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Federal Resources for Educational Excellence

Photo, Eleanor Roosevelt, FREE

This megasite brings together federally-funded resources for teaching U.S. history. Most of these resources boast large collections of primary sources from the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the National Archives and Records Administration, and prominent universities.

There are more than 600 websites listed for U.S. history alone, divided by time period and by topics, such as: Business & Work; Ethnic Groups; Famous People; Government; States & Regions; and Wars. While most of these websites are either primary source archives (for example, History of the American West, 1860–1920) or virtual exhibits contextualizing primary source collections, many offer lesson plans and ready-made student activities, such as EDSITEment, created by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

A good place to begin is the Site Map, that lists resources by subtopic, including African Americans (67 resources), Women's History (37 resources), and Natural Disasters (16 resources). Each resource is accompanied by a brief annotation that facilitates quick browsing.

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Ask a Historian

Where does the glory of Robert Shaw and the men of the 54th Massachusetts reside?

Ask a Master Teacher

Regularly assess student understanding, and revise your lesson plans to match the needs of lower level learners.

Ask a Digital Historian

As more new media tools are developed, and more primary sources digitally archived, historians must find new ways to sort and present the data meaningfully.
 

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