⇒ UC Berkeley History Social Science Project  Grade level: K-12

Part of the statewide CH-SSP network, the UC Berkeley-based History Social Science Project works with history teachers to strengthen their instructional practice in order to provide meaningful and empowering educational opportunities for all students.

The project website has a wealth of useful teacher resources, including

• A searchable K-12 lesson bank comprised of high quality H-SS-Framework and CCSS-aligned lessons
• A searchable teaching and instructional strategy bank

⇒ Stanford History Education Group (SHEG)  Grade level: 10-12

SHEG’s free  Reading Like a Historian Lessons engage students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features a set of primary documents designed for groups of students with a range of reading skills. This curriculum teaches students how to investigate historical questions by employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading. 

Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on historical issues and learn to make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.  The lesson bank consists of 160 lessons organized by topic, including

• 11 Overview Lessons 
• 102 US History Lessons 
• 47 World History Lessons  

⇒ C3 Teachers: College, Career, and Civic Life  Grade level: K-12

C3’s Inquiry Design Model (IDM) is a distinctive approach to creating curriculum and instructional materials that honors teachers’ knowledge and expertise, avoids overprescription, and focuses on the main elements of the instructional design process as envisioned in the Inquiry Arc of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards (2013).

C3 is offering direct access to 375 inquiries that you can use to sustain your students’ learning. These inquiries are available in an easy to use  Google Spreadsheet.

⇒ Digital History  Grade level: US History

Digital History provides a wide range of digital resources for teaching US History.  Explorations are inquiry-based, interactive modules designed to give students the opportunity to do history: to conduct research, analyze primary sources, and draw their own conclusions. Each Exploration has a separate tab containing specific teacher materials.

Digital History Modules

24 topics that correspond to the major periods in American history.  Each module includes

• A succinct historical overview;
• Recommended documents and films;
• Teaching resources including lesson plans, fact checks, and activities.

⇒ National Archives DOCS Teach  Grade level: K-12

An online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives. The site enables teachers to access thousands of primary sources  — letters, photographs, speeches, posters, maps, videos, and other document types — spanning the course of American history. 

Users can

• Borrow from an ever-expanding collection of document-based activities created by the National Archives, and teachers around the world. 
• Copy and modify activities for your students.
• Create your own activities using the online tools. It’s as simple as: (1) selecting a tool, (2) choosing your primary sources, and (3) customizing instructions.

⇒ EDSITEment   Grade level: K-12

A partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Trust for the Humanities. EDSITEment offers free resources for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality K-12 humanities education materials in the subject areas of history and social studies, literature and language arts, foreign languages, arts, and culture. 

All websites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom. They cover a wide range of humanities subjects, from American history to literature, world history and culture, civics, language, art, architecture, and archaeology, and have been judged by humanities specialists to be of high intellectual quality.

⇒ Bill of Rights Institute  Grade level: K-12

A free digital storehouse featuring primary source-based, classroom-ready lessons. The Bill of Rights Institute consistently provides quality, primary-source based resources to civics educators across the country. 

BRI Resources gives educators the opportunity to access our best curricula, online, anytime, free of charge.

⇒ Smithsonian's History Explorer  Grade level: K-12

Developed by the National Museum of American History to offer hundreds of free, innovative online resources for teaching and learning American history. The site is designed for use by K-12 teachers and students, after-school program providers, families, and individuals interested in lifelong learning. 

History Explorer's resources focus on learning history by "reading" objects for the stories they hold about the nation and its many peoples. Learning activities feature artifacts selected from over 3 million items in the Museum's collections, and draw on the expertise of the Museum's renowned curatorial staff.

⇒ iCivics  Grade level: 3-12

Founded in 2009 by Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, iCivics gives students the necessary tools to learn about and participate in civic life, and teachers the materials and support to achieve this goal.

The site’s free resources include print-and-go lesson plans, interactive digital tools, and award-winning games.