41 Resources for Social Studies Educators

If you're on the lookout for fresh and effective resources to invigorate your social studies lessons, you’re in the right place. We know that teaching social studies can be incredibly rewarding, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges. That’s why having the right resources at your fingertips can make a huge difference.

In this post, we’re excited to share a collection of resources that have been highly recommended by social studies teachers from across the country. These are the go-to tools and materials that your peers swear by to bring history, geography, and social issues to life in the classroom. Whether you're searching for engaging lesson plans, interactive activities, or innovative tech tools, you'll find something here that can help spark curiosity and foster a deeper understanding in your students.


American Battlefield Trust

I find this website to be very resourceful when detailing specific events that pertain to my unit on the Civil War. They have comprehensive videos and slides about very specific events during the Civil War. I must admit this is a website that is tailored to specific content, but if you do teach the American Revolution/ Civil War, it can provide slides to take some of the load off your shoulders when it comes to creating content. (Denver P, K-5;6-8)

American Panorama

Highly interactive site that combines American History with maps. (Jonathan P, K-5;6-8)

Amistad Project
NJ advocates for racially diverse lessons, and there's no better resource than Amistad. I was fortunate to be part of the summer group and use this site still when I want to create diverse lessons. (Lucy F, 9-12)

BetterLessons
It shows trending lessons along with the comments of other educators to create a helpful environment. (Jose L, 9-12)

Blooket
Helps create interactive and competitive assessments. (Gonzalez M, 6-8)

CommonLit
CommonLit is an amazing catalogue and non-fiction and fiction texts. It is easy to grab an item and distribute to students as homework. (Adam H, 6-8)

DBQ Online
The benefit of this site is that my co teachers and I pull DBQ assessments from this website. This website provides great resources for our students to write DBQ essays. (John D, 9-12)

Differentiated Instruction
I like how it addresses the psychology of differentiation. It also talks about interest as a way of differentiation. (Samantha A, 9-12)

Diffit
Diffit allows me to adjust the reading level of a reading passage for class to the different levels of students in my class. This has been an AWESOME tool to differentiate instruction. I have three gen ed classes, an ICR class, and a G&T class. Diffit has allowed me to find a single passage, and then use that passage for all 98 of my students by adjusting the reading level accordingly. (Thomas S, 6-8)

DK findout
The site offers interactive lessons on a wide variety of topics including but not limited to history, math, science, sports, etc. and allows students to explore topics on their terms while also learning how to research for larger topics in a smaller environment. (Eric V, K-5;6-8)

Ducksters
Ducksters is a great repository of information on different topics in history. I use Ducksters, in conjunction with Diffit, to give my students readings for class. I will then either use the comprehension questions that Diffit provides, or make my own, as an assessment to check for comprehension for my students. (Thomas S, 6-8)

Ed Helper
This site offers reading comprehension on all subjects, printable sheets and answer keys, options to create your own worksheets. It offers all grade levels, different monthly themes, and units. The downfall, there is a subscription cost. (Nicole B, 6-8)

Facing History
I've used this for the civil rights movement and Jim crow ideas. I like how they try to make it relevant for students instead of just listing information. (Brittany T, 9-12)

Flocabulary
I also teach 7th and 8th grade, and Flocabulary presents information to students in a poetic way that helps students engage and maintain information that we are discussing. (William W, 6-8)

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
This site is an excellent resource for history teachers, particularly those who teach American history. The website houses the Gilder Lehrman Collection, which is an archival database of primary and secondary sources throughout American history. The website boasts that over "85,000 documents" are available at the fingertips of teachers across the country with membership. The website also provides lesson ideas and detailed lesson plans to further assist educators in implementing these resources into the classroom. (Nicholas D, 9-12)

History Channel
This site helps me with lesson planning, including interesting facts that I like to include to make the lesson more interesting. (Daniel C, 6-8)

iCivics
ICivics is a free website that has an entire American History scope and sequence from the precolonial time period all the way up to the current day. They have supplemental lesson plans on various topics that come with Lesson Plans, TMDs, Answer Sheets, and Student Worksheets. This website is the most beneficial website I have found this year to help me create full and comprehensive lessons for my students. (Denver P, K-5;6-8)

Illuminate Education
Illuminate is a great resource to build assessments for students. It is easy to categorize questions by standard and assess data. (Adam H, 6-8)

Khan Academy
Khan Academy has all kinds of material that can help reinforce the students' understanding of subject matter and is easy to share. It most cases students are already familiar with it. It is a great resource for reviewing material as well. (Peter O, 6-8)

Magicschool AI tools
Offers numerous tools for teachers including text levelling (which I use the most) lesson plan creator, video summarizer, etc. (Eric V, K-5;6-8)

Mr. Donn's Site
It is specifically for social studies; however, I have used this site throughout my lessons as they are effective and credible. (Gonzalez M, 6-8)

National Council for the Social Studies Teacher
It's a connective resource, and it provides insight for lessons & PD. (Lucy F, 9-12)

National Geographic
It has a lot of information about the history and cultures of the present and past. It also has activities, games, and more. (Elisa E, 9-12)

National Speech & Debate Association
There are sample lesson plans, instructional materials, and topic guides for helping students navigate difficult conversations. The website also offers up-to-date information about the most widely used debate structures. (Ben M, 9-12)

New Visions for Public Schools
Provides grade level DBQ's for various topics in World/Global History. (Elijah B, 9-12)

Newsela
I like this website for articles for students to read. I like the idea of how they can do level reading for students who might need it. They also include lesson plan ideas. Also, depending on the article, you can add a quiz and or writing prompt which gives them something to be responsible for to make sure they read. (Brittany T, 9-12)

Pro- Con
The site has tons of debatable topics to get students discussing and learning how to form arguments. Students can be assigned an article or pick for themselves and present. (Christopher W, 9-12)

Savass Realize
You have access to a textbook that has a variety of activities you can use to teach about different subjects. (Arman A, 9-12)

Slido
Slido is a great resource for our class as we use it for our do nows. Students can login to Slido and answer a question that is posted up on the board. (John D, 9-12)

Smithsonian Institute
The Smithsonian offers nuanced views of History for students to read and contemporary issues based on historical events that relate to my curriculum. (Daniel K, 6-8)

Smithsonian Learning Lab
Interactive web site where students can create collections of resources.

Smithsonian's History Explorer
Developed by the National Museum of American History in partnership with the Verizon foundation, History Explorer offers a wide variety of educational materials covering American history. These include learning activities, museum artifacts, teacher resources, interactives, and many more. (J. Michael M, K-5)

Stanford History Education Group
Note: This website is actively changing their name to the Digital Inquiry Group. I have found this website particularly useful for its curriculum series titled "How to Read Like a Historian." I like to start the school year with lessons on how to analyze sources (which is an essential skill to have in a history classroom). The Stanford History Education Group does an outstanding job providing students with useful reading strategies, understanding the importance of contextualization in history, sourcing, and close reading. The website also focuses on helping educators to get their students to look at history beyond memorizing facts. Learning how to think critically and supporting claims are also incorporated in this curriculum series. (Nicholas D, 9-12)

Teacher's Discovery
This site provides animated and interactive activities for students to help with the lessons. (Daniel C, 6-8)

Teachers First
Teachers First has a large amount of material available to teachers in a searchable database by subject and age level on a variety of subjects. (Peter O, 6-8)

Teachers Pay Teachers
After making an account you can search any topic and grade level and there are lessons, worksheets, PowerPoint, etc. to download. Some do need payment but there are plenty that are free. (Christopher W, 9-12)

Teaching People's History
TPH offers comprehensive primary and secondary documents and interactive readings and is aligned with a diversity and equity approach by sharing stories on minority missions and beliefs. (Daniel K, 6-8)

The New York Times' Learning Network
This site offers articles, opinion pieces, and topics appropriate for high schoolers studying debate. There are resources for helping teachers bring current events into the classroom. (Ben M, 9-12)

We Are Teachers
This is a free site, which is very beneficial. It provides classroom ideas, inspiration to teach, free printables, and discussion questions. (Nicole B, 6-8)

What Differentiated Instruction Really Means
This article talks about real differentiation! I like how it gives real strategies. (Samantha A, 9-12)

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