Teaching history should not be reciting an endless list of dead men, entombed between the covers of a textbook. Instead, "Breaking Away from the Textbook" offers a fascinating journey through world history. Not a comprehensive, theory-heavy guide, this book focuses on active classroom activities, methods for students to grapple with humanity's…

Teaching history should not simply be an endless recitation of irrelevant facts, entombed between the covers of a textbook. Instead, "Breaking Away from the Textbook" offers a fascinating journey through world history. Not a comprehensive, theory-heavy guide, this book instead focuses on exciting classroom activities, methods for students to…

Describes three humanities activities, designed using the 1981 "California History/Social Science Framework," in which seventh-grade social studies students study medieval culture. Students design personal coats-of-arms, play a typical medieval game, listen to medieval stories and myths, and draw or illustrate stories using medieval…

As a focal point for their unit on Anglo-Saxon England, the reading of "Beowulf" led fourth and fifth graders into a variety of learning projects: creating monsters, writing sagas, tracing the tale's geography, and role playing Saxon life and customs. (SJL)