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…

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…

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;…

Advocates teaching history through children's fictional and nonfictional literature in elementary social studies. Offers seven criteria for selecting books for elementary history units. Provides activities for teaching about American Indians, communities, and U.S. history based on award-winning children's books. (CH)

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.…