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Social History for Every Classroom (SHEC) - American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site to find lesson ideas and teaching activities to use in any American History Class. Include the ideas found on SHEC to apply to other history lesson topics. For example, one activity looks at slave life using primary source images and short text. As part of this activity, students create found poems using the keywords found in the documents. Adapt this strategy to learning about the American Revolution, World Wars, or any other significant events. Using lesson ideas and information on SHEC, engage students to start a new learning unit using a polling tool to create a word cloud. Answer Garden, reviewed here, is a free tool that creates word clouds based on students' short answer responses to an initial question. Ideas might include, "What words come to mind when you think about slave life?" or "What do you think life was like for the first colonists arriving from England?" Enhance student learning using Curipod, reviewed here, to create interactive lessons that include videos, quizzes, and learning activities. Extend learning by asking students to demonstrate learning using a multimedia tool such as Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here. Offer students options to "show what they know" by creating a website, video, or graphic images that share their understanding of the content.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Interdisciplinary Civics Education Lessons - United4SC
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this excellent resource for use throughout the year to engage students as they learn about various social studies topics. Luckily, this site includes a link to each of the videos that are shared on EdPuzzle, reviewed here. Use these links to create and share video lessons with your students, including notes, quizzes, and comments extending learning. Use the included lesson plans as a starting point for your lessons, then ask students to extend learning by sharing information through various choices. For example, offer students options for creating a podcast teaching about one of the topics using Buzzsprout, reviewed here. Buzzsprout includes options to personalize podcasts, such as the ability to add links to show notes and the option to schedule episodes for release at specific times and dates; in addition offer Genially, reviewed here, where students can choose to create interactive presentations, images, infographics, charts, and anything else you can think of.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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State of the Union Bingo - National Constitution Center
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of this free lesson plan as a supplement to your current events lessons. The Bingo sheet was created in 2012, you may need to modify some terms to adapt to current events. Divide students into groups and compare State of the Union addresses from throughout any one president's terms. 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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Vision of Humanity - Institute for Economics and Peace
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this tool to brainstorm questions about the various indicators shown on this site. Substitute a digital idea bin for paper and pen using lino, reviewed here, that allows for stickies, images, and commenting. What cultural, religious, and political forces affect each of the countries and their resultant scores? What factors can be changed in each of the countries to improve their scores? Debate various policy changes in your own or other countries. Explore possible changes the world can take in order to provide a better life for all citizens of the world. What are many of the differences that exist among the states in the United States? Consider adding this resource when students complete a study of an individual state or country.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mr. Anker Tests - Henry Anker
Grades
K to 7In the Classroom
Create a link to activities and tests on classroom computers to use for review. Share a link to the site on your class website or blog for practice at home. Assign the "tests" for homework practice.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Persuasive Cartography - Cornell University
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Explore this site together as a class or allow students time to explore on their own. Select maps that correspond to your current teaching units; for example, when teaching about the Civil War, browse through many maps related to that time period and slavery. Save several examples in a Padlet collection, reviewed here, and ask students to analyze the map features and how they might be used to influence and persuade others. Have students create webpages to share their discussions on the features of persuasive maps using an easy website creation tool such as Carrd, reviewed here. Ask students to use the download link provided with each image to download the image and share it on their webpage. Enhance learning further by using digital annotation tools to add text, videos, and additional information to the downloaded image using Google Drawings, reviewed here, then embed the Google Drawing image on the webpage along with other student work. Extend learning further by asking students to think of other examples used in modern times to persuade and influence options such as infographics, social media posts, and commercials. Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Twitter Chat: Social Studies When Time is Limited - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Is your social studies time limited? Check out this archived chat for tools and tips to use in your class to make social studies stretch past the limited time allotted. Share this tool with your colleagues interested in learning more tips and tools to use in social studies lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Uprooted! Japanese Americans During WWII YouTube Playlist - California Museum
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plan that accompanies the videos on this playlist as part of your American History and WWII lessons. Consider sharing a video at the start of a lesson to engage students in learning about discriminatory policies' personal toll during the war. Use a discussion tool such as Answer Garden, reviewed here to gather student responses and create word clouds to encourage classroom discussion. Add videos from the playlist to other activities within a teacher utility such as Curipod, reviewed here. Use Curipod to add additional reading activities, quizzes, and more content to deliver lessons for distance learning or as a tool for self-paced learning. Easily differentiate learning by copying your original Curipod then modifying activities based upon student needs. Extend learning by having students share their understanding of internment camps by presentations using Sway, reviewed here that includes student writing responses, images, videos, and more. Another option is to offer students the choice of building an interactive timeline using Vizzio, reviewed here, which offers you the option to include maps, add events, include source materials, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Democratic National Committee
Grades
1 to 12Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mr. Betts' Class YouTube Channel - Timothy Betts
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Engage students by sharing videos from this YouTube channel at the start of history units corresponding to video topics. Enhance student learning with these videos by using edpuzzle, reviewed here, to create interactive lessons that include voice comments and questions embedded into the video. Extend learning and challenge your students to create their own history videos using a video creation tool such as Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Rare Flags - Anthony Iasso
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Use the Rare Flags site as part of any American History unit to view a flag of the time period. Show the timeline on your interactive whiteboard or projector to display changes of the flag over our history. Choose a few different styles of flags and ask students to choose their favorite. For this create a quick poll (with no membership required) using SurveyRock, reviewed here. Challenge students to design their own flags for 13, 48, or 50 states. Celebrate Flag Day using this site!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Todays News, Tomorrows Lesson - Share My Lesson
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use with any current events lessons and as a resource for finding fact-based information to use to help understand modern history. Most of the discussion questions ask students to defend a point of view based on the shared topic. Use technology tools to help students organize their thinking and share their questions and responses. Engage students in the learning process using Fiskkit, reviewed here, as a collaborative discussion tool for sharing online articles related to the topic discussed. Fiskkit offers tools for annotating and collaboratively discussing online information. Share student opinions and discussions using Gravity, reviewed here. Ask students to respond to the discussion question within Gravity using their fact-based research. Use the comment feature to encourage collaboration and student discussion. As a final project, extend learning by asking students (or student groups) to share their responses as part of a multimedia presentation that includes student writing, videos, maps, and infographics. Have students use a presentation tool such as Sway, reviewed here, or Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here, to share their final projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Digital Public Library of America - Digital Public Library of America
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Adding the DPLA to your classroom bookmarks or introducing students to this resource will put a wealth of information into students' hands, aggregated into one place. Consider this a museum/archive/library specific search engine. Because each search links to an artifact or document which may actually be the property of any of dozens of different entities, students will need to understand that copyright and the ability to download material may vary depending upon where the original item "lives." Be sure to demonstrate how to FIND the rights information. Challenge students to explore basics on an artist, an author, or a social studies topic such as "civil rights" or "Martin Luther King" to see an overview in many media using the timeline display. Be sure to test the searches in advance to know which terms yield reasonable results.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Gettysburg School Bus: The Civil War in the Classroom - Barbara Sanders
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
This is an excellent site to bookmark and save for many Civil War resources including lesson plans, first hand information on Gettysburg, and Civil War articles. Have students choose one of the blog posts from the site then create magazine covers of information included using Magazine Cover Maker reviewed here. Have students create an online presentation on the Battle of Gettysburg using Prezi (reviewed here). Use lesson plans included on the site to supplement your current Civil War unit.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Close Up - Close Up Foundation
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use materials from Close Up to supplement your current civics lessons. Assign groups of students different articles or podcasts to analyze and share with peers. Enhance learning using Edpuzzle, reviewed here, to add comments and questions to videos for student consideration. Use Wakelet, reviewed here, to curate resources including articles and podcasts to share with students. Upon completing your teaching unit, ask students to use Wakelet as a multimedia presentation tool to create and share their learning by including written work, images, and links to reference materials.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Television Commercial Analysis Chart - The Learning Network/New York Times
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Print and use this form to include with your election unit as you analzye the candidates and their pitch for votes. This form is pretty basic, use it as a starting point for a more in-depth look at political commercials. Ask students to list ideas to include on your form. Include information from your analysis of political commercials and have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies - Jesse Richardson, Andy Smith, Sam Meadon
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Most academic writing presents a premise to be proved (an argument). When you first start to have your students try to understand logical fallacies, show them the online poster for logical fallacies and get them started trying to find these fallacies in their everyday lives. You could assign a fallacy a week and have students write in a journal, or a little tablet when they come across one. Or collect them on a class wiki with a page for each fallacy type. You could even have them make up their own logical fallacies. 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. After introducing logical fallacies, have students peer edit papers to make sure the writer is not trying to support one of these fallacies. Of course, any speech and debate, or media strategies class would benefit from a review this site. During political seasons, be sure to share this site for evaluating politicians' positions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Freedom Riders - PBS
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
This film is almost two hours long; however, it includes dividing points that break the video into several shorter chapters. Consider sharing this film with students for several days not only as a means for adapting to time constraints but also to allow time to process and discuss the information in shorter chunks. Consider including this video as part of a Symbaloo Learning Path, reviewed here. Include additional resources as part of the learning path for students to read and view, along with short quizzes or opportunities to share their reflections on the information. As an opportunity for reflection use PodcastGenerator, reviewed here, to encourage an ongoing conversation about the events shared in this film. Create a channel to discuss each chapter, including a prompt to initiate student discussions. For more ideas on facilitating difficult conversations in the classroom, visit the TeachersFirst Special Topics Page, located here, that is devoted to resources for difficult conversations.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CIS: Kids' Zone - Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth
Grades
2 to 8In the Classroom
Challenge your students to go past PowerPoint and make an online presentation using Animoto (reviewed here) or another reviewed presentation tool from the TeachersFirst Edge. Share the site with students as a resource for state research projects. Use The Ladybug Story with younger students to demonstrate the bill-creation process, then compare with your state's procedures.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Digg.com - Digg Inc.
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Try using Digg as a warm up Internet activity in the beginning of the school year by having older students sign up for their own account. Have them scan and read as part of current events teaching. The articles can be controversial which provides a great place to start debates. Are you beginning to integrate technology into your classroom? Use a tool such as WeJIT, reviewed here, or if you are a more experienced technology user try Virtual Debate, reviewed here, which has online examples and resources for conducting virtual debates, to formalize a debate topic. Digg also provides an excellent resource for research. Have students make a multimedia presentation using Genial.ly, reviewed here. Genial.ly allows you to add polls, videos, embeds, web links, PowerPoint, PDFs, and you can create a variety of formats like interactive posters, images, infographics, charts, presentations, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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