Welcome to Teaching Materials

To engage with a source, ask, "What do I know, what do I want to know, and what have I learned?"

Applying KWL Guides to Sources with Elementary Students
In Teaching Guides

Leave your students with intellectually and emotionally significant memories of their own experiences with history.

Truth in Transit: Crafting Meaningful Field Trips
In Teaching Guides
Photo, students IV, May 1, 2007, Aaron TD, Flickr

Using a variety of instructional strategies in your classroom makes good sense.

Teaching with Lectures and Documents
In Ask a Master Teacher

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
Watergate and the Constitution

To indict or not to indict? Watergate raised complicated questions [...] »

Declaration of Independence: Rough Draft to Proclamation

How did the final version of the Declaration differ from Jefferson's draft [...] »

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English Language Learners

Instructional strategies and resources for ELL
World Digital Library
World Digital Library home page

Use this tool to translate primary source material!

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Historical Thinking Matters
Historical Thinking Matters

Primary sources in both English and Spanish on the Spanish American War, [...] »

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Teaching Guides

Explore new teaching methods and approaches
Interpreting Political Cartoons in the History Classroom

Political cartoons are often conceptually complex, but offer valuable [...] »

What Is an "Inquiry Lesson"?

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

Teaching with Timelines
Image, Squared Circles-Clocks, 25 Oct 2006, Leo Reynolds, Flickr CC

Construct an ongoing, shared classroom timeline in middle and elementary [...] »

9/11 and Commemoration: A Guide for Pre-Service Teachers

Help students understand the events of 9/11 and how such events are [...] »

Structured Academic Controversy (SAC)

Are classroom discussions about winning the argument or about understanding [...] »

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Ask a Master Teacher

World War and Literature
Photo, Historical Fiction, Mar. 9, 2007, jessamyn, Flickr

Can you suggest any literature covering World War I to World War II that my [...] »

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