Free History Lesson Plans and E-publishing Options for Social Studies Educators
Free History Lesson Plans and E-Publishing Options for Social Studies Educators
Historical documents and other primary sources are keys components when presenting any social studies lesson plan for an event or era to students. The issue educators eternally wrestle with is how to present historically significant facts and concepts, usually very interesting to them, but the taxing combination of textbook readings, worksheets, and related primary sources are universally expressed by student’s in one word – BORING. Two high school colleagues, from northeastern Wisconsin, having grappled with this daily complaint, found using rare newspapers brought History to Life. Their themed 16-page reproduction newspapers are unique and an exciting new social studies aid that allow students to Read History on the Day the Inked Dried™. The ‘America Goes To War’ Series of newspapers carefully integrate current textbook orthodoxy with original front pages from small town and urban centers from across America.
Professor John Rathbun comments, “We know what has happened but not what will happen. When history textbooks and other related publications are written, the historian knows not only the past but also the future far beyond the events and decisions being depicted. This extra knowledge determines, to a large degree, what is included in current textbooks and their underlying interpretations. Newspapers, on the other hand, are written without knowing what will happen next and provide a pure picture of a single day in time.” Historical Fishwrap’s reproduction newspapers allow you to focus students with a hands-on experience reading small rural, suburban, and large metropolitan publications each offering varying regional viewpoints. Historical Fishwrap offers FREE lesson plans on their web site. In addition, any educators that incorporate our papers into their curriculum have the option of e-publishing them on our web site. Simply e-mail your lesson plan(s) to molzahngb@sbcglobal.net [in a Word or PDF format] to gain this free résumé enhancement. Historical Fishwrap accepts purchase orders and offers schools wholesale prices. Historical Fishwrap’s papers are available at www.historicalfishwrap.com