History Teacher Tools
At AntiTextbook.org, we have curated a list of key resources we think history teachers should know about.
We have divided them into 7 categories:
Best Practices
Check out the resources below that might work within any era that you are teaching.
Primary Sources
History Teacher Tools
Historical Thinking
Check out this 7.5 minute video on primary sources, with examples and references to: multiple perspectives, context, and sourcing.
History Teacher Tools
How to Annotate
From: Facing History and Ourselves
Time: 45 min+
Difficulty: Easy-peasy
Here's a quick framework for a teacher-led explanation and modeling of annotating readings and primary sources.
History Teacher Tools
All Purpose Primary Source Analysis Worksheets
From: National Archives
Time: 30 min+
Difficulty: Easy-peasy
Give your students a one-page worksheet with a list of important things to look for and questions to answer for any primary source document. Other worksheets are available on the National Archives site for use with artifacts, maps, cartoons, videos, etc.
History Teacher Tools
Find Primary Sources
From: Various sources
Time: Varies
Difficulty: Easy-peasy
Link: See below
We have recommended individual primary source sets. They are sorted by individual topics under the Lesson Plan drop down menu in the upper right corner. They're pre-edited for length, paired with other relevant primary sources, and many already have activities or questions for students to answer.
But if you need primary sources for another purpose, check out these:
Primary sources from the Teaching American History site are sorted first by era and then by category. Plus, each one has an introductory description AND study questions at the end! If you sign up for a free account, you can put documents together to create your own collections.
Primary sources from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Choose the appropriate time frame on the left side of the screen. Primary sources are both relevant and bite-sized.
The Digital History site from the University of Houston includes primary sources as well as a textbook, quizzes, music, and a variety of other valuable resources, sorted by era.
Information Literacy
History Teacher Tools
News Literacy Activities
Civix is a Canadian charity that designs excellent, timely resources on information and media literacy for school-aged children. There are resources for both in-class and asynchronous activities. For asynchronous learners there is a game to see if you can spot the fake information, short videos that explain mis- and dis-information, videos about how to verify information, and games to test what students have learned. For users in the classroom, there are several interactive lesson plans that invite students to learn online searching skills and verification skills as well as AI literacy. You will need to set-up a username and password to get started.
History Teacher Tools
News Literacy and Media Bias
From: Facing History and Ourselves
Time: Depends on Which Activities you Choose
Difficulty: Easy-peasy
Three activities are available here.
In the first, Students read a Newslea article about where Americans get their news, then they discuss using the list of prompts provided.
In the second activity, students examine a media bias chart putting news orgs on a spectrum. They then find and read 3 articles of their choosing, one from a news org on the political right, one from the left, and one from the center. The class then discusses what they found.
In the third activity, students look at a one page document describing fake news detection strategies. And they discuss their goals for news consumption going forward.
History Teacher Tools
Civic Online Reasoning
From: Civics Online Reasoning (COR)
Time: 60 min or less
Difficulty: Easy
Lesson plans are provided for in-person lessons on: Who is Behind the Information?, What's the Evidence?, and What Do Other Sources Say. Each come with short videos. Teachers can choose from Level 1 or Level 2 activities, depending on the age of their students.
Current Events and News
History Teacher Tools
Teacher Guide for Current Events
From: Facing History And Ourselves
Time: Depends on the activity you choose
Difficulty: Easy
Check out this teacher checklist for making sure class discussions on current events are respectful. We love the "Fostering Civil Discourses" PDF near the top of the first page. Point #5 offers different discussion techniques for various types of current events.
History Teacher Tools
History in the News
Bunk describes itself as "a shared home for the web’s most interesting writing and thinking about the American past." It is especially effective at analyzing how history is perceived or relevant in the modern day. Bunkhistory.org includes articles (original and from major outlets), book and film reviews, timelines and collections of articles on hot button topics.
Bunk History has 2 cool features. First, Bunk History gives 12 similar articles to any article you choose; just click on "View Connections." This may be particularly useful if you're looking to:
showcase different instances of a particular issue happening throughout history
differentiate for different reading levels
or if you're not in love with the first article you see, you can find another on the same topic
The other notable feature is that you can indicate the articles you like and add them to a collection
History Teacher Tools
Current Event Articles and Resources
From: The New York Times
Time: Depends on the options you choose
Difficulty: Depends
This site contains articles on current events and important topics. Most articles include links to other resources specifically for students. These include: primary sources and background info.
History Teacher Tools
Watch Explanations
Watch a daily 10 minute video of the days top 4 news stories geared towards students and those looking for plain descriptions of why things happen. CNN 10 does not avoid politics though it attempts to keep a party-neutral interpretation. CNN 10 goes beyond politics to cover sports, popular culture, health, nature, and the like on a daily basis.
History Teacher Tools
Media Spectrum Activity
From: Facing History And Ourselves
Time: 45 min
Difficulty: Easy
Assign each student a news organization on the Media Bias Chart from Facing History and Ourselves. There are 53 news organizations so choose randomly from across the spectrum, depending on how many students you have. Then pick a particular current event and have students search their assigned news organization for it. Finally discuss using any of the recommended Discussion Methods under the Teacher Techniques heading below.
Student Project Ideas
History Teacher Tools
Make a Film, Documentary, or Podcast
The brothers who created Stranger Things got their start, in part, by making a film for their high school history class. Could you inspire the next Duffer brother?
Have students create a film reenacting an important historical event. Students make great actors, although it's easier to work around the schedule of G.I. Joe or paper cut-outs. Alternatively, students can create documentaries using student narration over readily available photos, artwork, audio, and videos (see the Library of Congress site).
For information about Podcasting, see Larry Ferlazzo's page "The Best Resources for Teaching & Student Podcasting."
See the first box in this section for project topic ideas.
Teachers should set requirements for:
The type and number of sources required for research (like one book and one journal article) and how to cite them. You could have students write a script and use footnotes to cite sources.
Using only sources that are in the public domain
Whether or not students can work in partnerships or teams
Which film or audio editing applications to use.
Length of the script, film, and/or podcast
How to create a bibliography
History Teacher Tools
Make a Museum Exhibit
Students can choose from important photos, art, primary sources, video, audio, and items (see the Library of Congress site) surrounding an assigned historical event. They can caption them, print them out, and put the items up around the room for other students to view if you would like to do this the old fashioned way.
There's also an app for that, and who better to do it than the good people at the Smithsonian. You can do the same thing digitally with the Smithsonian Learning Lab.
History Teacher Tools
Write Historical Fiction
Students should conduct research, and write a story based, in part, on that research. Students can incorporate actual historical phenomenon or happenings. Their characters can be based on real historical people or imagined. Students can then use their own creativity to make the story come alive.
Students should use citations to describe the actual event and cite their sources. Instead of writing about one person’s weird story, students should be encouraged to present a story that happened to or affected many people in a particular period. Their narrative should tell an educational story about history as well as about their real or fictional characters.
Teachers should set requirements for:
The type and number of sources (like one book and one journal article)
Whether or not students can write in partnerships or teams (writing a choose-your-own-adventure style narrative would easily allow for individuals to write different sections or adventures)
The page requirements (like 5 double spaced pages per team member)
How to cite sources and create a bibliography
Teachers can have students publish their work online. With Book Creator, for example, teachers can have students publish up to 40 books for free (there are paid programs for more books).
Teacher Techniques (and Some TECH-niques)
History Teacher Tools
Digital Breakout Game
From: Tom Mullaney, Digital Learning Coach
Time: Depends on number of questions and their difficulty
Difficulty: Easy-peasy
Escape rooms are fun, but who has a bunch of extra lock boxes and alien-themed props laying around? Make an escape room of sorts on your computer using the Google Suite and this template. There's even a 5-minute video to show you how to do it. Enter questions and answers (you can include images and links as part of your questions). Students who enter the right answers in the allotted time win.
History Teacher Tools
Discussion Methods (no TECH)
Do you want some options for discussions that move beyond the teacher-led version? Check out these options from Facing History and Ourselves:
In the Jigsaw Method, students explain different events or documents to each other in groups (though there's more to it than that).
If your students talk A LOT, you may be wondering if there are any silent discussion options. Check out this written discussion method called Big Paper.
For partnered discussions try Give One, Get One or Think, Pair, Share. In both cases individuals come up with answers to a prompt on their own and discuss them with a partner. In the former, students move on to a new partner once they've gotten a new perspective. In the latter, students stick with the same partner and eventually share their conclusions with the class.
Give students a perspective, or character to role-play, and then have the characters debate in Cafe Conversations.
Read this article on Socratic Seminars (and get a handout with prompts). Try combining this one with the Fishbowl Discussion below.
In a Fishbowl Discussion only a designated number of folks are allowed to discuss at one time, while the rest of the group observes. Discussers rotate in and out of the discussion ring.
History Teacher Tools
Check for Understanding
Do you want to make sure that your students got it? Check out these options:
The 3-2-1 Method asks students to write down takeaways, lingering questions, and what they liked.
Create an "Exit Ticket" that students have to complete before leaving. It can take the form of a written quiz or summary, or simply ask students what they learned and what they didn't get. This can be done with a pencil and paper or a Google Form.
Open Educational Resources (OER) Textbooks
History Teacher Tools
American Yawp U.S. History Textbook
From: American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook
Grade Level: HS, College
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: Quite a bit!
Length of Reading: Chapters
This excellent textbook, which was written and edited by history professors and published by the Stanford University Press, is available online for FREE. It includes a FREE primary source reader, beautiful images, and footnotes (which are always good as an example to show students how to cite their own research).
History Teacher Tools
Openstax Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness U.S. History Textbook
From: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and the Bill of Rights Institute
Grade Level: Designed for A.P. US History
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: Quite a bit!
Length of Reading: Chapters
Check out Openstax latest endeavor, in partnership with the Bill of Rights Institute. This book is intended for Advanced Placement (A.P.) U.S. History courses. You can elect to incorporate online courseware with the book for an additional per student fee.
History Teacher Tools
Openstax U.S. History Textbook
From: Openstax
Grade Level: HS, College
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: Quite a bit!
Length of Reading: Chapters
The good people at Rice University, with several charitable organizations, have made this American History Textbook, written by legit history professors, available online for FREE.
Check out the "Instructor Resources" tab. You can access slides, test questions, and even plug the book into your Canvas or Blackboard LMS.
History Teacher Tools
Are Textbooks Biased?
From: New York Times
Time: 30 minutes to read article
Difficulty: Medium
Is history one standardized story? Students can read about different perspectives and the fluid nature of history in this article about how history is represented differently in textbooks in California and Texas. This article is particularly good because it offers examples and direct comparison.
History Teacher Tools
MI Open Book Project U.S. History Textbook Revolution Through Reconstruction
From: Michigan Open Book Project
Grade Level: MS, HS
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: Quite a bit!
Length of Reading: Chapters
This book was created by the Michigan Open Book Project. In Michigan, the entirety of US History is divided across several grades. And there's a different book for each section of the course, intended for a different age group.
The 5th grade edition, United States History: Beginnings Through Revolution, starts with early American History and goes through the American Revolution.
The 8th grade edition, Revolution Through Reconstruction, Starts with the American Revolution and, obviously, ends with Reconstruction.
The High School edition, Reconstruction to Today ends the trilogy.
Because these books are written by the teachers of the grades they are intended for, the language they use and subjects they broach are age appropriate and concise. The chapters are inquiry based; they start with questions. And there are links to video explanations and subjects of interest within the text. Depending on the apps particular to your device, students may even be able to highlight and take notes on their online or PDF textbook.
DBQ & Test Bank Questions
History Teacher Tools
Multiple Choice Question Database
Don't write a test from scratch when you can choose from and edit pre-existing questions. Questions are sorted chronologically and can be added to your test with one click. You can then organize and choose the format for your test and instantly turn it into a PDF or export it to Google Quiz, Canvas, or Schoology LMS.
You can do all of this with the free version. You'll just need to log-in.
History Teacher Tools
DBQ and Essay Questions
The New York State Education Department has their past exams available online. You can find and adopt their multiple choice questions via Problem-Attic (see adjacent box). But you'll have to visit their site for their essay and Document Based Questions (DBQ) questions.
Their essay questions offer students options for the specific historical events to be analyzed in the essay. Choose a date then click on "United States History and Government Examination" and then choose the PDF.