Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This site, a collaborative effort among the National Archives, National History Day, and USA Freedom Corps, highlights the most important documents in US history. Each of these "milestone" documents is detailed and photographed on a separate page; the photo can be enlarged for presentation on an interactive whiteboard. What is most helpful for teachers, however, is the link to DocsTeach, reviewed here, with tools for educators. This site was clearly designed with teachers in mind! Click the items from the menu on the right.

tag(s): history day (40), primary sources (115)

H.S.I. or Historical Scene Investigation takes the work out of locating primary sources, and provides you with an interesting way for students to "investigate" history. This site presents "case histories" for "Dropping the Bomb," "Antonio the Slave," "Children in the Civil War," "The Boston Massacre" and many others. For each "case" there is a student view and a teacher view. The teacher view is a lesson plan with a list of objectives, additional contextual information and resources as well as instructional strategies, and suggestions for such things as age group and further questions to explore. The Student View includes links to 13 cases with primary documents, images, videos, and secondary documents to use as evidence along the way. The student view is set up as a mystery to solve. Students are presented with the situation and given a question to guide their inquiry. There are three steps for students to follow "Investigating the Evidence" where students are provided links to appropriate digital primary sources, "Searching for Clues" where students are provided with a set of questions to guide their analysis of the evidence, and "Cracking the Case" when students give their answers and cite the evidence they found to support their answers. This site is definitely the C.S.I for history!

tag(s): american revolution (81), atomic bomb (9), civil rights (194), civil war (134), constitution (87), jamestown (7), mysteries (19), primary sources (115), slavery (75)

This fascinating site is based on an exhibit of American Revolutionary spy letters from the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Explore some of the fascinating items on the left menu with items like Stories of Spies and Letters, Secret Methods and Techniques, a Timeline and others. The Gallery of Letters link on the right provides a brief description of each letter and links to more information about the stories of the spies in the letter or the secret methods used to make the letter. This site is rich with primary sources, taking students back in time!

tag(s): evolution (85), history day (40), primary sources (115)

This ambitious site has something for anyone who teaches American history. In fact, if you love history, be prepared to completely lose track of time as you explore the site. Discover American History through images, exhibits, primary sources, and more with The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Click Education on the top menu where there are special programs and exhibits for teachers and students. A large collection of primary sources complements many studies in social studies-- and literacy. As a member, save all of your favorites and make lists for each area of study. The multimedia tab reveals documentaries, videos and virtual field trips. History Now publishes monthly newsletters.As a teacher or student, you can have free access to the website.The site may be useful to students working on research for History Day projects.

tag(s): 1600s (20), african american (109), american revolution (81), black history (123), civil rights (194), civil war (134), colonization (20), foreign policy (12), great depression (28), history day (40), immigration (64), industrial revolution (20), migration (44), native americans (91), primary sources (115), westward expansion (38), world war 1 (72), world war 2 (149)

This site offers digitized National Archives of the U.S. organized according to general category. You can finally explore and share primary source documents interactively through this site. Start from 13 popular topics for educators. For a more in depth look at each subject and its associated categories, search by Relevance, Title, Date, and Popularity. An added feature at the bottom of the opening page is the "Create Fun & Engaging Activities" tab. Be sure to check out the menu on the left. Especially interesting for students and educators will be the Activity Tools with items like Analyizing Documents, Discussion Topic, Compare and Contrat and several more. Students can also create their own pathways, writing about connections they find between certain archived items. In another section, students can create their own historical posters and movies from the archives. You can create a collection of items from the archives to retrieve or look at later, as well. This feature requires a free membership created by email address.

tag(s): civil rights (194), congress (39), courts (19), first ladies (4), immigration (64), inventors and inventions (71), Juneteenth (22), lewis and clark (14), presidents (121), primary sources (115), slavery (75), womens suffrage (44), world war 1 (72), world war 2 (149)

Explore images, documents, and rare materials in this impressive collection of on-line archives. Search for a specific topic of interest by using the Digital Collection search, tour the many on-line exhibitions that cover a wide range of topics by scrolling down the page ro find themes ranging from Recently Digitized and Updated Collections, Nature Collections, Fashion Collections, and several others. Use for your own background research or as a resource for your students.

tag(s): images (270), primary sources (115)

This site is based on the Library of Congress collection of thousands of photos taken in the 1930s and early 1940s. They document everyday life during the depression and the years leading up to World War II. Geographic and chronological indexes make this collection an interesting research tool and photo source.

tag(s): great depression (28), primary sources (115)

This site is a collection of links that connect to Western European (mainly primary) historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. They shed light on key historical happenings within the respective countries and would be useful to expose students to the use of primary sources in research and history.

tag(s): primary sources (115), Research (83)

This site is meant to assist teachers in their use of archival documents when teaching. Choose "Teaching with Documents" and "Docs Teach" for documents and analysis instructions. Also find reproducible primary documents, photographs, and lesson plans correlated to the National History Standards, and cross-curricular connections. The site includes interesting activities for use in studying events in U.S. History.

tag(s): media literacy (102), primary sources (115)

This site is the homepage for teachers using the Library of Congress, the nation's largest library. Find primary source sets on various topics, professional development opportunities, thematic collections, and extensive materials and lesson plans for TPS (Teaching with Primary Sources) The teacher resources highlight nearly 10 million primary source resources available on line through this site.

tag(s): primary sources (115), Research (83)