This article features an innovative and engaging assignment to help students learn about labor history events. Labor history is more than just a collection of dates, facts, and figures. Rather, it is the study of the men, women, and children who fought for a workplace that many of today's employees take for granted: paid leave, a 5-day workweek,…

In this article, Harper B. Keenan investigates the treatment of violence in elementary history education through a case study of a fourth-grade unit on the colonial history of California featuring "the mission project," a long-standing tradition in California's elementary schools that has students construct a miniature model of a Spanish…

This three-article dissertation specifically examines one challenging element of teaching history to young children: the representation of historical violence and adversity, using fourth grade curriculum and instruction surrounding the topic of Spanish colonization of California as a case study. This era, known as the Spanish mission period in…

The author discusses their experiences teaching an upper-division seminar course in a traditional face-to-face setting, and re-designing a "long eighteenth century" survey course for delivery online. The article thus explores spatial strategies in both face-to-face and online courses, and suggests ways in which they can be particularly…

This study investigated the potential development and use of historical empathy in sixth-grade students while using the colonial-era historical education game "Mission US" and its associated learning activities. A collective case study was developed to describe and interpret students' experiences. The gathered data included the students'…

As a graduate instructor for HIST 152: United States Since 1877, the author structures the entire course around the motif of the newspaper. She models her curriculum after the newspaper both visually and symbolically and uses it as a theme throughout the class. The newspaper is not a gimmick or cliche, but rather a recurring stylistic theme, an…

In searching for alternatives to multiple choice tests and document-based questions, the authors were inspired by the common practice of "do-nows" (also known as "bell work") in which teachers give students a brief task at the beginning of class to prepare them for the day's lesson. Could these minutes at the start of class be…

This article describes 10 recommendations for creativity, higher-order thinking, and meaningful learning activities that can be used to guide teachers in constructing an engaging AP course: (1) Be on the committee that decides how students will be selected for AP; (2) Maximize time and connections through blocks of time with an English colleague;…

This article focuses on describing the interplay between teaching and learning practices in Higher Education and the disciplinary context of such practices. In particular, it aims to address the question of how course design, teaching, and learning activities take place within a particular academic culture and how those activities mutually shape…

This newsletter of best practices in implementing the High Schools That Work (HSTW), Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW) and Technology Centers That Work (TCTW) school improvement models is based on presentations at the 27th Annual HSTW Staff Development Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the summer of 2013. The newsletter is divided up into…

A Dutch teacher presents reading, film viewing, and writing activities for "Empire of the Sun," J. G. Ballard's autobiographical account of life as a boy in Shanghai and in a Japanese internment camp during World War II (the subject of Steven Spielberg's film of the same name). Includes objectives, procedures, and several literature,…

Outlines letter writing exercises for fifth grade social studies units on the U.S. Revolutionary War period. Students write letters as fictional and nonfictional historical characters from trade books described in article. Objectives include understanding viewpoints and historical events, writing to persuade, and share or seek information.…

Describes a method for integrating writing into history classes. Suggests keeping writing assignments short and simple, rather than assigning a long paper that will be a burden to the instructor during grading. Discusses journal writing, pretest writing exercises, and microthemes written on a single index card. (DK)

Offers suggestions for incorporating literature into teaching history. Outlines several activities designed to extend students' understanding of historical events. Includes a suggested reading list of fiction covering various periods in U.S. history for grades 4 through 12. (NL)

Presents instructional materials and suggestions for using primary source documents regarding Admiral Peary's search for the North Pole. Cache notes were brief dispatches left for the press in ice hutches along with provisions and maps. Includes a photocopy of a cache note from Peary's expedition with suggested research topics and activities. (MJP)