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[via History Tech (via David Warlick)]

Good options for primary source documents are always a plus. Primary sources presented well are even better. Take a look at the National Archives’ Digital Vaults Collection.

“Digital Vaults gives you and your kids a place to find raw materials that are arranged in ways that may make more sense to them. The site is set up a bit like a social network. Data is organized by tags and linked to both the tags as well as other resources. Like a social network, you can make your favorites documents / materials your “friends,” search for new “friends” by using tags and create “mashups” using primary sources.” (History Tech blog)

If you’re looking for support materials for students and teachers, including lessons plans for use with primary source documents, visit the Vault’s Educators and Students page.

www.free.ed.gov

There is a wealth on information available on the websites for government agencies. However, given that there are so many of them (agencies, that is), hunting down good stuff can be hard to do, especially for students who have less experience with search skills, or even a limited ability to scan through materials.

This site brings the resources of well over 60 different organizations together in one place. As described on the site’s “About FREE” page:

“FREE makes it easier to find teaching and learning resources from the federal government.

“More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly.

“FREE is among the most popular K-12 websites maintained by the U.S. Department of Education because of the many great resources being offered by participating federal agencies.”

The major subject groupings include:

• Arts & Music
• Health & Phys Ed
• Language Arts
• Math
• Science
• World Studies
• U.S. History, including
  • Business & Work
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Famous People
  • Government
  • Movements
  • States and Regions
  • Wars
  • Other History & Social Studies
• U.S. Time Periods

Receive free.ed.gov resource updates via their RSS feed at: http://www.ed.gov/free/free-rss.xml

Via Lifehacker.com :

Where the Web Archives Are

“Some of the most intriguing resources on the web are located in archives—compilations of data that in the past, could only be found by making appointments in dusty libraries. Today, I’m going to take you on a quick tour through some of the most fascinating archives on the web.”

Depending on your subject area focus, some of these resources can be an instructional gold mine. The categories discussed include the following: History, Multimedia, Print Media, Science, Web-Specific, and Government.

Remember, always exercise your good professional judgment and preview any resource before using it with or recommending it to your students.