Adult Ed - Lesson Plans

From the Beginning of Time,
Online: Using the Internet to Explore History

This lesson provides activities for Internet-based history lessons. The main activities require that students have access to the Internet in the classroom or in a lab. If students do not have Internet access, teachers can use the resources suggested here to create a variety of lessons.

If you have access to the Internet, but you don't have Internet access in your classroom or a lab you can use at times, don't give up. There are still ways to use the Internet:

Do you have a technology person or a technology support department? If so, ask them if they can project a computer screen. If you have one computer with Internet access, a projector can put the computer screen up on a big screen that the whole class can see.
Send students to the library, computer labs, or their home computers to do research (you can make the Internet one of many resources that your students may use).
Use the Internet for research on a topic. Searching on the Internet can be easier than looking through indices, card files, or catalogs in a library.
Use the lessons you find on the Internet. Most media sites (tv, film, magazines, newspapers) have lesson plans, teacher resources, and activities. Most of these are not dependent on Internet access.

Note: There are so many resources for history on the Web that you might find yourself overwhelmed as you start to look. Digression is easy and sometimes fruitful. It can be a good idea to bookmark some links or sites to look at later. Otherwise you may never accomplish your original goal!

Subject Matter

History
Reading comprehension
Writing
Oral language skills
Critical thinking

Students will be able to:

Preview Web sites
Compare Web sites
Find history information on the Web using search functions
Write summaries based on research
Give oral presentations based on research

Standards
National Standards: National Reporting Systems standards

Media Components

The following Web sites provide information, lessons plans, and activities on history:

www.pbs.org/neighborhoods/history/
www.infoplease.com/history.html
www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia.html
www.factmonster.com/
www.thehistorychannel.com/
www.thehistorycalendar.com/
www.thehistorynet.com/
www.historyplace.com/
www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html
(sorry the address is so long, but it will take you to the right place)
www.americaslibrary.gov
www.worldhistorycompass.com

Students should be able to print out pages from the Internet. Aside from that, there are no special needs for materials. Basic paper, pens, and pencils are all that are necessary. Other materials to create displays and visual aids for presentations are optional .

Prep for Teachers

This lesson plan assumes a basic working knowledge of the Internet. This is not an introduction to the Internet. You need to know how to type in Web addresses, bookmark sites, search, and perform other basic navigation tasks to be able to make use of the information here.

Bookmarking the above Web sites can be useful. This is not necessary however.

If students do not have Internet access in the classroom, you need to print out pages in order to preview sites with students.

If you have the capability to project a computer screen using an LCD or other equipment, that can be a helpful way to demonstrate using the Web. It also makes it easier for you to show your class a Web site. You don't have to worry about everyone being at the same URL..

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