National Humanities Center
Teaching The Great Gatsby: A Common Core Close Reading Seminar
The 41 slides in a professional development seminar model how to use close reading techniques to examine the many layers of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In addition to passages from the novel, slides provide biographical...
New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 11
You'll C-E-R a difference in classroom achievement after using a helpful lesson plan. Designed for economics, civics, government, and US history classes, participants practice using the CER model to craft arguments about primary and...
New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 1
Work out your core, Common Core State Standards, through the first workshop in a series of 15 designed for educators. Inquiry-based activities designed for all content areas and grade levels explore the shifts to new standards,...
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 12
How can opinions slant facts? Workshop participants learn how to examine primary and secondary sources and identify the author's point of view. They also examine how visual art impacts the meaning and rhetoric of sources. Full of...
New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 10
How have educational standards evolved? Educators of adults examine expectations in the 10th workshop out of 15 to better determine how standards have grown. Participants respond to a variety of sample questions to determine how they...
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Ascd: Building Literacy in Social Studies: Ch 1: Reading Social Studies Texts
Article provides excellent tips and strategies for building comprehension and critical thinking skills in Social Studies. It describes some of the challenges students have with reading and understanding their textbooks.
PBS
Pbs: Academic Vocabulary in the Common Core: Disciplinary Vocabulary
This series of four video segments features a social studies teacher and a chemistry teacher demonstrating the integration of academic vocabulary into their classrooms. These segments feature the incorporation of general vocabulary (Tier...
Vocabulary University
My vocabulary.com: List of Themes for Social Studies & History
This is a list of interactive vocabulary activities for social studies and history.
Quizlet
Quizlet: 8th Grade: Social Studies Vocabulary: Flashcards
This set of interactive flashcards focuses on social studies vocabulary terms and a fill-in-the-blank sentence using each term.
Other
Reading Quest: Making Sense of Social Studies
Teaching students to read well in areas other than language arts requires teaching and reinforcing the kinds of reading strategies taught here. There are 27 strategies, ranging from brainstorming to word mapping. The site includes PDF...
Quizlet
Quizlet: 8th Grade: Social Studies Vocabulary: Match
In this interactive game, students match social studies terms to the correct fill-in-the-blank sentences. These are drawn from a bank of 25 vocabulary words and there are multiple games.
Student Achievement Partners
Achieve the Core: Introduction to Literacy Shifts in Content Areas
This 1-2 hour module provides an introduction to the key shifts required by the CCSS for Literacy in the content areas: history / social studies, science, and technical subjects.
CommonLit
Common Lit: Text Sets
This is a collection of 35 Grade-Leveled text sets (4-11). They are great for social studies teachers or for building background knowledge in reading class, CommonLit's text sets cover a range of historical, cultural, and political...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Formal Writing Across the Content Areas
This resource explores instructional practices for incorporating formal writing into English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies instruction. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.1.d
Student Achievement Partners
Achieve the Core: "Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution"
Lesson plan explores the meaning of the words in the Preamble to the Constitution.
Other
Appalachian State Univ.: Journal Reprint: Internet and Blog Publishing [Pdf]
Information, ideas, and examples of how technology can be used in a Social Studies classroom. Although designed for a fourth-grade classroom, many ideas in this article are applicable and adaptable for various grade levels and other...
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Craft and Structure: Determine the Meaning of Words and Phrases
Learn how to use context clues to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word in a Social Studies passage.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Note Taking for Social Studies
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart covers how to read a historical text and convert information into visual representations by taking notes. This strategy helps students to read a passage and determine the author's purpose.
CommonLit
Common Lit: Text Sets: Ancient Civilizations Around the World
Collection of 21 Grade-Leveled texts (4-11) on the topic "Ancient Civilizations Around the World." Learn about ancient and medieval civilizations from South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East in this text set. [Free account...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Text Sets: The American Revolution
Collection of 17 Grade-Leveled texts (4-12) on the topic "The American Revolution." Learn about the events leading up to America's Revolutionary War for independence from Britain and how the war was won. [Free account registration...
Other
Ncrel: Reading Strategies: Before, During, and After [Pdf]
This page provides a detailed chart to aid students' understanding of texts. It goes through the steps of pre-reading, during reading, and after reading, outlining what students should be thinking about as they interact with a text. This...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Why Teach the Holocaust?
Teachers often find the Holocaust to be an overwhelming subject to approach with their students. While the Holocaust offers important lessons to today's students, it can be a difficult to find the appropriate amount of information to...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Critical Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising
In this lesson, students will examine mass media critically and become aware of how much advertising is around them. They will realize the impact media has on social equality, what people buy, and on culture.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Reading Comprehension and Classroom Discussions
This tutorial focuses on active reading comprehension strategies including reading aloud, taking notes, summarizing, and writing in the margins of books to improve retention and class discussion. It includes two Flickr videos on active...