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October 1, 2002
The History of the World at your Fingertips
By Susan Brooks-Young
A classroom Internet connection is a real boon for the teacher of World History. Discussions, activities, and projects often lead to a need for access to up-to-date reference and support materials, and that used to mean a trip to the library. Now students can quickly research a question or download the text of an important document without leaving the classroom. Teachers can interact with colleagues, find lesson plans, and access multimedia support materials that greatly enhance the curriculum.
For most teachers the major challenge is finding the time to identify reliable sites that offer general references, support materials, and ideas for lesson plans for World History courses. That's where this Web Tour can help. It features sites useful to World History teachers from grades 6-12. There are general reference sites that both students and teachers can use for research. In addition, the more teacher-oriented sites provide supporting activities and materials. Note that the last two sites in the Tour are maintained by classroom teachers and designed to share lesson plans and subject-specific Internet resources with fellow educators.
So whether you're teaching Ancient History, Modern History, or anything in between, you'll find something here for use in your classroom.
HyperHistory Online
HyperHistory is an ongoing project presenting 3,000 years of history through lifelines, timelines, and maps. In addition to information about political and military history, the site also provides scientific, cultural, and religious facts and events to enable students to construct a more complete understanding of society. Navigation is easy: a permanent Menu bar allows you to quickly switch categories, and a text area to the right displays short articles, permitting you to view both print and graphics simultaneously. Students in grades 6 and up will find this site indispensable in their research.
The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern - Sixth Edition
Bartleby.com offers this collection of more than 20,000 entries ranging from prehistoric times to the year 2000. A table of contents and subject index are available, but the search engine is easy to use and generally faster. Students in middle school may have some difficulty with the text; however, most articles are brief and won't overwhelm average readers. This is a good general research tool for students in grade 6 and higher.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and other documents that may be copied and used in the classroom. The main sourcebooks are: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. There are also a number of subsidiary sourcebooks and special resources including: African, East Asian, Indian, Jewish, Islamic, and Lives of the Saints. Visit the Selected Sources areas to access selected and excerpted texts suitable for classroom use. Full text documents are available, but may not be appropriate for middle and high school classroom use. Teachers and high school students will find this site particularly useful when seeking out primary documents.
History Channel.com
Along with basic research tools such as a searchable database of articles, timelines linked to explanatory texts, and its fascinating "This Day in History" (in multiple categories) this site offers a wealth of supplemental activities and materials for classroom use. Students may tour a virtual museum featuring exhibits including "Egypt Beyond the Pyramids," or "Dear Home: Letters from WWII" An extensive collection of 20th century audio clips is available, and you can bring to life a lesson on modern Pakistan by playing a clip of a 1988 speech by Benazir Bhutto, or let students hear FDR explain why "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." There's something here for everyone - teacher and student alike.
World History Chronology Project
North Park University in Chicago, Illinois hosts the World History Chronology. The project consists of timelines developed by university instructors and hyperlinked articles written by students. All are intended for classroom use. Timelines are categorized regionally and cross-culturally, making it very easy for both teachers and students to identify and access the timeline and articles best aligned with a particular course of study. This site is appropriate for upper elementary through high school students.
World History
This link takes you to the history section of Infoplease, a reference site that includes an encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas, and almanacs as well as a homework center for students. There is also a link to TeacherVision, offering a lesson planning center, teaching materials categorized by grade and subject area, and other tools. Students may access timelines by clicking on World History. An interesting feature is the Millennium Milestones timeline listing 100 significant events of the last 1000 years with hyperlinks to encyclopedia articles about each event. A good resource for lesson plans and for students to begin research, the site is appropriate for upper elementary through high school.
BBC Education: Modern World History
High School students use this site as a resource for learning about key events of the 20th century. There are articles, activities, quizzes, timelines, and a special teacher section written by a history teacher who uses the site and shares tips on how to maximize use of the material provided here. Consisting of twelve segments, topics begin with the Treaty of Versailles and end with Allied victory in World War II. BBC offers additional World History support areas as well. Navigate to BBC Learning: Subject Listing to see a complete listing of other topics.
Yale Map Collection
Maps reveal information about both the prevailing knowledge of the world's physical characteristics at the time they were made, as well as people's perceptions of their place in that world. Yale Library's Map Collection is one of the largest university collections in the United States. The Online Maps page features six collections ranging from antiquarian maps to globes. Use these maps with middle and high school students to trace changes in knowledge and perceptions throughout history.
Women in World History Curriculum
In 1985, the U.S. Department of Education awarded a grant to develop a resource bibliography about women in World History and Global Studies for secondary school classroom use. The project expanded, and now also includes classroom materials and teacher workshops. In addition to 13 units of study available for sale through the Internet site, there are free materials provided for classroom use. For example, download an annotated list of great women rulers, biographies of women who made a difference in history, and lesson plans. High school teachers will find a variety of useful materials here.
World History & Geography: A Guide for High School Teachers
The goal of this Web site, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education, is to develop a clear plan for teaching World History and Geography in high school, and then provide strategies to implement the plan in the form of a downloadable PDF file, The Student's Friend: World History & Geography. This document is in two parts: Prehistory through the Renaissance and Renaissance to the present, and may be freely copied for classroom use. In addition, supporting materials, such as a research paper package that explains to students the steps to writing a quality research paper, are available online. Teachers are invited to share feedback on the materials and their own successful teaching practices.
Mr. Donn's World History Lesson Plans and Activities
Lin and Don Donn are classroom teachers who have developed and/or collected volumes of materials for teacher and student use. This particular link takes you to just the World History K-12 Activities and Lesson Plan portion of their site. The available topic areas cover every area of World History included in traditional K-12 curricula. Examples of lesson titles include: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (classroom simulation); the Irish Potato Famine; and Maya, Aztecs, Incas, and their Math. New teachers will appreciate the site for its thorough coverage of World History, and seasoned teachers will find ideas to add zip to existing lessons.
History Link 101
This resource site for World History classes is also maintained by a classroom teacher. It is intended to save time for other history teachers who would like to use the Internet as an instructional tool, but just don't have the time to sift through the thousands of potentially usable sites currently available. Sites are organized by culture (i.e., Ancient Mayan, Middle Ages) with six categories (art, biographies, daily life, maps, pictures, and research) within each culture. Sites may also be viewed by topic; i.e. art or biographies. Every site is rated on both visual and content elements. Current topics are most appropriate for upper elementary and middle school students.
Email: Susan Brooks-Young
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