This site provides links to the Texas curriculum standards, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). This site may be used to explain the Texas curriculum requirements and expectations for all grade levels. In addition, this site may be used identify and discuss the different components within the TEKS. Lastly, this site is a useful resource when teaching, discussing, and creating lesson plans.

Ethical Considerations

These resources support a competency-based, asynchronous online Introduction to Theatre course using an Open Source textbook, public domain play texts, and other free online resources such as videos of performances. 

This open resource was created by Texas Woman’s University undergraduate students in an upper-level visual arts course titled Issues in Contemporary Art.  Working in groups, the students created at total of seven lesson plans that explore the themes: Art and Disability, Dark Surrealism, Eco-Art, Expressing Identity with the Human Body, Kitsch in Art, Mental Health/Illness in Art, and The Gaze Sexuality and Perceptions of the Female Body. The themes covered in the lesson plans were student-generated and reflect current student interests in contemporary art.  Each lesson plan contains a curated background reading list, suggested artists and artworks to examine, discussion questions, short artist biographies, and additional resources.  The structure of the lesson plan is modeled after the Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR) (http://arthistoryteachingresources.org/).

The lesson is based on the concept of allowing students to explore and learn how to use a CAD program to create an ornament.  The goal of the lesson is for a final product that should be treated as open-ended allowing students room to express their ideas and test them out.  The instruction will allow for the teacher to have teacher-led instruction, and then allow for student-centered activities.

A 30-page toolkit with 16 distinct teaching methods that promote open pedagogy explained. The beginning of the toolkit explains open pedagogy and its relationship to OER. There is a section at the end with additional resources and next steps if faculty want to implement some of these methods.

There are multiple weblinks and examples embedded in the document so that faculty who are interested in a particular method can use those resources for more information and to see examples of how to implement open pedagogy.

According to Project Information Literacy, defining and narrowing a topic is the most difficult step for beginning undergraduate researchers. This concept mapping lesson is designed to reinforce the idea that when students are writing academic papers or creating class projects they are engaging in a scholarly conversation.

This activity aims to stimulate discussion on the question of whether computers can exhibit Ňintelligence" or are ever likely to do so in the future. Learners play a game and try to distinguish between a human and a computer by asking questions and analyzing the answers. This game is similar to the Turing Test, founded by British mathematician Alan Turing. Variations, extensions, background information and further reading suggestions are included in the PDF.

This course is the first in the introductory surveys of U.S. History. After exploring North America before the arrival of Europeans, students will study the early interactions of Europeans with indigenous peoples and, as the course progresses, study the history of peoples in the area now defined by the United States' borders. Those who would like to pursue their study of American history will also want to take Hist 147 (U.S. History II) and Hist 148 (U.S. History III).Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl

Welcome to History 147, the second in the introductory surveys of U.S. history. We begin in that decade when the United States in three years (1845-48) grew by 50 percent. Through the Civil War to the 20th century, we explore how different people experienced the transformation of the country into an industrial nation and emerging world power. Those who would like to pursue their study of American history will want to take Hist 146 (U.S. History I) and Hist 148 (U.S. History III).

This course is the third in the introductory surveys of U.S. history. The course surveys the significant forces and people that have shaped American civilization from the Progressive Era to the present. This course starts at the beginning of the 20th century and explores how different people, including you, participated in the nation's transformation through that century until today. Those who would like to pursue their study of American history may wish to take Hist 146 (US History I) and Hist 147 (US History II).Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl

This activity shows students how to match their information needs and search strategies to appropriate search tools. In this case, students are learning how to find and use academic databases in order to locate resources that are relevant to their academic research assignment.

Voices of Virginia pulls together stories from oral history collections from across decades and archives to create an all-audio source companion for Virginia’s high school and college students. The "album" is only two hours long, but contains dozens of short oral histories from eyewitnesses to key moments in American history, from the end of the Civil War to the 1980s. The excerpts are downloadable, accessible by smartphone, and accompanied by a transcript. Audio clips are also available on Soundcloud. You’ll also find a brief introduction to each narrator, historical context adapted from experts at Encyclopedia Virginia, American Yawp, and Public Domain sources, and helpful classroom tools like discussion questions, activities, and lesson plans that fit into both the Virginia high school and college U.S. History curriculum. By following the larger national story with narratives from across the Commonwealth, Voices of Virginia grounds students in how history guides and is guided by everyday people and their experiences.

This material is aligned to the History and Social Science Standards for Virginia Public Schools - March 2015.

The collection was curated by Jessica Taylor, Ph.D. with Emily Stewart.

Feedback regarding this collection is welcome at https://bit.ly/VoicesOfVirginia

World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization publishing the world's most read history encyclopedia. Its mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. The website has published thousands of articles, maps, images, videos, primary sources and teaching materials entirely for free. Every submission is reviewed prior to publication to ensure accuracy, quality and accessibility.