Lessons & Activities

Lessons, Activities, and Resources

Find history and social studies lesson plans, activities, and resources listed under each topic. 



Tools of Social Science Inquiry (Timelines, Diagrams, Graphic Organizers, etc.) 




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JSTOR Open Access Content

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JSTOR, one of the favorite electronic journals of historians for finding full-text articles, has open-access content that does not require a subscription. To search and view the open content visit https://about.jstor.org/whats-in-jstor/books/open-access-books-jstor/ for books and https://www.jstor.org/open/ for everything else. Educators will want to check the results first and decide what resources to share with their students. While the majority of the articles and books are college level, the sources consist of several peer reviewed articles and books with credible and factual information. The database itself, in addition to the open content, is a great discussion point for history educators. Acknowledging the information needs of history students and recognizing the desire for full-text articles helps students learn about one of the major resources used in graduate level research. While I have personally used this database quite often in my own research, I ...
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Asking for Directions

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Are you a person who does not like to ask for directions? Do you need a history g.p.s. device to help you find your way through history? It is okay to admit when you need advice or directions. To help you I have put together the following list if you get lost along the way. How to find your closest library: https://www.worldcat.org/librarie The Top 7 alternatives to Wikipedia: https://oedb.org/ilibrarian/top-7-alternatives-to-wikipedia/ (from Open Education Database) Free Online Textbooks: http://www.ushistory.org/textbooks.htm Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ Open Yale Courses (History): https://oyc.yale.edu/history Free Online Courses in American History from edX: https://www.edx.org/learn/us-history MIT Open Courseware: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/history/ History for Kids: http://www.historyforkids.net/ InfoBase: https://online.infobase.com/HRC/Browse/Product/3 History Quiz-See if you are on the right path: https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constituti...
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Historical Building Blocks

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If you google the phrase “Doing History” you will come across several blogs, websites, and articles d iscussing the importance of taking part in the historical process. The building blocks of the historical process include understanding what primary sources are, how to find and study them, as well as how to critically analyze and interpret a variety of historical records. Secondary sources also play a role in the historical process. Historians create secondary sources when they write history articles or books on a historical topic.  Understanding how to use both primary and secondary sources is important, however it is also essential that history students learn a variety of ways to approach thinking about history. Studying the objects and artifacts of past civilizations helps us place people and events in historical context. Determining chronological sequences also helps historians figure out what decisions may have led to later events. Another concept that is harder to gra...
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