NCSS has selected a collection of classroom activities, teaching ideas, and articles from Social Education, Middle Level Learning, and Social Studies and the Young Learner. Browse the collection, or search by historical period and grade level using the search function below.
(Collections on other disciplines are under development.)
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The “Starving Time” Wikinquiry: Using a Wiki to Foster Historical Inquiry
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 12:47pmBy Jeremy D. Stoddard, Mark J. Hofer, and Molly G. Buchanan
Highlighting a wikinquiry on the Jamestown colony’s ‘starving time,’ the authors demonstrate a wiki’s power to promote student collaboration, enhance communication, and improve construction of knowledge.
Printer-friendly versionLetter to, and Paintings by, George Catlin (Teaching with Documents)
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 12:50pmBy David Rosenbaum, Lee Ann Potter, and Elizabeth K. Eder
A letter from the Secretary of War to painter George Catlin in the 1830s and Catlin’s subsequent paintings of Native Americans in the West help students explore the encounter of two cultures.
Integrating Government and Literature: Mock Civil and Criminal Trials Based on [em]To Kill A Mockingbird[/em]
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 12:52pmBy Lori Kumler and Rina Palchick
In a project that connected social studies classes with literature classes, students honed academic skills as they constructed mock trials from the events of a famous novel.
Dear Miss Breed: Using Primary Documents to Advance Student Understanding of Japanese Internment Camps
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 12:53pmBy Patrick Westcott and Martha Graham Viator
The authors highlight the Carter G. Woodson award winner Dear Miss Breed—which recounts the stories of 19 children of Japanese descent interned in U.S. camps during World War II—as an excellent resource for studying the Japanese American wartime experience.
Was the Constitution Pro-Slavery? The Changing View of Frederick Douglass
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 1:03pmBy Robert Cohen
Many have questioned whether the document on which our nation is based sanctioned slavery. But renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who originally condemned the Constitution, came to view it in a much different light.
Frederick Douglass Changed My Mind about the Constitution
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 1:04pmBy James Oakes
Like Frederick Douglass, this historian had originally viewed the Constitution as pro-slavery. Yet a close look at Douglass’s writings revealed a Constitution that empowered the federal government to abolish slavery.
Rough Journal Page Documenting Ratification and Final Page of the Treaty of Paris, 1783 (Teaching with Documents)
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 1:25pmBy Lee Ann Potter
The featured documents highlight for students the significance of the Treaty of Paris, not only in ending the Revolutionary War, but also in transforming British North America.
The Updated Verdict of the Keys
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 1:27pmBy Allan J. Lichtman
Read this article to see what a historically accurate prediction system forecasts as the outcome of the popular vote this presidential election.
Letters from George Washington and Samuel Cabble, and Speeches by Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 1:35pmBy Lee Ann Potter
Students will grapple with what it means to “embrace the future” when they study primary documents related to four noteworthy individuals who embraced the future in distinct ways.
Using Music to Teach about the Great Depression
Submitted by Steven Lapham on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 3:15pmBy Robert L. Stevens and Jared A. Fogel
Students will gain new perspectives on the socio-economic circumstances of the Great Depression through an analysis of song lyrics of the time.
