134 history-culture-americas results | sort by:
With Liberty and Justice for All - The Henry Ford Museum
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): branches of government (21), civil rights (62), constitution (61), freedom of speech (4), womens suffrage (5)
In the Classroom
While the site is focused on preparing students for a visit to the Henry Ford Museum, the site provides good resources and lesson plans for the study of both the Women's Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. The interactive timeline would be useful with an interactive whiteboard, and the questions for investigation contained in the student guides and lesson plans are powerful discussion generators regardless of where the lesson is delivered. Consider using the "Constitution IQ Test" for lessons on the government of the United States. The video tour of the exhibit also provides a "virtual field trip" experience.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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American Indian/Alaskan Native Book List - Talk Story
Grades
K to 12tag(s): alaska (23), cross cultural understanding (38), independent reading (46), native americans (34)
In the Classroom
Encourage students to select books about a culture that interests them. Include this list during a multicultural unit. Have students create an online book of images and captions about their target culture using bookr (reviewed here). (Bookr uses Flickr images, so you must first upload or find the images on Flickr reviewed here.)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Asian Pacific American Book List - Amer. Indian Lib. Assn & the Asian/Pacific American Lib. Assn.
Grades
K to 12tag(s): asia (55), book lists (56), chinese (40), cross cultural understanding (38), hawaii (6), independent reading (46), japanese (39), korea (13), vietnam (22)
In the Classroom
Refer your class to this list for multicultural reading and reports. If you have any ESL/ELL students from these areas, they may enjoy reading literature from (or about) their homeland. Challenge students to read one of the books on this list and research the location. Have cooperative learning groups create a mash-up map using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge Tools reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Critical Past Stock Footage Archive - Jim and Andy Erickson
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 20th century (10), afghanistan (7), africa (169), american revolution (37), china (49), europe (48), north america (7), south america (20), video (67)
In the Classroom
Use photos or videos on Critical Past to help illustrate what students are learning in history. Ask students to be "eyewitnesses" of history and watch a video before they have context for it. Students can write or blog about what they think they are witnessing. Afterward they can research the event in more depth and write a follow-up reflection on what was actually happening in the clip. Challenge your students to use a site such as Timetoast reviewed here to create timelines of topics researched on the site. Use images from public domain sites, such as the collections reviewed here, to illustrate the events.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Edublog - Edulogs.org
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): blogs (53)
In the Classroom
Save this site as a favorite for all of your blogging needs. Find very informative instructions on blogging, and follow the student blogging challenge lesson plans. Peruse through the various subjects and discover how other teachers use blogging in their classrooms. Using the given PDFs on blogging start up, parent guidelines, incorporating into subject areas, and adapt to make them suitable for you. Look at a variety of examples to help devise your own unique style to meet your students' needs.Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Oh Freedom! Teaching African American Civil Rights Through American Art at the Smithsonian - Smithsonian American Art Museum
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): african american (106), art history (21), artists (39), civil rights (62)
In the Classroom
This site is a must for any Art, Art History, or Social Studies classroom. The site really lends itself to discussion. Visit the Artists area, choose an artist, and project the artwork on an interactive whiteboard. Using the "looking questions" have a class discussion. Assign groups and give each group a different picture. Let them discuss using the questions and then jigsaw them so they can share with each other.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Picturing US History - American Social History Project at CUNY
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): african american (106), civil war (80), colonial america (81), slavery (42)
In the Classroom
The site offers several "lessons in looking." Project the site on an interactive whiteboard and use the discussion questions to guide students through a look at history. The site provides a way for you to zoom into the artwork so students can get up and personal as if they were in a museum. Use the zoom tool to assist you with your classroom discussion.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Dream Flag Project - Jeff Harlan and Sandy Crow
Grades
K to 12tag(s): black history (33), poetry (169), service projects (14)
In the Classroom
Transform your classroom into a community of poets and dreamers and even choose to participate in a global project by writing and sharing poems with students around the world. Share this site during Poetry Month. You'll love seeing the pride in students as they engage in reading, writing, creating, and sharing poetry that reflects their hopes and dreams for today and the future. Introduce the extensive photos, videos, and other resources on a projector or an interactive whiteboard. There are "quick links" to an abundance of resources. The outcomes can range from poetry reading and writing to integrating music, theater, videotaping, or social networking (be sure to check with your school's policies). Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. This can be done in a sixty minute lesson or expanded to a year long theme. It's your choice!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: World War I Unit - Alabama Department of Archives and History
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): primary sources (48), world war 1 (23)
In the Classroom
Use the activities to help your students better understand World War I. Be sure to check out the activity in the Selective Service lesson. The activity has each student being assigned to a role. The students write a letter to Senator Bankhead which would explain their positions concerning conscription prior to the declaration of war. To extend the activity, have your students dress as their character and read their letters to the class. Or have students create blogs using Instablogg ( here). This tool allows you to create "quick and easy" blogs to be used one time only. A unique URL is provided, and the tool is as easy as using a basic Word program!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ChronoZoom - Microsoft Research
Grades
8 to 12The site's creators freely admit that they don't really know where the project will lead, and what technologies might emerge that will help them create more content for the site. There are some caveats for using the site. First, the site assumes a particular theory of the creation of the universe, and the timeline of its existence. Second, the site can lend itself to aimless "mousing," or the temptation to simply click and move the mouse to see how the site will react, with no attention to the content at all.
tag(s): charts and graphs (130), evolution (89), timelines (35)
In the Classroom
This is a big idea, still in its early stages. Obviously it has usefulness as a way of visually demonstrating the sheer immensity of time, and the relative insignificance of human existence in comparison. You could use this site as an intro to any history or geology class simply to generate BIG questions that students want to know. Consider asking gifted students, or students interested in technology applications to imagine what the site COULD be. How would they create a visual overview of--forever? How can one prioritize what matters? But on an interactive whiteboard--WOW! If you, as current students seem to be, are comfortable with imagining the world as a series of hyperlinks rather than a linear march, this site has limitless potential.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Samsung Super Hero - SAMSUNG TECHWIN AMERICA
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): famous people (12), grants (14)
In the Classroom
Explore the many examples on Samsungs Superheroes to begin presentations, autobiographical sketches, or living history museums. Sharpen the language arts skills of research, creating an organized presentation, effectively communicating, and listening while bringing in content from other subject areas. Analyze and uncover the traits of a great presentation. Introduce outlining, storyboarding, or written autobiographies in an interesting and attention catching student made video. Brainstorm with your class to uncover the important components necessary for learning goals and assessment while creating a rubric. In social studies, discover superheroes/leaders from different times or geographic areas. Include in your math classes to feature famous mathematicians. In language arts, the world of authors and speakers come alive with literary contributions. Have groups collaborate to portray the ways the character influenced the world. As a competition, choose the best in your class, grade level, or school. Share the videotaped presentations on your website, on student DVDs, or as examples of great student work at parent conferences, open houses, or PTO meetings.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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American Indian Response to Environmental Changes - National Museum of the American Indian
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): environment (230), native americans (34), natural resources (25)
In the Classroom
Project this site on an interactive whiteboard and watch the videos on each of the tribes. If you have laptops available, have students navigate on their own. Have the class take the included interactive quizzes to see what they've learned. Group students and have each group read about a different tribe. Then using the online story project planner, have students create a presentation about their tribe that can be uploaded to the site. Be sure to visit the teacher area for lesson plans, links and other resources.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What's Going On Now - John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): 1960s (13), civil rights (62), cross cultural understanding (38), ecology (118), racism (13), vietnam (22)
In the Classroom
History teachers struggle for "coverage," or the ability to teach across all eras. U.S. History teachers often don't get to the Vietnam era, but these resources are a superb reason for pressing forward. Teacher resources include a number of guided investigations and classroom listening guides that can be incorporated in their entirety or adapted to complement lessons on the Vietnam era in a recent U.S. History class, on social change for a Sociology class, or on contemporary music as an agent of political protest for a music class. For independent or gifted learners, this site could provide the basis for sustained small group inquiry as part of curriculum differentiation. Start by asking students to explore the site and write a blog post about their initial impressions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Map as History: A Multimedia Atlas of World History - Images et Savoirs
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): earth (175), explorers (39), greece (20), holocaust (37), india (33), map skills (30), maps (165), middle east (16), westward expansion (11), world war 1 (23)
In the Classroom
Use the maps with an interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce students to key historical events. Have students work in groups to view the maps and then have them recreate their own group map that highlights important facts they learned from the video. Have students use a tool such as Woices (beta) (reviewed here). This site allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location on a map to narrate.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Re-Living the Wright Way - Tom Benson - NASA
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): aviation (33), flight (29), gravity (32), inventors and inventions (89), motion (28), scientists (27), wright brothers (21)
In the Classroom
This site provides teachers with resources on the topics of Newton's Laws of Motion, The Four Forces of Flight, Lift, Drag, Thrust, Weight, Center of Gravity, Roll, and Pitch. View the videos using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Download the simulations to your classroom computers and have students work in groups to solve them. Have students work cooperatively to complete one of the many activities found on the site like building a model airplane. Students can then conduct an investigation to see whose plane can fly the farthest.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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John F. Kennedy Presidential Library - JFK Library
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): history day (10), kennedy (6), presidents (78), vietnam (22)
In the Classroom
All of these topics are of interest to students doing research into 20th century US and international history, and might be particularly useful to students working on in depth projects for National History Day. After researching a specific topic, have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Many Books.net - Manybooks.net
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): audio books (19), ebooks (14), independent reading (46)
In the Classroom
Fill your classroom library with all the ebooks from the classics. Encourage your students to keep bookshelves of the books they read, while you make your bookshelf available to use for assignment choices or options. Encourage the continual exploration of author, time period, subject matter, and genre. Enchant your voracious and gifted readers alike!Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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TimeSearch History - HistoryWorld
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): search engines (41), timelines (35)
In the Classroom
Make this one of your bookmarks on classroom computers used for research, and suggest that students add it to their own research repertoire. Consider a classroom activity that begins with a common starting place (a date, an event, a character), and has groups of students follow their own self-guided path through the links. Where does each group end up? Why are the paths different? After having student explore on their own, have them "teach" how they found the information most important to them. A projector or interactive whiteboard is ideal for such a demo.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TerraClues - Highway North Interactive Inc.
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): map skills (30), maps (165), webquests (26)
In the Classroom
Do your students struggle understanding where things are located? This site makes associating facts with locations easy. Try using this in history classes. Share the site on your interactive whiteboard or projector and complete one together as an example! This could be a great review activity by creating question for students and using the map to cement and visualize the locations of the question and answers. It would be great for current events to match happenings to their places. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination. With older students, you could even have them create map hunts for their classmates. Hunt for the settings of a novel, the battles of the Civil War, or locations of Marcellus Shale "fracking." High school language students can even create cultural scavenger hunts in their new language.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Running for Office--Cartoons of Clifford K. Berryman - The National Archives
Grades
7 to 12As an important primary source, political cartoons provide an important insight into the issues and controversies of their time period. More than simply who did what, and what happened where, these drawings show us the emotions and conflict involved in the ugly and messy business of politics.
tag(s): comics and cartoons (51), elections (58), politics (57), presidents (78)
In the Classroom
Students can gain insight into the events of the first half of the 20th century as well as draw parallels between the issues of that time and today. How are Presidential campaigns different and how are they similar? Challenge students to create their own political comics using one of TeachersFirst's many comic/cartoon tools reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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