Social Studies & Civics Resources

Students are often asked to analyze an editorial cartoon on the GED or other high school equivalency test. The free materials from Cartoons for the Classroom will help students with this challenging task. Cartoons for the Classroom provides a weekly lesson that includes editorial cartoons related to a current event and a number of guiding questions for discussion or writing. In other materials, students have to draw conclusions by writing their own caption for a cartoon; there is also a cartoon evaluation worksheet that can be used with cartoons found in other publications. In addition to current event cartoons, the site provides resources to help study editorial cartoons from different eras.

The National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) is a professional organization for geography teachers and provides free and classroom-ready materials for both members and non-members. By navigating to the NCGE resource library, users can type in geography-related search term such as maps, climate, migration and be provided with lessons and other resources. While some of the materials are aligned to AP geography, there are many others that can be used in the elementary and secondary grade level classrooms.

NewseumED provides a wide range of resources related to the First Amendment and media/information literacy. Along with an extensive lesson plan library, the site has created "EDcollections," which brings together archival materials, primary sources, interactives, and standards-based lesson plans for all levels of students. Activities related to free speech, media literacy, women's suffrage, the First Amendment, the Civil Rights Movement, and decoding elections are found in these EDcollections. Other useful resources include an artifact library where users can download and view impactful images from history. In addition, the site also has a number of videos related to media literacy topics such as bias and objectivity, and each one is accompanied by a related lesson plan.