Science fiction literature and film are an underappreciated source for the teaching of history. Finding material that can excite a student's curiosity can be a key towards greater student engagement, especially among students who are taking history as a requirement, rather than from interest. The discovery that they can read or watch science…

This article discusses offering the History of the American Deaf Community class several times since 2012 at the University of Virginia. While I change the syllabus each time, I have found a few constants in my approach: I stress that students work with primary sources whenever possible, that they read influential secondary texts, that they watch…

Drawing on her wealth of experience and expertise in using visual sources in the classroom, in this article Jane Card explores how a single painting, a portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray, might form the basis for a sequence of lessons. Arguing that although highly accessible, images are not…

Steven Spielberg's latest movie "Lincoln" updates Americans' national understanding of their sixteenth president and provides a partial, artful lesson on the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, this movie will become a defining work on President Abraham Lincoln's character and leadership…

Tackling challenging topics in history can be difficult, and sometimes teachers struggle to find age-appropriate ways to help students confront painful stories from the past. About four years ago, this author spearheaded a focus group with the purpose of taking on such a challenge. In the initial meetings, members of the group (four educators from…

The University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder) is known for strong programming in the sciences and a teaching faculty at the forefront of science education and reform. Librarians at CU-Boulder, in collaboration with science faculty, are challenged to improve undergraduate science education. Using rare, historic, and artistic works from Special…

This study investigates the bully and the bullied from 1950 to 2010. It begins by presenting a historical background of each decade with the major historical events that defined our culture. Each decade can be characterized by a particular zeitgeist, or spirit of the times. During each decade, popular movies and television programs that provided…

This study discusses the representation of (the) literacy (myth) in popular movies and a teaching and research project on cinematic literacy narratives. It attempts to reveal the existence of a powerful 'Pygmalion template' in contemporary movie culture. Focusing on a discourse or culture clash 'Pygmalion movies' simultaneously contribute to the…

Holocaust education requires teachers to carefully determine which instructional approaches ensure effective teaching of the subject while avoiding potential difficulties. The article identifies several complicating factors that must be considered when making pedagogical decisions. It then examines five methodological approaches that can be used…

Historiography is often overlooked as a fascinating subject by most contemporary students, whether in the secondary history classroom or undergraduate course. Some sense of the changing historical interpretation of a topic such as Reconstruction may be provided through contrasting passages from a modern history text with earlier editions of books…

Preparing to teach a course outside one's field of specialty or even continental comfort zone provides a unique if somewhat daunting opportunity. With Western Civilization classes as the author's teaching experience for entry-level college courses, she approached teaching "The United States Since Reconstruction" with some trepidation. However,…

The Crusades are among the few medieval events with which most students have familiarity. However, during these days of heightened tensions in the Middle East, for many the Crusades have taken on an urgency as a distant historical phenomenon that speaks powerfully to present religious and political concerns. This helps explain why in 2005, two…

The value of old home movies, fiction films, and newsreels for the study of history is emphasized. (DE)

Making students' learning experiences as direct and real as possible has always been challenging for educators. Ancient wars and forgotten statesmen often hold little excitement for students. Innovative teachers often use artifacts and primary source documents to transform a vicarious learning experience to a much more direct one. Films, like…

Mapwork, a film, a debate, a machine-gun demonstration, and a box of primary source materials can be used in a World War II unit for 12th graders to supplement conventional analyses of the Dieppe Raid. (RM)