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
What Really Happened? Comparing Stories of the First Thanksgiving

Take a variety of perspectives into account before moving past the first [...] »

Theodore Roosevelt and the 1912 Election

Students learn more about the larger than life figure of Theodore Roosevelt [...] »

English Language Learners

Instructional strategies and resources for ELL
Google Translate
Screen shot, Languages supported by google translate, 1 april 2011

Looking to translate documents or text? Google Translate can help.

[...] »
Increasing Participation in Whole-Class Discussions

English Language Learners often have difficulty contributing to class [...] »

Teaching Guides

Explore new teaching methods and approaches
Four Reads: Learning to Read Primary Documents

Teach your students to read like a historian with this guided four-step [...] »

The Research Paper: Developing Historical Questions

Research papers are not an archaic form of assessment. Learn how to help [...] »

Well-behaved Women [and Men] Seldom Make History

Help your elementary school students get more out of historical biographies [...] »

What Is an "Inquiry Lesson"?

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

Using Blogs in a History Classroom

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

Ask a Master Teacher

Bridging the Gap Between Ancient and Modern Democracies
Photo, Toga, November 10, 2007, Olga Díez (Caliope), Flickr, creative commons

To most students, "histories" are entirely separate—different civilizations [...] »