Education and Environment Initiative
The California Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) is a landmark environment-based science and history-social science curriculum for California K-12 schools. The free EEI curriculum consists of 85 state-adopted and approved units that complement existing instructional materials, allowing teachers to substitute EEI Curriculum units for portions of the textbooks they are currently using. This novel approach enhances student learning by bringing engaging environmental lessons into the classroom without adding instructional time to teachers’ already busy schedules.
Reading Like a Historian
The Reading Like a Historian 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. This curriculum teaches students how to investigate historical questions by employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading. 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.
Beyond the Bubble
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. We “go beyond the bubble” by offering easy-to-use assessments that capture students’ knowledge in action – rather than their recall of discrete facts.
EDSITEment!
Explore our library of humanities lesson plans by subject, theme, and grade level. Find Art & Culture lessons on anthropology, art history, folklore, mythology, religion, and more World Language lessons on languages and the cultures of which they are a part; History & Social Studies lessons on American (including our popular AP U.S. History index) and World History, civics, government and society; and Literature & Language Arts lessons, including AP Literature offerings, on great writing and great literary works throughout the ages.
Historical Thinking Matters
Historical Thinking Matters is a website focused on four key topics in U.S. history and is designed to teach students how to critically read primary sources and how to critique and construct historical narratives. The topics include the Spanish American War, the Scopes Trials, Social Security, and Rosa Parks.
Voices of Democracy
The Voices of Democracy project is designed to promote the study of great speeches and public debates. The emphasis of the project is on the actual words of those who, throughout American history, have defined the country’s guiding principles, debated the great social and political controversies of the nation’s history, and shaped the identity and character of the American people. In the process of reinvigorating the humanistic study of U.S. oratory, the Voices of Democracy project aims to foster understanding of the nation’s principles and history and to promote civic engagement among humanities students, teachers, and scholars.
American Rhetoric
This is a great database to support the speaking and listening standards. It includes an index to 5000+ full text, audio, and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, and other recorded media events,
Newsela
Read closely. Think critically. Be worldly. Newsela is an innovative way to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news. It's easy and amazing.
ReadWorks
ReadWorks gives teachers the research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their students. ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online, for free, to be shared broadly. The ReadWorks curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the standards of all 50 states. Most importantly, ReadWorks is faithful to the most effective research-proven instructional practices in reading comprehension.