Professional Resources: History, Civics, & Geography

A resource for the teaching of civic engagement and media literacy; users can find: individuals, groups, and organizations engaged in participatory politics; provocations and discussion questions; curated activities; a digital media toolkit, a media library, and a glossary and links to related projects and curricula.

DocsTeach is the teaching website of the National Archives, the repository of letters, photographs, speeches, maps, and other primary resources spanning American history. Educators can: use grade-level filters on the site; share favorite documents; and access document transcriptions and citations. Document-based activities from both the National Archives and other teachers are available for download.

Find resources for K-12 history and social studies lesson plans, activities, projects, games, and quizzes that use technology. Explore inquiry-based lessons, activities, and projects. Learn about web technologies such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, social networks, Google Docs, ebooks, online maps, virtual field trips, screencasts, online posters, and more. Presented by EdTechTeacher.com

The site has links to over 1200 history-related web sites that have been reviewed for quality, accuracy, and usefulness, and also includes links to K-12 history lesson plans, teacher guides, activities, games, quizzes, and more. Search the site, or browse by topic, organized into: General History Resources; Ancient/Biblical History; American History; European History; Modern History; Military History; Oral History; and Art History.

Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard to allow learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. Subjects covered include math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. Parents and teachers can use the coach dashboard to get a summary of class performance as a whole as well as detailed student profiles.

Google Arts & Culture (a project of Google Cultural Institute) encompasses three impressive sites that bring the world to students. 'Art' allows students to take virtual art field trips around the world, to create and share galleries, attend live 360 degree performances from prestigious locations such as Carnegie Hall, and discover cultural treasures. 'History' contains online exhibits of primary sources and artifacts from topics such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Tolstoy. 'Wonders' features downloadable teaching guides to videos and still images from around the world. It uses Google Street View to allow students to explore world heritage sites from areas as diverse as Machu Pichu and the Great Barrier Reef.

Treks enables students to visually explore the world around them and beyond. Visit world landmarks, discover natural wonders, and step inside locations such as museums, arenas, restaurants and small businesses with 360-degree images on Google Maps. Appropriate for K-12th grade, use Treks to take virtual field trips to the settings of stories students have read in class or historical sites studied.

Article and video tutorial demonstrating how to create a multimedia timeline on the free technology tool myHistro.com. Author: Richard Byrne, for the Free Technology for Teachers blog.

Tween Tribune hosts high interest, reputable current events articles for K-12 audiences compiled by the Smithsonian. The articles are categorized by grade (5-6; 7-8; 9-12), lexile, language (English/Spanish), and subject area. Each article is available across multiple lexiles for differentiation and has an associated comprehension assessment. Free educator accounts offer a plethora of features: Monday morning newsletters, class and student profiles, lesson plans, article assignment capability, and assessment score grade books. Student privacy is protected, and all comments are educator-moderated. Use Tween Tribune to compare bias/viewpoints from varying sources, support or inspire inquiry, or as a station highlighting literary styles.

Zoom In has more than just history content; after students work with primary documents and questioning, it provides writing support at two different levels. There are extensive teacher resources, including a youtube channel demonstrating different uses and steps to prepare. Teachers can create a class, and use a code to distribute one of eighteen different units to students. There is scaffolding for them to determine author's point of view, analyze and collect evidence, organize research, and write explanatory or argumentative essays. Assessment begins at the draft level, so that teachers may regroup or reteach needed processes as needed. The organization of the materials lends itself to independent study, small group, or class discussion. Appropriate for all grade levels.

This Month in History, from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt™, HISTORY®, Channel One News®, and Center for Civic Education, provides free resources each month that teachers can use in the classroom.

The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching. Find Library of Congress lesson plans and more that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations.

Library of Congress Student Discovery Sets bring together historical artifacts and one-of-a-kind documents on a wide range of topics, from history to science to literature. Interactive tools let students zoom in, draw to highlight details, and conduct open-ended primary source analysis. Full teaching resources are available for each set.