Introduction
This guide is designed to assist teachers of World History in grades 9-12 to create engaging, informative lessons using the best available research and sources. Below there are section for the development of the teacher's knowledge of best practices as well as resources for lesson plans and primary source collections.
Lesson Plan Resources
These Lesson Plan collections contain a variety of options for lesson related to specific portions of World History.
Ancient History (Prehistory-476 CE)
- Discovery Education Ancient History Lesson PlansA series of lesson plans that cover a variety of topics related to the ancient world.
- Teacher Vision- Ancient History Teacher ResourcesA collection of resources and lesson plans for the ancient world. Specifically interesting is the connections made with other disciplines.
- Best History Sites- Ancient and Biblical HistoryA series of resources that contain not just primary sources but interactive games and activities.
- Pinterest- 1000+ Ideas About Ancient HistoryA huge collection of lesson plans, resources, and ideas about teaching ancient history.
The European Middle Ages (476 CE-1492 CE)
- Best History Sites- Medieval EuropeA collection of both sites with information on Medieval History and lesson plans for the time period. Primarily focused on British History.
- The Middle Ages Teacher GuideThis course packet includes lesson plans and activities designed to teach students a broad overview of the Middle Ages. It is geared to grade 7, but can easily be used for grade 9.
- Stanford History Education Group- Medieval HistoryThis series of lessons uses Common Core principles to teach students about the Middle Ages. It includes primary sources, activities, and note taking materials.
- TeacherVision- the Middle AgesYou will find lessons, digital books, worksheets, references, quizzes, and clip art on castles, knights, and medieval life. These European history resources will help kids learn about the feudal system, medieval architecture, occupations of the Middle Ages, and much more!
The Pre-Modern World (500 CE-1500 CE)
- World History for Us All- Era 5This collection of lessons covers the years 300-1500 across the world and provides a series of Big Questions to be answered by students in the course.
- Asia for EducatorsA collection of lesson plan ideas for East Asia broken down by subject area.
- PBS- Exploring African CulturesIn this lesson, students will explore the role of oral traditions in the African culture.
- Early African KingdomsA lesson plan designed to teach students about the development of trade routes between early African cultures and the rest of the world.
- Best History Sites- Pre-Colonial AmericaThis collection of lesson plans and websites highlights the most useful resources on pre-Columbian America.
The Modern World (1500 CE-Present)
- Modern World HistoryThis website will, hopefully, provide a space for us to share lesson plans, links to sources, streamed videos, notes, power point presentations, as well as be able to make comments about what worked and what didn’t work in our classes. Essentially, it is a repository for resources for Modern World teachers to submit curriculum, as well as access worksheets, supplemental readings, video clips, research and essay writing tips and other resources; a centralized place to better share our “best teaching practices.”
- History Teaching InstituteThe site, created by Ohio State University, maintains a collection of lesson plans for Modern World History. The plans include primary sources, artifacts and more.
- Stanford History Education Group- Modern HistoryThis series of lessons uses Common Core principles to teach students about the Modern World. It includes primary sources, activities, and note taking materials.
Whole Course Resources
These sites provide resources for the entirety of the World History Curriculum.
- Crash Course World HistoryThis YouTube channel contains 42 ten to twelve minute videos that cover World History from the Agricultural Revolution to Modern Globalization.
- Big History ProjectThis course outline developed by the Big History Project brings in scientific and mathematical elements to the study of history from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago until today. Its content is free with a sign-in.
- Discovery Education World HistoryThis site provides a series of lesson plans for all time periods and regions covered by World History.
- World History for Us AllThis model curriculum groups instructional units into three categories. The criterion for these categories is the scale in time, geographical space, and subject matter of the topics to be explored. This system has been designed to guide teachers and students in study of the past on a variety of scales, from broad, global changes to developments that occurred within regions, civilizations, or nations.
Primary Source Collections
These primary source collections contain important documents related to specific portions of World History.
Ancient History (Prehistory-476 CE)
- Ancient History SourcebookA general source for ancient history sources. Sources are organized by civilization. Look to the left hand toolbar to navigate to a specific region.
- The Perseus CollectionA huge collection on ancient texts organized by region and author. Many texts presented both in the original and in English translation.
- Internet Scared Text ArchiveA collection of sources relating to religion, folklore, myths, and spirituality from all over the world and throughout time.
- Ancient Mesopotamia: This History, Our HistoryA collection maintained by the University of Chicago of materials and artifacts that help educators teach effectively about Mesopotamia. Contains lesson plans.
- Theoi, e-Texts LibraryA collection of Classical Greek literature, broken down by time period.
The European Middle Ages (476 CE-1492 CE)
- Internet Medieval SourcebookA huge collection of source for the Medieval Period in Europe broken down by subject area.
- The Medieval Academy- Primary SourcesThese searchable HTML pages provide links to selected digital medieval resources. Lists will be expanded and revised through a process of data collection and review including a survey of Medieval Academy members, resulting in an ontology and taxonomy of easily accessible, peer reviewed digital resources.
- EyeWitness to the Middle AgesThis website has primary sources along with some explanatory notes. Primary sources appear in RED. This is an excellent place for ready made primary source activities for students.
- Epistolae: Medieval Women's LettersEpistolae is a collection of letters to and from women dating from the 4th to the 13th century AD. These letters from the Middle Ages, written in Latin, are presented with English translations and are organized by the women participating. Biographical sketches of the women and descriptions of the subject matter or the historic context of the letter is included where available.
The Pre-Modern World (500 CE-1500 CE)
- MesoAmerican Photo ArtchiveThis website, created by David R. Hixson, a graduate student in anthropology at Tulane University, provides 100 photographs and information about 11 archaeological sites in Mexico.
- Internet Islamic History SourcebookA collection of primary sources relating to Islamic History. The page is broken down by time period from pre-Islamic Arabs to the modern day.
- Internet East Asia History SourcebookA large collection of documents covering East Asia from prehistory until the modern day.
- The Story of AfricaA BBC creation, this site explains the history of Africa with primary sources as supporting documents. It also addresses the complications of having a former colonial power writing the story of those people it colonized.
The Modern World (1500 CE-Present)
- Internet Modern History SourcebookA collection of primary source from the modern world, broken down by subject area.
- Early Modern Web ResourcesBroad category of resources providing online access to primary source material: digital editions (full text transcriptions); image collections of texts and documents; images of artworks, artefacts and maps; databases containing summary information about sources; anthologies of personal selections or transcriptions. Focused on the Western World.
- World Digital LibraryA collection of interesting artifacts, both documents and other pieces, that cover the world from 8000 BCE to 2000 CE. The site can be navigated either by region or by time period.
- European History Primary SourcesA site broken down by country, language, type of source, and subject for European history throughout the 20th century.
Standards Links
The following links are presented as a reference for teachers to quickly examine the applicable standards for World History in Social Studies.
- High School Content ExpectationsThis document includes all of the State of Michigan's High School Content Expectations for Social Studies in grades 9-12.
- Common Core State StandardsThe listing and description of each of the Common Core State Standards for Grades 9-10.
Teaching Research
Books
Teaching Information Literacy Skills to Social Sciences Students and Practitioners by
Teaching Information Literacy to Social Sciences Students & Practitioners is a second discipline-based casebook from ACRL. This volume is based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards and presents cases on learning situations and how they can be analyzed and addressed. Also included are descriptions of instruction sessions for each case, notes, and teaching resources. Each case explicitly reflects one or more of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards. resources to librarians doing instruction in the social sciences. Contributors cover such topics as data literacy, visual literacy, and developmental research skills training. Information on teaching undergraduate, graduate, and international students, and how to incorporate information literacy into various social science curricula are also presented.
Call Number: ZA 3075 .T43 2006ISBN: 0838983898Publication Date: 2006-07-01
Teaching Information Literacy by
A great challenge most instructors face, experienced as well as those new to the field, is to create and deliver diverse, dynamic instruction that will provide students with the tools and knowledge they need to conduct research for their courses and to carry those skills to the workplace. Teaching Information Literacy meets that challenge by providing teaching librarians and others who deliver instruction in information literacy fresh approaches to teaching specific concepts, such as developing a topic and thesis, constructing Boolean search strategies, and evaluating the credibility of a source. The primary pedagogical framework for this book is a concept-based approach that teaches students the information seeking strategies and critical thinking abilities needed to do effective research. Crucial to this approach is the emphasis on thinking skills, which include the basic skills (observing, comparing, contrasting, and classifying) and the more complex skills (analysis, logical reasoning, problem solving, and evaluating). Chapters are arranged sequentially to simulate a typical research process and discuss preparing a research topic and thesis; focus on the search strategies and content evaluation for online book catalogs, periodical databases, and Internet search engines; and give examples of Boolean search methodology that can be applied to each of these research tools. Within each chapter, a set of learning objectives is discussed, followed by class activities, instructor guides, and assessment tools developed by the author and other instructors. This useful book will assist instructors in developing custom assessment instruments and will help them to adapt pertinent content to deepen and enliven lectures.
Call Number: ZA 3075 .G38 2008ISBN: 9780810852020Publication Date: 2007-11-28
Information Literacy Instruction That Works by
This text provides strategies and techniques for teaching college and university freshmen, community college students, students with disabilities, and those in distance learning programs. It contains approaches to teaching students in the popular programs of study.
Call Number: ZA 3075 .I537 2006ISBN: 9781555705732Publication Date: 2006-07-01
Information Literacy Instruction by
A discussion of the theory and practice of library instruction. Chapters cover topics such as conceptual models for teaching critical thinking, programme management, visions for the future, and more. The CD-ROM includes tables on various instructional modes, a database, handouts, and more.
Call Number: ZA3075.G73 2001ISBN: 1555704069Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Articles
- Metacognition Needed: Teaching Middle and High School Students to Develop Strategic Learning Skills Joseph, Nancy. "Metacognition Needed: Teaching Middle and High School Students to Develop Strategic Learning Skills." Preventing School Failure 54.2 (2010): 99-103. ProQuest. Web. 28 June 2016.
- Teaching Social Studies to High School Students with Learning Problems Steele, Marcee M. "Teaching Social Studies to High School Students with Learning Problems." The Social Studies 2007th ser. 98.2 (2010): 59-63. Web.
- Liberating learning: Thinking beyond ‘the grade’ in field-based approaches to teaching Malam, L. and Grundy-Warr, C. (2011), Liberating learning: Thinking beyond ‘the grade’ in field-based approaches to teaching. New Zealand Geographer, 67: 213–221. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-7939.2011.01213.x
- A Study of the Teaching Methods of High School History Teachers A. Wiersma. A study of the teaching methods of high school history teachers The Social Studies, 2008 (May/June), pp. 111–116
- Teaching towards historical expertise. Developing a pedagogy for fostering causal reasoning in history Stoel, G., van Drie, J., & van Boxtel, C. (2015). Teaching towards historical expertise. Developing a pedagogy for fostering causal reasoning in history. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 47, 49–76.10.1080/00220272.2014.968212 [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]
Teaching World History
Books
- Teaching World History in the Twenty-First Century by This practical handbook is designed to help anyone who is preparing to teach a world history course - or wants to teach it better. It includes contributions by experienced teachers who are reshaping world history education, and features new approaches to the subject as well as classroom-tested practices that have markedly improved world history teaching.Call Number: D 16.3 .T383 2010ISBN: 9780765617149Publication Date: 2010-03-15
- A Primer for Teaching World History by A Primer for Teaching World History is a guide for college and high school teachers who are designing an introductory-level world history syllabus for the first time, for those who already teach world history and are seeking new ideas or approaches, and for those who train future teachers to prepare any history course with a global or transnational focus. Drawing on her own classroom practices, as well as her career as a historian, Antoinette Burton offers a set of principles to help instructors think about how to design their courses with specific goals in mind, whatever those may be. She encourages teachers to envision the world history syllabus as having an architecture: a fundamental, underlying structure or interpretive focus that runs throughout the course, shaping students' experiences, offering pathways in and out of "the global," and reflecting the teacher's convictions about the world and the work of history.Call Number: Electronic BookISBN: 9780822395089Publication Date: 2011-12-20
Asia in Western and World History by
A guide aimed at introducing students to the history of Asia in conjunction with Western and world history.
Call Number: Electronic BookISBN: 0585027331Publication Date: 1997-01-01
Teaching World History by
A resource book for teachers of world history at all levels. The text contains individual sections on art, gender, religion, philosophy, literature, trade and technology. Lesson plans, reading and multi-media recommendations and suggestions for classroom activities are also provided.
Call Number: D 16.3 .T38 1997ISBN: 1563244195Publication Date: 1996-12-26
Articles
- A Case Study of the in-class use of a Video Game for Teaching High School History William R. Watson, Christopher J. Mong, Constance A. Harris, A case study of the in-class use of a video game for teaching high school history, Computers & Education, Volume 56, Issue 2, February 2011, Pages 466-474, ISSN 0360-1315, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.09.007. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131510002599)
- Teaching World History to Tenth Graders: Toward a Recovery Plan for the Eurocentrically-Educated Modern World History Teacher. Foreman, Bill. "Teaching World History To Tenth Graders: Toward A Recovery Plan For The Eurocentrically-Educated Modern World History Teacher." Social Studies Review 49.1 (2010): 60-62. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 28 June 2016.
- A Vision of History Teaching and Learning: Thoughts on History Education in Secondary Schools YILMAZ, Kaya. "A Vision of History Teaching and Learning: Thoughts on History Education in Secondary Schools." The High School Journal 92.2 (2008): 37-46. Web.