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The American Experience: Remember the Alamo - PBS
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): texas (7)
In the Classroom
Ask students to compare several different rallying cries from American history ("Remember Pearl Harbor," "I have not yet begun to fight," "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes," and "Remember the Maine") that could provide a nice overview of how society comes to embrace a war as a patriotic duty.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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World War One: Armistice Day - BBC
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): 1940s (70), 20th century (168), world war 1 (87)
In the Classroom
Students can use Google My Maps, reviewed here to visit important sites from World War I. Students can use Turbo Timeline Generator, reviewed here to create a timeline of events leading up to World War I. Finally, students can compare and contrast the different eyewitness accounts using 2 and 3 Circle Interactive Venn Diagrams by Class Tools, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NOVA Wings of Madness - PBS
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Flying has always fascinated us, and flying failures are sometimes more interesting than successes. Students will know all about the Wright Brothers; they are unlikely to have heard of Alberto Santos-Dumont. The interactives are terrific and the paper airplanes would make a good hands-on activity. The readings about Santos-Dumont would also make good selections for a reading teacher trying to find motivating readings to teach comprehension strategies.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Prohibition and Temperance - OSU Department of History
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): 1920s (25), 1930s (40), 20th century (168), drugs and alcohol (29)
In the Classroom
This site is best used as a supplementary set of resources for further exploration. Teachers might use some of the contemporary illustrations or narratives to expand understanding, or students working on an independent project might find the resources helpful. You could use TrackStar, reviewed here, to design a brief web scavenger hunt within the site to engage students and introduce the topic in a new way.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Native American Nations - Lisa Mitten
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource for research papers and projects. Students can search for information about specific tribes or for information that the tribes themselves have put forward. This would be a great resource for a US history class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Native Tech: Native American Technology and Art - Tara Prindle
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Give students a scavenger hunt to learn the basics about the culture you are studying, then allow them to try some of the interactive games, ass based on the content of the site. This would be a great way to build background knowledge while studying American history or literature that deals with Native Americans.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Not For Ourselves Alone - PBS
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): biographies (96), women (189), womens suffrage (64)
In the Classroom
If you're looking for one site on the early women's movement or the women's suffrage movement, this one may do it. Take advantage of the lesson plans and resources therein. Once students know the history of the early women's movement, brainstorm more current information about women's rights and the women involved that could be included on this page. Have students or groups collect ideas and findings using Dotstorming, reviewed here. Dotstorming will allow students to include video, images, text, audio, voting & a chat box.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fishbanks: A Renewable Resource Management Simulation - Defra
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): environment (253), financial literacy (93), fish (16), resources (80), sustainability (54)
In the Classroom
The game could be helpful in showing students that "success" in a business that affects the environment can be measured in a number of ways: cash flow, environmental impact, community support. The game could be played cooperatively by groups of students on an interactive whiteboard, or could be played individually by students, as long as other players are online. Since it's available on-line, students could be instructed to play the game at home or during study halls and then be prepared to share their individual data in group discussion.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mark's Guide to Whose Line is it Anyway
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): literature (215)
In the Classroom
This can be a great lesson starter, particularly on those dreary days when kids don't want to work. For lower level kids, it is a brain exercise for such things as the alphabet game (which is more difficult than it first seems!). For higher level kids, you can substitute characters from literature with a situation from the story itself or from history with imaginative "what if" dialogue for actual events.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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BBC Learning English - BBC (British Broadcasting Company)
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): news (223)
In the Classroom
For teachers, there is a weekly lesson plan to accompany a selected news feature. The lesson plan includes highlighted vocabulary, a glossary, comprehension questions, a quiz, and links to more information about the subject of the story. This site is useful for far more than just ESL/ELL. Remedial reading teachers who struggle to find interactive comprehension activities will love the variety of reading selections and cloze passages, such as "Get That Job."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Spy Kids - CIA
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): branches of government (70)
In the Classroom
Include this site when studying the three branches of government as a concrete example of one thing the Executive Branch does. Students could explore it on a "scavenger hunt" to learn answers to questions you pose, or the whole class could visit on a projector to learn about what the CIA does. If you ask students to research different government agancies, this would be a great reference site for them to use.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Dates That Matter - TeachersFirst
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): calendars (36), substitutes (25)
In the Classroom
Begin your social studies class once or twice a week by projecting a Dates That Matter entry and working through the guiding questions together as a class -- clicking Reveal one at a time to spark discussion before the answer appears. Use the Why It Matters links as extra credit or enrichment opportunities, or ask gifted students to investigate one entry per month and become the class "expert" on that event. Add a link to your teacher's webpage so students and families can explore it together outside of school. Substitutes will also appreciate this meaningful, discussion-ready routine that connects today's lesson to students' prior knowledge -- no prep required.Comments
This is a terrific site for daily writing and "Do Nows" for my ELA classes. In addition, the site can be used for Morning Meeting/Advisory.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Early Cultures: The Pre European Peoples of Wisconsin - Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): native americans (129)
In the Classroom
There are some nice PDF files for teacher use that compare and contrast the pre-contact cultures. This would be especially helpful in illustrating that the "native people" of North America vary widely depending upon time frame and geography. There are lesson plans and a very nice illustrated glossary of terms and artifacts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Harvest of History - Farmers Museum
Grades
2 to 10tag(s): agriculture (54), new york (23)
In the Classroom
A comprehensive late elementary curriculum unit is outlined for teachers. There is a huge amount of information built into this site, and it could easily provide a lot of audio visual support to a unit on farming or on nineteenth century American farm life. The video clips and the interface are all extremely well done. There is reference to Native American farming (the Seneca). There is also a nice searchable index of primary sources, and it's not a list of moldy books, but rather a photo gallery of artifacts with documentation on usage, age, and provenance. Even a lower elementary teacher could use the videos on a projector to introduce the history of U.S. agrarian culture, and high school classes could study the economics of farming and create their own multi-media projects using the materials on this site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Where in the World and What in the World is Money? - International Monetary Fund
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
This might make a nice kick off activity (10 minutes)to a unit on money--from an economic perspective rather than a counting perspective--or a unit about a country or society that uses a different form of currency.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Flickr - Flickr
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): images (267), photography (136), Storage (7)
In the Classroom
Create a free account and take a moment during setup to adjust your notification settings so you only receive the emails you want. Upload and organize photos for the projects you plan to use with students so they are easy to access year after year. You can manage privacy settings at any time, making images public when needed and switching them to private when they are no longer in use. Be sure that you are the copyright holder of any images you upload by using original photos you have taken rather than images from the internet. To use the site effectively, you will need basic skills such as taking and saving digital photos, locating and uploading files, tagging images for easy student access, copying and sharing URLs for collections, and adjusting privacy and sharing settings. Find other tools such as Big Huge Labs Captioner or Motivator to use with the photos.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Captioner - Big Huge Labs
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): comics and cartoons (61), communication (122), images (267), photography (136)
In the Classroom
Locate and upload digital image files or an URL for specific images. Navigate the tools of Captioner by following the simple directions. Monitor the "appropriateness" of images available on Flickr/the web. You might want to specify a tag or collection to work from for some classes. Upload your own set of digital images to Flickr ahead of time. Share also by downloading image to your desktop.Create a captioned sequence to explain a major concept, such as mitosis or narrative patterns. You could also have students create campaign ads, posters of important people, etc. Have an object explain a concept from its point of view (solar panel tells about itself), have a famous person explain his invention or accomplishment, show what a non-verbal creature or object, such as a cell, is thinking.
Check out the Big Huge Labs educator account. Easily pre-register students to avoid creating logins, view and download their creations, and view the site advertisement free. You will find information about the Educator Account here.
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NewsHour Extra Lesson Plan: Immigration Reform - PBS
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): civics (129), immigration (85), migration (45)
In the Classroom
The essential questions (labeled "My Point of View, parts 2-3") are a nice guide for helping students see this issue from multiple backgrounds.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Around the World in 42 Hand Gestures - Work the World
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): communication (122), cultures (290), infographics (70)
In the Classroom
ENL/ESL teachers will appreciate this free infographic hosted by Work the World. Be sure to save it as a favorite on your classroom desktop to allow for easy retrieval later on.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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WorldWise Schools - Teaching About Culture Lesson Plans - Peace Corps
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): cultures (290)
In the Classroom
Search for lessons on a specific region as you teach about it or use these selections as general readings for comprehension. Consider using a guided reading activity with a tool like Hypothesis, reviewed here. Hypothesis is perfect for introducing any reading passage to struggling readers, special education students, and ENL/ESL learners. The lessons may also be helpful in getting to know students who enter your classroom from other cultures. The lessons would be very helpful in developing background knowledge to understand cross-cultural literature selections in a language arts class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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