Social Studies
Information Fluency Skills and Social Studies Alignment : Use this link to for information literacy assessments aligned to Social Studies curriculum.
In addition to the following, please see our Primary Sources Page on this site.
Abraham Lincoln and Primary Sources - 'Under His Hat: Discovering Lincoln's Story from Primary Sources' is the home of the Lincoln Collection Digitization Project, a thematic online-education resource about the United States' 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.
Truly an online version of a textbook, the site features information about major aspects of prehistoric world and takes readers through Egypt, the early Middle East, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, Africa, South Asia, China, Japan, and South and Central America. Accessible language is used to describe the time periods and major events; sidebars contain links that lead to external websites on the topic.
Ancient Civilizations: Brookly Prospect Library - In depth videos and links for Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Mesopotamia and Persian Gulf.
ANCIENT HISTORY ENCYCLOPEDIA - The AHE cites itself as a small nonprofit dedicated to providing high-quality history content to enthusiasts, teachers, and students for free. Students can explore topics using a time line, a geographical search, and natural language searches. The site is well designed and organized and contains information in many formats—videos, photos, maps, and text.
BLACK QUOTIDIAN - Black Quotidian is a digital project designed to highlight everyday moments and lives in African-American history. This site features historical articles from black newspapers deemed by the creator of the site to be among the most important sources for understanding black history and culture in the twentieth century.
DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA - PRIMARY SOURCE SETS
DPLA Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide.
This organization has grown to become a worldwide organization that enables transformative dialogue, fosters empathy and reflection, and improves students’ academic performance. Through rigorous investigation of the events that led to the Holocaust and other recent examples of genocide and mass violence, students in a Facing History class learn to choose knowledge over misinformation, compassion over prejudice or bullying, and participation over indifference or resignation. Subjects range from immigration to the holocaust to the Civil Rights era.
I Civics - Created by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to increase kids' declining civic knowledge and participation. Lessons and materials can be selected by grade/topic level and are aligned with Common Core standards. There is a drafting board to assist in writing argumentative essays as well as games for students to increase knowledge. In addition, it has the ability to collect data from student work if the site is accessed and used by the individual students. It is rated as one of the best web-sites for teaching and learning. The site is free. All is requires is a quick registration process to create a user name and password.
IMMIGRATION - Watch 200 years of U.S. immigration history in one animated map. Migration flows are visualized as colored dots, each one representing 10,000 people...VERY COOL!
I Witness Holocaust Testimonials - University of Southern California's SHOAH Foundation brings I Witness, an online application for educators and students, giving them access to watch, search, and learn from over 1,000 video testimonies of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust. I Witness is unique by bringing educators and their students (ages 13-18) together at the intersection of Holocaust education and the development of critical multiliteracies for the 21st century. The 1000+ video testimonies available within the I Witness application are part of an archive of nearly 52,000 testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses maintained by the University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation, established in 1994 by Steven Spielberg.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ANCIENT WORLD NEWS - Part of the greater National Geographic site, AWN is of the quality one would expect from NatGeo. Highlighting contemporary news concerning discoveries about the ancient world and ancient artifacts, this site connects current events with ancient history. Some recent examples include the destruction of ancient sites by ISIS, an in-depth look at the life of Bronze Age women, and the Shroud of Turin.
NATIONMASTER - Looking for statistics on a variety of places around the globe on a wide variety of topics?
This site presents statistics and information from a global team of passionate stat geeks, dedicated to the mission of bringing facts to the world of geopolitics, economics, geography, defence and culture. You can even do quick comparisons of places and stats with an easy to read Tchart.
New York Heritage Digital Collection - New York Heritage is a research portal for students, educators, historians, genealogists, and anyone else who is interested in learning more about the people, places and institutions of New York State. The site provides free access to more than 170 distinct digital collections, totaling hundreds of thousands of items.
New York Tenement Museum - This website includes lesson plans and primary source documents from The Tenement Museum. Their mission is to preserve and interpret the history of immigration through the personal experiences of the generations of newcomers who settled in and built lives on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Political Cartoons for the Classroom - The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists is a professional association concerned with promoting the interests of staff, freelance and student editorial cartoonists in the United States. The AAEC sponsors a Cartoons for the Classroom program designed to aid educators at all levels in teaching history, economics, social studies and current events.
SAS CURRICULUM PATHWAYS - Created by one of the largest software companies, this site has standard-aligned lessons and focuses on producing technologies to enhance learning. Some features are video tutorials on a wide variety of topics, complete with quizzes. You can search and narrow down from dropdown menus for grade/content appropriate results. It is free. You just need to create your own username and login.
SAHAPEDIA - INDIAN CULTURE RESOURCE - Sahapedia is an open online resource on the arts, cultures and heritage of India where you can read articles, watch videos, listen to interviews, and browse image galleries. You can also visit historic sites and natural spaces through their virtual walks.
Scholastic's "We the People" Online Resources - Online Magazine for grades 4-6 and 7-8. Topices covered include democracy, Bill of Rights, active citizenship ship, Constitution, media literacy, immigration and much more! Hilight and annotating ability as well as linked videos and other articles.
Smithsonian TweenTribune - Articles on a variety of topics complete with quizzes and lesson plans.
Teaching with Documents - From the National Archives: Find and create interactive learning activities with primary source documents that promote historical thinking skills. Also link to Docsteach.
ROSA PARKS PAPERS - From the Library of Congress. The papers of Rosa Parks (1913-2005) span the years 1866-2006, with the bulk of the material dating from 1955 to 2000. The collection contains approximately 7,500 items in the Manuscript Division, as well as 2,500 photographs in the Prints and Photographs Division. The collection documents many aspects of Parks's private life and public activism on behalf of civil rights for African Americans.
TEACHING HISTORY.ORG - This interactive site is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and is designed to help K–12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom. It includes lesson plans, resources, methods for using primary documents and more.
Teaching History with 100 Objects -
The British Museum offers one hundred objects from museums across the UK with resources, information and teaching ideas to inspire students’ interest in history. Objects range from the Stone Age through the 20th Century.
WOMEN AND THE AMERICAN STORY - Well organized database of women in American History, complete with curriculum by grade, lesson plans and materials.