Welcome to Teaching Materials

Learn strategies for creating quality professional development experiences using the museums, historic sites, archives, and cultural institutions.

Visiting History: A Professional Development Guide
In Teaching Guides Prototype Generic

Use this essay on Jewish immigration to flesh out a unit on the Civil War or immigration.

Divining America: Religion in American History
In Lesson Plan Reviews

Did you know the Quakers were pre-Revolution abolitionists?...

New Jersey's Quakers and the American Revolution
In Lesson Plan Reviews

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
Jamestown: The Starving Time

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

The Multiple Dilemmas of Abraham Lincoln

An interactive exploration of the decisions Abraham Lincoln had to make [...] »

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English Language Learners

Instructional strategies and resources for ELL
SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Review, Recite

Learn about SQ3R, a note-taking system for English Language Learners to help [...] »

Supporting Text Comprehension and Vocabulary Development Using WordSift
screen shot-wordshift home page

Help English learners understand basic concepts with this interactive tool [...] »

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Teaching Guides

Explore new teaching methods and approaches
What Is an "Inquiry Lesson"?

Hypothesize, test, and acknowledge how sources form different "pictures of [...] »

Tramping Through History: Crafting Individual Field Trips

Go forth, and contextualize! Give students the opportunity for solo [...] »

Students Working in Local Historic Preservation

Engage your students in preserving local history! Use this teacher's [...] »

Document-Based Whole-Class Discussion

Classroom discussions need not be argumentative and unproductive. Discover a [...] »

Adapting Documents for the Classroom: Equity and Access

Documents are riddled with difficult vocabulary. Don't be afraid to adapt [...] »

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Ask a Master Teacher

Multiperspectivity: What Is It, and Why Use It?
Photo, Tiree Perspective, August 3, 2008, MacJewell, Flickr

Simply pondering "multiperspectivity" (a European term for "multiple [...] »

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