Teachers and Students

High school, college, and university teachers can use OutHistory.org in the classroom, as a way to encourage students to learn how to do their own research, and to share that research with a wider audience by creating an article for the site.

Teaching with OutHistory.org

• Finding a research topic: Search “Stubs” and “Additional Research”
• Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources
• Electronic Sources vs. Print Sources
• Looking at Images
• Analyzing Words
• Evaluating and Verifying Sources
• Writing for OutHistory.org

Integrating OutHistory.org

Researching and writing OutHistory entries offers students several types of learning experiences. Students learn to use Web technology to communicate their ideas. They learn how to write in a style suitable for Internet audience. Assigning students traditional historical research with the goal of web display combines traditional and new approaches. As an alternative to traditional papers, please consider having your students write OutHistory entries.

A teacher who used OutHistory.org in the classroom is Sharon Ullman, a history professor at Bryn Mawr, who gave her students the option of writing five entries for OutHistory.org in lieu of writing a traditional research paper. Her students concentrated on primary source research, on writing for the web, and on the value of full and proper citations. See the exhibit directed by Ullman and created by her students on Youth Organizing and Representation in Media.

Sharing Course Materials

Teaching a course on LGBTQ History? Want to include information on LGBTQ history in a survey class? Want to see how other teachers have introduced LGBTQ history in their classes? Want to share successful lesson plans and syllabi with other teachers? Go to our Course Materials entry and see what other teachers have taught. Then upload your course materials. And please discuss what you see.