Welcome to Teaching Materials

This guide consists of curated primary and secondary sources to help students connect environmental history to broader themes in twentieth century US history. 

Incorporating 20th Century US Environmental History in the 6-12 Classroom
In Teaching Guides

Help students think about where evidence for history comes from.

The Boston Massacre: Fact, Fiction, or Bad Memory
In Lesson Plan Reviews

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

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
Propaganda and World War II

Help students understand wartime propaganda with this excellent lesson plan [...] »

Jamestown: The Starving Time

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

View All »

English Language Learners

Instructional strategies and resources for ELL
Using Primary Sources with English Language Learners

Primary source analysis activities can help include English Language [...] »

Life, Liberty and Property: What’s the Big Idea?

Explore a lesson, designed especially for English Language Learners, that [...] »

View All »

Teaching Guides

Explore new teaching methods and approaches
Document-Based Whole-Class Discussion

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

The Research Paper: Developing Historical Questions

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

Free Speech Teaching Guide 1: The Birth of the Modern First Amendment and How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind

This guide focuses on the history of free speech in one crucial year ( [...] »

Free Speech Teaching Guide 2: Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969): Defining and Arguing Hate Speech

This teaching guide includes a structured guide to explaining the case [...] »

Mystery Strategy for Elementary Students

Using the premise of a mystery, elementary students act as history [...] »

View All »

Ask a Master Teacher

Tall Tales: The West as Legend
Lithograph, ...Jesse James, Donaldson Lith. Co., 188-?, Library of Congress

Wrestling bears, surly cowboys, vultures circling lone travelers. . . Find [...] »

Browse Questions »