American History

SAS Curriculum Pathways - Social Studies - SAS delivers a total of 688 online social studies resources that target higher-order thinking skills with a proven impact on increasing student learning and teacher effectiveness. Resource categories include U.S. History (363), Primary Sources (362),Civics and Economics (291), and Statistics and Probability (144). It uses a unique case study approach that encourages critical thinking about complex issues. A UPDATED Aug 2018

HippoCampus - U.S. History - contains several great collections of videos devoted mostly to American History. The Dallas Learning Solutions Collection has a well developed series of videos on the American Revolution and the Reconstruction Era. The Moments in American History contains the largest collection of videos and the most complete coverage of American History periods and topics. UPDATED Feb 2015

Mission US: A Revolutionary Way to Learn History - this multimedia project immerses players into U.S. history content through free interactive role-playing games. There are five (5) adventures currently available with more planned in the future. Current roles involve an apprentice choosing sides during the American revolution, a slave escaping from Kentucky, a Native American adjusting to the changing west, a Jewish immigrants adjusting to life in 1907 America and the most recent adventure which features a dust bowl farm family attempting to survive the Great Depression. UPDATED Oct 2016

American Revolution - the History Place website provides a six part history of the American Revolution beginning with the settlement of the colonies through the signing of the Constitution.

West Point Atlas of Major Conflicts - The United States Military Academy at West Point and Military.com present strategic and historical maps covering all major American conflicts.   To view maps on particular areas, events and demographics, click on the topic of interest below. Icons under each category indicate events or troop movements which are displayed as separate maps under the main category.

American Government

HippoCampus - American Government

iCivics - iCivics prepares students to become knowledgeable, engaged 21st century citizens by creating free and innovative educational materials. The site provides educational video games as well as vibrant teaching materials that comprise the most comprehensive, standards-aligned civics curriculum that is available freely on the Web. NEW Apr 2012

Lawshelf Courseware - is an organized series of articles written by attorneys as part of a project of the National Paralegal College. It includes articles on a variety of legal topics including contracts, torts, real, property, constitutional law, criminal law and procedures, civil litigation, will,trusts and estates, and domestic relations. Each topic includes several sub-topics and each contains embedded citations and self quizzes. The courseware is accessible to the layperson who wishes to gain foundational knowledge in particular areas of law. NEW Sep 2017

Virtual Tour of the U.S. Government - Tour the White House and all branches of the U.S. government, plus find several links to resources for teaching about U.S. government, the judicial system, politics, polls...much more! Also find resources for the current candidates, with campaign updates for all 50 states.

Ben's Guide to U.S.Government - this site provides information about the branches of the U.S. government at various levels. The lowest level is appropriate for ESOL 1 students while the highest level meets the needs of ABE 3 students. NEW Oct 2014 - recommended by Brockton

Bill of Rights - this link provides information about our Bill of Rights and includes links to other important documents such as the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. NEW Oct 2014 - recommended by Brockton

Atlas of Presidential Elections - follow election facts and figures, as well as candidate and party profiles, from 1789 through to the present.

Landmark Supreme Court Cases - this site provides a full range of resources and activities to help teachers to develop lessons related to the landmark Supreme Court cases that have help to shape the United States today.

Famous Trials - plenty of material for teachers that want to study famous historical trials. Included are more than fifty trials with more planned in the future. Examples of trials included are the trial of Socrates, Thomas More, Salem Witchcraft, Boston Massacre, O.J. Simpson, Clinton Impeachment, Scopes Monkey Trial, Nuremburg, My Lai, and Rodney King. UPDATED Aug 2018

History Research Sites

The following sites provide a wide variety of sources for researching History. More detailed descriptions will be provided at a later date.

Library of Congress NEW Feb 2015

National Archives NEW Feb 2015

Center for History and New Media NEW Feb 2015

Digital History NEW Feb 2015

The Avalon Project - the websie sponsored aby Yale Law School provides a database of historical documents organized by time period and topic. NEW Feb 2015

HistoryNet - This site is brought to you by Weider History, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. It contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. If you are interested in a specific history subject, try searching our archives, you are bound to find something to pique your interest. NEW Feb 2015

Country Studies - tis website contains the on-line versions of books previously published in hard copy as part of the Country Studies/Area Handbook Series sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Army. Each study offers a comprehensive description and analysis of the country or region's historical setting, geography, society, economy, political system, and foreign policy. NEW Feb 2015

EyeWitness to History - this award-winning website presented by Ibis Communications gives you a ringside seat to history by presenting history through the perspective of those who actually lived it - from the ancient world through the 20th century. NEW Feb 2015

Teacher Oz's Kingdom of History - this is a huge site developed by a teacher which includes links on virtually every period of American and World History

Current Events

The Story of Stuff Project - series of videos regarding environmental, social and community issues. NEW April 2 2011-shared by Brockton

John Cagle's Political Cartoonists Index Teacher Guide - Try this page for ideas to help your students develop the GED skill of interpreting editorial cartoons. The site includes lesson plans teaching the subject of editorial cartoons.Click on the icons to the left to view the lesson plans. They say they will feature five new cartoons each week. Click on the arrow to scroll through the five cartoon lesson plans. Teachers are welcome to print these cartoons out for use in their classrooms -- you don't have to ask for permission. The home page of this site includes a huge index of cartoons that can be used online but will cost a moderate fee to download.

Today's Political Cartoons - This is the Political Humor section of About.com. Updated daily, It includes a vast quantity of editorial cartoons to assist teachers looking for cartoons to analyze in GED classes. Some of the page's links include Week's Best Cartoons, Political Cartoon Collections, Editorial Cartoon Sites, New York Times Cartoons, Washington Post Cartoons, and other collections too numerous to mention.

Troubled Regions Map Exercise - a map exercise provided by the Rethinking Schools website showing the countries of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia Minor. Try to drag the name of each country to the proper place on the map. This site was recommended by Alison Long of Brockton.
NEW April 2 2011.

Schools of California Online Resources for Education (History/Social Studies)

New York Times Learning Network

Learning Resources

Geography

National Geographic - multimedia articles and spectacular photos spanning the world.

CIA World Factbook - The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities. Our Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.

Printable Maps - this service from National Geographic lets you print out maps of the world, the seven continents, or the three North American countries. Available as detailed, basic, and with or without country borders.

United States Map Games - Sheppard Software provide a wide variety of games to increase your knowledge about the 50 States. Several levels of games are available which requires that you move a State to the proper location on a U.S.map with the least average mile of error. Other games check you knowledge of State capitals, post office abbreviations and States trivia.

World Map Games - Sheppard Software provide a wide variety of games to increase your knowledge of the locations of various countries. Separate links are available for Europe, Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. Several levels of games are available which require that you move a Country to its proper location on a continent map with the least average mile of error.  Several skill level games are available.

U.S. / World Outline Maps

Look! Your Wearing Geography - global interdependence is stressed in this geography lesson plan in which students will explore patterns of world trade, economics, manufacturing goods, and geographical influences on goods and people.

Fifty States and Capitals - extensive information is available here for each of the fifty states, including capitals, flags, maps, state flowers and birds and much more information as well as recommended links and further resources.

Interactive Map of Africa - on-line interactive map of African borders, countries, capitals and surroundings.

Geo-Globe - reinforces geography skills with interactive online games

World History

Teacher Oz's Kingdom of History - huge site which includes links on virtually every period of American and World History

At the Tomb of Tutankhamen - go on an interactive tour, along with National Geographic, through the Valley of the Kings and on your way to the burial site of King Tutankhamen. Well-written and photographed.

Scaling the Pyramids - Nova Online presents Ancient Egypt from a different angle,and it's entirely geometric! Students will study the shape and dimension of ancient pyramids, and then build a scale model of the Great Pyramid.

Feudal Life - Life in the Middle Ages - online museum provides an excellent resource for research papers or background information the middle ages.

Life in the Year 1000 - superior pages from CBC Canada examine life in the year 1000.

Life in a Medieval Castle - excellent pages on daily life and functions of different parts of the medieval castle.

Europe in the Middle Ages - this fairly detailed and intensive sequence of lessons are challenging enough to be used a most grade levels.

Attila the Hun - an account of the invasion of Europe by Attilla the Hun in the fifth century A.D.

Economics

International Monetary Fund- students take part in a simulation of international commerce and in the process learn the importance of the IMF.

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