LibGuides: HIST 453: Methods of Teaching Secondary Social Studies: Internet Resources

National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)

National Council for the Social Studies
National Council for the Social Studies has grown to be the largest association in the country devoted solely to social studies education. NCSS engages and supports educators in strengthening and advocating social studies. With members in all the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 69 foreign countries, NCSS serves as an umbrella organization for elementary, secondary, and college teachers of history, civics, geography, economics, political science, sociology and psychology.

Classroom Enhancers

Many of these websites were obtained from Free Technology for Teacher a blog by Richard Byrne.

60- Second Civics
60-Second Civics is a daily podcast that provides a quick and convenient way for listeners to learn about our nation’s government, the Constitution, and our history. The podcast explores themes related to civics and government, the constitutional issues behind the headlines, and the people and ideas that formed our nation’s history and government.
CNN Student News
Provides national and world news with background material, activities, discussion starters and teaching guides.
C-SPAN Classroom
Free primary source materials for social studies teachers.
HistoryBuff.com
A nonprofit organization devoted to providing FREE primary source material for students, teachers, and history buffs. This site focuses primarily on HOW news of major, and not so major, events in American history were reported in newspapers of the time.
BBC's Witness podcasts
Witness history as told by the people who were there. Five days a week we will be talking to people who lived through moments of history to bring you a personal perspective on world events.
History Animated
History Animated provides animations of the American Revolution, the US Civil War, and the US Pacific Campaign in WWII. In each of the three series of animations you will see the animated movement of armies displayed on a map. Each animation is accompanied by captions describing the strategies of the armies as well as the results and consequences of each battle.
The History Channel
Save Our History is an Emmy® Award-winning outreach initiative launched by HISTORY in 1998 to further historic preservation and history education. The program supplements the teaching of history in America's classrooms, educates the public on the importance of historical preservation, and motivates communities across the country to help save endangered local historic treasures.
America: A Narrative History (Google Earth Tours)
America, A Narrative History is a text published by WW Norton. As a free supplement to the book, Norton has published ten Google Earth tours. These tours include major themes and events in US History. The list includes the Revolutionary War, the path to the Civil War, WWII, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis & Clark's expedition, the Indian Removal Act, Pre-Columbian North America, the national parks system, and the 20th Century power grid. All of the tours include multiple images
Animated Illustration of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin
The Eli Whitney Museum website has an animated illustration of the cotton gin and how it functions. This illustration will be helpful with explaining to your student the importance of the gin and how it worked.
The European Virtual Museum
The European Virtual Museum is the product of collaboration between twenty-seven European museums. The European Virtual Museum makes artifacts of European history available in interactive 3D form.
Who Am I?: A History Mystery
Who Am I? A History Mystery is a fun and challenging activity from the Smithsonian's The Price of Freedom online exhibit. Who Am I? presents players with six historical characters that they have to identify using the text and image clues provided. To solve the mystery players have to match the visual artifacts to each character.
TimeRime.com
TimeRime allows users to create timelines that include text, images, audio, and video. One of the better features of TimeRime is that you can have more than one type of media for each event on your timeline.
That Quiz
Using this resource you can write quizzes and find quizzes that your students can use. ThatQuiz.org is kind of like a wiki of quizzes because teachers can share with others the quizzes that they have written.
Snag Learning
Snag Learning offers free access to high quality documentary films from notable producers like National Geographic and NOVA.
Fifty Sneakers
Fifty Sneakers is a good service for cataloging content that you quiz your students on. Your catalog of quiz materials can include a variety of text questions, images, and videos. When it comes time to create a quiz, open your Fifty Sneakers content then select the questions and materials that you want to include in your quiz then print out your quiz. Fifty Sneakers provides detailed tutorials to get you started building your content library and quizzes.

Beyond the Bubble

Beyond the Bubble is a resource produced by the Stanford History Education Group for the purpose of helping teachers teach with primary source documents. Beyond the Bubble provides teachers with lessons that they can use to help their students analyze primary source documents. Each of the lessons is accompanied by an interactive rubric that includes sample answers aligned to each indicator on the rubric. Learn more about Beyond the Bubble in the short video below.

Historical Speeches

americanrhetoric.com
American Rhetoric contains a wealth of text, audio, and video speeches from significant figures in American history, as well as speeches on current events.
history.com/speeches
History.com offers a collection of audio and video speeches organized by theme and historical period.