"Enlivening Secondary History" is the ideal handbook for busy history teachers who want to do something different in their classrooms, but have little time to plan and organise their lessons. Featuring tried-and-tested practical ideas complete with relevant exemplars and step-by-step advice, this best-selling book is a compendium of creative…

At the end of the American Revolution, British merchants flooded U.S. seaports with inexpensive and much-desired goods, threatening the healthy markets that U.S. merchants had enjoyed during the war. The broadside in which Massachusetts merchants made their anger and demands known is the basis for the teaching activities presented here. (RM)

Presents activity, with reproducible reading, for high school students which focuses on perpetual differences among cultures. Students translate into modern English a 16th century document about life in Virginia and compare their translations. (KC)

Describes a critical thinking activity for secondary school social studies students using a letter written in the nineteenth century. The letter contains references to unfamiliar people and events. Through research, students are able to trace the exact date of the letter and to identify the people and events. (KC)

This teaching unit, one of a series of eight, describes home front activities from the perspective of one business and can be used to supplement class discussion of World War I. It can be used in one or two class periods of U.S. history, world history, sociology, economics, or business. The unit consists of a teacher's folder with accompanying…

This unit of study, one of a series of eight, provides a method for students to study U.S. history through reviewing the advertising of specific periods to learn about customers, styles, language, and interests of specific eras. The advertising of the past chronicles everyday people and everyday life. Advertising is used to examine five periods in…

Middle grades students read, write, speak, listen, and research as they interview a partner and write an article, write a personal memoir, take partner photographs, and use the Internet to find pictures and information illustrating their partners interests. Results are shared in the form of a poster and a classroom presentation. During the fifteen…

Describes the way in which a social studies chairman has used document-based lessons to encourage the use of primary sources in high school U.S. history classes. Lessons are designed to enable students to examine how national events are played out locally. (RW)

This teaching unit, one of a series of eight, reviews business's overall response to World War II, and specifically one company's involvement in the nationwide call to mobilize. Learning activities consist of class discussion and small group participation focusing on activities undertaken by businesses on behalf of U.S. war efforts. Materials from…

High school students analyze real-life case studies, taken from the files of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, to learn about the effects of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination with regard to native people in Canada. (RM)

As industry developed during the late 1800s, factories increased in size, and a gap developed between owners and employees. This teaching unit, one in a series of eight, examines the situation of one company in which an innovative business leader sensed the need to bridge the gap between owners and employees. One method of accomplishing this was…

Teachers of history in high school should use historical research as a teaching device. Advantages are that it permits teachers and students to learn together through discovery, integrates national and local history, and encourages students to develop respect for history and historians. (Author/DB)

Based on John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand the universal nature of Steinbeck's characters' struggles and some of the complex forces affecting their lives; and the value of primary source material in presenting an authentic picture of a given period in history.…

Discusses the educational benefits of using visual materials as historical sources. Outlines steps for analyzing historical photographs. Applies these steps to two sample lessons about sugar-cane syrup making in Florida and dealing with migrant workers in Florida during the Depression. (RW)

This kit, for grades 5 and up, helps students master the content of Colonial American history and develops students' historiographic and upper level thinking skills. The documents and activities included in this volume allow students to become "historical detectives," peeling back the layers, deciphering archaic lettering, reassembling…