Over her 23 years of teaching elementary school, Vera, a third grade teacher (and co-author of this article), had often fallen into the familiar rhythm of the fall social studies curriculum, with its predictable narrative of discovery, bravery, heroism, and thanksgiving. Her journey to becoming a more reflective, thoughtful, and equitable teacher…

Lee Donaghy was concerned that his GCSE students' weak contextual knowledge was letting them down. Inspired by a mixture of cognitive science and the arguments of other teachers expressed in various blogs, he decided to tackle the problem by teaching and testing knowledge more intensively. The result was a rapid improvement in secure factual…

In 30 years of teaching, the author never taught explicitly about coal. Coal appeared in his social studies curriculum solely as a labor issue, and coal was mostly invisible in his history classes. The world cannot afford this kind of curricular invisibility today. Forty percent of the main greenhouse gas produced in the United States, carbon…

Every major measure of students' historical understanding since 1917 has demonstrated that students do not retain, understand, or enjoy their school experiences with history. Bruce Lesh believes that this is due to the way we teach history--lecture and memorization. Over the last fifteen years, Bruce has refined a method of teaching history that…

Collaboration is one of the most important aspects of the role of the school librarian in the twenty-first century, but, for many reasons, collaboration is challenging to implement. Some classroom teachers may not know how students benefit from the classroom-school library collaboration. Others may be unwilling to relinquish control of their…

When Americans from the eastern part of the United States began moving west in large numbers in the mid-nineteenth century, tensions escalated and conflicts erupted between and among settlers, railroad workers, ranchers, the United States military, and numerous Native American tribes. Incorporating balanced consideration of these diverse and…

This article describes how the author teaches 8th graders to imagine the experiences of people from another time in history and make connections to today. Through a role play, the author teaches the hidden story of Japanese Latin Americans during WWII. The role play engages students in exploration of a little-known piece of history--the…

Historicalthinkingmatters.org, a collaboration between the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, pioneers of online historical resources, and Stanford University's History Education group, a research center that investigates the teaching and learning of history, addresses the problem of an abundance of historical texts and a…

Upon completion of these two lessons, high school students will be able to distinguish between power and authority and analyze how individuals or groups exercise power. The lesson, which can be used in world history classes, deals with the period of time between the two world wars. (RM)

The Omaha Platform tells us a great deal about the objectives and character of the Populists. In this unit, the platform is converted to a problem format that U.S. history teachers can use to promote critical thinking skills in finding relevant information and evaluating inferences. (RM)

The Spanish conquest of Mexico provides the context for this unit, designed for use with students in grades 9-12. It is intended that students will learn about the process of writing history and ways of assessing various historical accounts, and background about the Spanish conquistadors and the vanquished Aztec Indians. The unit contains four…

This teaching unit is based on primary sources taken from documents, artifacts, journals, diaries, newspapers, and literature from the U.S. historical period under study, the end of Reconstruction and the search for an overseas empire at the end of the 19th century. The unit is also intended to introduce students to the medium of the World's Fair,…

Primary sources can be very important in the teaching of history, as they expose students to historical concepts in ways that books and articles cannot. Primary sources, such as historical documents, capture the interest of students and personalize and humanize history for the student. Use of such sources also helps the students develop important…

Primary source materials and excerpts from books concerning three types of autocracy--the divine right of kings, benevolent despotism, and totalitarianism--are provided for use with secondary students. Discussion questions are included. (RM)

Suggests a method for teaching history as a means of exposing students to and enabling them to internalize historical definitions, theories, and uses. Lists topics that should be discussed in an introductory unit on the nature of history. Includes an appendix setting out a schedule of themes for the unit. (SG)