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OAH Presents Shortcuts to the WebAmanda TrostReprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
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No matter what the profession, new ideas and motivations are always useful for keeping a job fresh, innovative, and, in the case of teachers, inspiring. With the proliferation of the Internet in everyday life, it makes sense to turn to the web for such inspiration. An endless number of useful public domain lesson plans, resources, and images are available to American history educators on the web. The Organization of American Historians (OAH) wants to help teachers approach these sometimes daunting searches. The OAH web site now features a list of links to these and many other resources available on the Internet to inspire your teaching. The following sites are some of the best sources found on the web but should be seen as merely a starting point for what can be an extensive inquiry. Please visit <http://www.oah.org/teaching/> for more invaluable sites Resources History Matters, at <http://historymatters.gmu.edu>, offers a variety of research possibilities for teachers. First is &opendouble;Syllabus Central,&closedouble; a database of annotated syllabi for both collegiate and pre-collegiate instructors. Also, the &opendouble;Digital Blackboard&closedouble; contains suggestions for many web-based assignments. The site also lists links to hundreds of web sites, articles, and student works, among other resources. Last, the &opendouble;Many Pasts&closedouble; page allows for easy browsing of hundreds of historical images. The Gilder Lehrman Institute web site, at <http://www.gilderlehrman.org/>, also contains a vast array of materials. Its resources are searchable by period or by topic. Teaching materials include annotated sources, handouts, audio-visual resources, and an online textbook, and there are many links to images as well. This site is useful for teachers and historians of all types. Lesson Plans CongressLink, at <http://www.congresslink.org/LessonPlanIntro.htm>, set up by the Dirksen Congressional Center, contains lesson plans that use the Internet and specific case studies to teach students about the function of Congress. It also lists a variety of resources that are available to help students get involved in their government. Crossroads, at <http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/crossroads>, is more than just a site with lesson plan links. It is an entire K-16 American history curriculum. Developed with the help of the United States Department of Education, Crossroads provides forty-seven lesson units further divided into more specific lessons and activities. Each unit includes the worksheets, essays, and resources necessary for classroom use. This site is helpful for finding ready-to-use lessons or simply for inspiration. EDSITEment, at <http://edsitement.neh.fed.us>, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, offers many resources in humanities education. Its lesson plans and other materials have been reviewed for their impact on classrooms and cover both United States and world history. Visitors can simply browse or search the database by topic and grade level, and, to make life even easier, each lesson includes a review of national skills and standards covered. The National Archives and Records Administration Digital Classroom, at <http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/index.html>, offers teachers a variety of resources, including a link to &opendouble;Teaching with Documents.&closedouble; Lesson plans are divided by time period and subject and use original American historical documents from the National Archives and Records Administration to teach students about United States history. Each lesson comes with background information, links to necessary documents, standards correlations, and other appropriate worksheets and materials. &opendouble;Teaching with Documents&closedouble; is a simple way for teachers to give students a more hands-on experience in the history classroom. SuccessLink, at <http://www.successlink.org/index.htm>, is a program created by a grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that contains lesson plans following Missouri educational standards. The database is searchable by subject and grade level for easy navigation. The lessons tend to be very detailed and creative, and, even though it is intended to aid teachers in Missouri specifically, SuccessLink can be used as a resource for new ideas and activities for teachers in any state. The Learning Page, at <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/index.html>, a branch of the American Memory Collection of the Library of Congress, supplies teachers with lesson plans as well as features and activities for the classroom. The site uses the resources of the American Memory Collection to encourage the study of more primary sources in the precollegiate classroom. As a result, students gain more experience with the sources and materials in the Library of Congress and a better understanding of historical documents. The National Constitution Center, at <http://www.constitutioncenter.org/education/LessonPlans/index.html>, offers lesson plans to help instructors teach this sometimes complicated aspect of American history. All lesson plans follow the Center of Civic Education&closesingle;s National Standards for Civics and Government and cover &opendouble;recent constitutional issues as well as historical events.&closedouble; Each plan contains all necessary handouts, web links, and resources for in-class use. This site includes resources like The Bill of Rights Institute&closesingle;s lesson plans and is helpful in teaching civics. Teaching with Historic Places, at <http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/descrip.htm>, run by the National Park Service, is a little off the beaten path but well worth the visit. This site uses National Historic Landmarks as sources for history education. Visitors can search the database by location, theme, time period, or by National Standards for History. This is a perfect resource when planning an educational field trip or simply for classroom use. It allows students to witness history in their own backyard and even helps teachers create their own lesson plans for a location that they choose themselves. It is a fun way to make history a more tangible part of students&closesingle; lives. Images Images of American Political History, at <http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/index.htm>, made possible by the Dirksen Congressional Center, contains over five hundred public domain images. One can browse by era or topic or use the narrower search feature. The site includes images of people, places, and events important to American history and is a wonderful resource for classroom use. The Library of Congress, at <http://www.loc.gov>, also offers an amazing number of images through which visitors can easily browse. The American Memory Collection is particularly helpful when looking for historical images. The database is searchable by subject area, collection, or, if looking for something very specific, through the search function. Note: not all of the images, documents and recordings featured in the American Memory Collection belong to the Library of Congress. Please read the bibliographic information very carefully. The National Archives and Records Administration, at <http://www.archives.gov>, is an indispensable resource for any United States history classroom. It offers a seemingly endless supply of images from the past. Browsing through the exhibits can bring up some unexpected finds, but there is also a search field available. The Digital Classroom is a fantastic place to start the search, but all of the links are worth visiting. FirstGov, at <http://www.firstgov.gov>, functions as the hub of the government web site system, serving as the search engine for all of the government-run sites, including all of the presidential libraries. Simply use the search field to pull up links for the public domain images or resources found on any of the government web sites. FirstGov is also set up to link citizens to the government more closely and is an easy way for students to interact with their government. Amanda Trost is a junior at Indiana University, double majoring in English and history. |
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