Resources for K-12 Educators

The Foxfire Project is perhaps the best known and longest-running organized initiative for the use of memory and oral history in the classroom. The site includes a discussion of the "Foxfire approach" to experiential learning, core practices, teacher training, and educational materials.

Bland County History Archives website is a historical project maintained by the students of Rocky Gap High School in Rocky Gap, Virginia. The website contains a collection of interviews, pictures, and much more. It captures the unique history of Appalachia, and provides a model of what high school students can do.

The Countdown to Millennium project is based on a series of radio talks of the same name aired in 1999. Luckily, the series is archived on this site. Lesson plans and concrete examples of how other schools implemented this program are available, as well as a study guide with concrete suggestions about how to begin this program at your school.

EyeWitness has produced a well designed website with strong use of primary sources that showcases quotations, photos, maps, and paintings to tell about history from the Ancient world to the 20th century. It is an interesting source for middle school and older students.

Tell Me Your Stories at the Living Legacies Historical Foundation offers a curriculum in oral history, supporting materials, sample projects, and a FAQ for teachers.

The Library of Congress American Memory site has an overview giving lesson plans, tips, and student and teacher materials in a basic guide to oral history.

The National Register of Historic Places has a very user-friendly website exploring how to teach with historic places. Lesson plans and many practical details fill the site.

History Matters is a web site designed for high school and college teachers of U.S. History courses. The site includes primary documents, interactive guides for analyzing primary data, syllabi, student projects on the Internet, and strategies for teaching history.

The D.C. Everest School District Oral History Project is a non-profit student volunteer organization that works to chronicle the life experiences of people involved in Twentieth Century and recent historical events. Among other topics, the organization has covered the Hmong, the Vietnam War, World War II, the Korean War, and the Great Depression.