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Did the Chinese discover America before Columbus? How would or does this impact our understanding of European explorers and exploration?

Evaluating the Validity of Information

In Lesson Plan Reviews

Cartoon, American Revolution Names, 5 August 2008, Jimmie, Flickr CC

Looking for a creative way to teach the American Revolution to struggling readers? Check this out!

Picturing the American Revolution

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Decisions, January 23, 2010, katietower, Flickr

What is contingency? What does it have to do with K-12 historical thinking?

Contingency

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Spotlight on Elementary Education

In this Lesson Plan Review, students analyze primary and secondary sources describing an encounter between the Lewis and Clark expedition and a Native American tribe. The lesson overall is a great way to encourage students to work collaboratively to analyze this important historical interaction from multiple perspectives.

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Lesson Plan Reviews

Evaluate key elements of effective teaching Watch the INTRODUCTORY VIDEO

Decoding U.S. Foreign Policy: The Iran-Contra Affair

Through the lens of documents concerning the Iran-Contra Affair, this lesson [...] »

Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems

Learn about the experiences of immigrants detained at Angel Island and how [...] »

English Language Learners

Instructional strategies and resources for ELL

World Digital Library

Use this tool to translate primary source material!

The Struggle for Time: Using Persuasive Essays to Teach Elementary History

From chanting to formal essay framing—discover creative ways to frame ELL [...] »

Teaching Guides

Explore new teaching methods and approaches

Using Blogs in a History Classroom

Setting up and maintaining a blog for your classroom is easy (and typically [...] »

Four Reads: Learning to Read Primary Documents

Teach your students to read like a historian with this guided four-step [...] »

Using Historical Ephemera in the Classroom

Ticket stubs. Report cards. Photographs. All of these things have historical [...] »

Interpreting Political Cartoons in the History Classroom

Political cartoons are often conceptually complex, but offer valuable [...] »

Teaching with Timelines

Construct an ongoing, shared classroom timeline in middle and elementary [...] »

Ask a Master Teacher

Researching the Mexican American War

Whether you are writing a paper or just curious, here are some great [...] »

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