Smithonian Source - Resources for Teaching American History
World History

Smithonian Source - Resources for Teaching American History


Smithonian Source - Resources for Teaching American History. The site exclaims, "Find teacher-selected resources that allow you to peer over the historian's shoulder and share the excitement of discovery." Despite some annoying background music and slow loading times, this site delivers.

The site contains a large number of primary sources. All of the material is in the public domain and available to educators for use in teaching in class or online. The Teaching with Primary Sources page has five teaching ideas with video and lesson plan attached. The Historical Topics page has collected primary sources into one of six collections including Civil Rights, Colonial America, Invention, Native American History, Transportation, and Westward Expansion. There is also an option for doing a simple keyword search of all material in the site database.

From the site:

This website reflects the work of several groups of teachers who conducted research at the Smithsonian and other national historical organizations. For this reason, some of the primary sources included in Smithsonian Source are not from the Smithsonian collections. Teachers also chose the historical topics on the site, and these categories reflect their curricula rather than the terminology or organizational methods of the Smithsonian Institution.




- Wikinfo - Primary Source
Primary source. This is an encyclopedia article from Wikinfo which explains what a primary source is. From the site: A primary historical source is any piece of information that was created by someone who witnessed first hand or was part of the...

- Teaching Historical Thinking.
Teaching Historical Thinking. Students don't come to class ready to think about history. This paper examines ways that a teacher can teach historical thinking. From the site: Over the past decade, cognitive studies researcher Samuel Wineburg...

- Using Primary Sources On The Internet To Teach And Learn History.
Using Primary Sources on the Internet To Teach and Learn History. Primary sources are a good way to teach history. This paper gives some ideas for how to use the Internet to do this. From the site: The Internet enables teachers to enhance the teaching...

- Using Primary Sources In The Primary Grades.
Using Primary Sources in the Primary Grades. This good essay shows how primamry source material can be used successfully in primary grades. From the site: What do a stamped Christmas postcard dated 1910, a Confederate one hundred dollar bill, soda...

- The Imperial War Museum
The Imperial War Museum in London has an absolutely amazing site with resources that cover both World Wars and the Cold war. And the really cool thing is the way it is organized--historical notes which provide an overview of key events, personal stories...



World History








.