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
Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment

Relive the dream of the women's vote through roleplay or interfacing with [...] »

The Debate in the United States over the League of Nations

Documents and audio files explain the range of early political viewpoints on [...] »

English Language Learners

Instructional strategies and resources for ELL
The Struggle for Time: Using Persuasive Essays to Teach Elementary History

From chanting to formal essay framing—discover creative ways to frame ELL [...] »

Google Translate
Screen shot, Languages supported by google translate, 1 april 2011

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

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Teaching Guides

Explore new teaching methods and approaches
Structured Academic Controversy (SAC)

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

Mormons and Westward Expansion: A Guide for Pre-Service Teachers

Teachers guide students to create interactive digital maps detailing the [...] »

Four Reads: Learning to Read Primary Documents

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

Using Historical Ephemera in the Classroom

Ticket stubs. Report cards. Photographs. All of these things have historical [...] »

Using Blogs in a History Classroom

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

Ask a Master Teacher

Making the Most of Maps
Offset lithograph, Map Reading Class, c. 1904-1927, NYPL Digital Gallery

Have you always wanted to use maps in your classroom, but been unsure how to [...] »