Incorporating creative writing exercises in history courses can heighten students' critical reading and analytical skills in an active learning model. We identify and define two types of possible assignments that use model texts as their locus: centripetal, which focuses on specific context and disciplinary terms, and centrifugal, which address…

This research project examined the contribution internally assessed course work makes to motivating young people to think historically; that is to develop reasoned, evidence-based understandings of the past that equip them to participate in society as critical citizens who can think independently and adjudicate between competing claims of…

This article reports on the cognitive and affective development of students being mentored in virtual reference interview skills by professional librarians. The authors present a case study which examines the impact on student learning resulting from librarian mentor participation and collaboration with students on a course assignment. This study…

The digital environment has had an immense effect on American society, learning, and education: we have more sources available at our fingertips than any previous generation. Teaching and learning with these new sources, however, has been a challenging transition. Students are confronted with an ocean of digital objects and need skills to navigate…

This study investigated the strategic uses of music in the U.S. history classroom of six expert secondary U.S. history teachers identified by their administrators as expert teachers based on the merit of national certification, exemplary student and/or administration evaluations, high achieving teacher awards, or a combination of these criteria.…

Wikiality, Wikimania, WikiGnomes, Wikitrolls, Wikibots, Wikipediaholism... all these neologisms have been coined in recent years to talk about Wikipedia, the online, open-source encyclopedia. In this article, the author describes a project that aims to craft a pedagogical approach that incorporated student-contribution to Wikipedia in order to…

A study examined the relationship between writing activities and historical learning by elementary school students. Subjects in schools in the San Francisco Bay area were drawn from third-grade classrooms from a predominantly working class neighborhood, a mixed fourth-grade class of mostly limited-English-proficient children of immigrants from…

Describes a high school history class project designed to simultaneously teach students about Napoleon and introduce them to the practice of historical inquiry. Students viewed four data sets reflecting various aspects of Napoleon's life (e.g. military victories, domestic policy). Worksheets and writing assignments reiterated the importance of…

Describes a classroom study of 20 self-selected, college-bound, U.S. history students in which the students created a story, poem, painting, or other art form after studying a unit on immigration. Includes several examples and descriptions of students' poetry, writing, and other creative projects. (CFR)