History Teacher Tools

Image: A.S. Seer Print. The Professor. [N.Y.: A.S. Seer’s Print] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, .

Overview

At Anti-textbook.org, we have curated a list of key resources we think history teachers should know about.

We have divided them into 8 categories:

Primary Sources Analysis

Historical Thinking

From: Teachinghistory.org
Time: 8 min
Difficulty: Easy-peasy

What is Historical Thinking?

Check out this 7.5 minute video on primary sources, with examples and references to: multiple perspectives, context, and sourcing.

2A

How to Annotate

From: Facing History and Ourselves
Time: 45 min+
Difficulty: Easy-peasy

Annotating and Paraphrasing Sources

Here's a quick framework for a teacher-led explanation and modeling of annotating readings and primary sources.

2B

All Purpose
Primary Source
Analysis Worksheets

From: National Archives
Time: 30 min+
Difficulty: Easy-peasy

National Archives Document Analysis Worksheets

OR

SOAPS Primary Source Think Sheet

Give your students a one-page worksheet with a list of important things to look for and questions to answer for any primary source document. Other worksheets are available on the National Archives site for use with artifacts, maps, cartoons, videos, etc.

2C

Find Primary Sources

We have recommended individual primary source sets. They are sorted by individual topics under the Lesson Plan drop down menu in the upper right corner. They're pre-edited for length, paired with other relevant primary sources, and many already have activities or questions for students to answer.

But if you need primary sources for another purpose, check out these:

  • Primary sources from the Teaching American History site are sorted first by era and then by category. Plus, each one has an introductory description AND study questions at the end! If you sign up for a free account, you can put documents together to create your own collections.

  • Primary sources from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Choose the appropriate time frame on the left side of the screen. Primary sources are both relevant and bite-sized.

  • The Digital History site from the University of Houston includes primary sources as well as a textbook, quizzes, music, and a variety of other valuable resources, sorted by era.

Do you have a time-tested, student-approved set of primary sources and questions? Please send them to [email protected]

2D

Information Literacy

News Literacy Activities

From: CIVIX
Time: 60 min or less
Difficulty: Easy

News Literacy Activities

Every now and again, we find a site that is so fantastic, it is a no-brainer. This is that site. It's general enough to be your emergency sub plan. And it's so good that you shouldn't let the sub have all the fun. There are 2 activity options here: Fakeout and Feed for Thought (not Food for thought).

In Fakeout, students play the game to see if they can determine which article headlines are real and which are fake news. Then students learn 3 skills for how to assess headlines via three 2 minute videos. Even adults stand to learn new information literacy skills here. Finally, students play the game one last time with new questions and their new skills. This time they can check the claim, source, and image within the same window.

The second activity is Feed for Thought, a role playing game. In this activity, students vote whether or not allow a hypothetical factory to be built next to their school. Before the vote, students are each given one of two pretend social media feeds with articles about the factory. The students will not be told at first that they have read different feeds, but that will become apparent as they debrief after their vote. One social media feed is pro-factory and the other one anti-factory.

Students will need a computer and internet connection for the first activity. Teachers can choose to print out the social media feeds for the second activity or students can view these online before debating. These activities don't offer worksheets or a printout of student progress, but we highly recommend it nonetheless (you didn't want to grade those worksheets anyway).The site is made for Canadian teachers, though they are undergoing a redesign to open it up to others. In the meantime, we're told you can email them for access OR you can pretend to be a teacher at a Canadian school when you register.

2E

News Literacy
and Media Bias

From: Facing History and Ourselves
Time: Depends on Which Activities you Choose
Difficulty: Easy-peasy

Where Do We Get Our News and Why Does it Matter

Three activities are available here.

  1. In the first, Students read a Newslea article about where Americans get their news, then they discuss using the list of prompts provided.

  2. In the second activity, students examine a media bias chart putting news orgs on a spectrum. They then find and read 3 articles of their choosing, one from a news org on the political right, one from the left, and one from the center. The class then discusses what they found.

  3. In the third activity, students look at a one page document describing fake news detection strategies. And they discuss their goals for news consumption going forward.

2F

Civic Online Reasoning

From: Civics Online Reasoning (COR) and Stanford History Education Group (SHEG)
Time: 60 min or less
Difficulty: Easy

Assessing Posts/Articles/Sources
& Lateral Reading

We can probably agree that teaching students to evaluate what they see online is critically important. The good people at SHEG have created a framework for teachers to do this. Lessons generally include a post and/or article to evaluate. Students fill out worksheets with questions about the claims and sources, often in groups. There are a handful of informative 12-13 minute videos from Crash Course to teach students about evidence, sources, and fact-checking.

The good news is that teachers can choose from Level 1 or Level 2 activities depending on the age of their kids. Teachers can choose to print out materials and show videos on their projectors so it's not necessary to have a computer and internet connection for every student. The downs side is that there are so many lessons and sub-lessons that it's easy to go down the rabbit hole. And there are so many worksheets (sometimes one headline has its own worksheet) that these assignments will create a lot of paper and grading. In addition, the teacher instructions are verbose. Teachers may need to spend some time evaluating the lessons to know which are most valuable to them. The "A Little Bit of Everything" collection provides the best overview, but even this contains a number of lessons and links.

2G

Current Events and News

Teacher Guide for Current Events

From: Facing History And Ourselves
Time: Depends on the activity you choose
Difficulty: Easy

Teaching with Current
Events in Your Classroom

Check out this teacher checklist for making sure class discussions on current events are respectful. We especially like the list of news sites for students under point #4. And we love the "Fostering Civil Discourses" PDF under point #5. Point #5 also offers different discussion techniques for various types of current events.

2H

Media Spectrum Activity

From: Facing History And Ourselves
Time: 45 min
Difficulty: Easy

Assign each student a news organization on the Media Bias Chart from Facing History and Ourselves. There are 53 news organizations so choose randomly from across the spectrum, depending on how many students you have. Then pick a particular current event and have students search their assigned news organization for it. Finally discuss using any of the recommended Discussion Methods under the Teacher Techniques heading below.

2I

Current Event
Articles for Students

From: Newslea
Time: Depends on the resource you choose
Difficulty: Easy

Newslea
and Newslea Social Studies

Choose grade-level appropriate articles in categories like War & Peace, Money, and Science. Teachers are able to change the reading level of each article. Quizzes and writing prompts are available for each article as well. Some articles are available in Spanish. There is no politics category, and this is a fairly apolitical site.

You'll need to log-on for a free account. Try assigning an article and have students Think, Pair, Share about it.

2J

History in the News

From: Bunk History
Time: 30 min+
Difficulty: Easy-peasy

Bunk History

Bunk describes itself as "a shared home for the web’s most interesting writing and thinking about the American past." It is especially effective at analyzing how history is perceived or relevant in the modern day. Bunkhistory.org includes articles (original and from major outlets), book and film reviews, timelines and collections of articles on hot button topics.

Bunk History has 2 cool features. First, Bunk History gives 12 similar articles to any article you choose; just click on "View Connections." This may be particularly useful if you're looking to:

  • showcase multiple perspectives on a particular issue

  • differentiate for different reading levels

  • or if you're not in love with the first article you see, you can find another on the same topic

The other notable feature is that you can indicate the articles you like and have their links emailed to you.

2K

Current Event
Articles and Resources

From: The New York Times
Time: Depends on the options you choose
Difficulty: Depends

The New York Times
Learning Network
U.S.History

This site contains wonderful articles on current events and important topics written specifically for teachers. Most articles include links to other resources specifically for students. These include: primary sources and background info, activities, videos, related news articles, and/or reading questions.

You will be asked to log-in. One limiting factor is that you're only allowed to read up to 5 articles per month without a subscription. So use your clicks wisely or subscribe.

2L

Watch Explanations of Current Events

From: CNN
Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

CNN10

Watch a daily 10 minute video of the days top 4 news stories geared towards students and those looking for plain descriptions of why things happen. CNN 10 does not avoid politics though it attempts to keep a party-neutral interpretation. CNN 10 goes beyond politics to cover sports, popular culture, health, nature, and the like on a daily basis.

2M

Student Project Ideas

Make a Virtual Reality (VR) Tour of a local Museum or Historical Site

VR tours can be made and viewed with a cell phone. To get started viewing or making VR tours, get the Google Expeditions app on your phone (via the link or your app store).

Students can add text on top of their images so that they and their viewers can learn.

2N

Make a Museum Exhibit

You should consider doing this the old fashioned way. Students can choose from important photos, art, primary sources, video, audio, and items (see the Library of Congress site). They can caption them, print them out, and put the items up around the room for other students to view.

There's also an app for that, and who better to do it than the good people at the Smithsonian. You can do the same thing digitally with the Smithsonian Learning Lab.

2O

Make a Film, Documentary, or Podcast

The brothers who created Stranger Things got their start, in part, by making a film for their high school history class. Could you inspire the next Duffer brother?

Have students create a film reenacting an important historical event. Students make great actors, although it's easier to work around the schedule of G.I. Joe or paper cut-outs. Alternatively, students can create documentaries using student narration over readily available photos, artwork, audio, and videos (see the Library of Congress site).

For information about Podcasting, see Larry Ferlazzo's page The Best Resources for Teaching & Student Podcasting.

See the first box in this section for project topic ideas.

Teachers should set requirements for:

  • The type and number of sources required for research (like one book and one journal article) and how to cite them. You could have students write a script and use footnotes to cite sources.

  • Using only sources that are in the public domain

  • Whether or not students can work in partnerships or teams

  • Which film or audio editing applications to use.

  • Length of the script, film, and/or podcast

  • How to create a bibliography

    • 2R

Write Historical Fiction

Students should conduct research, and write a story based, in part, on that research. Students can incorporate actual historical people, phenomenon, or happenings, and use their own creativity to make the story come alive. Students should use footnotes to describe the actual event and cite their sources. Instead of writing about one person’s weird story, students should be encouraged to present a story that happened to or affected many people in a particular period. Their narrative should tell an educational story about history as well as about their real or fictional characters.

See the adjacent box for project topic ideas.

Teachers should set requirements for:

  • The type and number of sources (like one book and one journal article)

  • Whether or not students can write in partnerships or teams (writing a choose-your-own-adventure style narrative would easily allow for individuals to write different sections or adventures)

  • The page requirements (like 5 double spaced pages per team member)

  • How to create a bibliography

Teachers can have students publish their work online. With Book Creator, for example, teachers can have students publish up to 40 books for free (there are paid programs for more books).

2P

Teacher Techniques (and Some TECH-niques)

Digital Breakout Game

From: Tom Mullaney,
Digital Learning Coach
Time: Depends on number of questions and their difficulty
Difficulty: Easy-peasy

Digital Breakout Template

Escape rooms are fun, but who has a bunch of extra lock boxes and alien-themed props laying around? Make an escape room of sorts on your computer using the Google Suite and this template. There's even a 5-minute video to show you how to do it. Enter questions and answers (you can include images and links as part of your questions). Students who enter the right answers in the alloted time win.

2S

Discussion Methods
(no tech)

Do you want some options for discussions that move beyond the teacher-led version? Check out these options from Facing History and Ourselves:

  1. In the Jigsaw Method, students explain different events or documents to each other in groups (though there's more to it than that).

  2. What if a discussion was silent? Check out this written discussion method called Big Paper.

  3. For partnered discussions try Give One, Get One or Think, Pair, Share. In both cases individuals come up with answers to a prompt on their own and discuss them with a partner. In the former, students move on to a new partner once they've gotten a new perspective. In the latter, students stick with the same partner and eventually share their conclusions with the class.

  4. Give students a character or personality to role-play, and then have the characters debate in Cafe Conversations.

  5. Read this article on Socratic Seminars (and get a handout with prompts). Try combining this one with the Fishbowl Discussion below.

  6. In a Fishbowl Discussion only a designated number of folks are allowed to discuss at one time, while the rest of the group observes. Discussers rotate in and out of the discussion ring.

2T

Check for Understanding

Do you want to make sure that your students got it? Check out these options:

  • The 3-2-1 Method asks students to write down takeaways, lingering questions, and what they liked.

  • Create an "Exit Ticket" that students have to complete before leaving. It can take the form of a written quiz or summary, or simply ask students what they learned and what they didn't get. This can be done with a pencil and paper or a Google Form.

2U

Spin the Virtual Wheel

From: Wheel Decide
Time: As much or as little as you like
Difficulty: Easy-peasy

Wheel Decide

You can label the wheel however you'd like. Spin for dollar amounts as in the game show. Put students' names on the wheel and randomly select one to answer a question. Or use it to randomly choose a movie or restaurant.

2V

OER Textbooks

OER Textbooks

American Yawp
U.S. History Textbook

From: American Yawp:
A Massively Collaborative Open
U.S. History Textbook
Grade Level: HS, College
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: Quite a bit!
Length of Reading: Chapters

This excellent textbook, which was written and edited by history professors and published by the Stanford University Press, is available online for FREE. It includes a FREE primary source reader, beautiful images, and footnotes (which are always good as an example to show students how to cite their own research).

The only issue is that the website is not secure. You do not, however, input any personal information, not even a log on.

More Info, Reviews, Bookmark it to Your Profile

Lesson Identifier: 4AA

Are Textbooks Biased?

From: New York Times
Time: 30 minutes to read article
Difficulty: Medium

Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories.

Is history one standardized story? Have your students read about different perspectives and the fluid nature of history in this article about how history is represented differently in textbooks in California and Texas. This article is particularly good because it offers examples and direct comparison.

2Z

Openstax
U.S. History Textbook

From: Openstax
Grade Level: HS, College
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: Quite a bit!
Length of Reading: Chapters

The good people at Rice University, with several charitable organizations, have made this American History Textbook, written by legit history professors, available online for FREE.

Check out the "Instructor Resources" tab. You can access slides, test questions, and even plug the book into your Canvas or Blackboard LMS.

More Info, Reviews, Bookmark it to Your Profile

Lesson Identifier: 4AB

MI Open Book Project
United States History Textbook
Revolution Through Reconstruction

From: Michigan Open Book Project
Grade Level: MS, HS
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: Quite a bit!
Length of Reading: Chapters

This book was created by the Michigan Open Book Project. In Michigan, the entirety of US History is divided across several grades. And there's a different book for each section of the course, intended for a different age group.

  1. The 5th grade edition, United States History: Beginnings Through Revolution, starts with early American History and goes through the American Revolution.

  2. The 8th grade edition, Revolution Through Reconstruction, Starts with the American Revolution and, obviously, ends with Reconstruction.

  3. The High School edition, Reconstruction to Today ends the trilogy.

Because these books are written by the teachers of the grades they are intended for, the language they use and subjects they broach are age appropriate and concise. The chapters are inquiry based; they start with questions. And there are links to video explanations and subjects of interest within the text. Depending on the apps particular to your device, students may even be able to highlight and take notes on their online or PDF textbook.

More Info, Reviews, Bookmark it to Your Profile

Lesson Identifier: 4AD

Openstax
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
U.S. History Textbook

From: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and the Bill of Rights Institute
Grade Level: Designed for A.P. US History
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: Quite a bit!
Length of Reading: Chapters

Check out Openstax latest endeavor, in partnership with the Bill of Rights Institute. This book is intended for Advanced Placement (A.P.) U.S. History courses. You can elect to incorporate online courseware with the book for an additional per student fee.

More Info, Reviews, Bookmark it to Your Profile

Lesson Identifier: 4AC

DBQs & Test Bank Questions

Multiple Choice Question Database

From: Problem-Attic
Time: Depends, but Quick!
Difficulty: Easy-Peasy

Problem-Attic

Don't write a test from scratch when you can choose from and edit pre-existing questions. Questions are sorted chronologically and can be added to your test with one click. You can then organize and choose the format for your test and instantly turn it into a PDF.

You can do all of this with the free version. You'll just need to log-in.

2W

DBQ and Essay Questions

The New York State Education Department has wonderful exams available online. You can find and adopt their multiple choice questions via Problem-Attic (see adjacent box). But you'll have to visit their site for excellent essay and DBQ questions. Their essay questions offer students options for the specific historical events to be analyzed in the essay. Choose a date then click on "United States History and Government Examination" and then choose the PDF.

2X

Funny Stuff (thanks for scrolling to the bottom)

Funny Stuff About Teachers

2Y