Discusses and gives illustrations of how to use comic books to teach history. Explores the historical background of comic books and includes detailed procedures for helping students develop their own history comics. Praises this approach as a way to enliven secondary social studies and motivate students. (GEA)

Provides a collection of 11 activities, which when used together, result in a creative biographic book report. Each activity results in one or more pages of the finished report. Among the ideas presented are: (1) an advertisement activity, (2) a life line activity, and (3) a T-shirt activity. Includes illustrations and student instructions. (JDH)

Reviews how the popular stereotypes of American Indians have changed since the colonization of North America. Once seen as noble savages by European settlers, the popular stereotypes changed to become less and less positive as colonization advanced. Urges teachers to vigorously challenge the stereotypes and negative images. (JDH)

Discussion of the impact of popular music on studying historical and contemporary experiences of U.S. life focuses on the use of music to help social studies teachers convey the controversial nature of the Vietnam War. Songs with related themes are listed, and views of social studies education in popular music are also discussed. (LRW)

The historical understanding that social studies teachers have is diverse. This diversity is explored by providing definitions from various sources, scholars, and pre- and in-service social studies teachers. Questions raised include: (1) what does it mean to understand; (2) what is the meaning of understanding; (3) the additional meanings of…

For almost five decades during his professional life, Engle was deeply concerned about the philosophical views that made up social studies education, as well as ways those views were being practiced in the classrooms. In particular, he criticized the philosophical views of two contemporary educators, Edgar Wesley and Jerome Bruner. Wesley believed…

Describes historical background of the "Living Newspaper" theater, the procedure in using the genre as a classroom activity, and the evaluation of the activity for student learning. Presents an example of play design and an observation-debriefing form, concluding that this medium stimulates student curiosity about the past and may be…

Examines popular music as a historical resource and classroom teaching tool to help students better understand and learn about social diversities that affected the United States. Five subthemes with 77 songs are cited: (1) fun; (2) music; (3) traditional/patriotic; (4) patriotic and pro-American; and (5) social statements. A five-step student…

Describes how use of panorama theater to teach middle school social studies can aid in teaching the academic skills of defining a problem, locating and collecting data, organizing and designing tasks, drawing inferences, creating and building interpretations, revising and editing, and interpreting data. Presents a classroom example of a panorama…

Describes how 4 historical, popular, culture mediums may be used to help stimulate student curiosity about the past and provide practice in using and understanding the historical method. Highlighting the slave experience, the mediums are: (1) the antislave almanac; (2) the dime novel; (3) the moving panorama; and (4) the propaganda play.…

Covering teaching, learning activities on the pre-college level, this document reviews more than 200 published articles, chapters, and monographs to examine ideas held by those who teach history. Descriptive statements representing goals, objectives, and rationales relative to history were constructed for the purpose of examining these concepts.…

Discusses the use of melodrama as a method of historical research that provides students with an opportunity to study historical events and themes. Presents an activity based on the civil rights movement. Includes an example and handouts for creating a melodrama in class. (DK)

Focuses on using drama in social studies by describing the use of the flippy play, a narrative illustrating social problems and written and drawn on flippable panels. Discusses the process for creating a flippy play, beginning with researching, developing, and constructing the play, building the flippy frame, and then producing and pacing the…

Discusses the relationship between teacher clarity and student achievement and presents 11 teacher clarity practices that correlate positively with student achievement. Among the suggestions are that teachers avoid disjointed speech, maintain adequate pacing of information flow, use multiple examples to illustrate points, and reduce the number of…

Provides historical background about the Mississippi Freedom Schools that aimed to assist African American elementary and secondary students in 1964. Focuses on the questioning techniques that were based in progressive methods. Addresses discussion as a method, provides an example of a Freedom School discussion, and explores the implications for…