Curriculum Resources for PK-12

Lesson ideas and activities which integrate primary sources. The lessons are organized by topic and grade level with objectives, and connect to the standards. Many lessons include rubrics and self-evaluation materials as well.

The Stanford History Education Group provides history assessments that "capture students’ knowledge in action – rather than their recall of discrete facts. "

Videos and Resources for Educators, Leaders, and Districts Interested in Preparing Youth for Democracy

Encourages democratic learning and equips K-12 educators to bring practical democracy lessons to their students.

Offers a large database of teaching resources that that have been vetted through a collaborative and rigorous review process.

Lessons, units, readings, and other curricular materials for "secondary school teachers to promote students’ historical understanding, critical thinking, and social-emotional learning." "Through rigorous historical analysis combined with the study of human behavior, Facing History’s approach heightens students’ understanding of racism, religious intolerance, and prejudice; increases students’ ability to relate history to their own lives; and promotes greater understanding of their roles and responsibilities in a democracy."

"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." You can search by keyword or use check boxes to browse by subject, grade level, and/or historical period. This collection is strongest in history resources.

The News Literacy Project is a national education nonprofit offering nonpartisan, independent programs that teach students how to know what to believe in the digital age.

This site contains many excellent resources, including these features: a Lesson Plan Archive, News Summaries, and On This Day in History .

Online activities, lessons, maps, and many other useful resources for educators can be found on this excellent web resource

Over 2,000 resources

This site from the Library of Congress assists educators in teaching about American history and culture. It contains lessons, activities, and frameworks for use with the thematic collections of historical items. The items include photographs, documents, and recordings

Primary sources with activities for educators and students. There are reproducible documents from the archives. The activities are keyed to standards for history, civics, and government with many cross-curricular connections to language arts. The site contains the rough draft of Franklin Roosevelt's "Date of Infamy" speech

This site focuses on American Social History. It contains links to excellent web resources

This site contains excellent resource material on the topic of immigration, including lesson plans, primary sources (such as audio excerpts of immigrants describing their experiences), rubrics, cross-curricular connections, and web links. It contains material suitable for many grade levels.

Provides links to recommended resources.

This is a wonderful site. Many useful primary sources are included for famous trials such as the Scopes "Monkey" trial, Leopold and Loeb, Rosenbergs, Salem Witchcraft Trials, and many others

Many resources for students and teachers can be found on this site, which explores ancient cultures of South Asia.

This excellent site on the Holocaust contains many teaching resources. It has eyewitness accounts, images, and an education forum where teachers can exchange lesson plans and share ideas.

Explore the Viking Age by examining artifacts and wandering through the exhibits on this useful site. The site explores the arctic peoples, cultures and environments

Many primary sources on Southern history and culture from a Southern perspective are located here. The site includes many first person narratives, as well as a library of Southern literature.

Provides standards and K-12 teaching resources for teaching social justice issues such as: race & ethnicity, religion, ability, class, immigration, gender & sexual identity, bullying & bias, and rights & activism.

Lesson plans and activities to enhance teaching geography, history, and other subjects

Fabulous primary sources!! A well organized and comprehensive site packed with excellent resources for American History.

The books that appear in these annotated book lists were evaluated and selected by a Book Review Committee appointed by National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and assembled in cooperation with the Children's Book Council (CBC).

Social studies worksheets you may download

"Democracy Web is composed of an interactive world map and an online study guide developed by the Albert Shanker Institute and Freedom House for use by teachers, professors, and their upper secondary- and lower college-level students. The study guide and map offer an overview of the basic architecture of democracy, give historical background information, and provide a framework for comparing the state of political rights and civil liberties in different countries around the world."

Includes a copy of the Freedom Schools Curriculum from 1964, and lesson plans related to the March on Washington for middle and high school.

These "lesson plans for the high school level were created by certified Michigan teachers in 2001 to assist educators in teaching students about the history, role, and organization of the Michigan Supreme Court."

The following lesson plans for the high school level were created by certified Michigan teachers in 2001 to assist educators in teaching students about the history, role, and organization of the Michigan Supreme Court.

Offers video clips, primary source media galleries, and activities linked to National Standards for History.

"This toolkit is specifically focused on responding to white nationalist targeting and recruitment of students."

A program for teaching children financial responsibility through fun, experiential learning. Grades K-12

Timely and free classroom lessons and activities for K-12 educators. Includes hundreds of lessons to help students:
- learn about, discuss, and engage in current issues
- develop essential social and emotional skills, from active listening to standing up to bias

Offers "essays on different aspects of contemporary American life that have their roots in slavery and its aftermath," literary works by contemporary black writers, and a visual history of slavery.

Digitized primary sources curated by time periods: Slavery and Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860); Civil War and Reconstruction Era (1861-1877); Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression (1878-1932); New Deal and World War II (1933-1945); Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975); Contemporary Era (1976-2000s).

A collection of lesson plans for grades 4-8 based on picture books dealing with social justice. The lessons focus on Literacy but many also connect across subjects to Social Studies (geography and history), Health, the Arts, or Science & Technology.

A digital collection of newspaper headlines, cartoons, stories and editorials that aided and abetted racial massacres and lynchings. From the Reconstruction Era to 1940.

A climate storytelling podcast by, for, and about young people.

Provides teacher designed cross-disciplinary activities for teaching about the Census and government statistics.

These "lesson plans for the junior high school level were created by certified Michigan teachers in 2001 to assist educators in teaching students about the history, role, and organization of the Michigan Supreme Court."

Middle school thru College. Study guides for selected Hidden Brain podcasts. "Using science and storytelling, Hidden Brain reveals the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, the biases that shape our choices, and the triggers that direct the course of our relationships."

Reknowned educator Marion Brady offers a systems-based approach to American History, World History, and World Cultures. High school level.

A project to bring free open textbooks to Michigan K-12 students. At this site you can learn about the project, about using open texts, and you can download the currently available free social studies texts, which include:
My Self and Others (KIndergarten)
Families and Schools (1st grade)
Community Studies (2nd grade)
Michigan Studies (3rd grade)
United States Studies (4th grade)
United States History (5th grade)
World Geography (6th grade)
Ancient World History (7th grade)
United States History (8th grade)
United States History (high school)
World History (high school)
Civic Life (high school)
Economics and You (high school)