Social Studies/History
Explore and share tips, strategies, and resources for helping students develop in the social sciences.
Setting Up PBL for National History Day
Middle and high school teachers can boost engagement in social studies with project-based learning units for National History Day.266Applying the Scientific Method in History Class
Using a key concept from science class in history encourages high school students to analyze data with a willingness to make mistakes.271Game-Based Learning in Civics
Teachers can use games, both physical and digital, to help students build a foundation for understanding complex content.311Integrating Social Studies in the Early Grades
Elementary teachers can ensure that students are exposed to social studies by setting up interdisciplinary lessons that focus on real issues.620How to Teach History in a Culturally Responsive Way
History is complicated, but teachers can approach it by leading with truth and advocating for empathy.826Scaffolding Discussion Skills With a Socratic Circle
Students deepen their understanding and build a sense of community by engaging with their peers’ reasoned arguments.12.2kTurning Students Into Bold Historical Thinkers
By collapsing the distance between historical eras and the present day, we motivate students to ask hard questions and dig deeper into the past.845Inquiry-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.10.6kBuilding Students’ Background Knowledge With Station Rotation
Station-based book study can help build students’ background knowledge for a unit as they survey content before direct instruction.827Designing Interdisciplinary Units in Elementary School
This eight-step framework can help teachers create units that integrate science and social studies with math and English language arts.4649Reinventing 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.4.7kNurturing Changemakers With an ELA Project
One way to help students master skills is to let them cultivate their own English language arts content to explore. Here’s how.654Project-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.10.4k
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.15.1kHow to Engage Students in Historical Thinking Using Everyday Objects
Asking students to examine their own possessions from the perspective of a historian in the future helps them sharpens their analytical skills.3.9k
