Massachusetts educators, meet LaunchPacks!

Get to know LaunchPacks with 5 skill-building lessons aligned to MA’s social studies framework.

Build ELA skills with social studies content
Bring primary sources to life
Teach media literacy through unbiased, vetted multimedia resources
Deepen students’ civic engagement
Expand students’ cultural and world views

#1 Build ELA Skills with Social Studies Content

LaunchPacks Social Studies’ annotation tools, curriculum-focused images and videos, and expertly curated social studies content allow teachers to facilitate close reading, build critical-thinking skills, and enhance student literacy skills while teaching core social studies concepts.

Get the Activity: Students will use close reading strategies in collaboration with LaunchPacks Social Studies’ annotation tools to analyze texts about the Plymouth Colony.

#2 Make Primary Sources Come Alive

LaunchPacks Social Studies is filled with primary source documents that students can annotate, and leverage reading support tools such as read-aloud functionality, double-click dictionaries, and article translations available in over 80 languages.

Get the Activity: Students will use the resources in the Pack to construct a timeline of the American civil rights movement.

#3 Teach Media Literacy Through Unbiased, Vetted Resources

LaunchPacks Social Studies is derived from subject-area and media experts, a team of fact-checkers, and a tried-and-true editorial process. LaunchPacks articles and multimedia present an unbiased perspective to better help students understand and respect different viewpoints, as well as develop the communication skills to express their own views. Diverse content types–videos, articles, images, primary source documents, vetted websites, and journals–provide students with exposure to unbiased content presented in a variety of media.

Get the Activity: Students will use the articles within the Pack to create their own political party after reviewing the resources in U.S. Government: The Political Process.

#4 Deepen students’ civic engagement

LaunchPacks Social Studies gives students the opportunity to read fact-checked, unbiased resources about civic issues throughout history and connect them to issues of today. Teachers in any grade level can promote active learning, civic participation, and global citizenship.

Get the Activity: Students will use the articles and resources within the Pack to create a booklet outlining the separation of powers within the U.S. government. The booklet should include the information that will enable them to answer the guiding questions.

#5 Expand students’ cultural and world views

LaunchPacks Social Studies expands students’ cultural and world views by providing a reliable, unbiased source that is a launching point for them to explore cultures, histories, and communities around the world through a variety of multimedia. But don’t take our word for it. Watch what teachers had to say.

Get the Activity: Students will use the articles within the Pack to support their understanding of World War I and to create a newspaper article from the perspective of one country that describes the war’s impact throughout its duration.

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These age-appropriate packages are engaging incentives that should inspire individual investigation and inquiry, an expectation found in information skills and Common Core content literacy standards.

KATHLEEN MCBROOM, BOOKLIST

Why educators choose LaunchPacks

Britannica LaunchPacks Social Studies brings together over 2,000 expertly-curated bundles of Britannica informational text and multi-media assets, focused around thematic units covered in the K-12 Massachusetts history and social studies framework.
Activities and question sets immerse students in critical thinking and reading, exploring academic vocabulary, collecting evidence from a wide variety of sources—curated primary source documents, videos, images, text, graphs, and interactives—analyzing research and data, drawing conclusions, and writing evidence-based arguments.
Standards-aligned, curated content sets of Britannica’s best-in-class resources allow teachers to meet expanding requirements while continuing to teach core subject-area content.
Educators can support the unique learning needs of each student, including advanced readers, struggling readers, and ELL students, through multilevel articles, content groupings, and reading support tools such as read-aloud functionality, double click dictionaries, and article translations available in over 80 languages.




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