US Primary & Secondary Sources

Primary & Secondary Sources & Other Resources

United States History 

• Docs Teach - a collection of primary sources from the National Archives

• The Americans Textbook - This site has the chapters from the Americans Text. They may not exactly coincide with our hard copy, but the topics are the same. 

• C3 Teachers.org - This is an amazing website that has many curated inquiry-based lessons on a plethora of topics.  If you're not sure how to create an inquiry based lesson, turn here to find a topic. 

• Digital History - Digital History has a plethora of primary and secondary sources, as well as text summaries, all the units of US History. The documents are sorted into topics and have questions and activities that accompany them.  Lesson plans are also available. 

• The Howard Zinn Project - This site is based on the best selling book by Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States. There are lessons, printables, and other resources for you to use.  

• Facing History & Ourselves - This site encourages student and teacher to think critically about history and to understand the impact of their choices. 

• HipHughes History - This sites has hundreds of instructional videos that would be great in a flipped classroom setting.  

• The Avalon Yale Project - This site has an enormous collection of primary sources for both World and American history.  

• DocsTeach - This site contains many sources already curated by the National Archives

• Digital Public Library of America - This site as thousands of documents categorized per topic. 

• Stanford Reading Like A Historian - This site also contains lessons addressing the skills of thinking, reading, and analyzing like an historian.  This is an excellent site as you explore inquiry driven instruction. 

• Teaching American History - This site is created by its users and has a variety of lessons and resources for duplication and use.   Please note that this site is affiliated with Ashland University, which is generally rooted in Christianity.  This could be a good teachable moment regarding media literacy.  

• The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - The Gilder Lehrman Institute also has a wide array of lessons, sources, as well as professional development opportunities. 

• Edsitement - Edsitement has great lesson ideas, primary and secondary sources and has an AP and general ed versions.  This site also has lesson linked to non-fiction texts, such as Esperanza Rising, Common Sense, and "Things Fall Apart."

• AP Central - The AP US History Course and Exam Page

• Cornell Persuasive Map Collection - Check out this interesting curated collection of maps.

• Teaching American History - This site is a resource put together by school districts in Virginia and Maryland. They have resources for you to use.