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.)
Search NCSS Teachers Library Collection
Browse by Historical Period or Grade Level
Rising Again: Recovering the Story of Louis Sockalexis
Submitted by Steven Lapham on Tue, 03/13/2012 - 12:46pm--J. Allen Bryant
Civil Rights Pioneers came from various ethnic groups, rose up in many settings, and fought over many decades. One of the greatest baseball players of all time was a Native American who lived from to 1871 to 1913. Historical context -- Keep in mind that the massacre at Wounded Knee occurred in 1890.
Printer-friendly versionUncovering Immigrants’ Stories: It All Begins With Picture Books
Submitted by Steven Lapham on Tue, 03/13/2012 - 2:05pm--Andrea S. Libresco, Jeannette Balantic, and Jonie C. Kipling
To deepen students' thinking about immigration, the authors designed a gallery walk activity and an oral history interview that build upon the reading of children's literature.
Changing Faces: Your State Hero in the U.S. Capitol
Submitted by Steven Lapham on Tue, 03/13/2012 - 2:14pm--Dennis Denenberg
Each state has a statue of one of its notable citizens displayed in the U.S. Capitol. Learn about this collection, read your state hero's biography, and/or propose a new hero!
An Annotated List of Census Resources for Educators
Submitted by Steven Lapham on Tue, 03/13/2012 - 2:32pm--Pat Watson
Census in Schools, www.census.gov/schools, is the official site of the Census Bureau’s K-12 program. The "History Timeline" is a great resource. Click on the "History and Pop Culture" icon to find it, as described in the accompanying article "Interdisciplinary Activities Using Census in Schools," by Janice Jefferson. Then see images and facts about Americans as they lived and worked over two centuries. Both brief articles are linked here:
History Mystery Lessons: Powhatan Culture / Lewis & CLark
Submitted by Steven Lapham on Tue, 03/13/2012 - 2:51pm--Jana Kirchner and Carla Judd
The Pullout of the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of SSYL comprised two History Mystery Lessons: The first was about Powhatan culture, and included a clue sheet about life in a Native American village.
The second (by Allison Helm, Kristin Pierce, and Michele Galloway) suggested placing 12 clues (each accompanied by a reading from Lewis's journal, 1803-1806) throughout the room, then inviting students to examine, record, and hypothesize about what they observe and read.
The learning environment in this method is described in detail in the article "History + Mystery = Inquiring Young Historians" by Jana Kirchner, Allison Helm, Kristin Pierce, and Michelle Galloway.
500 Years of Spanish Exploration and Settlement: Children’s Literature
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Thu, 02/28/2013 - 12:06pm--Jason L. O’Brien and Wolfram Verlaan
Literature provides an ideal vehicle for guiding students beyond conventional accounts for a more profound exploration of Spanish influence in the Americas.
* http://publications.socialstudies.org/se/7701/77011328.pdf
Is Free Trade Out of Date?
Submitted by TimDaly on Fri, 07/10/2009 - 1:06pm--Dwight R. Lee
We may never achieve perfectly free international trade, but the struggle to reduce existing trade restriction is a noble one.
Puritan Day: A Social Science Simulation
Submitted by Steven Lapham on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 9:14amBy Joan Brodsky Schur
Eighth-grade students gain a greater understanding of social control and tyranny when they participate in a Puritan Day simulation.
Conflict Resolution in History: The War with Mexico as a Case Study
Submitted by Jennifer Bauduy on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 2:48pm--Arlene L. Gardner and John Chambers
By applying conflict resolution strategies to such events as the Mexican-American War, students grapple with difficult historical disputes, learn mediation and negotiation skills, and gain a deeper understanding of the costs, complexities, and consequences of conflict.
Using Children’s Diaries to Teach the Oregon Trail
Submitted by Steven Lapham on Fri, 08/14/2009 - 9:30am--Richard M. Wyman, Jr.
Children traveling west with their families sometimes kept diaries. "precisely because they were trapped in the present moment," these young authors often viewed "their immediate world with a special clarity."
This URL downloads all 16 pages of Middle Level Learning as a pdf of about 3.5MB:
http://members.ncss.org/mll/01/mll01.pdf
