Social Studies/History
Explore and share tips, strategies, and resources for helping students develop in the social sciences.
AI Tool Demo: Canva’s Text-to-Image Generator
Assistant editor Daniel Leonard shows how teachers are using Canva’s AI image generator to create fun writing prompts and engaging history-oriented images.5 Ways to Introduce Lessons on Black History in the Early Elementary Grades
Thoughtful resources combined with experiential learning guide students to engage with important events in our country’s past.Your content has been saved!
Go to My Saved Content.Teaching Students About the Richness of Black Language Traditions
Black History Month is an opportunity to augment traditional written documents with visual, sonic, dramatic, and multimedia texts.Interactive Note-Taking in Social Studies Class
Incorporating frequent questions and student discussion into direct instruction helps boost engagement with the material.543Your content has been saved!
Go to My Saved Content.Using Local Place Names to Teach History
These place-based learning ideas help high school students discover more about their community as they learn to use the historical method.AI Tool Demo: Creative Uses for ChatGPT in History and ELA
Assistant editor Daniel Leonard shares a few interesting applications of ChatGPT that teachers have adopted to drive critical thinking and deeper analysis.Learning to Synthesize Through a Hands-On Activity
Using construction paper and glue sticks to practice a higher-order thinking skill makes the task more accessible for students—and more engaging.Scaffolding Discussion Skills With a Socratic Circle
Students deepen their understanding and build a sense of community by engaging with their peers’ reasoned arguments.12.2kYour content has been saved!
Go to My Saved Content.Inquiry-Based Tasks in Social Studies
Assignments that are bigger than a lesson and smaller than a unit are a good way to experiment with inquiry-based learning.10.6kYour content has been saved!
Go to My Saved Content.Using a Murder Mystery Game in History Class to Kick Off the Year
Solving a ‘whodunit’ on the first day of school builds community—and introduces students to valuable skills in a historian’s tool kit.774Your content has been saved!
Go to My Saved Content.Project-Based Learning: Raising Student Achievement for All Learners
Researchers in Michigan showed that project-based learning in high-poverty communities can produce statistically significant gains in social studies and informational reading—see how they did it in this video.10.4kYour content has been saved!
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6 Free Online Resources for Primary Source Documents
The Common Core Learning Standards describe the importance of teaching students how to comprehend informational text. Primary source documents are artifacts created by individuals during a particular period in history. This could be a letter, speech, photograph or journal entry. If you're looking to integrate social studies into your literacy block, try out one of these resources for primary source documents.15.5kYour content has been saved!
Go to My Saved Content.Reinventing AP Courses With Rigorous Project-Based Learning
A new study shows that when implemented well, AP courses built around project-based learning can raise test scores for all students, including those in traditionally underserved demographics.4.7kYour content has been saved!
Go to My Saved Content.Using Bell Ringers to Teach the Historical Method
Short activities built on examining photographs, artifacts, and other resources from the past can help students think like historians.7 Digital Tools That Help Bring History to Life
Challenging games, fun projects, and a healthy dose of AI tools round out our top picks for breathing new life into history lessons.
