About Us
Anti-textbook.org was started by a history teacher who, after learning about the perks of active learning, set about trying to find and share the best active learning resources available for teaching each era of American History.
We CURATE the best free Open Educational Resources (OER) for American History to Reconstruction and Social Studies classes at the following grade-levels:
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middle school
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high school
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community college
We did not create these resources. We’ve just hunted for, sifted through, and tried out the many history teacher resources so that you don’t have to.
Types of Resources
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Active Learning Resources
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Primary Source Activities
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Current Event Articles
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Information Literacy Activities
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Discussions
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Video Links
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Games
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Project and Paper Topics
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Ideas
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and Tools
Additional Features
We provide:
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A brief synopsis of the activity (so you don’t have to read the 15 page description provided by the author)
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The ability to bookmark the lessons you like and view them inside your user account
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An assessment of the remote-readiness of the lesson so necessary during COVID lock downs.
Site Organization
(click a box for many more resources)
Pages with Teaching Resources (by Era)
Native Americans and Columbus
Ever been down the rabbit hole, sifting through lesson-after-lesson trying to find one that's suitable for your class?
Well your sifting days are numbered.
Check out curated resources on Cahokia, pre-columbian peoples, Columbus, the Columbian Exchange, and Conquistadores. There are readings, worksheets, films, and primary sources.
Colonies
If time is in short supply yet you won't accept anything but the best for your students, check out our curated resources.
We've curated resources on the British colonies in America, including Jamestown, Plymouth, and the beginnings of slavery in the US. There are primary source exercises, songs, a re-enactment, films, readings, games,
and news articles.
American Revolution
Are you looking to lecture less and put your kids to work more? We can help!
We've curated the best activities, films, games, and primary source activities on the American Revolution. Become a young apprentice at the time of the Boston Massacre in an interactive game. Tour Monticello. Evaluate Washington's leadership. Read primary sources on Lexington and Concord.
1777-1800: Articles, Constitution, Washington Administration
There's so many cool resources on the Constitution. We've sorted them out for you.
1800-1860: The West, Andrew Jackson, and Slavery
If time is in short supply yet you won't accept anything but the best for your students, check out our curated resources.
Civil War and Reconstruction
Are you looking to lecture less and put your kids to work more? We can help!
Historian Skills Pages
Student Ninja
Study Skills
Here at the Anti-Textbook, we want students to hone their reading skills. We want them to read the news and history, discuss and grapple with those things, and become informed citizens and knowledgeable voters. But for now, how about some light reading to build practical skills?
History Teacher Tools
At Anti-textbook.org, we have curated a list of key resources we think history teachers should know about.
We've found and tested the best resources for primary source analysis, information literacy, current events and news sites, student project ideas, Teacher Techniques (and some Tech-niques), OER Textbooks, and DBQs & Test Bank Questions.
The Miles brothers shot the above film from the front of a cable car on April 14th, 1906, just 4 days before a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and subsequent fire devastated San Francisco. What does the film tell you about life in the city in 1906? The above video was enhanced from the original LOC film by Mike Upchurch. https://youtu.be/8YRbMMqj0qw. The Miles brothers shot a very similar film after the earthquake on the same street, Market Street. Learn more about the post-earthquake film from this link to a PBS Newshour clip.