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Teaching with Historic Places - National Park Service
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Search for your state and see what this site has to offer. Looking for a specific topic (i.e. Civil War or Pearl Harbor), search using topics. Take advantage of these ready to go lesson plans. Infuse your lessons with technology by creating a class wiki about the lesson/topic being discussed. Maybe make a wiki guidebook to your state. Not comfortable with wikis? Have no wiki worries - check out the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through. Save this site in your favorites, and check back as you plan throughout the year.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Berlin Wall - The Newseum
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Teachers should plan on spending ample time previewing the site before using it in class. Initially view the video as a class and have a discussion. You might want to use a backchannel tool like GoSoapBox, reviewed here, for the discussion. The advantage of a backchannel chat is that every student has a voice, no matter how shy. Have small groups choose which of the extension activities they would like to investigate. Allow students to create a final project other than an essay to share their findings and present to the class. Suggest something like an online poster using Genial.ly, reviewed here, or a simple infographic using Snappa, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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LIFE photo archive - Google
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use the many images and caption of various events to bring the history alive. View Black History events and many other landmark events to life that simple passages in a textbook cannot. Use a specific image to share with the class and have them journal what they see in the picture, what they think is going on, and questions that they have about the image. Use their thoughts to begin discussion about the historical significance of the image. Use other images and research to develop a full understanding of the event. Students can parallel that event with other similar events through history and present their findings to the class. Virtually any recent (1860s through the present day) historical or news topic might be augmented by an accompanying photo on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to click to open the largest version of the image! Students might generate their own "collections" of related photographs to illustrate a topic or theme, or create a photo montage to capture a time period. Art teachers can also use these masterpieces in teaching design concepts and composition. Under Fair Use, your students can certainly use these photos in class projects, but our editors would not suggest copying and posting them on the web in blogs or wikis, since this could be seen as making unlimited copies. You can easily include them as linked images, however, to appear seamlessly on the blog or wiki page. What a great way to teach about giving proper credit as your students create annotated, thematic collections on a historical or literary topic.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Nevada
Grades
4 to 12Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Alaska and the Yukon - Quest Connect
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
There is also an accompanying set of lesson plans. If your students can't catch the next flight to Anchorage, this might be the best alternative.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Ultimate rollercoasters.com - ultimaterollercoaster.com
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
This website could also be used for various research projects (either researching actual roller coasters - their history, structure, speed, etc..), or even researching different time periods and the types of rides that were available during that time. If you study laws of motion, assign students to find "real world" examples of the laws in action using research on this site. Ignore the annoying pop-ups!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NewsHour Extra Lesson Plan: Immigration Reform - PBS
Grades
6 to 12In 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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Murder at the Met: An American Art Mystery - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Whether teaching art history or a unit on mysteries and deductive reasoning, students will learn from using this program. Though there is a place for students to keep notes, they should also keep their own notes about the clues, especially why they chose the ones they mark "highly suspicious." Replace paper and pencil by using a tool like Memo Notepad, reviewed here, for digital note taking. If you and your students liked this site you might also enjoy "Mysterious Places: Ancient Civilizations Modern Mysteries," reviewed here, with its lovely photographs to go along with the mysteries. A natural follow up would be to have your students write their own mysteries. Expository Escapades - Detective's Handbook, reviewed here, is just the place to give you some ideas! Challenge gifted students to create similar mysteries using subject matter in any science or social studies class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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When the Personal Becomes Presidential - New York Times Learning Network
Grades
6 to 12The lesson plan starts with the familiar "read the story and discuss" format, but there are a number of good essential questions and extension activities provided that could be tailored into a strong classroom plan. The lesson plans have cross-curricular suggestions, and are tied to standards.
In the Classroom
Be sure help your weaker readers and ELL students by sharing the listed vocabulary words prior to reading, either on a handout or by projecting on an interactive whiteboard and highlighting them in the text as you come to them.Use this lesson to discuss current events in politics (which changes daily). Have students discuss and debate the current issues. Have the students write a wiki about a current event in politics (for example, Governor Palin being the first woman VP on the GOP ticket).
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Discovering American Women's History Online - Ken Middleton
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
This is an excellent resource for piecing together American history by examining primary source documents. Have cooperative learning groups investigate women's contributions in various decades and extend their learning by creating a video using Renderforest, reviewed here, to share with their peers. Share the videos using a site such as SchoolTube reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Native American Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use the resources in this collection to help supplement and plan for a unit on Native American cultures. Use the links here for webquests, learning centers, lesson plans & the like.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Remembrance
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Divide the titles of this page among small groups of 4 or 5. Have each group prepare a presentation for their peers using Genially, reviewed here, to share the information they learned. With Genially, you can choose from many interactive templates such as presentations, infographics, games and more. Allow students to choose the type of multimedia that best fits the material they learned about.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Creating Dramatic Monologues from Grapes of Wrath - Alisa Soderquist
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
This site works on so many levels from teaching what a monologue is and how it suits a particular character in literature to researching primary sources and understanding what they tell you. This is a good group project that could work for other novels as well as The Grapes of Wrath. Try using an online digital recording tool such as Podomatic (reviewed here)for students to record and share their monologues as a podcast.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Newspaper Blackout - Austin Kleon
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
This poetry activity (aka Found Poetry) opens the doors to so many learning objectives. In a social studies or history classroom, you could direct your students to search for newspaper or magazine articles on topics that you have been studying, or current events. Suddenly you have social studies poetry! In an English language arts lesson, you might instruct students to blacken out all the words that are not nouns or verbs, or select other parts of speech. You could change the task to eliminate any word that is not part of the simple subject or predicate, and simultaneously teach or reinforce main idea. For classrooms with individual computers, students could access articles online. Copy the text into a document. Then, Instead of blackening out words with markers, they could get the same effect by highlighting over them with black, or changing the font color of the text to white, and printing them or saving a screenshot image. Another option is for students to email their Newspaper Blackout poems to the teacher. Each poem could then be put into a Power Point slide show for the class to see on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Use this site to offer your students a new twist on Poetry Month (April). Enhance classroom technology use and take your new poetry collection to the world by uploading the PowerPoint to Voxer, reviewed here, and have each student record a reading in his/her own voice. Make poetry a participatory experience, no matter what the subject. If your school permits, have students take photos of their paper poems -- or screenshots of ones done on the computer --and share them on Voxer. You may want students to start saving their work in a digital portfolio. Suggestions are Mahara, reviewed here, for high school students, and Seesaw, reviewed here, for younger students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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State of Alabama - Alabama.gov
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site with students researching information for state reports. Rather than having students create traditional reports, replace these by making them online! Use PicLits, reviewed here. Take student learning a step further by modifing and having students use a tool such as Zeemaps, reviewed here. This site allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location on a map (Alabama) where the report takes place. Explore the site with students when learning about different states, ask students to tell what they know then compare to information provided on the site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NEN Gallery - National Education Network
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Bring history lessons about the 20th century alive by reviewing World War II photographs, videos, and interviews with survivors from the United Kingdom. Then ask your class to upload photographs of artifacts, people, film clips or conduct interviewers with survivors in their own community. Record the interview with a site such as Vocaroo reviewed here. Compare and contrast the experiences of both groups during the War. Have students in family and consumer science research fashion, clothing, food, and/or drink from various locations and time periods. Enrich an anticipatory set about William Shakespeare with photographs of his birthplace, Macduff's castle, the Globe Theatre, and his cottage in Stratford. Younger children will enjoy the numerous digital images of animals and antique toys. Prepare a series of topic albums for students to access and use for research by using the sites "My Album" feature.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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After 9/11 - SSRC Teaching Resources - Social Studies Research Council
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Use these teaching guides and lesson plans in your classroom. The site also has lists internet sources that could be good resources for any students working on a research paper or project. If applicable, list the site on the class wiki or web page to allow students to explore the resources listed on their own.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Explore - Annenberg
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Find photos that speak to students and use them as an activator at the start of class. After viewing the picture, provide time for writing questions about the picture These questions will lead to search terms to find more information about culture, pollution, and socioeconomic problems. Encourage students to create poster or blog campaigns outlining problems and possible solutions. Why not create multimedia posters using a site such as Padlet, reviewed here. Find other areas in the world where similar or related problems are occurring. Identify the historical, economic, or geographical reasons for the problems. Challenge students to create a thematic Zeemaps, reviewed here. Zeemaps allows you to create a map with audio! Students can use this site as inspiration for "I believe..." style essays, photos, or videos. Looking for a FREE video sharing tool? Check out TeacherTube, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Where Did All the Money Go? - National Council on Economic Education
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of this free lesson plan in your classroom on a unit about the Great Depression. Not only would this be great in an economics class, but try using it in history or math - it has an interdisciplinary approach that shows the practical application of the math.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Women's History Month Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use the resources in this collection as a supplement to classroom activities during a Women's History unit. The resources on this site can be used for webquests, learning centers, lesson plans & the like!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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