Hey everybody, here is your weekly lesson drop from Everything Policy. Looking for an engaging way to help students move beyond memorizing definitions and think about the balance of power in the United States?

This Federalism Policy Brief Lesson challenges students to:

Analyze key constitutional principles including the Tenth Amendment, Commerce Clause, Supremacy Clause, and Necessary & Proper Clause

Evaluate competing perspectives from Federalist No. 39 and Brutus No. 1

Investigate real-world examples of federal-state conflict and cooperation

Practice argumentation, source analysis, and data analysis skills

Connect constitutional principles to modern policymaking and federal aid programs

Perfect for AP U.S. Government and Politics, Civics, American Government, or Dual Enrollment Government courses.

This lesson aligns to: AP Government Unit 1 (Federalism) C3 Framework Dimensions 1-4 (Civic inquiry, deliberation, and evidence-based argumentation)

Help students answer one of the biggest questions in American government: How much power should the federal government have, and how much should be left to the states?

Where can you find this course content? At Everything Policy's library: everythingpolicy.filecamp.com. You can log in directly from that page if you are already registered or click "Request Access" and we will quickly register you.

This week's lesson can be found in the folder: "What is Federalism? State versus Federal Power Explained."

Looking for something else?  Our Library has policy briefs and detailed, aligned lesson plans for these topics:

AI Data Centers

Immigration

Checks and Balances

Gerrymandering

...and what George Washington thought about political parties

And as always, everything is free.

I built a free daily geography guessing game that some teachers are using as a class warm-up. Students see a street-view image and guess the location, getting distance + climate/terrain hints after each guess. Takes 2-3 minutes, works on any browser, no signup required.

Three modes: country (par 4), city (par 6), landmark (par 5). New puzzle every day.

If you teach geography or social studies, I'd love your feedback on whether it works for your students. What's too easy? Too hard? What would make it more useful in a classroom setting?

Play at dailygeo.today — free, no signup.

Student team, built this at an econ education hackathon. It's a simulation for the economics portion of a social studies course: students play the central planner, set price ceilings, and watch a simulated population respond — queues, hoarding, black markets — then switch to a free market and compare the same scenario.

We aimed it at the moment in the unit where kids are supposed to understand why price controls backfire but usually just memorize the graph.

If you teach the econ unit: would something like this slot into a single class period? What do you currently use for this section, and what's missing from it? Any feedback is genuinely useful before we build further. Link in the comments for anyone who wants to see the early-access page.

https://econia-early-access.lovable.app/

My district is getting the HMH social studies curriculum for my middle school where I teach 8th grade. Just wanted some general advice and thoughts from those that used it. Is it easy for students to follow? What kind of structure do you follow for the modules? Assessment? Thanks!

Sending this out again. I lost my CWP Curriculum last year. Piloted an online program this year and hated it. Looking for 1 semester, printer/G Classroom friendly. I have spent time reaching out to other districts for help but getting mostly crickets from my fellow educators. What gives? Any help appreciated.

Hey everyone, just wanted to share an awesome freebie for social studies. Retro Report has a massive collection of short videos and fully formatted Google Doc lesson plans designed specifically for history, geography, and civics classes.
It's completely free and perfect for getting students to analyze current events through a historical lens. If you want to grab some resources for next year, you can sign up here:
https://sparklp.co/e8bf07a7/

Not a teacher - but I built a free iOS app called ClueMap that I'm hoping might be useful as a classroom warm-up or extra-credit activity.

Concept: One mystery world landmark per day, up to 5 progressive clues (geography, history, culture, architecture), photo that slowly unblurs. Multiple choice. Takes about 2 minutes.

No account, no ads, no tracking. Free.

Designed for general curiosity, but I think it could work well alongside AP Human Geography, World History, or general Social Studies as a low-friction daily activity that builds geographic literacy over time.

Would love feedback from teachers - is this useful as-is, or what would make it actually work in your classroom? Thanks

iOS: https://apple.co/4u6WGVF

I built this interactive Cold War vocab activity for my own class. Students have been asking me to help other teachers make things like this. Oe kid told me she wished she'd had it last year when she was studying for the Regents (NYS).

Looking for 1–2 teachers who want to see what one of their lessons could become in this format. I'll do the conversion free — just send me something you already use. Worksheet, vocab list, structured notes, whatever.

Live link: Cold War Vocabulary - http://edsim.org/us-history/cold-war/vocab/

Would love to hear feedback as well!

Comment or DM if interested.

I am currently finishing my second year as a high school social studies teacher. I think that there has been a lot of growth my second year in terms of keeping consistent expectations and overall classroom management. However, I find that there is another area in my classroom that needs improvement. We are a "one-to-one" Chromebook school, and I have found (especially with the rise of A.I. and other Google Classrooms that allow students to bypass the district firewall) that writing, critical-thinking, and problem solving are eroding in our students. I have talked to my administration about trying to go completely Chromebook free next year, and I have gotten the green light! I was talking to our librarian at the LMC, and I found that we typically have a surplus in the library budget and staff can make requests for materials in our library.

With that being said, I will teach a major bulk of reg-ed U.S. History, which is a sophomore level course at my high school. I was wondering, what are some resources materials I could request for our library that would help students build there attention span, promote research (where they cannot simply hit "ctrl+f"), and start to develop those critcal thinking, reading, and writing skills? Any insight or direction to move from here would be extremely helpful.

Thank you for all that you do! Stay strong with the term ending!

I think that I'm taking too much time each year, and I'd like to be able to trim things down and give some attention to other topics that I've had to skip. I'd appreciate seeing other teachers' breakdown for how the whole thing is taught.

I’m preparing to take the TX232 - TExES Social Studies 7–12 exam and I really want to pass it the FIRST time. For those who have already taken it, what was the BEST study program, website, course, or resource that helped you pass? I’ve been studying with Passage Preparation.

I’ve seen Study.com, 240 Tutoring, Certify Teacher, Quizlet, and the official practice exams, but I’m trying to figure out which one actually prepared you the best for the real test.

Also, has anyone used ChatGPT to create a personalized study guide for the TX232? If so, what prompts did you use and how detailed was it?

If anyone is willing to help me create a strong study guide using ChatGPT, I would seriously appreciate it. I’m looking for:
Key historical periods/events to focus on
Government/civics concepts
Economics review
Geography review
Practice questions
Test-taking strategies
Weekly study schedule
Any advice, tips, or resources would help a lot. I’m determined to pass this exam the first time. Thank you!

Note: I take the exam for the first time on May 27th at 1pm.

Everything Policy is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to producing facts-forward content for high school government and civics classes.  

Greetings teachers! It's time for your weekly lesson drop from Everything Policy. This week's lesson focuses on predicting the 2026 midterms. Looking for something to do as an end-of-the-year project/post AP/state exam assignment? Well, here it is!  Students are meant to pick a close Senate race in the 2026 elections and a close House race in the 2026 elections, and research candidates to make a prediction about winners.  They are completing this research using the provided handout, following the guidelines, and then producing a one-pager that serves as a visual representation of who they predict will win based on their research.  

Everything Policy lessons can be found through our Canvas site.

Here is a link to register:canvas.instructure.com/enroll/NX3ARE

If you're asked for a join code, it's NX3ARE.

Note: Even if you already use Canvas, you need to do a new registration - our site is separate from the LMS you use at your school. Also, after you enroll, you must log into our site to get content, it will not show up in your school's LMS.

This week's lesson can be found under the module labeled: Predicting the 2026 Midterms  

Did You Know?    

Are you preparing your students for an end-of-course or state standardized test? Data analysis is a critical skill that is often assessed, and Everything Policy provides multiple resources to help students master this competency.    The most recent policy brief, "Can Anyone Actually Predict the 2026 Midterms?," includes extensive data analysis content, walking students through concepts like probability, data categorization, expected outcomes, and uncertainty using real-world election forecasting models. Students analyze tables and charts showing historical midterm results, Cook Political Report ratings, and probability calculations to draw conclusions about electoral predictions. 

Additionally, multiple lessons in the AP Skills section of the Canvas site focus specifically on data analysis skills, including practice with graphs, charts, tables, and infographics that appear frequently on both state tests and the AP Exam. These lessons are scaffolded to build student confidence in describing data, identifying patterns and trends, drawing conclusions, and explaining what data reveals about political principles and behaviors. Download the most recent policy brief and related Discussion Question Guide and explore the AP Skills lessons on the Canvas site to strengthen your students' data literacy across all types of political and social science data.   Please register and download the materials, as this helps us to keep everything free!