Outreach World: A Resource for Teaching Kids About the World

A very useful website for social studies teachers is the website Outreach World: A Resource for Teaching Kids About the World . This website is designed specifically for precollegiate teachers. It is replete with valuable resources for social studies instruction on non-US and non-Western topics. I think this site is especially useful for new social studies teachers who are eager to bring non-Western history and perspectives into their secondary education classroom, but do not have many examples with which to work. Outreach World can help teachers develop a more global curriculum for their social studies classes.

There are resources, including curriculum guides, unit plans, and primary sources on a great variety of global topics. By simply looking at the “Top Resources” section on the right-hand side of the home page a teacher can discover a diverse array of resources for global topics. There are resources for lessons and units on Africa, Latin America, and China. There are also topical units on current issues including migration and Muslim sensitivity. Outreach World focuses on Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, and International Studies. The website’s aim is to help teachers peak student interest about vital global regions that are sometimes missing from secondary education curriculum.

As I began to peruse the resources for teachers, I became overwhelmed with all this website had to offer. Outreach World makes it simple for teachers to find what they need. Teachers can search for units, lessons, and instructional aids by global region, country, subject, resource type, time period, instructional strategy, and grade level. Teachers can also search under multiple categories, making it even easier to find exactly what they are looking for. This site would be very useful for teachers who already have a globally-oriented social studies curriculum or teachers who are trying to develop a global social studies curriculum or interdisciplinary curriculum. I think this is a great website for social studies departments in secondary education who are attempting to develop a curriculum that includes a global and non-Western outlook. I would definitely recommend this website to educators who are looking to enhance their social studies curriculum with a global perspective.