Middle School Social Studies 

Best Practices

This section has a wide variety of graphic organizers such as charts, webs, diagrams, maps, templates, grids, and wheels to help students organize and display information and their findings.

Explore these group and team activities in which students have opportunities to work together to achieve shared learning goals.

This section includes links to suggestions for written activities, such as essay and paragraph writing, questionnaires, surveys, graphic organisers, and descriptions.

These links to information about oral or visual forms of literacy are useful for teaching and learning in social studies. This includes the use of pictures, photos, drawings, audio conferences, booklets, biographies, and interviews.

These links to information about best practices to use to teach history.

“The Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (SCLDA) uses all the Smithsonian offers to empower learners to explore their own interests and collaborate with others to bring ideas to life. We create models and methods that make the Smithsonian a learning laboratory for everyone.”

“The first and only institution in America established by Congress to “disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a non-partisan basis in order to increase the awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.”

“Free, core academic web site that delivers rich multimedia content–videos, animations, and simulations–on general education subjects to middle-school and high-school teachers and college professors, and their students, free of charge.”

“Tons of awesome courses in one awesome YouTube channel- World History, US History, Economics, U.S. Government and Politics.”

“Take your students beyond the classroom walls and into some of the world’s most iconic locations for rich and immersive learning experiences — no permission slips required.”

“Our list of Best History Websites aims to provide quick, convenient, and reliable access to the best history-oriented resources online in a wide range of categories and has been designed to benefit history teachers and their students.”

“HipHughes History has over 300 Instructional Videos for students of the Social Studies, teachers flipping their class and life-long learners. So whether you’re looking for a pedagogical ally, a non-biased explanation of that new Supreme Court case or you’re a kid who needs to study HHH has your brain’s back!”

“By sharing the big picture and challenging middle and high school students to look at the world from many different perspectives, we hope to inspire a greater love of learning and help them better understand how we got here, where we’re going, and how they fit in.”

“Empowering teachers & students to think critically about history & to understand the impact of their choices.”

“Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn’s best-selling book A People’s History of the United States, the website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and reading level.”

“Enhances history teaching and research through primary sources, an online textbook, extensive reference resources, and interactive materials.”