Welcome to Teaching Materials

Spotlight on Elementary Education

History is made by those who are unafraid to push the envelope and redefine the society in which they live. Encourage your students to examine the men and women who worked to make America what it is today with this creative activity. FIND OUT MORE »

Lesson Plan Reviews

Evaluate key elements of effective teaching Watch the INTRODUCTORY VIDEO
Prequel to Independence

Teach your students about causality with this useful activity.

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Jamestown: The Starving Time

Only 60 settlers out of 600 survived the winter of 1609–1610 in Jamestown [...] »

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English Language Learners

Instructional strategies and resources for ELL
Summarizing and Paraphrasing
Photo, Year 3~Day 106 +77/365 AND Day 837: U.S. History, Old Shoe Woman, Flickr

Paraphrasing and summarizing exercises help ELL students improve at [...] »

Using Non-Linguistic Representations to Strengthen Historical Thinking

Discover alternatives to writing based student activities. Why not encourage [...] »

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Teaching Guides

Explore new teaching methods and approaches
Immigration from Asia Post-1970: A Guide for Pre-Service Teachers

Help students understand recent immigration history by exploring photographs [...] »

Using Blogs in a History Classroom

Setting up and maintaining a blog for your classroom is easy (and typically [...] »

Concept Formation

In order to understand topics, you must first understand concepts. Learn all [...] »

Religion and the Labor Movement: A Guide for Pre-Service Teachers

Engaging Library of Congress primary sources that connect religion and [...] »

Applying KWL Guides to Sources with Elementary Students

To engage with a source, ask, "What do I know, what do I want [...] »

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Ask a Master Teacher

Meshing History and Montessori Method
Photo, "Montessori en famille, vie sensorielle," 2007, valilouve, Flickr, cc

In the Montessori philosophy, which prioritizes creativity, how can you best [...] »

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