In a 10th grade classroom, a newly arrived student from Sudan, a returning student from a migrant worker family, and a student whose family came from Cambodia in the 1970s are among the 25 students in a US History class. These three students have been silent in all previous class discussions.

History's Mysteries K-5 Curriculum 

The kids loved this! They were very interested in the slideshow the entire time. The narration made it seem like a movie. They asked a lot of thoughtful questions and had lots of good discussions. I liked that we had the flexibility to make it last as long or as short as they could handle. - First Grade Teacher

Visual Literacy: Making Lessons Accessible and Inclusive

Guest Blog Post by Wendy Harris, High School Social Studies & Teacher of the Blind at Metro Deaf School in St. Paul, Minnesota.  

You want to get your students to work with primary sources, but you have students who struggle with reading English text. Maybe they have a learning disability, English is not their most comfortable language, or any number of other reasons. Sound familiar?

 “As of last year, I started working with ELL students and have become far more cognizant of vocabulary.  I’ve always taken for granted that students know certain vocabulary words, but now I find myself going over many words and to my surprise, it’s not just ELL kids who benefit from it!”

-Kevin, Spring 2019 Online Accessing Inquiry course participant

How can we teach students the most vital skills to function as citizens? Since the early 19th century, preparation for civic life has been the central reason for public schools. As part of a multi-year effort to reinvigorate the civic mission of schools, in 2016 the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) added “readiness for civic life” to its core definition of what it means to be educated in the state. http://www.doe.mass.edu/ccr/

This elementary school lesson engages students with primary source materials that make vivid the journeys and lives of immigrant children in the early 20th century and today. It features video interviews with kids who have recently immigrated and archival photos of child immigrants from the turn of the 20th century.