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Take Me Back To - takemeback.to
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 1900s (77), 1910s (19), 1920s (15), 1930s (29), 1940s (36), 1950s (11), 1960s (31), 1970s (14), 1980s (10), 20th century (73), decades (7), timelines (58)
In the Classroom
Build context around historic dates using details of pop culture, magazines, and more. Have students search for their birthdate and write about significant events on that date. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to create a visual comparison of two different dates or of a past date with today. Ask students to generate questions about an important date, such as Pearl Harbor day, and use cultural details to generate a "snapshot" of what life was like before the world changed. What can you tell from the information shared here? How do you know? Challenge your students to use a site such as Timeline Infographic Templates, reviewed here, to create timelines of events in the 1900's.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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CurriConnects Book List: 100 Leaders - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): artists (91), book lists (170), politics (119), presidents (145), scientists (71)
In the Classroom
Use this list as you study any topic that features leaders: the founding fathers, famous scientists, and much more. Encourage students to read about leaders in diverse fields - including the one you are studying - to compare and discuss what makes someone a successful leader and why people rise to the top among their peers across time, place, and circumstance. You could also form an afterschool book club around this list or use the nonfiction listings as practice with informational texts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Newsola - Nick Nicholaou
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): countries (74), financial literacy (92), news (225), sports (84)
In 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.Comments
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Reading Like a Historian - Digital Inquiry Group
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): american revolution (89), civil rights (219), civil war (142), cold war (36), colonial america (97), colonization (21), emancipation proclamation (14), new deal (5), reading strategies (87), slavery (79), world war 1 (82), world war 2 (167)
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a resource for American history lessons throughout the year. The final segment of each lesson, the "Central Historical Question," has been noted as the most important part. If you don't have time for the full lesson, incorporate the historical question into your lesson plans as part of your classroom discussion, or journal activities. Perhaps you can use it as an essential question for your unit. Challenge students to create a talking avatar using a photo or other image (legally permitted to be reproduced). The avatars can be used to explain the central historical question. Use a site such as Blabberize, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Center for Civic Education - Center for Civic Education
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): branches of government (66), civil rights (219), constitution (102), democracy (25), elections (83), electoral college (22), lincoln (66), martin luther king (45), presidents (145), sept11 (18), washington (32)
In the Classroom
Use lesson resources to supplement your current curriculum or commemorate events such as MLK Day, Presidents Day, or Constitution Day. Assign podcasts to groups of students to use, then report to the class. Rather than a traditional report, challenge cooperative learning groups to collaborate on a topic found on the site using Netboard, to share ideas and information. Share a link to the podcasts via your web page or blog. Have students answer the daily question then respond with a short journal entry or with comments on your webpage.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TED-ED - Ted.com
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): blended learning (27), business (54), design (78), literature (219), psychology (65), religions (122), Teacher Utilities (198)
In the Classroom
Choose a video or create your own videos for students to use for review. After students view a video that has the questions, show one that doesn't, and have students generate questions for it. Assign videos for students to view at home or in the computer lab. Use them as a springboard for engaging writing prompts or to spark a discussion connected with a unit of study. Challenge students to do a compare/contrast activity using an online Venn Diagram tool, reviewed here. Most of the videos are less than twenty minutes, which makes it realistic to use them in a one-period class lesson or if you are implementing blended learning or flipped learning in your classroom or school (leaving class time for asking questions and clarifying).Show a video or two with your class and discuss the set up of the lesson. Discuss the difference between basic comprehension questions and open-ended questions. Show your students an inspirational video or two from TED reviewed here. As a class, pick out eight or ten of the TED videos and allow students to sign up to work on one of the videos. Have cooperative learning groups develop a TED Ed video lesson. You will need to proofread all work using a word processor, before allowing students to upload their questions on TED Ed.
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Constitution Day - ConstitutionDay.com
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): bill of rights (36), biographies (96), colonial america (97), constitution (102), history day (38), philadelphia (10)
In the Classroom
Share this site with students as a resource for reading and viewing the Constitution. Use Read Ahead, reviewed here with these articles as a guided reading activity for younger students. Read Ahead is perfect for introducing any reading passage to struggling readers, special education students, and ENL/ESL learners. Along with Read Ahead you may want to use Wordsift, reviewed here to help students identify the most important words used in the text. Challenge students to develop a fake social media presence about one of the founding fathers using Fakebook, reviewed here. This is a great resource for Constitution Day!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Lost Museum - American Social History Productions
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
View this site on your interactive whiteboard and use the teaching activities as a supplement to information in the museum. Divide students into groups to complete the different activities. Have groups share their information using ScreenPal, ScreenPal, reviewed here or Screencastify (Chrome app), to make narrated recordings about information they find on this site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Battlefield Trust - Virtual Tours - American Battlefield Trust
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): battles (17), civil war (142), emancipation proclamation (14), gbtn (12), gettysburg (14), gettysburg address (11), Juneteenth (22), lincoln (66), slavery (79)
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as an excellent resource for Civil War materials. Display different battle information on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector to discuss as a class. Share this site with students to use as a resource for class projects. Ask them to collect facts and resources using a bookmarking tool such as Wakelet, reviewed here. Have students use a mapping tool such as Google Earth, reviewed here, to create an audio (and visual) tour of pertinent battle sites. Challenge your students to use a site such as Sutori, reviewed here, to create an interactive timeline of important battles. With Sutori you can include text, images and collaboration. Have students make a multimedia presentation using Genially, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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People's Pie - iCivics.org
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): branches of government (66), financial literacy (92), game based learning (211)
In the Classroom
Demonstrate the basic concepts of the challenge on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then allow students to play on their own on the whiteboard or classroom computers, keeping a log of their actions and results. Have students create "talking pictures" to debate funding (or lack of) for a particular budget item using Blabberize, reviewed here. Use this game as a springboard for an economics or government class to debate and discuss the impact of financial decisions on different segments of the community. Have students research current candidates' financial plans and play the game using the politician's strategies. Have students compare and contrast the impact on the economy.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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AllSides - John Gable
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): elections (83), evaluating sources (29), media literacy (106), politics (119)
In the Classroom
This is an excellent site to easily find topics presented from various points of view. Use articles with students to demonstrate point of view in writing, bias in media, or for students to use as points for debates. Use an online tool such as Interactive Three Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to create a visual comparison of different points of view.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 12tag(s): business (54), careers (197), creativity (81), debate (40), environment (251), nutrition (139), psychology (65), sociology (23)
In 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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Useful charts - UsefulCharts Publishing
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): art history (111), charts and graphs (167), grammar (139), multiple intelligences (7), myths and legends (42), poetry (196), politics (119), psychology (65), religions (122), solar system (111), space (230), timelines (58)
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.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Connect the Dots for Democracy - Witte Design, LLC
Grades
8 to 12What's missing? There is no audio recording of the script that could accompany the slides; you must print the script and read it while viewing the slides. And, despite its goal of "making it simple" for busy folks, you have to dig a little in the site to discover that the author is firmly in the "Progressive" political camp, and that the presentation on Health Care, for example, includes one section on "GOP Care" and repeatedly slams the Republican party's handling of the health care crisis. To its credit, the sources for the information presented on the graphics are cited. Be aware also that the graphics use language like "We're Getting Screwed!" which may be inappropriate for younger kids.
tag(s): branches of government (66), congress (41), elections (83), media literacy (106), politics (119)
In the Classroom
The infographic presentations would be great for discussions of election-year politics for Civics/Government classes or Current Events debate. They would be better if the accompanying scripts were available in an audio file. Exercise caution, however, because there is clearly a political agenda here. Ironic that a site that purports to cut through the rhetoric is loaded with its own. Use it, therefore, as yet another example of how a savvy media can "spin" the issues. Invite students to look for the bias inherent in some of the information presented. What questions should be asked about the data contained in the slideshow? How could you verify the information? How would you rebut it with your own infographic? Can you find a site that presents an opposing spin on the same topics?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The White House Tour - Google Maps
Grades
K to 12tag(s): presidents (145), virtual field trips (131), white house (16)
In the Classroom
Take your students on a virtual field trip! This is a great way for kids to "visit" the White House. Include it during inauguration week or any time you are studying U.S. government. Show the website using a projector, and have students write a tour script or a tale of something that might happen in the White House. Younger students might want to write a story from the President's dog's (or other pet's) point of view! Before using the site, you should familiarize yourself with how to use the Google Maps street view tools to navigate through the house. Better yet, have a student operate the tour on the whiteboard or projector.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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House History Timeline - History, Art & Archives United States House of Representatives
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): branches of government (66), congress (41)
In the Classroom
Although this site is not the most visually exciting, it would still be useful on an interactive whiteboard, particularly when you are discussing a defined time period. Select the relevant Congress, then compare the legislative activity with world events. For example, choose a Congress during wartime, and highlight events related to war or the military. As elections approach, use the timelines to compare the activities of a previous Congress during "election season" to see if there are patterns of Congressional behavior.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Knoema - Knoema
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): charts and graphs (167), countries (74), data (150), maps (220), statistics (117)
In the Classroom
Use in Social Studies or World Cultures to compare economic indicators of countries. Create data sets and visualizations of environmental data around the world. Use data in the writing of papers or creation of presentations on the country statistics such as GDP or exported goods. Trying to find meaningful data to include in an infographic? Knoema has it! Math teachers can use data sets for practice activities with statistics.Comments
I absolutely love Knoema! They also have World Data Atlas (Chrome Web Store app for free) - chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/world-data-atlas/knlgfedckdhkgjinnhogmhkbcjpmmhko that I strongly advise to use.Olga, , Grades: 0 - 12
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Infographics Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): infographics (60)
In the Classroom
Join the 21st century trend of infographics as a way to share a lot of information, quantitative data, and relationships in a compact but effective visual space. Help students learn and construct meaning using infographics. Share this collection on your class web page as a starting point for students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research - The University of Richmond
Grades
8 to 12The site is designed for use by college professors in designing research projects for individual students or student groups, but there is nothing here that would prevent advanced high school students from using the site or its materials as the basis for a research project. As the site is designed, instructors are to register prior to assigning research so that students can use an authorization code when submitting their research. If you decide to use the resources without submitting student work to the site, no registration is required. It should be noted that the terms of submission make the work the property of the University of Richmond; be sure that's consistent with your goals before you decide to submit.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): advanced placement (27), history day (38), local history (13)
In the Classroom
The site and the research it encourages is designed for college students, so secondary school use would need to be either in an upper level or Advanced Placement course, or perhaps for a student doing research for a National History Day project. As an alternative, the site can be used even in less advanced classes simply as a resource to explore the "episodes" already submitted by others. Enter a search term such as civil war to see all the results.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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With Liberty and Justice for All - The Henry Ford Museum
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): branches of government (66), civil rights (219), constitution (102), freedom of speech (14), womens suffrage (63)
In the Classroom
While the site is focused on preparing students for a visit to the Henry Ford Museum, the site provides good resources and lesson plans for the study of both the Women's Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. The video tour of the exhibit also provides a "virtual field trip" experience.Comments
This is a virtual field trip that groups resources for 6-8 grades and will be extremely useful at all levels towards a discussion of justice through evidence evaluation, pro and con using various issues from our history.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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