Featured 3-20-2014: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum

America's first presidential library is the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum  It is also the only one used by a sitting president, built under President Roosevelt's direction and opened to the public in 1941.

 

The mission of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is "to foster research and education on the life and times of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and their continuing impact on contemporary life.”

 

 

The education division of the FDR museum offers a number of both on- and off-site professional development workshops that take advantage of the rich resources and knowledgeable staff available there. Teachers can sharpen their skills, renew their enthusiasm, and earn PD credit by participating in a variety of workshops.

 

Comprehensive curriculum guides introduce students (ages 8-17) to key topics of the Roosevelt era. The guides are designed for use by teachers of civics, citizenship, government, economics, geography, fine arts, history, writing, and journalism. Included in the guides are primary source documents, photographs, study questions, and other resources from the library archives.

 

 

Franklin D. Roosevelt Day by Day is an interactive chronology documenting Franklin Roosevelt’s daily schedule as President, from March 1933 to April 1945. Here you will find digitized original calendars and schedules tracing FDR’s appointments, travel schedule, social events, guests, and more.You can search the chronology by keyword and date. Day by Day also includes an interactive timeline of additional materials from the archives of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum to place each day’s calendar into larger historical context.

 

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Featured 3-19-2014: Created Equal

Created Equal brings together four acclaimed documentary films on the long Civil Rights movement: The Abolitionists, Slavery By Another Name, Freedom Riders, and The Loving Story.

 

Each of the films presented in Created Equal tells remarkable stories of individuals who challenged the social and legal status quo of deeply rooted institutions, from slavery to segregation. The films document the efforts to bring about equality for all races through the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Each explores a different time period, from the antebellum abolitionist movement through the post–Civil War transition period for African Americans, and into the late twentieth century.

 

 

The thematic content presented by these documentaries can be used to address Common Core Literacy standards in Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. Students have the opportunity to participate in discussions of the central themes of the civil rights struggle and then engage in writing activities built on the primary evidence they saw in the films. The Common Core writing standards for history are very specific and detailed regarding the presentation of evidence in order to express an argument or conclusion.

 

 See a video overview of Created Equal: America's Civil Rights Struggle

 

As part of the National Endowment for the Humanities’s Bridging Cultures initiative, Created Equal encourages people to revisit the history of civil rights in America and to reflect on the ideals of freedom and equality that have helped bridge racial and cultural divides in our country.

 

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Featured 3-4-2014: Historical Thinking Matters

Focused on key topics in US history, Historical Thinking Matters is a website  designed to help students learn how to critically read primary sources and how to critique and construct historical narratives.

 

Historical Thinking Matters supplies high school students with a framework for reading documents as historians read them. By developing these habits of mind, students will be able to critically examine historical sources and make reasoned conclusions about the past. Additionally, students can become critical users of the immense quantity  of historical content on the web.

 

Historical Thinking Matters introduces the site’s approach by exploring conflicting first-hand accounts of the 1775 Lexington Green skirmish.

 

Student Investigations focuses on five topics from the post-Civil War US history curriculum. Each investigation includes:

• An introductory movie framing a question of historical debate;
• Ten historical sources;
• Guided questioning that fosters historical thinking skills such as sourcing, contextualization, close reading, and corroboration;
• Text annotations and audio and video clips that provide additional commentary;
• An assignment that asks students to respond to the investigative question by drawing on their previous engagement with the sources;
• Directed explorations of virtual archives.

Teacher Materials offers educators classroom materials and strategies, examples of student and teacher work, and supplementary resources.

 

 

 Visit the Historical Thinking Matters YouTube channel

 

If you are a teacher educator, HTM for Teacher Educators offers resources on teaching historical thinking skills and on common mistakes new teachers make.

 

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Featured: 12-17-2013 Children and Youth in History

Facilitating learning about the important roles of young people throughout history is the objective of Children and Youth in History.

Children and Youth in History helps teachers and students by providing access to information about the experiences of children and youth from multiple perspectives as well as changing notions about childhood and adolescence in past cultures and civilizations.

The free website addresses questions such as: What was it like to be a youth throughout history? How has childhood changed and how has it remained the same? What factors have shaped childhood? How did children shape history, society, and culture?

Key features:

• A Primary Source Database with guidance on how to use those sources critically and tools for annotating and organizing the sources
• Website Reviews that focus on online resources for studying and teaching the history of childhood and youth in world history
• Eleven Teaching Modules that provide historical context, teaching tools, and strategies for teaching with sets of primary sources
• Teaching Case Studies that model strategies for using primary sources to teach the history of childhood and youth

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and the University of Missouri–Kansas City received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create Children and Youth in History.

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Featured: 11/29/2012 Lincoln Archives Digital Project [History]

The Lincoln Archives Digital Project is providing access to the fragile historic paper records of the administration of President Abraham Lincoln.

The Lincoln Archives Digital Project is the first project to scan the entire contents of a president's administration. When complete, the approximately 14 million federal records housed within the National Archives, including all documents, maps, and photographs from the Civil War era, will be available online. The period of time covered by the project is March 4, 1861, through April 15, 1865.

The Lincoln Archives Digital Project is supplemented by related maps, photographs, newspaper articles, essays, and video podcasts to provide a broader picture of this period in American history.

The Lincoln Archives Digital Project  also includes several documents, signed by Abraham Lincoln, that have never before been cataloged.

The Lincoln Archives Digital Project is a private enterprise.  The project receives no federal funding and is supported by memberships.

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Featured: 11/12/2012 Library of Congress Teachers Resources [Standards]

The Library of Congress Teachers Resources provides primary source-based, ready-to-use resources for teachers. Find lesson plans and other materials that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations.

Search the Library of Congress Teachers Resources classroom materials for resources aligned to Common Core, state, or organizational standards. Refine your query by selecting your state, grade level, and subject. Once you’ve found a lesson plan or primary source content that you’d like to use, one click will show you which standards that particular item addresses.

Ready-to-use materials created by teachers provide easy ways to incorporate the LoC’s primary sources into your instruction.
 Classroom materials that align with Common Core state standards include:

• Lesson Plans-Teacher-created lesson plans using LoC primary sources.
• Themed Resources-One-stop access to the best exhibitions, activities, primary sources, and lesson plans on popular curricular themes.
• Primary Source Sets-Sets of selected primary sources on specific topics, available in PDF format, as well as background information, teaching ideas, and tools to guide student analysis.
• Presentations and Activities-Media-rich historical context or interactive opportunities for exploration to both teachers and students.
• Collection Connections-Historical context and ideas for teaching with specific LoC primary source collections.

The Library of Congress Teachers Resources offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the LoC's huge digital collections.

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COD - 6/12/2012 - Bridging World History [History]

Annenberg Learner's Bridging World History is a set of multimedia materials designed to help learners discover world history.

Inquiry-based, integrated, and interactive, Bridging World History uses video, text, and web materials to provide a total learning experience. The materials provide a complete world history course. Bridging World History enhances critical thinking skills while providing a source for historical and cultural contexts of world history through the use of primary source materials.

Bridging World History aspires to help learners:

• Develop a dynamic conceptual framework for the study of world history, its theory, and its practices.
• Establish a grasp of the peoples and cultures that comprise world history in the context of time and place.
• Make insights into thematic relationships that shape our understanding of world history.
• Bridge the gaps between what learners comfortably know and what they need to comprehend.

Bridging World History includes 26 complete units. Each unit consists of a 30-minute video and an online text chapter. The chapters include journal articles and other readings, an overview of the unit, and a course guide chapter that provides a structure for course sessions, learning activities, and homework assignments.

The organization of Bridging World History acknowledges both thematic and chronological approaches to the study of world history by following a loosely chronological order, while developing a series of themes that are woven throughout the units.

The World History Traveler is a thematically-organized interactive that helps you learn more about the patterns and processes that make up world history. Follow Thematic Pathways to explore a particular topic, or use the Bridges to make connections across time and space.

Bridging World History is intended for a broad audience, including introductory material suitable for AP study or beginning college students, while also including a depth and breadth of content appropriate to any adult learner.

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COD - 5/24/2012 - Fold3 [History]

Fold3 believes that it is the web's foremost collection of original military records, providing convenient access to US military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served.

Original records at Fold3 help you discover and share stories about America's everyday heroes, forgotten soldiers, and the families that supported them.

Fold3 is a redesign and rebranding of a site previously reviewed here, Footnote.com, as part of a move to focus on creating the premier website for military records.

The site's name, Fold3, comes from a traditional flag folding ceremony in which the third fold is made in honor and remembrance of veterans who served their country.

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COD - 3/8/2012 - You Be the Historian [Social Studies]

You Be the Historian helps students understand what life was like for Thomas and Elizabeth Springer's family in New Castle, Delaware, in the early 19th century.

You Be the Historian can serve as a good prompt for class discussions about primary and secondary sources and the historical process.

At the same time, You Be the Historian can lead students to consider what historians in the next century might learn about them if they found their houses exactly the way they are today. The What about you? sections of the activity personalize the study of history for students who are encouraged to think about what future historians might learn about them, their school, etc.

The activity can also be used as an introduction (or supplemental material) to life in the late 1700s-early 1800s. You Be the Historian offers strategies both if your students have access to the Internet or do not have access. In either case, the focus is on the documentary evidence. You may also print the Questions for Future Historians to go along with printed or Internet material.

You Be the Historian is affiliated with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

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COD - 3/6/2012 - Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids [Social Studies]

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids serves as the educational component of the Government Printing Office (GPO) Access, a service to provide the official online version of legislative and regulatory information.

Hosted by "Benjamin Franklin", Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids provides learning tools for K-12 teachers, students, and parents. These resources teach how the US government works, how to use the primary source materials of GPO Access, and how citizens can use GPO Access to carry out civic responsibilities.

Ben's Guide also provides locator services to US Government sites that have been developed for kids.

The materials on Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids are in the public domain and may be used without restriction unless otherwise indicated.

Ben's Guide is a service of the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).

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Catch of the Day - Newspaper Map - 6/21/2011

 

Using Newspaper Map you can link to the websites of newspapers from all over the world.

 

Newspaper Map also makes it possible to translate most of them to and from several languages with a single click. Often you will also find links to the YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media feeds of these newspapers.

A UK version of Newspaper Map is available, as well as a German edition and a Japanese variant.

Watch a video introduction to Newspaper Map

Newspaper Map regularly collects and updates these links.

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Catch of the Day - DocsTeach - 2/18/2011

Find and create interactive learning activities with primary source documents that contribute to the development of historical thinking skills at DocsTeach.

You can use DocsTeach activities for classroom demonstrations, as full-class activities, as small-group tasks, or as individual in-class or homework assignments.

Use your DocsTeach account to manage and share both activities you find and those you create.

• Mark activities that you like and want to share with your students, then later find them in your account.
• Share activities with your students by simply providing a unique web address for that individual activity.
• Students can complete the activities independently and even email the results.
• Create a classroom within your account where your students can access and complete a series of activities.
• Create and name multiple classrooms to share different activities with different classes.

You can create DocsTeach activities that vary according to their placement on Bloom’s Taxonomy and correlate with Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.

DocsTeach activities are classified according to the National History Standards as outlined by the National Center for History in the Schools

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Catch of the Day - History Now - 1/27/2011

History Now is a quarterly journal for American history teachers published online by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Each issue of History Now offers lesson plans from master teachers, resources for further investigation, and suggestions for incorporating the central themes of the issue into your classroom.

History Now was launched in September 2004. All past issues are archived on the site. You can email archivist Mary-Jo Kline with your historical questions. She will provide resources to direct you to an answer, including books and articles available at your local library as well as helpful websites.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization supporting the study of American history through a wide range of programs and resources for students, teachers, scholars, and history enthusiasts throughout the US.

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Catch of the Day - Library of Congress-Teachers Page - 11/12/2010

The Library of Congress-Teachers Page brings primary sources into the classroom with ready-to-use materials.

The Library of Congress-Teachers Page provides tools and materials for using the unique collections of primary source documents available at the Library of Congress in the classroom. The teacher-made materials include lesson plans, document analysis tools, online and offline activities, timelines, presentations, and professional development resources.

Use the Library of Congress professional development curriculum to build teacher skills.

• Download and deliver ready-to-present professional development.
• Earn a certificate of completion with self-paced interactive modules.
• Work with the Library of Congress experts in person or by video conference.

You’ll find a printable analysis tool and guiding questions to help students analyze several types of primary sources at Teacher's Guides and Analysis Tool.

Everyone has free access to the Library of Congress-Teachers Page. No login, registration, or subscription is required.

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Catch of the Day - AwesomeStories - 8 Apr 10

AwesomeStories, a gathering of primary-source information, is today's catch

Launched in 1999, AwesomeStories is a site to help educators and individuals find original sources located at national archives, libraries, universities, museums, historical societies, and government web sites.

AwesomeStories Home Page

The purpose of AwesomeStories is to place primary sources, not opinions, at the forefront. Its objective is to take users to places where those primary sources are located.

Awesome Disaster Stories

The stories at AwesomeStories exist as a way to place original primary source materials in context and to tie those links together in an interesting and meaningful way.

Awesome Sports Stories

Joining AwesomeStories is free. Members can access everything on the site and explore all its many features, such as …

• An extensive image data base
• Narrated stories
• Lesson plans and text documents
• A monthly newsletter profiling current events and hot topics

Front Page of a Story

The author of each AwesomeStory is identified on the front page of the story and linked to more detailed information about the author. Additionally, hundreds of teachers have provided specific input for site improvements and story requests.

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