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I firmly believe that we need to be using more timelines in the social studies classroom because so many kids (and adults) struggle with putting historical concepts in context. Here is a page that contains a lot of digital platforms to make this more engaging and interactive. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/digital-timelines/
I really like this one, plus the timelines you create could be embedded into an existing blog or webpage. https://timeline.knightlab.com/

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Artifacts and Thinking Like an Archeologist

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Artifacts and Thinking Like an Archeologist

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When working with a fifth grade group, we had a guest speaker who guided a lesson on thinking like an archeologist. She brought in replica items of what may have been found in excavating a site (we were studying Jamestown at the time) that included things like musket balls, coins, pots, feather quills, a bone pipe, and a metal tin. While the focus of her activity was to consider the use of these different artifacts and try to determine who lived where based on where objects were found, the fact that the kids were trusted to hold these objects, talk about them, pass them around, man it made a huge difference to them! Suddenly, kids who were completely uninterested became Jamestown fanatics. I couldn't believe it, but since then I've been on constantly on the lookout for replica artifacts that I can include in my classroom, as well as replicas that I can make. Students could also be encouraged to make replicas.

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Maybe with each unit you could turn your classroom into a museum, with individual students or groups of students being responsible for "exhibits." We did something like this in junior high and it was honestly the only social studies thing I remember from junior high. It was a huge deal and the school loved it.

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This is something that I really didn't get until I began my teacher education, but when I was growing up it seemed that we were to learn facts and events as stand along pieces of knowledge. It wasn't until really until I began watching documentaries and taking teaching courses that I saw that we should really be showing historical information in the context of the events that caused it as well as the effects relating to the events themselves.

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There is a lot of (very important) information about how minority students are under-represented in most historical texts, and when they are represented they are frequently represented purely as victims, heathens, or other people with no self-agency. Likewise, women are underrepresented and portrayed as property more than characters. At times, even everyday citizens are ignored in favor of learning what a few specific wealthy or politically powerful people were doing. By encouraging students to study and see multiple perspectives from different points in history, they can see that people like themselves held roles of importance in history.

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Have students identify where their names originated from. Ask them to identify if it is a family name or has meaning. Have them research their full name and country of origin. Once they complete research, they connect how or if their family culture ties into where their names originated. I did this with my ESOL class and it was a wonderful activity to allow students to see how they are connected to their ancestors in some way or another.

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Something I have been using recently is trying a think, write, pair share activity!! Students will take an article full of new vocabulary for a unit, and then read independently while circling words they find are important. Then on a a T chart, students will write the words on one side, and then what they think the definition is on the other. Context clues are always given in articles, so this is practice for that in the classroom. Then students can swap with a peer and then the peer adds anything to their definitions, to help make it stronger. It really helps my kiddos with participating and engagement!

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If most of your teaching has the students seated, I would try some type of jigsaw or carousel activity! Have students in small groups move from stations and add to a list that connects with material at hand.

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If you are able to use computers at all, try and have students use technology to create PPT's or some type of brochure to help re teach the class on something that was learned.

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The first thing I thought of when you mentioned comfortable exploration of 21st century competencies is a website that allows you to control a camera in a drone from the comfort of your computer's browser. Anyone can try a free test flight: cape.com...though the hours are limited.  Students may adjust to latency issues while controlling an actual drone and working with hud tech. It may lead into a social studies discussion about a surveillance state.

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Have students try and write in journal entries that have writing prompts that connect with material at hand. Students can possibly pretend to write a letter to someone being taught about, or to a country etc.

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try and find some entertaining clips, that could last about 10 minutes. After the video clips, have students pair up and communicate about the material at hand, give open ended questions for groups to answer that align with the material at hand.

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Chrome Experiments is a creative index of 1001 websites developed by various people around the world using upcoming web design strategies. Students may get to look into the world of what the future of the internet may look like. Also, Geoguessr is fun. It's like a "where in the world is this place?" type of game using Google Earth. I recommend a try. Khan Academy has an extensive social studies display. Archive.org contains many videos and images of primary sources.

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Black light dry-erase board with neon dry-erase markers, given a dim-lit classroom may garner focus/attention to the written word. It's visually appealing and may draw the eye to the work at hand.

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Social studies may tie into issues in the world, past, present, and future. Perhaps a constructive debate between two teams could engage students on current topics that interest them throught the level of engagement, and also topics that engage us as adults also (i.e.: the environment). This may or may not be most suitable during election season.

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For presentation, citing a famous speech verbatim could help students with their memory, presentation, and oration skills. You could select a set of historical speeches and have the students also output in the written domain of how the speech is relevant today and maybe how it affects them as an individual as the speech echoes into the future.

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I always liked reading the Dear America books because they were written from a kid's perspective that I could understand. Any excerpts that are from a kid would be nice to add relate-ability.

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Have students get inside the heads of important players and dig into the context of a situation by writing or acting in a skit. They could even try to create something in the style of Hamilton.

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Of course the librarian is going to suggest a book! Why not try a little cross-curricular connection by using literature to help students really understand all of the pieces in play during a time period. Sometimes following a character through a historical event can be more engaging.

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Have your students compose a twitter conversation between historical figures. Translating the big concepts of our past into short tweets will really force them to analyze what the important details are. There are plenty of well-done examples already available.

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Find a buddy classroom in another school. It could be in a different state or country that connects to the events you are learning. Learn together by having the kids research the topic in groups and share what they learn virtually with each other.

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Have your students choose a concept of their choice, like freedom of speech, and have them follow its history through time. I'm not sure what your curriculum needs to cover, but having the focus of one thing they're passionate about might help motivate them to think about how it fits into the big picture.

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If you have access to devices, there is a fun activity on Quizlet that is called something like space race where you have kids play in teams and they have to answer questions you've entered correctly faster than other groups. It is great for team work and you project the live bar graphs at the front of the class...it can get loud but the kids love it! Sort of a modern Jeopardy-esque activity

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I always found history to be really hard to understand, but when the teacher told it like a story it was more approachable.

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Take a "field trip" using a tool like Google Earth or Sites in VR. Look for a 360 degree pic of a site you cover. Skype has e-field trip opportunities also, maybe there are some good ones for your content.

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Google My Maps is a tool where kids could mark up their own map. I have not used it besides a quick test map, but maybe this could be good for your class?

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Draw

Add points or draw shapes anywhere.

Find places and save them to your map.

Instantly make maps from spreadsheets.

Show your style with icons and colors.
Add photos and videos to any place.

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Discover the world with Google Maps. Experience Street View, 3D Mapping, turn-by-turn directions, indoor maps and more across your devices.

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I have witnessed and experienced culture days at the middle school the last few years. During this time, students research and present their country/culture to the class. Everyone in the grade is invited. They share food recipes and dress the part. It is a great experience for students and their parents who are also invited to attend.

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Not sure if this would work at your school, but we held a civil war ball each year at the middle school for the 8th graders. Students were taught the dances and performed in front of the 6th and 7th grade students. Dresses and clothes were donated to the school for this occasion.

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Host a debate. Have students research both sides and give students roles in the debate. Rules have to be specified before the debate, but they have to argue their side with only the facts they have from research.

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Each day, my students watch CNN 10. It shows events around the globe and covers our current events portion of the standards. Also teaches topography and map skills.

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CNN 10 is an on-demand digital news show ideal for explanation seekers on the go or in the classroom.