Website Review

Edsitement

National Endowment for the Humanities

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Edsitement website features a wealth of resources for teaching humanities in the K-12 classroom. While most of the resources are centered on the United States, the site also features excellent resources for world history teachers as well. Edsitement hosts over 500 unique lesson plans from a variety of humanities related subjects including history, literature, and art. These can be sorted by grade range and subject. The site also has collected lesson plans into multi-lesson units under the banner of "Curricula."

One of these curricula that would be of particular interest to world history teachers is the excellent, Diplomacy Challenge. Diplomacy Challenge features 7 lesson plans connected by the theme of Diplomacy in the Early Modern Era (1450–1750). Students role play as diplomats for various powers and learn to analyze historical sources and even write and deliver a toast to a foreign empire. Edsitement also features a series of Teacher's Guides on topics such as using sources from digital archives and teaching online.

Finally, another excellent resource, Closer Readings Commentary, consists of essays by scholars on how to approach various topics. Notable examples for world history instructors include, Teaching the Middle East by Wendy Ennes which helpfully outlines strategies and resources for developing a unit or units on that region. Another Closer Reading, Jazz Beyond Borders, by Jason Harshman traces the many influences of Jazz across the globe and provides an excellent avenue for including music in the world history classroom. With new content added regularly, Edsitement is worth bookmarking to return to see what new resources have been added.

Reviewed by Nate Sleeter, George Mason University

How to Cite This Source

"Edsitement," in in World History Commons, https://worldhistorycommons.org/edsitement [accessed March 29, 2024]
Shows edsitement logo and "Driving excellence in humanities education"
“The site contains over 500 lesson plans in a variety of humanities related subjects including history, literature, and art.”