Teaching Materials

This guide consists of curated primary and secondary sources to help students connect environmental history to broader themes in twentieth century US history.

This guide consists of curated primary and secondary sources to help students connect environmental history to broader themes in twentieth century US history.

Help students understand the different types of universities and colleges in the U.S. by examining and analyzing a wide range of photographs from the Library of …

Help students understand recent immigration history by exploring photographs of Asian immigrant communities in the U.S.

Help students understand the events of 9/11 and how such events are commemorated via informal and formal memorials.

Help students understand the how policy and structural forces have shaped how people in the U.S. access housing.

Help students reflect on the purpose of learning history and of education in general by using Library of Congress primary sources to better understand the …

Using primary sources from the Library of Congress, help students reconsider the standard narrative around women’s suffrage by exploring the history of Native, …

Help students better understand the history behind the term “Manifest Destiny” by exploring the history of the Comanche people using primary sources from the …

Help students reconsider the how the expansion of the United States from 1865 to 1890 was perceived by Native peoples in the west using primary sources from the …

Primary sources from the Library of Congress help students explore a fascinating episode from U.S. history: the campaign to teach children to be more moral.

Teachers guide students to create interactive digital maps detailing the migration of Mormons using Library of Congress primary sources.

Engaging Library of Congress primary sources that connect religion and organized labor.

Help students understand the how religious beliefs shaped Americans’ understanding of the Civil War using sheet music from the Library of Congress.

Discover the resources you need to “globalize” your U.S. history lesson plans!

Use this four-step learning routine to deeply explore visual primary sources.

Teach your students to read like a historian with this guided four-step reading process for primary documents.

Classroom discussions need not be argumentative and unproductive. Discover a way to facilitate healthy discussion in your classroom.

Research papers are not an archaic form of assessment. Learn how to help your students with the research paper composition process.

Searching for new, exciting ways to engage your students in the classroom? Why not make them internet detectives?

In order to understand topics, you must first understand concepts. Learn all about conceptualization here!

Ticket stubs. Report cards. Photographs. All of these things have historical meaning.

Teach students to explore contingency with this great lesson plan idea.

Construct an ongoing, shared classroom timeline in middle and elementary classrooms, and help students tackle the chronology of history.

Using the premise of a mystery, elementary students act as history detectives as they explore a historical question and formulate and test hypotheses.

Engage your students in preserving local history! Use this teacher’s successful service learning activity to guide you.

Hypothesize, test, and acknowledge how sources form different “pictures of the past”.

Maps show far more than how to go from point A to point B! Discover how to incorporate maps into your classroom.

Leave your students with intellectually and emotionally significant memories of their own experiences with history.

Documents are riddled with difficult vocabulary. Don’t be afraid to adapt texts.

A pen or pencil in your student’s hand is an excellent tool for teaching historical analysis.

Go forth, and contextualize! Give students the opportunity for solo connection to historical places.

Looking for ways to use fiction in your elementary history curriculum? Read on for suggestions!

Setting up and maintaining a blog for your classroom is easy (and typically free)!

Thesis statements form the backbone of history essays and DBQs.

Help your elementary school students get more out of historical biographies.

To engage with a source, ask, “What do I know, what do I want to know, and what have I learned?”

Political cartoons are often conceptually complex, but offer valuable insights into history.

Are classroom discussions about winning the argument or about understanding alternative positions?