New & Noteworthy

Women’s History Month Spotlight

From the battlefield to the home, from the laboratory to the campaign trail, learn about American women from all walks of life in our latest spotlight.

Find lesson ideas, primary sources, and quizzes for bringing women’s history into the narrative of U.S. history.
Learn more!

Elementary

What Do You Mean?: How Language Changes Over Time

Would you be able to understand 17th-century colonists? For starters, “wheat” meant “corn,” “champion” meant “flat, open country,” and “card” meant “map." Using this lesson from Historic Jamestowne, invite your students to discover how the meaning of words has changed over time. Learn more.

Middle

Michael Yell on Making Every History Lecture Engaging

Is “lecture” a bad word? Typically, a lecture might make many students yawn, but not the kind of lecture middle school teacher Michael Yell proposes! Learn Yell’s strategies for making a lecture interactive such as visual hooks, cooperative learning ideas, quick writes, and more! Learn how.

High

Truman Presidential Museum and Library

Thanks to primary source collections and lesson plans, explore the life of the Missouri native who unexpectedly found himself president. Materials related to Truman's presidency include desegregation of the armed forces, the decision to drop the atomic bomb, and the Marshall Plan. Explore further.

Historical Thinking

Teaching American History

Japanese American Internment: Ansel Adams Photos

How did Ansel Adams capture what life was like in the Manzanar internment camps during WWII, including things the government did not want documented? Watch as Frank Wu, Chancellor and Dean of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, analyzes two images and shares his strategies for discussing community, loyalty, and responsibility in the face of prejudice. View here.

America on the World Stage

Interested in weaving U.S. history into a broader context? This Virginia TAH program explores how the U.S. has “always depended on its transactions with other nations for commodities, cultural values, and populations.” A digital library includes lessons with a global perspective on the birth of democracy, the transatlantic slave trade, the Civil War, westward expansion, and other topics! Learn more.