Social Studies Standards

Hoping to get some professional development from the OPI? Fill out our professional development request form. We are happy to explore how we can meet your needs for professional learning that expands social studies instructional practice, standards implementation, or support for the specific needs of your school or district.

Any organization that works with educators to bring social studies instruction to Montana students is welcome to fill out the form. Please be advised that a request does not guarantee in person training will be provided. Each request will be evaluated on a case by case basis.

This form is not for individual teachers requesting professional learning. These individuals should communicate their needs directly to their district or school administrators.

• An Introduction to Indian Education For All (2 PDUs)
  • -Teaching Primary Sources from the Library of Congress (2 PDUs)
• Student Voice: Strategies to Engage Students and Foster Inclusive Learning Environments (4 PDUs)
• Braiding Sweetgrass: A Book Study (1 PDU)
• Digital Citizenship Matters (2 PDUs)
• Introduction to the Question Formulation Technique (2 PDUs)
  • Check out the full catalog

From Exploration to Implementation: Montana Satchel
When: 4:00 - 5:00 PM, October 22nd, December 15th, February 16th, April 13th 2026-2027
Where: Virtual
Who: Aimee Konzen, Professional Learning, Content Standards, and Instruction Manager, OPI
What: Join the Montana Office of Public Instruction for a four-part virtual professional learning series designed to help Montana educators move from exploring Satchel to intentionally using it to strengthen teaching and learning.
How Much: Free!

Register Today

IEFA Content Intensive: Sovereignty and Tribal Government
When: Tuesday, Nov. 10th, 2026
Where: Virtual
Who: Heather Bender, Buffalo Bill Center of the West
What: This online course connects you to Indigenous knowledge keepers and Buffalo Bill Center of the West staff to learn about tribal sovereignty.
How Much: $50

Register Today

Teaching With Primary Resources at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
When: October 16th, 2026
Where: Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, Medora, N.D.
Who: National History Day programs in Montana and North Dakota.
What: At this Teaching with Primary Sources workshop at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, teachers will practice historical thinking and primary source analysis while exploring topics including the Garrison Dam in central North Dakota and coal mining on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. Teachers of grades 6-12 from Montana and North Dakota are eligible to apply.
How Much: Free with travel and one night lodging stipends available.

Register by October 2st

Montana Educators' Conference
When: October 15th - 16th, 2026
Where: Great Falls, MT
Who: Montana Federation of Public Employees (MFPE)
What: Annual teacher's conference featuring professional learning across content areas.
How Much: $35 - $175, depending on memberships.

Register Today

• Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets - Primary source collections exploring topics in history, literature and culture developed by educators, complete with teaching guides for classroom use.
• Library of Congress Classroom Materials - Curated thematic primary source sets, lesson plans and example presentations.
• DocsTeach - Features activities from educators from around the country based on documents found in the National Archives holdings. Filter by historical era, thinking skill, activity type and grade level..
• Montana Historical Society Resources for Educators - Resources organized by skill level and by subject. Lesson plans are available for several subjects including civics, geography, art, mining history, and Indian Education for All.
• Newberry Library Classroom Resources - Digital Collections for the Classroom support key history and literature learning goals in critical thinking, analysis, close reading, and visual literacy. Includes lesson plans, skills lessons and contextual essays.
• National Park Service Teaching with Museum Collections - Includes lesson plans for teaching with objects. Regional lesson plans include Grant Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Nez Perce National Historic Park and Yellowstone National Park.
• National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places - Location, theme and state-based lesson plans. Includes guides for using and writing place-based 'classic' and 'lightening' plans.

Websites with Primary Source Content

• Library of Congress Digital Collections - curated sets of digitized content from the Library of Congress collections. Formats include (but are not limited to) photos, maps, pamphlets, audio, and moving images.
• Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) - Over 52 million keyword-searchable images, texts, video and sound files. Curated exhibitions with primary source content accompanied by contextual essays.
• Digitized Montana Newspapers - Landing page, hosted by the Montana Historical Society, for linking to digitized newspapers available via the public access portal for Newspapers.com, Chronicling America, and several other Montana newspapers.
• Chronicling America - A searchable digital collection of historic newspapers from across the United States dating from 1736 to 1963. Browse and keyword search options. Full image.
• Montana History Portal - Digitized content contributed by Montana libraries, museums, archives, and cultural institutions. Contents include maps, photographs, rare books, historic documents, school yearbooks, diaries and letters, oral histories, audio and video clips, paintings, illustrations and art.
  • Curated Digital Exhibits pair primary sources around a theme or topic with narrative text.
• David Rumsey Map Collection - Over 142,000 digitized maps from around the world from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries.
• Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman on the Montana History Portal, written and published by the Montana Historical Society

Additional Teaching Resources

• A fun look at the history of new year's resolutions (which go back in some form for 4,000 years!)
• Exposing your students to more primary sources
• Incorporating more Indian history and culture into your curriculum
• Taking your learning outside of the classroom (Wibaux middle school teacher Laura Dukart's cemetery project, "In Memoriam. A Study of Our Local Cemetery," is a great model; here's a presentation she created for teachers interested in creating a similar project in their own communities.)
• Implementing a new resource to teach civics and government
• Using bell-ringers
• Integrating a new teaching strategy or implementing something you learned at a recent PD
• Learning more about National History Day by signing up to judge at a contest in Kalispell, Helena, Miles City, or Bozeman
• Attending Social Studies Second Tuesdays (Next up is January 14, 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. with author of Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky and Associate Clinical Professor at Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education Mark Johnson, who introduce lessons for teaching about the Chinese in Montana. Register. Attendees earn 1 Renewal Unit.)

Of Special Interest to Government Teachers

Teacher Leader in Montana History Elysia Bain shared some useful resources for teaching about tribal sovereignty.

The first is this article, published in Indian Country Today in 2014: "Professor Breaks Down Sovereignty and Explains Its Significance," by Shaawano Chad Uran, professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington.

Elysia has her government students read the article and then answer some basic questions:

• Define the term sovereignty. (Okay! This one isn't basic, but according to the article "Sovereignty is a type of political power, and it is exercised through some form of government." In addition, "The defining aspects of sovereignty are the international relationships carried out as sovereign nations.")
• What are the three types of sovereigns in the United States? (Federal, state and tribal governments)
• What section of the U.S. Constitution recognizes tribal sovereignty? (Article VI, Clause 2)
• What are treaties and why are they important to understanding sovereignty? (Because "treaties are agreements made between sovereign entities...by signing a treaty, both sides are showing that they recognize the sovereignty of the other.")

Some other "check for comprehension" questions:

• Is the sovereignty of tribal nations the same as or different from the sovereignty enjoyed by individual states? (Different)
• According to Professor Uran, if tribes are "domestic dependent nations" (which is how the Supreme Court has defined them), how can they still be sovereign? (Absolute power, independence, and autonomy is not necessary for sovereignty to exist. and rights "not explicitly given up to the US Federal government are still held by the tribes.")
• Professor Uran does not think tribal nations should be blamed for their economic dependence on the United States. Why not? ("Tribal economies were based on access to land" and "lands were ceded to the U.S. by treaty in exchange for tribal economic security and other provisions.")

Elysia follows this activity by having her students watch the four-and-a-half-minute video "Sovereign Rights, Sovereign People."

Looking for more short videos? Check out the National Museum of the American Indian's four minute "Nation to Nation" and twelve-minute "The 'Indian Problem'", two other videos created as part of NMAI's "Nation to Nation" exhibit.

Do you have resources that work really well with your class that you'd like to share? Let me know!

Additional K-12 Resources

• Aldrin Family Foundation Map Package Grant Application - Aldrin Family Foundation has worked with donors to make Giant Mars and Moon Map packages available for distribution to individual schools, school districts, and informal education organizations throughout the country in areas where we believe they can do the most good, especially in under-served communities.
• Right Question Institute - This is a method for teaching students to ask and develop questions--can be used in K-12 classrooms.
• TPS [Teaching with Primary Sources] Teachers Network - (A place where teachers share with one another; free but registration is required. Teachers share ideas for K-12 primary source integration).
• Social Studies Central - (A great aggregated list of sites by Martha Kohl's favorite social studies education blogger Glenn Wiebe--has material for K-12 but it's not organized by grade level).
• Edsitement: The Best of the Humanities on the Web (National Endowment for the Humanities) - K-12 lesson plans are searchable by grade level.
• National Geographic - K-12 lesson plans are searchable by grade level.
• Indian Land Tenure Association Lessons of Our Land - (K-12 lesson plans searchable by grade level. Free but requires registration).
• OPI Indian Education Social Studies Resources - K-12 lesson plans are searchable by grade level.
  • Social Studies Standards (2021) Indian Education for All Connections
• Montana Historical Society Education and Events - Mostly 4-12 lesson plans, although there are a few offerings suitable for K-3 as well.
• Native Knowledge 360 - Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian - K-12 lesson plans searchable by grade level.

Grades 3-12

• National Archives Educator Resources - Lower elementary through high school
• History Labs - ("History Labs are research and investigative learning experiences that provide teachers with the necessary information, resources, and procedures to teach a full range of historical thinking skills by taking students through a process that is methodologically similar to that employed by historians." The site includes a template for creating your own and History Labs made by other teachers--upper elementary through high school).

Elementary

• TeachingHistory.org National History Educational Clearinghouse
  • Elementary School

Middle School

• TeachingHistory.org National History Educational Clearinghouse
  • Middle School
• iCivics - Free but requires registration--for middle and high school to teach civics.
• GeoQuest - free interactive project for MT middle and high school students.

Junior High - High School

For High School, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) offers free, innovative classroom products. These online learning resources form the foundation of a global civics curriculum, empowering young people with the essential knowledge, skills, and perspective to be responsible citizens, take on the challenges of global competition, and steer through partisan rhetoric and disinformation. Review their resources that could be used in a science classroom. For more information contact Lori Matza, lmatza@cfr.org.

• World101: An award-winning collection of multimedia explainers for students with little or no background knowledge of international relations and foreign policy. With accessible, jargon-free language and instructor-designed teaching resources, lessons on the World101 platform are non-partisan and developed in partnership with CFR experts.
  • We are soliciting applications for our CFR Education Ambassador 2022-2023 program. A great opportunity for middle school and high school social studies teachers.
• Model Diplomacy: The Model Diplomacy simulation program invites high-school students to step into the shoes of decision-makers on the National Security Council or United Nations Security Council to debate the world's most pressing issues with dozens of full-length case studies, an expanding library of short-form scenarios covering current and historical events, and exclusive video content featuring commentary from foreign policy experts.
• Convene the Council: Developed in partnership with iCivics, one of the nation's leading providers of educational games, Convene the Council empowers students to understand the basics of how U.S. foreign policy gets made and the ways in which countries and international organizations can influence foreign policy priorities. Twenty gameplay scenarios reveal how foreign and domestic policy are intertwined, and how decisions made in one corner of the world can affect us all. Spanish version available.

Stanford History Education Group

Stanford History Education Group (material is free but you must create an account to access some of it)

• Reading Like a Historian History Lessons (includes both US history and world history for grades 7-12)
• Beyond the Bubble History Assessments (includes both US history and world history for grades 7-12)
• Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum (includes both US history and world history for grades 7-12)

High School

• TeachingHistory.org National History Educational Clearinghouse
  • High School
• iCivics - Free but requires registration--for middle and high school to teach civics.
• U.S. Citizenship Naturalization Test - high school government.
• GeoQuest - free interactive project for MT middle and high school students.

Councils

• National Council for the Social Studies

coming soon: find standards-aligned resources and cross-content linkages on the satchel framework

civics and government

iCivics

• Civic education lessons and interactive resources. Include only if current elementary resources are available through the linked educator collection.
  Explore Now

OPI Indian Education Social Studies Resources

• Montana-developed lessons and resources supporting Indian Education for All.
  Explore Now

geography

National Geographic Education

• Maps, geographic content, and educational resources supporting exploration of people, places, and environments.
  Explore Now

history

Native knowledge 360

• Grade-filterable resources for teaching Native histories and cultures.
  Explore Now 

National Museum of American History

• Grade-filterable resources and lesson plans for teaching history.
  Explore Now

Find standards-aligned resources and cross-content linkages on the Satchel Framework

history

iCivics

• Lessons, games, and activities introducing government, citizenship, civic participation, and democratic institutions.
  Explore Now 

OPI Indian Education Social Studies Resources

• Montana-developed lessons and resources supporting Indian Education for All.
  Explore Now

economics

Federal Reserve Education

• Curriculum, videos, reading selections, lesson plans, and activities, searchable by grade level.
  Explore Now

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Consumer Resources (FDIC)

• Entire modulated curriculum for 3-5 students that includes educator guides, teacher presentations, and guides for students and caregivers.
  Explore Now

geography

National Geographic Education

• Maps, geographic content, and educational resources supporting exploration of people, places, and environments.
  Explore Now

Montana History Portal

• Montana photographs, maps, documents, oral histories, newspapers, yearbooks, artwork, and other digitized historical materials.
  Explore Now

history

Montana Historical Society Resources for Educators

• Classroom resources, lesson plans, and primary sources supporting Montana history, geography, civics, and Indian Education for All.
  Explore Now

Native Knowledge

• Grade-filterable resources for teaching Native histories and cultures.
  Explore Now

National Archives / DocsTeach

• Primary-source documents and ready-to-use activities searchable by historical era, thinking skill, activity type, and grade level.
  Explore Now

National History Education Clearinghouse (NHEC)

• Teaching materials, historical content, and best practices resources banded by elementary, middle, and high school resources.
  Explore Now

civics and government

iCivics

•  Lessons, games, and interactive resources for civics and government.
  Explore Now

Native Knowledge 360

•  Resources addressing tribal sovereignty, Native nations, treaties, and Native histories. 
  Explore Now

Right Question Institute

•  Resources supporting student questioning and inquiry.
  Explore Now

economics

 Counsel on Foreign Relations Education / World 101

• Use applicable resources addressing global systems and economics.
  Explore Now

 Federal Reserve Education

• Curriculum, videos, reading selections, lesson plans, and activities, searchable by grade level.
  Explore Now

 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Consumer Resources (FDIC)

• Entire modulated curriculum for 6-8 students that includes educator guides, teacher presentations, and guides for students and caregivers.
  Explore Now

geography

 National Geographic Education

• Maps, geographic content, and educational resources supporting exploration of people, places, and environments.
  Explore Now

 Montana History Portal

• Montana photographs, maps, documents, oral histories, newspapers, yearbooks, artwork, and other digitized historical materials.
  Explore Now

 GeoQuest

• Game-ified geography learning.
  Explore Now

History

 Digital Inquiry Group - Reading Like a Historian

• Inquiry-based history lessons centered on historical questions and primary-source analysis.
  Explore Now

 Montana Historical Society Resources for Educators

• Classroom resources, lesson plans, and primary sources supporting Montana history, geography, civics, and Indian Education for All.
  Explore Now

National History Education Cleaninghouse (NHEC)

• Teaching materials, historical content, and best practices resources banded by elementary, middle, and high school resources.
  Explore Now

National Archives / DocsTeach

• Primary-source documents and ready-to-use activities searchable by historical era, thinking skill, activity type, and grade level.
  Explore Now

civics and government

iCivics

• Lessons, games, and interactive resources for civics and government.
  Explore Now

Council on Foreign Relations Education - Model Deplomacy

• Resources supporting global civics, international relations, foreign policy, and student simulations.
  Explore Now

Native Knowledge 360

• Resources addressing tribal sovereignty, Native nations, treaties, and Native histories.
  Explore Now

Right Question Institute

• Resources supporting student questioning and inquiry.
  Explore Now

economics

Council on Foreign Relations Education / World 101

• Use applicable resources addressing global systems and economics..
  Explore Now

Federal Reserve Education

• Curriculum, videos, reading selections, lesson plans, and activities, searchable by grade level.
  Explore Now

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Consumer Resources (FDIC)

• Entire modulated curriculum for 9-12 students that includes educator guides, teacher presentations, and guides for students and caregivers.
  Explore Now

geography

 National Geographic Education

• Maps, geographic content, and educational resources supporting exploration of people, places, and environments.
  Explore Now

 Montana History Portal

• Montana photographs, maps, documents, oral histories, newspapers, yearbooks, artwork, and other digitized historical materials.
  Explore Now

 GameQuest

• Game-ified geography learning.
  Explore Now

history

 Digital Inquiry Group - Reading Like a Historian

• Inquiry-based history lessons centered on historical questions and primary-source analysis.
  Explore Now

 Montana Historical Society Resources for Educators

• Classroom resources, lesson plans, and primary sources supporting Montana history, geography, civics, and Indian Education for All.
  Explore Now

National History Education Clearinghouse (NHEC)

• Teaching materials, historical content, and best practices resources banded by elementary, middle, and high school resources.
  Explore Now

National Archives / DocsTeach

• Primary-source documents and ready-to-use activities searchable by historical era, thinking skill, activity type, and grade level.
  Explore Now

Montana History Portal

• Montana photographs, maps, documents, oral histories, newspapers, yearbooks, artwork, and other digitized historical materials.
  Explore Now

civics and government

 Right Question Institute

• Resources and strategies for helping students develop and improve their own questions.
  Explore Now

 Digital Inquiry Group

• Resources supporting historical inquiry, evidence evaluation, sourcing, contextualization, corroboration, and civic online reasoning.
  Explore Now

 National Archives

• Resources for analyzing photographs, documents, maps, posters, audiovisual materials, and other primary sources.
  Explore Now