7 TED-Ed Lessons for Constitution Day
Tomorrow is Constitution Day in the United States. As I shared last week, C-SPAN and DocsTeach have lots of free lesson plans and online activities. TED-Ed also has a bunch of lessons that are appropriate for Constitution Day. The Making of the American Constitution. Why is the US Constitution So Hard to Amend? Why Wasn’t […]
Let’s Talk Politics – An Alexa Game for Learning About U.S. Civics
Let’s Talk Politics is a new Alexa app designed for reviewing and learning about U.S. government. Let’s Talk Politics is an interactive game in which Alexa asks you questions about the U.S. political system and you speak your answers. The app provides explanations of the correct answers after you reply to each question. Unlike typical […]
A Free Presidential Timeline Poster for Your Classroom
For the last few years C-SPAN Classroom has offered a free poster depicting a timeline of American presidents. That offer is back for the 2018-19 school year. The poster shows each President’s time in office, a short biography, the era of American history in which each President served, and a couple of major events that […]
The History of the State of the Union Address
Tonight, President Trump delivered the State of the Union Address. This post is not about what he said or didn’t say tonight. Instead, it is intended to share some resources that could help you teach your students about the history of the State of the Union Address. The following two videos from CNN and Fox […]
Midterm Elections – 5 Things You Should Know
2018 is a midterm election year in the United States. What’s that mean? In short, it is the Congressional elections that happen in the middle of a president’s term in office. But to find out what midterm elections really mean, students should watch 5 Things You Should Know About Midterm Elections. In this video produced […]
Apply for a C-SPAN Fellowship
Next summer might feel like it is a long way away, but it’s not too early to start thinking about how you’ll spend your next summer break. Social Studies teachers in the United States might want to consider spending part of the 2018 summer as a C-SPAN fellow in Washington, D.C. The C-SPAN Teacher Fellowship […]
Implied Powers – American Government Review
Keith Hughes recently published a new video for students of U.S. History and U.S. Government. The video is titled What Are Implied Powers? The video features an overview of the debate between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson over the interpretation of the Elastic Clause and General Welfare Clause. Check out the video as embedded below. […]
Classroom Deliberations – Lesson Plans on Current Issues in U.S. Politics
C-SPAN Classroom Deliberations is a good resource for teachers of U.S. history or civics. On the site you will find 34 lesson plans centered around issues currently debated in Congress and in U.S. political discourse in general. A few of the latest lesson plans deal with Electoral College reform, third party candidate participation in Presidential […]
Watch & Share Reactions to Presidential Debates Since 1960
Watch the Debates is a PBS NewsHour website that offers videos of the Presidential debate of 1960 and every debate from 1976 forward. The site also includes videos of some debates between candidates for Vice President including the 1988 debate in which Lloyd Bentson famously quipped to Dan Quayle, “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” Watch […]