsonian Museum, the National Zoo, and several other major research centers. Include these lessons in US History, government, or current events lessons. As students gather information during the provided activities, use a collaborative bookmarking tool like Raindrop.io, reviewed here. Raindrop.io provides real-time collaboration for teams along with the ability to add notes to share with peers. Engage students in the learning process by creating and sharing infographics using Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here. Ask student teams to create infographics sharing different portions of the information within a lesson. For example, when using the education resources, have a student group create infographics depicting facts about the fight for desegregation, another share facts about busing, and another with re-segregation factions and images.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Budgeting for the Future - Committe for a Responsible Federal Budget
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Share this interactive with students to increase understanding of different budget options. Have students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from this site using a tool such as WordItOut, reviewed here. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast options found in different plans.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TeachersFirst's Resources for John F. Kennedy, Jr. - TeachersFirst
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Whether you focus on Kennedy for one class or spend an entire unit on U.S. presidents, the ideas included within the "In the Classroom" portion of reviews will launch discussions and meaningful projects for student-centered learning. Find more presidential resources in TeacherFirst's Resources for American Presidents.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Brother Against Brother: Books to Help Teach Civil War - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Create a list of suggested books for students using Padlet, reviewed here. Encourage students to add comments in short book reviews for other students to use as a resource. Enhance learning by incorporating books found on this list into your other resources to create a learning unit using Curipod, reviewed here. Use Curipod to add videos, articles, quizzes, and more to create engaging multimedia lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Preparing Students for Difficult Conversations - FacingHistory.org
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
As an introduction to the lesson, one of the activities is to ask students to brainstorm a list of teens' news resources and a list of news resources used by parents or older people. Use Microsoft Whiteboard, reviewed here, or Google Jamboard, reviewed here, to create and analyze your lists. Use the whiteboard tools to create lists, Venn Diagrams, and add notes to extend student reflections on different news sources. Turn the Know-Heard-Learned Chart included in the lesson into an editable worksheet to use as a collaborative document to record student understanding of any events' timeline.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Do Lectures - Talks That Inspire Action - The Chicken Shed
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Do Lectures are a great place to find inspiration and new ideas for your classroom. Many of the videos connect today's real world with curriculum topics, even in entrepreneurship, health, or family and consumer science classes. Use Do Lecture videos as the perfect supplement or launching point for units of study in your classroom. Find a video that supports the topics happening in your classroom. Share on your website for student viewing. Use on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) for a whole class discussion. Stop the video at various points to discuss or debate ideas included. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create videos in response to videos viewed on Do Lectures or their own topic. Share the videos on a site such as TeacherTube reviewed here. Teachers of gifted could plan an entire unit of study around one video or have students select one to use as the launch point for an independent project.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Coursera - Coursera.org
Grades
9 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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Picking Up the Pieces: Exploring Reconstruction Through Literature - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Be sure to see all of the many ideas and activities shared on this site to engage students as they learn about Reconstruction. Organize and share resources with students using a curation tool such as Netboard, reviewed here. Netboard makes it easy to share links, documents, text, and more into one easily accessible location. Extend learning by asking students to share their knowledge using the tools found at Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here. Options include tools for creating videos, web pages, and graphics to demonstrate understanding of learning objectives.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Presidents: Life Portraits - C-Span
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use American Presidents: Life Portraits as a great starting point for lessons relating to any presidency or period in American History. Share with students to use when researching presidents for any type of report or presentation. Have students extend their learning using Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about any of the presidents. You could also extend student learning by having them create a newspaper detailing events from any period of American History or any president's tenure using a site such as Printing Press, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media - Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a supplemental resource for any history lessons and teaching units. One portion of the site leads to Teachinghistory.org, reviewed here, which is an amazing resource for finding teaching materials, best practices, and history content. Be sure to visit it often to find many ideas for effective teaching of history concepts. Other links are perfect for sharing with students to use for locating and learning from primary sources. For example, Papers of the War Department (1784-1800) contains a large collection of images and transcriptions that provide context and understanding into files once considered lost in a fire at the War Department. Create a collaborative Padlet, reviewed here, and ask students to share primary documents and add comments discussing their relevance to historic events being studied. Padlet also includes a timeline feature; use this tool to create a visual timeline of events for any time. Extend learning by asking students to create podcasts using Buzzsprout, reviewed here. Options for podcast topics could include telling the story of historical events from the perspective of a man on the street and sharing perspectives on an event from the viewpoint of different participants.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Newsola - Nick Nicholaou
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site to select current events for the day. Follow the same news thread for a period of time to look at changes and possible reasons for the change in the news. Be sure to check news stories from other countries for a different viewpoint on issues. Create a class discussion for the differences in viewpoints. Challenge cooperative learning groups to explore ONE of the subtopics (Showbiz, World, Finance, etc..) and present the highlights to the class. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.Comments
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Manifest Destiny - Digital Inquiry Group
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a resource to include with American History lessons. Engage students in the optional learning activities through the use of technology tools such as Google Jamboard, reviewed here. Use Jamboard to create templates to accompany the discussion activities for students to list the similarities and differences between the textbook information and what is found in the primary documents. Enhance student understanding of the concepts by creating a visual timeline using eStory, reviewed here. Tools included with eStory offer the ability to use maps as a starting point to create paths and add links to tell the story of historical events. Extend learning further by asking students to create videos usingAdobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here with audio and templates, to share their responses to the final activity of evaluating the painting, "American Progress." Ask individual students or student groups to create a video sharing their ideas on the importance of this artwork and their judgement as to its representation of westward expansion in a good light.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Patsy Mink - My Hero
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Include this biography of Patsy Mink in lessons on heroes, women in history, famous politicians, the 1900s, or influential Hawaiians. Use a curation tool such as Symbaloo, reviewed here or 3x3 links, reviewed here to share articles, videos, and activities easily with students. Use Timelinely, reviewed here to engage students and extend learning by adding information to the YouTube video included on this site. For example, use the 20th Century America (1945-2000) TeachersFirst Special Topics Page, reviewed here to find additional historical context to learn about women's political roles during the 1970s, then include a link to those resources on the video using Timelinely. As an alternative to a book report or written research project, provide students with different opportunities for sharing what they know at the end of your unit using Choice Boards. Activities to include might be creating interactive timelines with Canva Timeline Infographic Templates, reviewed here, a web site created with Google Sites, reviewed here, or an explainer video made with Animaker, reviewed here. Learn more about incorporating choice boards into any classroom by watching the archive of OK2Ask: Engage & Inspire: Choice Boards for Differentiation (Part 1), reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The United States Diplomacy Center - United States Department of State
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of these free materials to immerse students in learning about current events topics through a global lens. One important component of these lessons includes the task of completing a series of formal and informal discussions on each topic. As students identify key topics and information, enhance their learning by asking them to use Lino, reviewed here, to create digital sticky notes to share among teachers and peers. Use options within Lino to color code the sticky notes to identify the group creating the note or different concepts to address throughout the simulation. Simulations also provide background information on each topic, use this information as a starting point, then have students research each topic further on their own or in groups. Share bookmarks and resources using Raindrop.io, reviewed here. In addition to sharing bookmarks, Raindrop.io includes tools for adding notes and comments for all team members to use when collaborating together. Throughout your simulation activities, use Flip, reviewed here, to modify learning and to pose essential questions discussed within the activity. Have students add video responses within Flip to share their perspective and solutions to the different problems. As a final learning activity, provide students options for sharing their conclusions and suggestions to the simulation activities through a variety of multimedia choices. Instead of a book report or PowerPoint presentation consider asking students to create a digital book using Book Creator, reviewed here, or a multimedia presentation using Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here. Both options offer tools for transforming students' learning to include video, images, and more to share their final conclusion and perspective on the topic included in the simulation.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Starting Point - Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, and Joe Kiani
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Share information from this site with students to demonstrate how to share different viewpoints on current events. This site also provides an opportunity to model how to use facts and information to present ideas and persuade others to consider opposing viewpoints. As students use these videos to compare and contrast viewpoints, use a curation tool such as Padlet, reviewed here, to share information from both sides. Use the shelf feature in Padlet to create columns to add content based on each side's viewpoint or use the map feature to add content found from different locations.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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