Teaching Tools
To help fulfill our mission of promoting excellence in the teaching of American history, the OAH offers a variety of teaching resources geared toward secondary and postsecondary learners.
Teaching the JAH
The Teaching the JAH project presents annual installments that use online tools to bridge the gap between the latest scholarly research in U.S. history and the practice of classroom teaching. In this project, Journal of American History authors demonstrate how featured articles might be taught in a U.S. history survey course.
The History Teacher
OAH Members can now add a discounted subscription to The History Teacher to their membership. The History Teacher is a quarterly journal devoted to the art and practice of teaching. The OAH is committed to providing our members with tools that positively impact their careers and is pleased to partner with the Society for History Education to expand our teaching tool offerings.
The Civil War at 150
Throughout the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the Organization of American Historians onsidered the conflict through the insights of outstanding American historians. This Web project gathered various resources for educators and students of all ages.
Guest Speakers from the OAH Distinguished Lectureship Program
Many OAH Distinguished Lecturers welcome the chance to participate in teacher workshops, summer institutes, and conferences. They can discuss specific historical content or history pedagogy, including teaching history as a literate practice and as part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
The OAH Magazine of History Online Archive
Each issue of the OAH Magazine of History, published from 1985 to 2013, focused on a theme or topic of recent scholarship in American history and provided readers with informative articles, current historiography, and lesson plans. Issue and topical indexes, along with selected articles, are available. OAH members can access the full archive of back issues through Oxford University Press. The OAH Magazine also may be found online at JSTOR.
Textbooks and Teaching
“Textbooks and Teaching,” a section of the Journal of American History published annually, is a forum for examining the techniques and resources of American history education. Participants critically analyze pedagogical materials and discuss their experiences conveying American history to various audiences.
U.S. History Teaching Units
Developed jointly by the Organization of American Historians and the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles, the U.S. History Teaching Units are based on primary documents for U.S. history at the precollegiate level and were written by teams of teachers and historians. Each contains reproducible images and lesson plans for use in the classroom.
Audio and Video Recordings
The Journal of American History podcast and the OAH YouTube channel feature conversations with and lectures by leading historians.
History Educator Membership
Many of the teaching resources listed above are available for free to all. For member-only benefits–which include The American Historian magazine, online access to all issues of the Journal of American History and the OAH Magazine of History, and discounts on Annual Meeting registration–consider joining the OAH as a History Educator member.
