Teacher Guide

Getting Started

Help! I’m a New NHD Teacher: Video Series
NHD Timeline Resources: General outline for the year and links to sample workflows developed by veteran NHD teachers. Whether you’re teaching NHD for 8 weeks or 8 months, you’ll find inspiration here!
NHD Road Map: Outline of the steps involved in research for all categories and the elements that students need to include in their projects
Sample Letter to Families: Customizable letter about NHD to send home to families
History Day Vocabulary: Explanation of terms used throughout the NHD process
Divisions and Categories: Description of different format projects can take and how students can be grouped by age (c/o NHD Utah)
NHD Evaluation Rubrics: These rubrics are used by judges to evaluate student projects at the NHD competitions, and are often also used for teacher evaluations in a classroom setting. These rubrics were revised for clarity and accessibility in the 2022 season.

Themes and Topic Selection

Begin by exploring the resources on these NHD MA webpages with your students: Annual Theme and Choosing a Topic. Students can also get ideas for their research topics on our Research Links page—check out the theme pages from local institutions for inspiration!

NHD Theme Book, Theme Video, and Graphic Organizer: Annual theme workbook, webinars and videos to introduce the theme, and student worksheets to explore potential topics
Picking a Topic: Interactive website with topic ideas based on student areas of interest
Topic Funnel: Classroom activity to practice how to narrow a topic idea and generate specific research questions (c/o NHD Minnesota)
Nora’s NHD Survival Guide: Choosing a Topic: Guidance on finding a compelling topic from NHD MA student alum Nora

Nora’s NHD Survival Guide: Choosing a Topic Worksheet
Topic Selection Worksheet: List of broad subjects to prompt student topic selection
Absent Narratives: Worksheet designed to help students identify a lesser known figure or different perspective related to their topic

Topic Proposals:

Proposals can help students articulate their topic and research plans:

Topic Proposal Form Example 1 (c/o Paula Sampson, NHD MA)
Topic Proposal Form Example 2 (c/o NHD Utah)

Selecting a Project Category

Start by visiting our Project Categories webpage, which contains links to a detailed explanation of the five project types: performances, exhibits, documentaries, papers, and websites. Then, explore these additional resources:

Project Category Overview Slideshow : Detailed presentation for classroom use on the five project types
Project Category Infographic: Basic overview of the five project types

Templates for Project Categories

Group or Individual Projects

These worksheets can help students to decide if they prefer to work as an individual or in a group

Nora’s NHD Survival Guide: Individual or Group?: Student alum Nora walks students through the pros and cons of working alone or in a group, with insight from her own experiences
Worksheet: Group Roles and Responsibilities (c/o NHD Minnesota)
Working on Your Own or In a Group (c/o NHD Minnesota)

Primary and Secondary Sources

These worksheets and resources help students identify and analyze primary and secondary sources. Make sure to explore the resources on our Research Page for more tips and links.

Primary vs. Secondary Sources: Video overview for students on how to distinguish between types of sources
The SOCCA Method: PowerPoint introducing students to the SOCCA method of secondary source analysis: Is it Suitable, Objective, Credible, Current, and an Authority? (c/o Amy Page, NHD New Mexico)
Is it a Primary or a Secondary Source?: Worksheet to help students to differentiate between primary and secondary sources (Find the full teacher guide from NHD Utah here)
Primary and Secondary Analysis: Another primary source worksheet for more in-depth analysis
Finding Credible Primary and Secondary Sources: Tips for finding credible resources
DocsTeach: Set of Primary Source Analysis Worksheets and associated activities, with differentiated options for levels of learning
SHEG Historical Thinking Chart: Introduction to historical sourcing, corroboration, contextualization, and close reading
Why Historical Thinking Matters: Interactive video introducing students to thinking critically about interpreting primary sources and how to critique and construct historical narratives

Research Process

Begin by exploring the Research Links page, which contains lots of tips and links to credible local, national, and international archives and resources.

NHD Quick Digital Research Playlist: Short videos to support students in their virtual research process, from advice on finding credible sources using Wikipedia to tips for searching the Library of Congress
Online Research Tips: Worksheet to help students to better navigate online databases when looking for sources
Recognizing Bias: Analyzing Context and Execution: Lesson plan from the Newseum that helps students to identify bias and perspective in their sources. Note: It is important to emphasize that biased sources can still be useful for research as long as we apply critical thinking skills and compare it to other sources with different perspectives.

Tracking Student Research

We highly recommend that teachers explore NoodleTools, an online platform with integrated tools for note-taking and outlining, source evaluation and citation, and ways to provide targeted feedback. NHD teachers are eligible to register for one free year of Noodletools!

Noodletools Worksheet: Introduction to using Noodletools
Note-Taking Source Card: Templates for keeping organized research notes (Some teachers assign one note card a week so that students can slowly build up their bibliography)
Note-Taking Worksheet: Worksheet for students to record information from their sources and help build their argument
Keepers of the Past: Finding the Information You Need: Worksheets for finding and tracking research sources
Research Log Rubric: Rubric for tracking and grading student research (c/o Leah Cardullo, NHD MA)
Organizing Info, Cornell Style: Worksheet to help students organize their sources to construct a coherent project narrative

Crafting a Historical Argument

How to Create a Historical Argument: PowerPoint activity that asks students to identify the strongest thesis and determine why it is successful.
Integrating Evidence into your Arguments: Examples of how to quote, reference, and paraphrase sources in student writing
Thesis Development Tool: Worksheet offering a scaffolded model for building a strong historical argument (c/o Paula Sampson, NHD MA)
Thesis and Argument Helper: Set of worksheets to help students to frame their historical argument
Thesis Peer Review: Activity to help students to determine if their historical argument is clear to their audience (c/o NHD Georgia)

Framing/Contextualizing Project Research

This set of worksheets from NHD Utah helps students to summarize and map out the context and narrative of their historical project:

These tools help students to consider history through diverse lenses and perspectives and shows them how to avoid harmful stereotypes:

Performing Perspectives: Through this webinar, students learn how to construct historical narratives using diverse lenses and perspectives. Visit the NHD YouTube channel for short highlights from the webinar, including How to Avoid Harmful Stereotypes and Cultural Appropriation. Although aimed at the Performance category, this is great information for all NHD project categories.

Annotated Bibliography and Process Paper

Check out the resources on our Annotated Bibliography & Process Paper page, and then explore the following classroom resources. Reminder: according to the NHD rule book, students should cite every source they consult in their research, even if they don't quote it directly.

NHD Annotated Bibliography: Guide to everything you need to know about the NHD annotated bib (Includes videos on citations and annotations and a vast index of sample citations)
Nora's NHD Student Survival Guide: Step-by-step guide to crafting an informative annotation.
Annotated Bibliography: Worksheet explaining the process of compiling an annotated bibliography for students.
Annotated Bibliography Checklist: Worksheet that helps students to double check the formatting of their bibliography (c/o Julia Atwood, NHD MA)

Judging, Evaluations, and School-Level Competitions

Learning Targets/Competition checklist: Fillable student worksheet to ensure students are prepared for competitions and have reached the learning targets
New NHD Evaluation Forms (2021): Rubrics are also available on our Educators Page as fillable PDFs under “2021 Competition Season Resources.” Note that these will be getting some updates for the 2022 competition season
School-level Competition Timeline: Outline that can provide a basis for school event timeline for teachers
Sample letter to Judges: Letter template that can be used to recruit judges for a school competition
Sample Judging Questions: Questions that can be shared with students to give them an idea of what to expect from judges at the competition
Judge Process Overview: Introduction to the judging process
NHD Evaluation Rubrics: These rubrics are used by judges to evaluate student projects at the NHD competitions, and are often also used for teacher evaluations in a classroom setting. These rubrics were revised for clarity and accessibility in the 2022 season.

Press and Social Media Toolkit

NHD Massachusetts Communications Toolkit: Sample press releases and other guidance for sharing your students’ amazing NHD projects with local media

Additional Curricular Resources

In addition to the selected resources in our Teacher Guide, we recommend exploring the numerous curricular resources available via our partner institutions:

NHD Nationals: The official National History Day has a ton of great teacher resources, including curricular materials, links to project examples, and professional development programming. In particular, check out the NHD Teacher Resource Page for tools to use in your classroom. Check out the Quick Digital Research Tips for some great videos (or see our favorites below!). Similarly, you can send your students to the NHD Get Started Resource Page for lots of student-oriented materials on building their projects.
Minnesota History Day: The MHD website is chock full of classroom resources. This curricular page includes worksheets and classroom guides for every stage of the NHD process, including the NHD Minnesota 2021 Teacher Framework.
Utah History Day offers a fantastic NHD Project Guidebook for teachers, with plenty of classroom tools and material on the new NHD rules.
Georgia History Day: The GHD website links to a number of curricular resources and worksheets
National History Day Virtual Playbook: Developed by NHD in CA, UT, ID, MI, and IA, this padlet is your one stop shop for everything you need to implement NHD in a virtual or hybrid classroom.

Making History: A Teacher's Guide to the National History Day Program

This teacher guide published by National History Day features step-by-step guidance on how to conduct historical research and give students direction on how to create and craft the best possible NHD projects. This guidebook is available for purchase on the NHD website for $49.00.

Multimedia Resources for the Classroom

These short videos can be used to introduce NHD concepts and skills in the classroom. We especially recommend checking out the National History Day Youtube page, where new videos are being added all the time!

NHD Rules: General Rules for All Categories

NHD Theme

Project Categories

NHDWebCentral Playlist
2018 NHD Ask an Expert Series Playlist
Performing Perspectives: Who Tells Your Story? This webinar offers great tips on how to approach the Historical Performance. Includes short highlight segments on how to avoid cultural appropriation and harmful stereotypes, researching historical clothing, and more.

Research

National History Day frequently posts new videos to their Quick Digital Research Tips series on the NHD Youtube Page. We've included our favorites below, but make sure to check their page to see what's new!