This guide provides information for planning a field trip to the Indiana Limestone District. This district, located in Monroe and Lawrence Counties, Indiana, is responsible for material that has dominated the building-limestone market in the United States for nearly a century. A few of the many well-known buildings using Indiana limestone are the…

A product of the Wisconsin Writing Project, this guide for teachers is intended to offer a fresh focus for lesson plans, give students more responsibility for their own learning, provide direction for student involvement in the curriculum, and gain community support for the school, all by means of a project to study and write about local history.…

A classroom activity designed to explore local culture and community development by collecting, mapping, and analyzing migration patterns and ethnicity is described. (DE)

Discusses a fourth grade class project to write a history of their community. Describes student experiences in learning to take and videotape interviews, preparing a TV newscast about the project, doing research in the county clerk's office and library, and writing the history. Includes suggestions for doing a similar project. (DHP)

Describes a high school project to compile a local history, including funding the project, developing interview questionnaires, taking interviews, and compiling the materials. Discusses results of the project for the students, teacher, high school, and county. (DHP)

Discusses a field trip to Lucan, Ontario to research the story of the Donnelly family murders of 1880. Describes sites visited, student activities, and contacts made with local individuals familiar with the story. Includes class follow-up activities. Provides an activity on cemeteries and examines educational benefits. (RW)

This document discusses oral history and the use of active learning to make classroom teaching interesting and exciting. Oral history is an effective teaching tool that requires students to become active participants in their own learning process. It invites inquiry, stimulates discussion, and transforms abstract concepts into concrete reality.…

This package of patriotic learning activities refers to historic tales about colonial days, Black history, and the contributions of the states to America's wealth and history. Poems, skits, riddles about states and presidents, and a play featuring mock presidential interviews are included. A Save-the-Statue-of-Liberty project is noted. (PP)

Suggests using city directories to integrate original geographic research into the classroom. Explains that using directories allows students to think geographically, teaches map skills, and provides the basis for field experience. Provides a case study of the ethnic patterns using the city directory of Sacramento, California. Illustrates other…

Discusses the goals and planning of a scavenger hunt which was designed to increase enthusiasm in students and promote active learning. States that a scavenger hunt instills a sense of community pride in students and that the community cooperation fosters a positive relationship with the school. Provides a sample scavenger hunt checklist. (GEA)

Service learning allows students to learn more about their classroom instruction through involvement with their local community. It is both a service given to the community, as well as a practical way for students to reflect on what they have been studying in class. The author of this article explains a service learning project which will be very…

Recommends localizing teaching about World War II through use of family stories and local histories. Outlines and discusses a specific approach to chronology and events. Concludes that the important lessons of this era lay in the postwar world it created. (MJP)

Provides a lesson plan using historical photographs to teach local history in elementary school social studies classes. Suggests sources and copying procedures. Employs cooperative learning strategies in which students title photographs and describe what they see, then compare their findings with those of other groups and with historical…

Describes a classroom project in which elementary students bake homemade bread to learn about the settlement period in Canadian history and the early history of the students' community. Maintains that students learn to compare the lifestyle of the past with the present. (CFR)

Describes a broad variety of instructional ideas and activities designed to make history come alive for the intermediate grades. These include personal time lines, interviewing grandparents, and show and tell with personal artifacts. Includes a section of activities designed specifically to work with historical fiction. (MJP)