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Election 2020 - Scholastic
Grades
3 to 8This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share the interactives and video clips on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use the ready to go lesson plans (which include standards) to keep your students informed of election news. With older students, create a class wiki to discuss presidential views and issues. A good wiki tool to use is PBWorks, reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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World News - WN Network
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site with your school's foreign language teachers. Have students do comparisons between English and foreign language versions of the news. If you teach writing, you can find controversial topics as writing prompts for persuasive writing among the articles, as well, and have students find facts to support their positions. Make this site available from your teacher web page for current events assignments. Reading teachers will want to use the articles on an interactive whiteboard to teach main idea and summarizing: highlight key words to use in a main idea or summary sentence you write together below the article.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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America's Story - Library of Congress
Grades
3 to 8In the Classroom
Interested students could spend hours on this site, so provide some specific directions for use before turning them loose! Use to supplement the study of a particular era in American history or as an enrichment activity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Inventing Entertainment - the Edison Recordings - Library of Congress
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Download some of the sounds and recordings from the database, and use them as part of a learning center during a unit on Inventions & Inventors. Have students listen to the recordings (make sure to include headphones) on classroom computers, writing a short reflection afterwards about what they heard and what their impression was. Students could also compare and contrast the quality of the recordings, noting the vast differences in technology between then and now. This would be a very interesting resource for a US history classroom!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Gapminder - Gapminder
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
The site would be best used on an interactive whiteboard, although computer-savvy students could access it individually. The world data presented might supplement lessons in economics, civics, world cultures, current events or modern history. Teachers should plan to spend a chunk of time previewing the site before using, however, as the interface is not entirely intuitive. There is a tutorial, but it will take some experimentation to discover the various ways to manipulate the data and present it graphically. There is also this page of ideas specifically for teachers. You can compare individual countries, or zoom into geographic regions. "Mature" teachers who learned bar graphs and pie charts may find the choices a little overwhelming, but with a little noodling around, will be able to graphically illustrate concepts in ways never before possible. Challenge your students to retrieve and use some of the data in support of an essay thesis, oral presentation, or debate.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Spy Kids - CIA
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Include this site when studying the three branches of government as a concrete example of one thing the Executive Branch does. Students could explore it on a "scavenger hunt" to learn answers to questions you pose, or the whole class could visit on a projector to learn about what the CIA does. If you ask students to research different government agancies, this would be a great reference site for them to use. When reading the "Who We Are and What We Do" article try using Read Ahead, reviewed here, as a guided reading activity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kennedy Center Digital Resources - Formerly ArtsEdge - Kennedy Center
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Search this site for a topic that you are teaching in your class. Share the lesson on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Better yet, make the video or slideshow a learning station for students to watch in small groups. This site is so wonderful and HUGE, that after students are one with the resources you have for them, you may want to allow them to explore on independently or in small groups for a specific interest of theirs.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Abraham Lincoln Online - Abraham Lincoln Online
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of these ready to use classroom resources. There are lessons available for grades K-12. Use this site to share the speeches of the famous president. Have students dissect the words of one of the speeches, break it down into "today's language."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Meet Amazing Americans - The Library of Congress
Grades
1 to 8In the Classroom
This site could be used throughout the entire year. Why not highlight a "hero of the week." Share the information on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students write diary entries, or replace paper and pen by asking students to write blogs sharing information learned using a site like Edublog, reviewed here, from the perspective of the "hero of the week." Use this Meeting Amazing Americans for individual research projects and have students create multimedia presentations about their hero: a Powerpoint, website, blog, wiki, or video. This site can be used in more than just social studies topics. Music classes, science classes, and gifted classes can also benefit from the many research areas.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Lincoln Goes to War - National Endowment for the Humanities
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
This lesson plan is ready to go and offers step by step instructions! Divide your class into five groups (based on the roles listed above). Allow them time to research and prepare for the debate. Consider having students tape the debate using YouTube or TeacherTube (explained here). Why not have each group (or student) write a blog defending their position (role).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Dimming the Sun - NOVA/WGBH
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a starting point for your discussion of global warming and environmental issues or as a research source for student projects. The interactive timeline would display well on a projector or interactive whiteboard to give students the "big picture" they so rarely have on their own.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections - Dave Leip
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use some of the interactive maps on a projector or interactive whiteboard or enter into the discussion boards as a class with ONE shared posting and watch the responses as a group.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Americans and the Environment - National Humanities Center
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
While this site is a little text-heavy, it is truly an excellent site for exploring the way the North American environment has been impacted by recent history. Select the time period that is appropriate to your unit, and introduce the site on the interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students explore the rest of the site on classroom computers. To ensure that they're doing more than skimming the text, Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using 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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This Day in History - A&E Television Network
Grades
5 to 12Although the videos are the highlight of this site, there is much more to explore! On the right side bar you will find text boxes to enter ANY date and choose the category. Some examples of categories include Civil War, Cold War, Presidential, Sports, Old West, World War I and II, Entertainment, and several others. On the left side bar there are even more topics and links to explore. Once you click on the subject area, specific "story topics" are provided under the subject. Both of the features on the right and left side of the site display text information, not video clips.
In the Classroom
You can add this in your RSS reader. Why not use the RSS feature to remind you of the day's events? Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. The topics on the left and right side bars make excellent research references.For a classroom-ready activity each day to build understanding of historical events in the context of your students' prior knowledge, also try TeachersFirst's Dates That Matter. Include both links on your teacher web page for instant access by students both in and out of class. Maybe start a class wiki for your own "This Day" collection and assign student groups a day of their own. Add to it from year to year. Or have students write blog responses on class or individual blogs as they choose an event for the day from several sources and react to it.
Comments
Perfect resource for stimulating interest on a variety of topics.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Study Skills Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Make learning how to learn part of your class routine at any grade level and in any subject. Feature one or more new study strategy each month and share this entire list as a link from your class web page for students and parents to access both in and out of school.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NewsHour Extra Lesson Plan: What is the Role of Civil Disobedience - PBS
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Encouraging students to think of disobedience (of any kind) as a positive force for change will delight some students and confuse and trouble others. Depending upon their age and their intellectual and moral development, teachers should be prepared for these varied reactions. Although there is brief mention in the lesson plan of Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war protestor, there is no discussion of other contemporary issues related to terrorism, freedom versus security, or privacy. Teachers should also be prepared to have these topics enter the discussion. The historical quotes would make good bulletin board fodder or discussion (either verbal or written) prompts. Maybe try one on your class blog!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Classroom Jeopardy - superteachtools.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use this great resource to create Jeopardy games for any content area. This resource is perfect for use on an interactive whiteboard or projector with a student emcee. Use for vocabulary/terms, identifying parts of anything, and reviewing for any curriculum topic. Use as an opener to a unit to determine what students already know. Play as a review game to assist learning for all students. Encourage students to create the clues and answers to their own Jeopardy review games as a creative way to review and reinforce. Learning support teachers may want to have students create review games together.You or your students can copy and paste the HTML code for any game on your web page, wiki, or blog for easy access to any Flash Jeopardy Game.
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Virtual Freedom Shrine - National Exchange Club
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Have each student in your class research one of these documents or speeches. Challenge students to create a multi-media presentation: PowerPoint, blog, wiki, or video. Share these documents around Martin Luther King's birthday or President's Day.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Biography of America - CPB/Annenberg
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
The possibilities for this site are virtually limitless. Open the site on the interactive whiteboard or projector and select one of the many topics that is applicable to your unit. Teachers can play the video for students to review material, use the map to provide something for visual learners can connect to, or use the time-line to guide student learning. This is really an amazing tool for teachers trying to utilize technology in the classroom!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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March on Washington Lesson - PBS Newshour
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
These lesson plans are ready to use and easy to follow! The extension activities offer some excellent higher order thinking questions. After sharing video footage with your students, why not project one of the extension activities on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Enhance learning by having students create a blog with Telegra.ph, reviewed here to answer the questions in the extension activities. With Telegra.ph you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or Twitter links. This blog creator requires no registration.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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