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A Directory of Lesson Plan Web Sites for Teachers of Current Events, Geography, and Government

General Sites

The National Council for the Social Studies - Standards, teaching resources (internet, print and videos), and links to social studies web sites.
Social Studies - Lesson plans and videos from PBS.
Learner.org - Professional development and teaching resources. Videos marked VoD may be watched online. This site is by the Annenberg Foundation.
History and Social Studies Lesson Plans - From EdSitement.
The New York Times Learning Network - lesson plans.
The Library of Congress - Lesson plans and primary sources.
Teach with Movies - Lesson plans for using movies in the classroom.
Smithsonian Education - Good web site for teachers, students, and families. It has lesson plans for all subjects.
Asia for Educators - Lesson plans for history, geography, and literature. This site is by Columbia University.

CNN Students News - Resources for both students and teachers.
New York Times Learning Network - A news quiz and lesson plans.
PBS News Hour - News for students and lesson plans for teachers.
Time for Kids - Teacher's page. By Time magazine.
C-Span - Topics for the discussion of current events in the classroom.
The United Nations
Teachable Moment - Activities and resources for the study of current events.
Fake News - Students should be taught how to identify reliable news sources. This is from the Resources for School Librarians web site.

Lesson Plans and Study Resources - From National Geographic.
Geography Lesson Plans and Videos - From PBS Learning Media.
World Mapper - These maps are resized based on the subject of interest such as population, age, tourism, exports and imports. By the University of Sheffield.
21 Map Creation Tools for Students and Teachers - This is from Free Technology for Teachers.
Nation Master - An excellent site for statistics from countries of the world. Your students will be able to compare education, income, oil consumption, life expectancy, and many other statistics.There are also maps and country information.
Geology.Com - This site has maps and satellite images for the United States and the countries of the world.
K-12 Electronic Guide to African Resources on the Internet - By the African Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Center for Civic Education - Lesson plans are located in the resource section.
USA.gov - The US government's information portal.
iCivics - A web site for middle school students and their teachers by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. There are lesson plans dealing with current judicial issues.
The National Constitution Center - in Philadelphia. This site has lesson plans for study of the constitution. Look for these under the Learn option in the main menu.
The Interactive Constitution - From the National Constitution Center. View arguments by experts on both sides for each provision of the constitution.
Civics and Literature - Lesson plans from the National Constitution Center which link children's literature and civics education.
Statistics in Schools - Lesson plans for all grades from the U. S. Census Bureau.
Civics and Government - Lesson Plans from the Library of Congress.
Lesson Plans from Project VoteSmart - For all grades.
What Would Abe Lincoln's Social Media Campaign Look Like? - A new use for Facebook and Twitter. The is an article from EdSurge.

State and Local Governments - Lesson plans from iCivics.
Who Runs the Show? Understanding Your Local Government - This is from Cincinnati Public Radio but can be applied to other areas.
The Federalist Debate: Balancing Power Between State and Federal Governments - this lesson plan for grades 6 -8 is from Edsitement.
Pennsylvania State Government
VotesPa- Information for Pennsylvanians who are voting for the first time or who want to learn how to use the new voting machines.

The history sites, which used to be down here, have been moved to here

This site is maintained by Linda Bertland, retired school librarian. Please address any comments, additions, or corrections to info@sldirectory.com.