1289 american-history results | sort by:
return to subject listingThe Center on Representative Government - Indiana University
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): branches of government (63), civil rights (200), comics and cartoons (53), congress (38), politics (114), primary sources (119), womens suffrage (46)
In the Classroom
Clearly, this is a great resource for those teaching civics or US government. These activities will also be useful to US History teachers, as the issues covered span important political eras. For example, there are activities related to women's suffrage, the child labor movement, the GI Bill and the development of the Interstate Highway system. Lesson plans range from those designed to cover several days, to short "Congressional moments" videos perfect for introducing a concept or sparking class discussion. A number of the lesson plans and activities are designed specifically for iPads. Of note also is the fact that the video clips on the site are not links to YouTube, so will not pose an access problem for school districts that block the site.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Statue of Liberty Virtual Tour - National Park Service
Grades
K to 12tag(s): american revolution (82), art history (89), landmarks (20), virtual field trips (96)
In the Classroom
In the age of shrinking opportunities for field trips, jump right in! Find out about the partnership between the United States and France and how they collaborated together. Explore partnerships between countries. Add this amazing piece of art into a unit about American Revolution and determine its significance.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PBS Newshour Classroom - PBS NewsHour Productions LLC
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): civil rights (200), elections (82), holocaust (42), memorial day (12), news (227), pearl harbor (14), poetry (191), veterans (29), video (262), women (142), world war 2 (161)
In the Classroom
Watch the news together on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students to watch independently on laptops or at a learning station. Use any video or article as a current events writing prompt. Challenge students to create blog posts about them. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, replace pen and paper and have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Webnode, reviewed here. Don't forget the many free lesson plans (already aligned to Common Core standards). Click on the Lesson Plans link to explore the countless topics available (Poetry, Veterans, Elections, Ebola, Civil Rights, and more). For articles and videos about conflicts and tension, extend student learning by having your students engage in a debate using a tool such as Virtual Debate, reviewed here, which has online examples and resources for conducting virtual debates. Keep your class up-to-date on the news using this site. Provide this link on your class website for students (and families) to access both in and out of your classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Book List - 20th Century America, Part 1 (1900-1945) - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): 1900s (73), 1910s (7), 1920s (15), 1930s (20), 1940s (14), 20th century (62), book lists (165), great depression (30), independent reading (86), world war 1 (78), world war 2 (161)
In the Classroom
Make the first half of the 20th century come alive during your unit on American History. Have students choose a book from this list and present their impressions from it in the form of a blog post from the times. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Tumblr, reviewed here. Collect the links to all the student posts on your class web page for students to browse and gather a "human" experience of history.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Google Doodles - Google
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): artists (82), creativity (90), drawing (60), gifted (65), STEM (279)
In the Classroom
This amazing collection of Doodles can be used to spark thinking in a variety of classes. Use the Doodles to teach a little history. View the resources about the event, person, or country that inspired the Doodle. Encourage thinking with your gifted kids by sharing the whole gallery for exploration or a specific Doodle. Use these Doodles to spark a new project idea or challenge kids to create a simple "doodle" as a new way to report on a historic figure or a content idea. Think your students will be intimidated making a computer Doodle? Consider creating a Doodle using any computer art software or simply creating one on paper. Use these ideas in Science to show the scientific inventions or concepts. In social studies, use Doodles to showcase specific events here and around the World. When looking at perspectives of people around the world, create doodles that can show more than one point of view. Write paragraphs or stories based on Google Doodles. Use Google Doodles in STEM initiatives at your school. Don't forget Art or Gifted programs! Get your students excited about the making of the Doodles and what code writing can do! Use tools such as Scratch, reviewed here, or Tynker, reviewed here, to practice coding.Comments
Nice to have past "Google Doodles" in one website to go back and look at.David, AK, Grades: 9 - 12
Great ideas for short, informative paragraphs to practice this type of writing. Let kids find a google idea for a day, for their particular world/setting/priorities...FUN! Archives are instructive.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Annenberg Learner - The Annenberg Foundation
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): art history (89), butterflies (13), conversions (36), critical thinking (117), dna (43), earth (186), environment (246), geometric shapes (135), immigrants (34), medieval (32), native americans (95), patterns (62), periodic table (46), renaissance (38), rocks (35), russia (35), south africa (13), spelling (98), statistics (120), volcanoes (56), weather (161)
In the Classroom
In your classroom, explore the interactives available to enhance your lessons. Use the lesson plan library to add a new twist to your subject matter. Organize a professional study of your area of concentration for your department or grade level.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Museum of Endangered Sounds - Brendan Chilcutt
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): 1960s (26), 1970s (10), 1980s (7), inventors and inventions (77), sounds (42)
In the Classroom
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard and speakers to launch your modern history or technology unit. Include it in a unit on inventions and inventors or even in "sounds of the decades." Challenge students to research and find other "endangered" sounds from the past. Have them interview parents and grandparents to discover long-missing sounds. Create a class wiki museum of more endangered sounds and images. Challenge students (and parents) to find these items (in real life) and bring them in to share. Have students include sounds from the museum as part of a multimedia project. Use this site to launch discussions about the impact of technology and its rapid changes on such things as home design, economics, and even clothing. Share this site as part of Grandparent's Day activities and have grandparents share memories of these and other obsolete objects.Comments
Really neat site...Just be forewarned that there's a racy photo of a girl in a bikini on the old TV sound part. You don't see it until you click on the TV. Other than that, cute stuff.Angie, GA, Grades: 4 - 6
Editorial Note: Yes, we saw that racy photo also. It is mentioned in our review already, towards the end of the description.
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Remember Pearl Harbor - New York Times: The Learning Network
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): japan (56), pearl harbor (14), roosevelt (15), world war 2 (161)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plan for use in your World War II unit or Pearl Harbor lesson. Use this site to differentiate activities for students. Be sure to "mine" the links within the site for additional resources to add to your current lesson plans. Exchange paper and pen brainstorming by having students or groups collect ideas and findings about the Day That Will Live in Infamy using Padlet, reviewed here. The Padlet application creates free online bulletin boards. Extend student learning and have them create a simple infographic about Pearl Harbor using Venngage, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Junior Rangers Online - National Park Service
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): animals (288), landmarks (20), national parks (28), plants (148), virtual field trips (96)
In the Classroom
Use the Educator's resources to find many curriculum connections and alignment to Common Core. Introduce one of the WebRangers' multimedia resources to your class on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this site as a precursor activity to an actual trip to one of the parks or as you study states and their major landmarks. Use this in science class as you study animals and habitats. Explore the landmarks in your own city or town and create multimedia presentations about them like the ones shown here. In the Teacher's Resource Guide, find the link to their Twitter account. Even if students are unable to physically visit and explore parks, use the virtual visits to learn about the National Parks around the country and offer students the opportunity to earn Junior Ranger certificates. Create a map using Google My Maps, reviewed here, and add places visited by your class throughout the school year. In addition to labeling locations, add images, videos, and student text to share information about each location.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Year We Had Two Thanksgivings - Marist College
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): primary sources (119), roosevelt (15), thanksgiving (22)
In the Classroom
Use information from the article and documents as part of any lesson about Thanksgiving. Share the documents as part of a unit on primary resources. Print and share documents with students and challenge them to present an opposing point of view or write a reply from President Roosevelt. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast different points of view. Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook "as" President Roosevelt or one of the writers of letters to the president.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Photogrammar - DSL University of Richmond
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): 1930s (20), 1940s (14), agriculture (48), maps (207), photography (118)
In the Classroom
Share images from the map to compare and contrast life in your location now versus in the 1930's and 1940's. Display images on your interactive whiteboard to compare photographs from different parts of the country. Use this site as the starting point for individual or group projects exploring American life following the Depression Years or on the home front during World War II. Have students choose an angle or area of emphasis to investigate, such as home life, work, farms, building, etc. Have students create timelines using Sutori, reviewed here, with images, text, and collaboration. Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about life as an American in the 1930's and 1940's.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Cartoons for the Classroom - The Association for American Editorial Cartoonists
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): comics and cartoons (53), politics (114), satire (6)
In the Classroom
These one-page discussion starters could help students keep up with current political issues, provide an opening or closing activity, or serve as an enrichment activity for students who move through other assignments more quickly. Available either with or without guiding questions, and covering a wide range of relevant and timely topics, they are perfect to keep as a Plan B or for an emergency substitute teacher activity. Elsewhere on the site are links to Weekly News Videos with prompts for discussion, and other information about political cartooning through history; most of these latter links connect to outside sites so be sure and preview carefully. In an art class, create a "political" option during a line drawing unit for current events enthusiasts to draw their own political cartoons. Include these cartoons during a unit on humor and satire in an English/Language Arts class or gifted program.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Past/Present - Experience History From the Inside Out - Center for New American Media and Muzzy Lane Software
Grades
5 to 11tag(s): 1900s (73), critical thinking (117), game based learning (181), immigrants (34), immigration (68), industrialization (11)
In the Classroom
Prepare to use this activity in your classroom by thoroughly exploring the documentation and videos before you plan to use it. Introduce this interactive to students on a projector or whiteboard using the demo videos and videos about Anna and Walter. Next, have students pair up and sign up for an account. One must be Walter, and one must be Anna. The characters both meet the same townspeople and participate in the same global events, but the roles and social positions are different, so they will have different tasks. Pairing students will allow for maximum participation in post-activity discussions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Voting America: United States Politics 1840-2008 - University of Richmond
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): congress (38), elections (82), electoral college (22), maps (207), presidents (133), timelines (56)
In the Classroom
These maps, powerful when projected on an interactive whiteboard (or projector), make the impact of changes in population demographics and distribution visual. The maps might also provide a good resource for students studying a particular President or time period. Challenge students to create a newspaper about what they have learned (about the President or time period). Use a tool such as Zinepal (reviewed here). Click to "Start with a blank e-Book."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Stuff You Missed in History Class - Tracy Wilson and Holly Frey
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): archeology (26), black history (130), civil rights (200), civil war (136), cross cultural understanding (167), mental health (36), native americans (95), podcasts (103), religions (85), vikings (10), world war 1 (78), world war 2 (161)
In the Classroom
Use podcasts from Stuff You Missed in History to enrich current lessons or lure students into thinking history can actually be "cool." Provide a link on class computers or your class website for students use. Have students use a mapping tool such as Zeemaps, reviewed here, to create a map of one of these events (with audio stories and pictures included)! Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about one of the people in these lesser known historic events.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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40 Maps That Explain World War I - Vox
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): europe (77), map skills (56), maps (207), world war 1 (78)
In the Classroom
These maps are perfect for use on an interactive whiteboard. If you are teaching World War I, these maps need to be among your "go to" bookmarks for illustrating important highlights about the War. Consider also providing a link to the maps as part of materials students can access to learn more, as extra challenge, or for independent or group projects. The maps illustrating important technology first used in World War I will fascinate students who enjoy learning how things work. Have students create a multimedia presentation about the aspects of WWI that fascinate them most.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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JFK American Experience - PBS American Experience
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 1960s (26), civil rights (200), kennedy (20), presidents (133)
In the Classroom
The 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy provides an opportunity to refresh students' knowledge of JFK as a man and a President. What important policy innovations can we attribute to his Presidency? How might the remainder of the turbulent decade of the 1960s have been different had he lived? And from a different perspective, while we all want to romanticize the legacy of "Camelot" and the glamour of the Kennedy family, what were his failings? This site provides some rich primary sources to include in a discussion of the Kennedy Presidency, as well as a brief preview of the American Experience film itself. Whether you choose to view the episode with your class or not, you are certain to obtain excellent information at this site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Totally History - totallyhistory.com
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): american revolution (82), art history (89), civil war (136), presidents (133), religions (85), vietnam (38), world war 1 (78), world war 2 (161)
In the Classroom
Totally History offers a starting point to find basic facts and information on many topics. Use material from the site to introduce any topic such as presidents or events in World or American History. Share with students to use as a resource for classroom projects and reports. Have students create timelines using Timeline JS, reviewed here. Timeline JS also offers the option to upload and add photos, videos, audio, Tweets, and Google Maps making it interactive. Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about a president or any person or event in history.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Top Documentary Films - topdocumentaryfilms.com
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): advanced placement (26), animals (288), artists (82), biographies (95), drugs and alcohol (28), environment (246), evolution (88), hiv/aids (15), humor (16), media literacy (106), mental health (36), money (114), politics (114), psychology (67), religions (85), sports (81), vietnam (38)
In the Classroom
Use this site to find videos in a wide range of topics to share on your interactive whiteboard, on a projector, or as a link on your class web page. Use videos to demonstrate different points of view. Then use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here. to compare and contrast information. Have students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from any film using a tool such as WordItOut, reviewed here. Want to engage students WHILE they watch a video? Why not set up a backchannel chat using GoSoapBox, reviewed here. Be sure to ask your class if there could have been any bias in the video you watch together. What film techniques influence our thinking?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NCES Kids' Zone - NCES
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): charts and graphs (171), probability (97)
In the Classroom
Strike an interest in your school and community by finding out where you rank. Investigate college choices. After short quizzes, have a daily comparison of your students to see how they compare in civics, economics, geography, history, mathematics, and science at multiple grade levels. Inspire students to collect data and make their own graphs about school wide topics. Have students create an online graph using ChartGizmo, reviewed here. Dig into probability problems to discover the odds.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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