Some barriers to teaching Black history in elementary classrooms include inadequate teacher preparation and the misguided view that elementary students are too young to learn the unvarnished truth about America's historical injustices. Legislative efforts to prevent teachers from discussing race-related topics labeled "divisive"…

With a focus on methods courses, this article makes a case for social studies teacher educators to employ in their pedagogy an intersectional perspective. I ask social studies teacher educators to consider critical history monographs, specialized book-length studies that center on marginalized perspectives, as pedagogical tools that complement…

This article presents a guided inquiry into Thomas Jefferson's place in American memory. It centers on Jefferson's liberty-based articulations and his involvement in slavery, which are paradoxical when juxtaposed. Evocative primary sources and competing secondary sources ground the inquiry. Discipline-specific strategies direct students through…

Colson Whitehead's acclaimed book, "The Underground Railroad," follows Cora, a runaway slave seeking the nearly impossible goal of freedom. The fictionalized account of a runaway slave girl resonates with a reading of Harriet Jacobs's true account in "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." One of the most influential works of…

Research has demonstrated the benefits of using historical empathy in history classrooms to encourage historical inquiry and understanding. This article chronicles the experiences of one middle school teacher as she integrates an updated theoretical and practical model of historical empathy into an existing instructional unit on Ancient Athens to…

History labs invite students to examine primary and secondary source documents related to an essential question. The sources used in a history lab should represent multiple perspectives so that students are aware of the varying accounts of and opinions about historic events. By being exposed to multiple perspectives, students also learn about…

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…

In this article, the authors discuss how children can learn from runaway slave advertisements. The advertisements for runaway slaves that masters placed in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century newspapers are among the documentary sources available to teachers for studying the lives of African-American slaves. Such advertisements often describe a…

While Blackface minstrel performances today are considered inappropriate and many Americans find the language and images racially offensive, such performances were the "most popular entertainment" in antebellum America. Songs about idyllic plantation life in the South resonated with Americans adjusting to the new industrial cities of the North.…

This article discusses the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau), which was established by the Congress on March 3, 1865, to assist former slaves in acquiring land, securing employment, legalizing marriages, and pursuing education. After the bureau's abolition through an act of Congress approved on June 10, 1872,…

Suggests that slave advertisements from old southern newspapers can be used to help teachers convey the nature of slavery. Includes a selection of slave advertisements with analysis and questions for discussion. Recommends the use of such advertisements for units on the causes of the Civil War or the lingering effects of slavery on society today.…

Today's students are generally accustomed to seeing timelines of events, lists of names, and bulleted items, yet they lack an understanding of the complexity of historical analysis. Learning to read historical information from charts, for example, teaches students to evaluate the significance of change. Comparing related primary sources can…

Presents a lesson using primary sources to explore the revolutionary rhetoric of British-American colonists and its application to the lives of enslaved Africans and free Blacks: How could the same people who argued so forcefully for liberty defend slavery? Includes excerpts from four primary documents and sources for additional documents. (DSK)

Richard Harris questions common assumptions about differentiation. In particular, he encourages teachers to avoid accepting too readily the view that pupils of different abilities must be given different resources or activities. Instead he builds a more complex and inclusive model based on deliberate teacher decisions about where to place the…

Presents a high school history lesson based on the National Standards for United States History. Considers the effect of the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence on free and enslaved African Americans. (CFR)