Teacher Shared Resources
Featured Resources
What is the State Seal of Civic Engagement (SSCE)? The SSCE is a recognition conferred by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for California students in grades eleven or twelve who demonstrate excellence in civics education and participation, as well as an understanding of the United States Constitution, the California Constitution, and the democratic system of government. The five criteria adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE) in September 2020 are meant to provide participating local educational agencies (LEAs) with a framework for making determinations of student qualifications required to earn the SSCE, based on their own local contexts. The criteria are written to ensure that no student is excluded from an opportunity to earn the SSCE based on academic ability, alternative school settings, or unique or unconventional expressions of civic engagement.
The California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum consists of four foundational study (African American, Chicano/Latino, Native American and Asian American) disciplines. The curriculum also includes lesson plans on Sikh, Jewish, Arab, and Armenian Americans. Ethnic Studies will be a graduation requirement for the graduating class of 2030.
Facing History & Ourselves integrates the study of history, literature, and human behavior with ethical decision making. FH &O materials encourage students to explore the complexities of history, make connections to current events, reflect on the choices they confront today and consider how they can make a difference.
The California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum consists of four foundational study (African American, Chicano/Latino, Native American and Asian American) disciplines. The curriculum also includes lesson plans on Sikh, Jewish, Arab, and Armenian Americans. Ethnic Studies will be a graduation requirement for the graduating class of 2030.
Facing History & Ourselves integrates the study of history, literature, and human behavior with ethical decision making. FH &O materials encourage students to explore the complexities of history, make connections to current events, reflect on the choices they confront today and consider how they can make a difference.
World History/Big History
The OER Project consists of a family of projects available to teachers (and students) for free.
The World History Project is a standards-based world history course that builds upon historical thinking skills in preparation for AP, college, and beyond. The activities within looks at the narratives large and small to create a coherent view of the world's past, present, and future.
Big History Project is an introductory world history class that follows an interdisciplinary approach to historical thinking practices. It seeks to grab a students' natural curiosity about our world to help them make sense of their place in it. The curriculum contained in BHP feature content from a variety of time periods (Big Bang to the Future).
Project X contains a variety of resources that support using data as an analysis tool. Students develop critical thinking skills to examine the past to make predictions about the future. The Project X activities all feature high quality/high engagement prompts, procedures and data sources.
Project Score has a great library of warm-up and revision activities and writing prompts to help develop and track student writing. It also features an automated essay-scoring feature.
The World History Project is a standards-based world history course that builds upon historical thinking skills in preparation for AP, college, and beyond. The activities within looks at the narratives large and small to create a coherent view of the world's past, present, and future.
Big History Project is an introductory world history class that follows an interdisciplinary approach to historical thinking practices. It seeks to grab a students' natural curiosity about our world to help them make sense of their place in it. The curriculum contained in BHP feature content from a variety of time periods (Big Bang to the Future).
Project X contains a variety of resources that support using data as an analysis tool. Students develop critical thinking skills to examine the past to make predictions about the future. The Project X activities all feature high quality/high engagement prompts, procedures and data sources.
Project Score has a great library of warm-up and revision activities and writing prompts to help develop and track student writing. It also features an automated essay-scoring feature.
U.S. History
New Visions for Public Schools (Social Studies) is an organization that works with public, private and charter schools in New York. New Visions creates seeks to provide “…ambitious, rigorous instruction and to design curricula that are relevant to students' lives and aligned to college and job skills.” The website has extensive units in Global (World) History and US History. The resources are formatted in the Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc) and are available for free. After selecting a resource, the website will place a copy of the file on your Google Drive. World (Global) History and US History lessons are included in their offerings.
Newseum ED offers extensive resources on issues pertaining to First Amendment and media literacy. Lesson collections centered on specific themes (Women’s Suffrage, Fact Finder, Free Speech Essentials, Decoding Elections, etc.) feature standards-aligned lesson plans, videos, primary sources, virtual classes, and programs. Newseum Ed’s lessons allow the students to practice authenticating, analyzing and evaluating information from a variety of sources and put current events in historical context.
The Read Like a Historian (Stanford History Education Group) engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents modified for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities. World History and US History lessons are included in their offerings.
Beyond the Bubble (Stanford Education Group) provides model assessments, interactive rubrics and student response models that go beyond the traditional, multiple choice exam.
Think Like a Historian is a PBS series that engages students and experts in their fields to investigate some of the most perplexing historical mysteries, ancient or modern.
The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people's history in classrooms across the country. The project introduces students to a “more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula.”
Newseum ED offers extensive resources on issues pertaining to First Amendment and media literacy. Lesson collections centered on specific themes (Women’s Suffrage, Fact Finder, Free Speech Essentials, Decoding Elections, etc.) feature standards-aligned lesson plans, videos, primary sources, virtual classes, and programs. Newseum Ed’s lessons allow the students to practice authenticating, analyzing and evaluating information from a variety of sources and put current events in historical context.
The Read Like a Historian (Stanford History Education Group) engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents modified for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities. World History and US History lessons are included in their offerings.
Beyond the Bubble (Stanford Education Group) provides model assessments, interactive rubrics and student response models that go beyond the traditional, multiple choice exam.
Think Like a Historian is a PBS series that engages students and experts in their fields to investigate some of the most perplexing historical mysteries, ancient or modern.
The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people's history in classrooms across the country. The project introduces students to a “more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula.”
Government
GerryMander is a “simple puzzle game designed to show how gerrymandering can be used to rig an election. In GerryMander, you draw voting districts to favor your party and win the election. Players can use real-world strategies like packing (Squishing opposing voters into a single district) and cracking (Breaking up key voter groups into separate districts) to beat each puzzle. With these strategies players can see how Gerrymandering works while learning about how it happens in the real world.” The interface is easy to use and simply illustrates the concepts we teach.
What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State from FiveThirtyEight is an excellent infographic presentation on the status of restricting among the various states. The site features an updating tracker of proposed congressional maps — and whether they might benefit Democrats or Republicans in the 2022 midterms and beyond. This is resource can really help you illustrate to students what the redistricting process looks like as it is happening.
The News Literacy Project is an excellent resource for any teacher interested in lessons about media literacy and helping students consume information. Their mission is to provide “…programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy.”
Their weekly educators guide, The Sift, provides excellent information and analysis of events and information in the media occurring at the moment. You can subscribe to the Sift for free. It is a great resource to use with your kids. Also, Checkology provides excellent lessons that give students media literacy skills.
Center for Civic Education has resources that will help raise civic awareness. Free courses, curriculum, podcasts, etc.
National Archives Educator Resources has programs (We Rule, DocsTeach) that help integrate primary sources into your curriculum.
Annenberg Classroom has lots of videos and lessons for the Constitution, current events, or other civics lessons. So much good stuff here.
270 to Win is a great interactive site that displays election and redistricting information.
Vote Smart's mission is to provide free, factual, unbiased information on candidates and elected officials to ALL Americans. Good info!
iCivics has well-designed games, lesson plans on government topics.
What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State from FiveThirtyEight is an excellent infographic presentation on the status of restricting among the various states. The site features an updating tracker of proposed congressional maps — and whether they might benefit Democrats or Republicans in the 2022 midterms and beyond. This is resource can really help you illustrate to students what the redistricting process looks like as it is happening.
The News Literacy Project is an excellent resource for any teacher interested in lessons about media literacy and helping students consume information. Their mission is to provide “…programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy.”
Their weekly educators guide, The Sift, provides excellent information and analysis of events and information in the media occurring at the moment. You can subscribe to the Sift for free. It is a great resource to use with your kids. Also, Checkology provides excellent lessons that give students media literacy skills.
Center for Civic Education has resources that will help raise civic awareness. Free courses, curriculum, podcasts, etc.
National Archives Educator Resources has programs (We Rule, DocsTeach) that help integrate primary sources into your curriculum.
Annenberg Classroom has lots of videos and lessons for the Constitution, current events, or other civics lessons. So much good stuff here.
270 to Win is a great interactive site that displays election and redistricting information.
Vote Smart's mission is to provide free, factual, unbiased information on candidates and elected officials to ALL Americans. Good info!
iCivics has well-designed games, lesson plans on government topics.
Economics
Spent is a powerful, “choose-your-own-adventure” website game that asks the students to make choices in an economy. The game explores the daily realities and struggles of poverty in America.
The Fiscal Ship is an entertaining web-based game that asks students to guide federal fiscal policy. To win the game, you need to find a combination of policies that match your values and priorities and set the budget on a sustainable course.
The Indicator is an outstanding NPR podcast that focuses on “at-the-moment” issues in today’s economy. Each episode is succinct (~5min) featuring hosts explaining how their chosen indicator relates to a significant issue. Pro Tip for Podcasts: You can convert an audio file (mp3) into a video file (mp4). After converting to a mp4 file, you can upload the file to Canvas Studio and use it in your Canvas courses. You can even make a studio quiz with the file!
We The Economy is a YouTube channel that has many detailed films that can help raise awareness about economic issues that are often ignored or misunderstood.
The Fiscal Ship is an entertaining web-based game that asks students to guide federal fiscal policy. To win the game, you need to find a combination of policies that match your values and priorities and set the budget on a sustainable course.
The Indicator is an outstanding NPR podcast that focuses on “at-the-moment” issues in today’s economy. Each episode is succinct (~5min) featuring hosts explaining how their chosen indicator relates to a significant issue. Pro Tip for Podcasts: You can convert an audio file (mp3) into a video file (mp4). After converting to a mp4 file, you can upload the file to Canvas Studio and use it in your Canvas courses. You can even make a studio quiz with the file!
We The Economy is a YouTube channel that has many detailed films that can help raise awareness about economic issues that are often ignored or misunderstood.
Other Tools & Resources
CommonLit- A platform that features an online library of short stories, poems and news, articles, speeches, and primary documents.
NewsELA - Online source for current news articles tied to any content area, which are further accompanied by multiple-choice questions and short constructed responses. Articles are available in English and Spanish.
Teaching with Primary Sources: TPS is from the Library of Congress includes both introductory and advanced programs designed to promote the use of inquiry-based lessons using primary sources, aligned with the Common Core State Standards.
CDE Sources including Framework: This is a list of resources maintained by the state of California that provides links to content standards,curriculum framework,Education & the Environment Initiative Curriculum, instructional materials, professional learning and recommended literature for Pre-K Through Grade 12 resources.
How Do I Implement the FAIR Act?- An short article that gives some suggestions on integrating the FAIR Act in class.
A Blueprint for Environmental Literacy: A Blueprint for Environmental Literacy: Educating Every Student In, About, and For the Environment, was produced by the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson’s statewide Environmental Literacy Task Force (ELTF).
6 Cs of Primary Source Analysis- A great tool for analyzing primary sources, From the UCI History Project.
UCI History Project Curriculum Resources: Lots of great lessons and DBQs!
NewsELA - Online source for current news articles tied to any content area, which are further accompanied by multiple-choice questions and short constructed responses. Articles are available in English and Spanish.
Teaching with Primary Sources: TPS is from the Library of Congress includes both introductory and advanced programs designed to promote the use of inquiry-based lessons using primary sources, aligned with the Common Core State Standards.
CDE Sources including Framework: This is a list of resources maintained by the state of California that provides links to content standards,curriculum framework,Education & the Environment Initiative Curriculum, instructional materials, professional learning and recommended literature for Pre-K Through Grade 12 resources.
How Do I Implement the FAIR Act?- An short article that gives some suggestions on integrating the FAIR Act in class.
A Blueprint for Environmental Literacy: A Blueprint for Environmental Literacy: Educating Every Student In, About, and For the Environment, was produced by the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson’s statewide Environmental Literacy Task Force (ELTF).
6 Cs of Primary Source Analysis- A great tool for analyzing primary sources, From the UCI History Project.
UCI History Project Curriculum Resources: Lots of great lessons and DBQs!