Check out some of the great links listed below to discover lessons, units, resources, and professional learning to support the Illinois Social Science Standards.
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, 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.