How to address violence in the news with your students.
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10 Best Social Studies Tools for Middle School
Top Picks
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National Museum of African American History and Culture
Powerful stories and media centralize African-American history
Bottom line: While there aren't ready-to-go curricular materials, this modern, well-curated, and well-contextualized digital collection is sure to inspire compelling lessons.

Learning for Justice
Thought-provoking classroom resources support diversity education
Bottom line: It's an invaluable teacher tool to help reduce prejudice and encourage tolerance in schools, as well as within society as a whole.

PenPal Schools
Give students global perspective with pen pal projects in any subject
Bottom line: This is a thoughtful, ready-to-go platform that facilitates authentic and safe cross-cultural collaboration.

National Archives
Access U.S. history with treasure trove of docs, genealogy, and other resources
Bottom line: NARA's website wasn't designed for kids, but they can definitely use it to research and learn about history, genealogy, and the U.S. population and government.

TeachRock
In-depth, interdisciplinary lessons crank up the learning
Bottom line: This site's materials have the potential to supplement, augment, or even replace favorite units of study, once teachers dig into and master what's offered.

iCivics
Well-designed games, lessons can spice up your civics curriculum
Bottom line: This game-based curriculum would be an excellent addition to any secondary social studies.

Google Arts & Culture
Well-curated art and history site inspires curious learning
Bottom line: A beautifully presented one-stop shop for compellingly curated and contextualized art, history, and culture resources, but it's lacking educator supports.

Zoom In!
Top-notch lessons teach historical content, boost analytical skills
Bottom line: A go-to resource for the CCSS era, filled with rich content and meaningful opportunities for skill development.

Thinkalong
Civics site offers a PBS-guided approach to thoughtful debate
Bottom line: This is a powerful framework for building critical media literacy, but teachers might need to bring in some extra perspectives.