Resource Websites

General Resources
The following resources are general resources that offer supports to social science education and educators. These sites may offer professional learning opportunities as well as lessons and resources or the opportunity to join social science organizations.

Illinois State Board of Education - Within this page, educators will find instructional resources by subject and grade level. For specific support check the individual pages: TEACH- a page with standards and resources for implementing best practices, TALK- a place to engage with other teachers and share ideas, LEARN- a quick link to professional development throughout the state.The ISBE Social Science page includes standards, mandates, resources and information from the State Board.

ISBE Bicentennial - ISBE is proud to be a partner in the Illinois Bicentennial Celebration. The year-long series of programs and events culminated with Illinois' 200th birthday on December 3, 2018. This site provides information about the Illinois Chronicles (a unique historical timeline package that was provided to every school)and additional educational resources to help children learn the rich history of the state from many perspectives, identify homegrown heroes, and forge their own place in the future of Illinois.

Born, Built, Grown: Illinois Learning Resources from the People’s House - This resource supports Illinois educators as they strive to educate their students about our state, using the lens of the Illinois Governor's Mansion and important past governors. While emphasizing social sciences and social-emotional development activities, this resource provides content supporting development in science, math, and writing as well.

National Council for the Social Studies - Founded in 1921, NCSS engages and supports educators in strengthening and advocating social studies. The website offers an online resource library for every domain, performance based assessment ideas, professional development resources and connections to other social science organizations.

Illinois Council for the Social Studies - The Illinois Council for the Social Studies was founded in 1938 in order to improve social studies teaching, to develop the professional interests of social studies instructors, and to cooperate with other organizations working for a better social understanding in the state, nation, and world. ICSS provides professional development opportunities, publications, and service to Illinois teachers.

Assessment REsources
In an effort to help guide those who may be looking for assessment ideas targeted to assessing the full complexity of the new standards, several external sites have been listed below. Please note, the State of Illinois does not recommend or endorse any particular site or style of assessment. The following sites are provided as options to support educators looking for information or ideas connected to assessment.

C3 Performance-Based Assessment Clearinghouse - This NCSS Social Studies Performance-Based Assessment Clearinghouse has been created to provide: 1. examples of social studies performance-based assessment measures conducted at local and state levels; 2. research findings that support the use of performance-based assessment to inform instruction; and 3. existing educational policies that can inform advocacy efforts for the inclusion of social studies performance-based assessment at the local, state and national level. NCSS does not recommend or endorse any particular compendium of assessment items; the Clearinghouse is merely a place where social studies educators can go to explore options that exist.

Assessment Resource Center for History - Developed through a Teaching American History grant (through a partnership with University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Howard County Public School System in Maryland) this site has information devoted specifically to some new options for assessment in social science classes. Specifically, they discuss how weighted multiple-choice, traditional multiple-choice, and performance tasks can be evaluated to meet the instructional shifts apparent in new social science standards across the country AND they include assessment samples on various historical topics!

Beyond the Bubble - Unlocks the vast digital archive of the Library of Congress to create a new generation of history assessments. Developed by the Stanford History Education Group (http://sheg.stanford.edu), Beyond the Bubble is the cornerstone of SHEG’s membership in the Library of Congress’s Teaching with Primary Sources Educational Consortium. They “go beyond the bubble” by offering easy-to-use assessments that capture students’ knowledge in action – rather than their recall of discrete facts.

ThemeSpark -ThemeSpark™ is a free web-based teacher tool that was designed by a former teacher David Hunter.
Teachers can quickly build a lesson from a rubric or standard and can choose from 1000s of standards-aligned lesson resources or add their own. Social science lessons and rubrics are aligned to the C3 Framework, from which the Illinois Social Science Standards were derived. A video is provided to take teachers through the process.

Primary and Secondary Sources
The Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science emphasize the incorporation and analysis of sources in K-12 Social Science. In an effort to help guide those who may be looking for sources, several external sites that contain primary or secondary sources for educational use have been listed below.

Docs Teach - Docs Teach is a product of the National archives education division. Their mission is to engage, educate and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives. They offer collections of primary source documents as well as activities to use in the classroom in coordination with these sources.

National Archives - The education division of the National Archives site offers links to primary sources as well as information about other learning opportunities for teachers and students.

Digital Public Library of America - DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All of the materials found through DPLA—photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, and so much more—are free and immediately available in digital format. The cultural institutions participating in DPLA represent the richness and diversity of America itself, from the smallest local history museum to our nation’s largest cultural institutions.

American Archive of Public Broadcasting - This is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH with the long-term vision to preserve and make accessible significant historical content created by public media, and to coordinate a national effort to save at-risk public media before its content is lost to posterity. They offer audio and video recordings, with transcripts when available, dating from the 1940s to the 21st century and emanating from all regions of the nation on a variety of topics to be accessed by scholars, researchers, educators, students, and the general public at the Library’s audiovisual research centers and at WGBH.

Smithsonian Learning Lab - Offers the opportunity to discover the resources in the Smithsonian Collection as well as create personalized groupings of resources. brings content experts and educators together to strengthen American education and enhance our nation’s ability to compete globally. The Smithsonian serves as a laboratory for creating innovative informal education methods that support formal education.

Smithsonian Institution-Digitization 3D - This site offers a portal called Smithsonian X 3D that allows students to virtually explore all dimensions of real artifacts. At present, this is still in it's infancy but they are continuing to digitize artifacts in order to allow students to virtually manipulate items found within the various Smithsonian collections.

World Digital Library (WDL) - This great resource, especially for World History educators, highlights worldwide resources and is a project of the Library of Congress, carried out with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world. The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures and significant historical documents on one site, in a variety of ways.

The Library of Congress - The Library of Congress is the nation’s first established cultural institution and the largest library in the world, with millions of items including books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library provides Congress, the federal government, and the American people with a rich, diverse and enduring source of knowledge to inform, inspire and engage them and support their intellectual and creative endeavors. There are teacher and student sections within the website for specific resources including ebooks for student use.

Gilder Lehrman Institute - Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization devoted to the improvement of history education. The Institute has developed an array of programs for schools, teachers, and students that now operate in all fifty states, including a website that features more than 60,000 unique historical documents in the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

News/Media Literacy
THE ILLINOIS LEARNING STANDARDS FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE emphasize THE INCORPORATION AND ANALYSIS OF SOURCES IN K-12 SOCIAL SCIENCE. IN AN EFFORT TO HELP GUIDE THOSE WHO MAY BE LOOKING FOR support for student analysis of sources, SEVERAL EXTERNAL SITES THAT CONTAIN resources to support news/media literacy FOR EDUCATIONAL USE HAVE BEEN LISTED BELOW.

NewseumED - NewseumED offers free resources to cultivate the First Amendment and media literacy skills essential to civic life. Learn how to authenticate, analyze and evaluate information from a variety of sources and put current events in historical context through standards-aligned lesson plans, videos, primary sources, virtual classes and programs.

The News Literacy Project - The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, empowers educators to teach students the skills they need to become smart, active consumers of news and information and engaged, informed participants in our democracy.

PBS News and Media Literacy- This collection, which includes videos, blog articles, student handouts, lesson plans, and tip sheets for families, helps students identify, analyze, and investigate the news and information they get from online sources.

Civic Online Reasoning - Students are confused about how to evaluate online information. We all are. The Civic Online Reasoning curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.

AllSides - AllSides exposes people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum so they can better understand the world — and each other. Our balanced news coverage, media bias ratings, civil dialogue opportunities, and technology platform are available for everyone and can be integrated by schools, nonprofits, media companies, and more.

ProCon - ProCon.org uses professional researchers and rigorous editorial standards to explore more than 80 controversial issues from gun control and death penalty to illegal immigration and alternative energy. Understanding issues using this structured methodology helps to improve academic performance, increase civic engagement, strengthen personal resiliency, bridge political divides, and stimulate critical thinking.

Resources Categorized by Standards

In an effort to help guide those who may be looking for resources targeted to implementing specific portions of the standards, the resources below have been grouped by the category of the standards they best target. Please note, since the standards are intended to be implemented simultaneously many resources below are not exclusive to the category in which they have been placed. The divisions below are intended to be a starting point for your resource search, not an exclusive category.

Inquiry Resources

Edutopia - Inquiry Based Learning Resources - Provides articles, blogs, and videos to inform educators about inquiry-based learning. Their goal is that instead of just presenting the facts, educators use questions, problems, and scenarios to help students learn through their own agency and investigation.

The Right Question Institute - They have worked with and learned from educators to develop a teaching strategy that provides a simple, yet powerful way to get students asking their own questions and building off their peers’ questions. Could be helpful for those struggling with getting students to write essential and supporting questions.

PBL Works - PBLWorks, from the Buck Institute for Education, believes that all students—no matter where they live or what their background—should have access to quality Project Based Learning to deepen their learning and achieve success in college, career, and life. adapted to other grades.

EngageNY - Resources and information on how New York State has been implementing the C3 Framework. Check out the “Toolkit” for Inquiry ideas on various topics!

C3 Teachers - This is a place to learn more about the process of incorporating inquiry into the social science classroom and to share your experiences with other social studies teachers. Information about the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) and sample inquiries that have been created using the model are available.

Wonderopolis - Wonderopolis is a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all ages. Each day, they pose an intriguing question—the Wonder of the Day®—and explore it in a variety of ways.
Wonders can be sorted by categories (including social studies) and sub-categories to narrow topics.

Teaching Channel - Inquiry Based Teaching Series - Provides a series of 12 videos about inquiry based teaching with accompanying video guides and transcripts. Many of the videos explore inquiry with students in grades 9-12 but they explore principles that can be adapted to other grades.

Civics Resources

Illinois Civics - Great civics resources for Illinois teachers spearheaded by the McCormick Foundation. Information is available for students and parents, about resources, professional development, and connecting with civics mentor teachers.

Mikva Challenge - Aims to develop youth to be informed, empowered, and active citizens and community leaders through the use of action civics.

iCivics - Lesson plans and games designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in U.S. democracy. Founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago - Works to strengthen American democracy by providing elementary and secondary students with hands-on learning about the Constitution to prepare them for informed civic engagement.

Bill of Rights Institute - Established in September 1999, the Bill of Rights Institute is a non-profit educational organization that works to engage, educate, and empower individuals with a passion for the freedom and opportunity that exist in a free society. The Institute develops educational resources and programs for a network of more than 50,000 educators and 70,000 students nationwide.

National Constitution Center - Educational Resources - Civic education destination connected to the National Constitution Center and Museum in Philadelphia, PA. Explore the museum's innovative, engaging lesson plans, activities, and other materials that allow you to connect the Constitution with your curriculum and bring this piece of American history to life for your students.

C-SPAN Classroom - C-SPAN Classroom's mission is to enhance the teaching of social studies through C-SPAN's primary source programming and websites.

The site requires the creation of an account, yet remains free of charge. Membership gives educators access to their own library to store C-SPAN Classroom video clips, supplementary materials such as lesson plans and handouts, and special offers. New content is added frequently throughout the school year, making it even easier for social studies teachers to bring C-SPAN into their classrooms.

Teaching Tolerance - Their mission is to help teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy.

Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

The Civics Renewal Network - An alliance of 26 nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations that provide free online classroom resources for civics education. Sharing the belief that understanding the Constitution plays a vital role in creating knowledgeable and engaged citizens, they agreed to work together as the Civics Renewal Network to raise the visibility of civics education and to make high-quality resources more accessible to teachers through a one-stop website. The network partners also will collaborate on developing resources in the future and on events such as Constitution Day.

Illinois State Bar Association Civics Education for Teachers - Part of the mission at the ISBA is to educate the public and students of all ages about the important role of lawyers and judges, the importance of an independent judiciary for the proper administration of justice, and to foster an interest in students to respect our justice system and consider pursuing careers in the law. Resources for mock trials, laws in the classroom, law day and publications are available on this website.

Youth Leadership Initiative - A program of the University of Virginia Center for Politics develops FREE education resources designed to assist civics teachers, and encourage students to participate in the political process. Lesson plans, e-commerce (virtual simulation), mock trials and democracy corps are all resources available on this website.

Geography Resources

Illinois Geographic Alliance - Seeks to promote and enhance geographic knowledge in the schools and among the general populace of Illinois. To achieve this purpose, the Alliance maintains a strong grassroots organization of geographic educators from schools and universities, participates in educational reform at the district, state, and national levels. We engage in an active program of preservice and inservice teacher education, develop curriculum materials based on the National Geography Standards, and foster public awareness of the importance of geography in our society.

National Council for Geographic Education - Promotes and celebrates geographic teaching and learning. Their activities include: conducting and gathering research; producing journals and other geography publications; developing curricular resources; providing professional development opportunities; honoring teachers, mentors and researchers; advocating for geography in schools; and organizing an annual conference.

National Geographic Society: Education - This site offers resources for teachers in the forms of idea sets which include a variety of activities grouped around a topic as well as more specific activities, lessons, and units. An activity will fill one class period, while a lesson (a collection of activities) can fill up to a week of class time. Units (collections of lessons) are designed for longer periods of time.

Global Awareness Map - Via the Veterans National Education Program has an interactive tool which transports students to the frontlines of combat and far-away places around the globe — even back in time to witness history “in the making”! Select a region and country to explore, resources associate are full of information, action-packed video clips and critical thinking exercises to engage your students.

Geography Education.org - A place for geography students and teachers to find interesting, current supplemental materials. Produced by Rhode Island College geography professor Seth Dixon. Related site--supporting geography educators everywhere with current digital resources. http://www.scoop.it/t/geography-education

GETeach - Great resources for various types of maps that can be easily manipulated and compared.

Economics and Financial Literacy Resources

Econ Illinois - Provides economic and financial literacy programs and services starting at the elementary level and extending throughout adulthood, enabling individuals to participate effectively in the economy as competent decision-makers; responsible and knowledgeable consumers; prudent savers and investors; and productive employees, employers, and entrepreneurs.

EconEdLink - Provides economics and personal finance resources for grades K-12 as well as professional development for educators. Related site -- Council for Economic Education

St. Louis Fed - Econ Ed - Offers free economics and personal finance lessons, activities, and readings provide flexibility and real-world connections, making it easier to prepare students with 21st century skills for college and career readiness. Check out their FREE EconLowdown portal, Kiddynomics for young learners, and many other award winning lessons/programs.

My Money.gov - national website devoted to financial literacy. This site provides resources and lessons for educators to use when addressing financial literacy. Additionally, under the “youth” section there are links to financial literacy games and activities geared directly towards students.

United States Mint - The U.S. Mint's educators page features economics lesson plans, activities and resources, and a financial literacy section to highlight resources, games, and lessons specific to financial literacy.

Federal Reserve – Education - provides resources and lessons for teachers to use with students in grades K-12. Sort resources by audience (grade level) targeted to find economics lessons targeted to specific grade levels.

We the Economy - Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions and Morgan Spurlock’s Cinelan have partnered to produce WE THE ECONOMY 20 Short Films You Can’t Afford to Miss. Each film is helmed by an acclaimed filmmaker, each with their own creative vision. The series aims to drive awareness and establish a better understanding of the U.S. economy. Told through animation, comedy, musical, non-fiction, and scripted films, WE THE ECONOMY seeks to demystify a complicated topic while empowering the public to take control of their own economic futures.

Illinois Financial Literacy Initiative - The mission of Illinois Financial Literacy Initiative (“IFLI”) is for every consumer to have access to tools and resources to help them make better financial decisions. IFLI will partner with state agencies, not-for-profit organizations, financial service providers, and private sector businesses to make financial literacy resources and training accessible to all consumers in Illinois.

History Resources

Facing History and Ourselves - By integrating the study of history, literature, and human behavior with ethical decision making and innovative teaching strategies, this program enables secondary school teachers to promote students’ historical understanding, critical thinking, and social-emotional learning. As students explore the complexities of history, and make connections to current events, they reflect on the choices they confront today and consider how they can make a difference.

Stanford History Education Group: Reading Like a Historian - This curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents designed for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on historical issues. They learn to make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.

Voices of Democracy - The Voices of Democracy project promotes the study of great speeches and debates in U.S. history. The emphasis of the project is on the actual words of those who have defined the country’s guiding principles, debated controversial social and political issues, and shaped the identity and character of the American people. On this site, you will find scholarly articles offering critical analyses of significant speeches, curriculum units designed for undergraduate classes, lesson plans for high school and middle school teachers, and a blog with brief commentaries on speeches and pedagogical issues.

American Social History Project - ASHP/CML challenges traditional ways that people learn about the past with its print, visual, and multimedia materials that explore the diverse social and cultural histories of the nation. Our professional development seminars help teachers use the latest scholarship, technology, and active learning methods. Be sure to check out HERB, a database of primary documents, classroom activities, and other teaching tools in U.S. history.

American Panorama - American Panorama is an historical atlas of the United States for the twenty-first century. It combines cutting-edge research with innovative interactive mapping techniques, designed to appeal to anyone with an interest in American history or a love of maps. American Panorama is an ongoing project. In the coming months we'll be adding maps on urban renewal in postwar America, on presidential voting—with more to come after that.

Teaching History.org - Designed to help K–12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) has created Teachinghistory.org with the goal of making history content, teaching strategies, resources, and research accessible.

Our Documents - This initiative is a cooperative effort among National History Day, The National Archives and Records Administration and USA Freedom Corps. This site highlights 100 milestone documents of American history with the goal of helping people think, talk, and teach about the rights and responsibilities of citizens in our democracy. They have a Teacher Sourcebook that details the 100 documents along with supplementary resources, lesson ideas, and classroom supports.

PBS Learning Media: Social Science - This Illinois Edition of Social Science resources has thousands of free, high-quality videos, lesson plans and other standards-aligned digital resources. K-12 resources aligned to the C3 Framework and can be searched by grade or topic OR can be found divided by the content areas in the standards (with an extra division within history to split US and World).

Historypin - Connecting communities with local history, Historypin is a place for people to share photos and stories, telling the histories of their local communities. At Historypin they develop and maintain storytelling methods used by 3000+ cultural organisations expand their communities - and bring their resources to life. They collect, curate and structure stories to bring people together, one story at a time.

Illinois History Day - Illinois History Day (IHD) is a state-wide program for students grades 6-12 who are interested in building research skills while learning about their state’s history. Illinois History Day curriculum is flexible and can be tailored to suit any classroom. Students can create a research paper, exhibit, website, documentary, or performance about Illinois’ long and varied history.

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency - Research Illinois history, explore a timeline of Illinois history, listen to a Lincoln Podcast and so much more on this website. Photo galleries of the historic buildings throughout Illinois and unique publications found online.

National WWII Museum - Provides lesson plans and resources to help you explore the history and lessons of WWII with your students. Utilizing an object-based learning experience, educational technology, and its world-class exhibits, the Museum uses its rich collection of artifacts, archives, and oral histories to take history beyond the pages of textbooks and into the hands of curious students.

The History Channel - History Channel Classroom has an Idea Book (with archived editions) that has lessons and activities for educators to incorporate the website videos into their classroom. Activity guides are also available. The topics are varied from historical to geographical.

Illinois Veterans and Community Classroom Project - (Formerly Illinois WWII Veterans Classroom & Illinois Veterans Classroom Projects) This site houses an intergenerational, instructional technology project created by the WWII Illinois Veterans Memorial Board. Since 2008 over 32 Illinois schools have accepted the challenge to assist the WWII Board in preserving an important piece of our heritage. These young citizens create digital stories of the service and sacrifice by men and women of the “Greatest Generation," Korean, Vietnam and other military conflicts. ” who have served our country. Through these efforts, the Illinois WWII Veterans Classroom Project was born. This project continually seeks school districts and communities wishing to work collaboratively to digitally preserve locally historical resources such as books, journal series, and manuscript collections, photographic images, slides, maps, prints, posters, audio, and video.

The DBQ Project - Developed with the goal to help teachers help students read with understanding, think straight, and write clearly. They provide teachers with materials that blend educational best practices with engaging historical inquiry, to promote and support transformational change in our schools. They provide engaging questions and use of primary and secondary sources to give students the opportunity to investigate history from a variety of perspectives.

RAS Collaborative Online Curriculum - Through the support of the United Way of McLean County, the Regional Alternative School of the Regional Office of Education #17 is proud to offer access to schools and teachers our free Collaborative Online Classes. These classes have all been developed by teachers throughout DeWitt, Livingston, Logan and McLean Counties. Classes meet all the appropriate high school standards for the new Illinois Learning Standards. A primary goal of the curriculum was to meet all high school Illinois Social Science Learning Standards (non-electives) in the four semester courses developed. Classes can be completed by students independently with teacher support, or used by the classroom teacher as a unit guide and resource.

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