Democratic societies require a citizenry skilled in argumentation. At present, the written argument maintains primacy among communicative modes. Because of its cognitive demands, written argumentation is often difficult to teach. A multimodal approach to writing instruction carries the potential to assist struggling learners. This article outlines…

Students used a compass trail to show how they could perform service to their school. When students performed service learning, they completed a real task that was needed for a grateful audience conjoined with academic content in the lesson. Students worked on the school grounds and used content from their regular curriculum while looking for…

This manuscript, written with the educator in mind, describes the Youth Historians in Harlem (YHH) program, a twenty-week after-school history program that engaged urban students in history by immersing them in aspects of the historical process. Throughout the program, a group of Black male high school students were apprenticed as historical…

Fifty procedures for implementing a variety of skills are presented. For example, to help students predict outcomes, draw inferences, and identify data to suggest or refute conclusions, teachers can have students read to a designated point in a reading selection and then brainstorm various ways the selection could end. (RM)

The author analyzes pedagogical exercises related to Native Americans in thirteen U.S. history textbooks currently used in grades three, four, five, eight, and eleven. The purpose of the research was to determine the extent to which U.S. history textbooks offer, or fail to offer, opportunities for students to engage in and develop higher-order…

Leonard Stout Kenworthy was born to Quaker parents in Richmond, Indiana, in 1912. His father, Murray Kenworthy, was a faculty member in the religious studies department at Earlham College in Richmond. After spending time in New York, Ohio, and Washington, DC, Kenworthy enrolled in a Quaker boarding school not far from Philadelphia. After…

Children can acquire basic skills through social studies content using the traditional early childhood learning center environmental organization. Such learning centers are described and possible social studies units and daily routines and activities that can be used in the centers are discussed. (RM)

In this unit, elementary students are involved in many activities that introduce them to the basics of anthropology and archaeology. They interpret artifacts and record and interpret archaeological data, learn about environmental indicators and the significance of archaeological findings, and study conservation. The unit's culminating activity is…

Many ways in which objects can be used to teach history are examined. An activity which requires students to hypothesize about the conditions of poverty and unemployment during the Great Depression and then to test their hypotheses by examining photographs taken in the 1930s is provided. (RM)

In this activity intended to develop thinking and writing skills secondary students are given a worksheet dealing with either nuclear energy or the Civil War. On the worksheet the order of items is scrambled. Students must organize the information, decide what is important, and write an essay on the topic. (RM)

Suggests teaching methods and materials for use by high school and college social studies teachers as they help students develop valuing skills. Entitled Valuing Confrontation With The Future (VCF), the materials promote consideration of provocative episodes such as electrical stimulation of the human brain and a congressional ban on large pets…

Outlines a two-day lesson designed to illustrate how using a tape recorder can improve listening, reading, comprehension, and writing skills. After listening to "The Arrival of Africans to the American Colonies," students answer questions using the notes they took while listening. (KC)

Advocates using broadsides, a form of public announcements in the colonial era, as an example of easily obtainable historical source materials. Examines how studying broadsides promotes skills associated with historical inquiry. Outlines a six-step model for teaching with broadsides. Provides three sample lessons for classroom use of broadsides.…