Social Studies Teaching Resources
Waynesburg University: Teaching with Primary Sources
The Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Eastern Region Program at Waynesburg University is funded by the Library of Congress to further the Library's mission to engage, inspire, and inform the American people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity.
www.waynesburg.edu/community/tps-eastern-region
CK-12 Social Studies FlexBooks
CK-12 is an interactive and intelligent learning platform that's free for everyone. Used by more than 200 million students and teachers worldwide, CK-12 empowers learners with high-quality content and cutting-edge technology.
OpenStax
OpenStax is a nonprofit educational technology initiative based at Rice University. Since 2012, OpenStax has created peer-reviewed, openly-licensed textbooks, which are available in free digital formats and for a low cost in print. Most books are also available in Kindle versions on Amazon.com and in the iBooks Store.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Outstanding site providing teachers and students with a wide variety of primary sources and classroom resources.
https://www.loc.gov/collections/
Digital History
Using New Technologies to Enhance Teaching and Research for Social Studies
Tenement Museum
With Tenement Museum resources, students become historians. Using our teacher-designed, teacher-tested lesson plans, students engage in inquiry and learn to use critical thinking to interpret objects, oral histories, and primary sources, while making history relevant to today.
Smithsonian's History Explorer
Run by the Smithsonian, this website offers a huge library of resources for all grade levels. Students can view videos, artifacts, and other interactive and static resources covering a range of historical and social events. The site has a strong set of filters, allowing users to narrow down their searches by sub-field, era, grade level, type of media, and more.
iCivics
This is a terrific website loaded with fun, interactive games devoted to learning about civics-related topics. Those topics include citizenship & participation, separation of power, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Judicial Branch, the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and budgeting. Each game has a specific learning objective in which it is built around, but users will love the interactive story lines within each game. Games such as "Win the White House" allows users a simulated opportunity to manage their campaign strategically to become the next president by raising funds, campaigning, polling voters, etc. The site is probably best suited for middle school-aged students and up.
Zinn Education Project
The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in classrooms across the country. Since 2008, the Zinn Education Project has introduced students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. With more than 140,000 people registered, and growing by more than 15,000 new registrants every year, the Zinn Education Project has become a leading resource for teachers and teacher educators.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/
PBS Learning Media
Explore the past and learn about the present with resources on government, history, economics, and more. Discover thousands of social studies activities, lessons, and interactive resources for all grades, all aligned to state and national standards.
Newsela's mission is to unlock the written word for everyone. Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that brings together engaging, accessible content with integrated assessments and insights. The result is more engaged readers—and engaged readers are better learners.
Virtual Field Trips
Virtual field trips are a game-changer. Not only do they fill in for real field trips when budgets and other roadblocks prevent in-person options, but virtual field trips also open doors to educational experiences all over the country and the world, both past and present. No fundraising or permission slips required!
Foundation For Teaching Economics
FTE provides a variety of resources for educators, including curriculum outlines and accompanying lesson plans, Hot Topic inquiries into current issues, and an Economic Barometer for easy access to the U.S. federal government’s latest quarterly economic data.
Stanford History Education Group
The Stanford History Education Group is an award-winning research and development group that comprises Stanford faculty, staff, graduate students, post-docs, and visiting scholars. SHEG seeks to improve education by conducting research, working with school districts, and reaching directly into classrooms with free materials for teachers and students. SHEG’s Reading Like a Historian curriculum and Beyond the Bubble assessments have been downloaded more than 14 million times. SHEG's current work focuses on how young people evaluate online content. SHEG has created a Civic Online Reasoning curriculum to help students develop the skills needed to navigate our current digital landscape.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History was founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, visionaries and lifelong supporters of American history education. The Institute is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to K–12 history education while also serving the general public. Its mission is to promote the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and resources.
National Archives
Explore primary sources. Discover fun and engaging teaching activities. Create your own online or print activities for your students! Distance Learning.
National Archive Tools to Analyze Primary Sources
National Council for the Social Studies
https://www.socialstudies.org/
Common Sense Education:
Great Social Studies Apps and Websites
Interactive & Tech Integration Resources for Teachers
Mr. Nussbaum Learning & Fun
Read-Write-Think Newspaper Generator
World Atlas & Map Library
Do you have what it takes to lead like George Washington?
Be Washington is a first-person interactive leadership experience. Come face to face with challenges that George Washington confronted as commander in chief or president in four key scenarios. Host a game and control the pace of individuals, or play as a single player. This game is COPPA compliant.
This link contains a wealth of information & printable publications that you may find helpful, whether you're planning to visit the capitol or teaching Pennsylvania history (Elementary/Middle School Aged Appropriate).
