Attached is an Illinois scavenger hunt document that can be used to encourage students to get to know more about their state.
Attached are pictures of the Illinois flag and the Illinois quarter. Sometimes it is great to find ways to encourage students to identify their state’s symbols.
Do not forget to visit the Illinois State Capitol and walk around the capitol campus seeing the various statues and memorials. The attached brochure will be of help.
Item from Judy’s estate about Springfield and Central Illinois.
While going through Judy Baar Topinka’s estate materials, her son found the following items provided to people in the Chicagoland area after the Liberty Train came to Chicago in 1976 and was parked at Navy Pier. Judy’s family waited to get into the train on a Sunday for almost four hours and then was moved through the training in about ten minutes. Many of the documents that were on display in the Freedom Train were printed in this packet so people could appreciate them in their homes with their families. We hope that these items will come in useful during classes as teachers talk to their students about civics and our foundational, legal documents in the United States of American.
Item from Judy’s estate. She loved Illinois history. Now you can use these items for your students during the Illinois bicentennial.
Just Judy Lesson Plans
Social Science Learning Standards
Teachers should be aware of the new social sciences learning standards in Illinois. Just Judy is a natural complement to these standards. (see Illinois State Board of Education for more information)
- Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science
- Civics Guidance Document
- Mandate Guidance Document
- Standards by Grade Level
Helpful Websites
EDSITEment
A project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, EDSITEment offers humanities-focused educational materials to students, teachers, and parents. Subject areas include history and social studies, literature and language arts, art and culture, and foreign languages. The website features a collection of lesson plans for teachers as well as interactive activities for students, and a guide to resources specifically for online instruction.
The National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration preserves important federal government documents and offers online public access to items such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The Archives website also features an online teaching tool called Docs Teach, which offers classroom-specific activities and primary source documents. They also offer a number of free e-books, including Using Primary Sources to Review Major Topics in U.S. History: 1860–1979, which presents six review lessons designed to engage students in hands-on learning and discussion. In light of the interruption to classroom teaching due to COVID-19, the National Archives has partnered with the Presidential Primary Sources Project to offer interactive distance learning opportunities through the end of May 2020.
The Digital Public Library of America
The Digital Public Library of America is a portal to historical documents, images, and resources gathered from America’s libraries, archives, and museums. The collection allows users to search through materials in innovative ways, including by timeline, map, virtual bookshelf, format, and topic.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution as well as the largest library in the world. The library’s website includes digital collections and services, providing access to print, pictorial, and audio-visual materials, which can be used to supplement classroom instruction.
Huntington Library
The Huntington Library is an institution that supports and promotes the appreciation of, as well as research and education in, the arts and humanities. Fundamental to their work is conservation—stewarding and protecting artworks, books, manuscripts and related materials to ensure their continued availability for new discoveries and interpretations. The Huntington’s website features a variety of online resources that support instruction for subjects including U.S. history, world history, geography, and English language arts. These resources include standards-aligned lessons for learning at home; interdisciplinary activity guides; resources developed by teachers, for teachers, and inspired by the Huntington’s collections; and access to lesson plans and learning modules.
iCivics
The iCivics Remote Learning Toolkit makes available enrichment activities and lessons to facilitate home learning for K-12 students nationwide. The website offers customized resources to provide differentiated solutions for at-home learning. The Remote Learning Toolkit for Families offers manageable learning and engagement activities that children can enjoy with minimal supervision. The Remote Learning Toolkit for Educators provides best practice guidance and high-quality resources that are motivating and engaging. The toolkit includes virtual professional development webinars and support networks, updated resources on timely topics such as news media literacy, and the newly launched Game Odyssey, which encourages student game play at home through leveled game quests with badges earned for completion.
PBS Learning Media
https://houstonpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/
The PBS Learning Media site provides numerous lesson plans, online activities, classroom resources, and educational videos covering multiple subjects for preschool through 12th grade. With the creation of a free teacher account, users have access to a vast array of PBS video resources like Crash Course and Founding Principles for use in their classrooms. PBS Learning Media also has an entire section of the website dedicated to Reading in History and Social Studies, which encourages and instructs students to analyze primary source documents to form their own hypothesis.
National Constitution Center
https://constitutioncenter.org/
The National Constitution Center’s approach to constitutional education emphasizes historic storytelling, constitutional rather than political questions, and the habits of civil dialogue and reflection. Its suite of online educational resources includes an interactive Constitution tool, copies of original historical documents, educational videos, lesson plans, and various interactive activities and games that engage students in close reading and critical thinking exercises. The Center is also offering remote learning opportunities through free lectures and civil dialogue sessions on the Constitution that students can access online on a home computer, laptop, or phone.
Stanford History Education Group
The Stanford History Education Group comprises Stanford faculty, staff, graduate students, post-docs, and visiting scholars and seeks to improve education by reaching directly into classrooms with free materials for teachers and students. SHEG’s Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry and encourages critical reading and analysis skills through the use of primary source documents. The Beyond the Bubble assessments unlock the vast archive of the Library of Congress to create easy-to-use assessments that measure students’ historical thinking rather than recall of facts. SHEG has also created a Civic Online Reasoning curriculum to help students develop the skills needed to navigate our current digital landscape.