While remaining cognizant of several aspects of current information literacy (IL) instruction methods, including threshold concepts, the author re-created experiences shared by students as she searched for, analyzed, and compiled resources pertaining to the Renaissance. Good IL instruction supports education of the whole person, develops new modes…

The story of Abraham Lincoln's reaction to meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe is well known. Supposedly, the president greeted the formidable author with, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!" Although the two did meet in November 1862, there is no evidence that Lincoln said anything of the kind.…

The purpose of this multicase study was to investigate second language teachers' practices in teaching academic writing to English as a second language (ESL) students at the higher education level. This study sought to gain a deeper understanding of how ESL teachers are currently teaching academic writing to ESL students and the particular methods…

History is a process. Just as science is the quest to discover and understand the truth about the world we live in, so history is the quest to discover and understand the truth about our world in the millennia that led up to this moment. These authors asked children who ranged in age from 6 to 12, first grade to sixth, how we know what happened in…

Primary scientific literature is one of the most important means of communication in science, written for peers in the scientific community. Primary literature provides an authentic context for showing students how scientists support their claims. Several teaching strategies have been proposed using (adapted) scientific publications, some for…

Sheet music, song lyrics, and audio recordings may not be the first primary sources that come to mind when considering ways to teach about changes brought about by technology during westward expansion, but these sources engage students in thought provoking ways. In this article the author presents a 1917 photograph of Mountain Chief, of the Piegan…

It is common practice to invite survivors of the Holocaust to speak about their experiences to pupils in schools and colleges. Systematic reflection on the value of working with survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides and on how to make the most of doing so is rarer, however. In this article Andrew Preston reports how his school has worked…

In the upper elementary grades, content-area text gains increasing importance as a primary source of reading and information. This article focuses on the specialized vocabulary demands of social studies texts and presents a framework of teaching and learning strategies based on vocabulary research. Strategies are introduced before, during, and…

This mixed method study examined teachers' ratings of 37 field-tested social studies lesson plans that incorporated digital primary sources through a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program for K-12 teachers. Each lesson, available in an online teaching materials collection, was field-tested and reviewed by at…

Digital history refers to "the study of the past using a variety of electronically reproduced primary source texts, images, and artifacts as well as the constructed narratives, accounts, or presentations that result from digital historical inquiry." Access to digitized primary sources can promote active instruction in historical thinking. A…

Primary source materials are increasingly being thought of as curricular resources and archivists are being asked to play the role of educator. This article, based on the session "Archivists as Educators: Integrating Primary Sources into the Curriculum" looks at the role of the primary source in undergraduate and secondary school curricula and…

This case study examined the place that perspective recognition and care as components of historical empathy occupy in one history teacher's purpose, instruction, and students' response. Abigail, a high school history teacher, and four tenth grade students from one section of her Advanced Placement European History course participated in this…

Says political writings such as "The Federalist" have generated multiple interpretations and the framers assumptions must be deduced. Provides a typology for such interpretations based on the terms, antidemocratic, liberal, republican, and constitutionalist. Recommends students be taught about the lack of consensus among scholars and key…

It's tough to teach social studies and history to students who have trouble reading and understanding textbooks and other resources. But you can overcome those obstacles and motivate students to excel in social studies classes by using the concepts and research-based techniques in this guide. Renowned reading expert Donna Ogle teams up with two…

In this article, the author reviews his unsuccessful and successful strategies for teaching research and analytical skills, which illustrate changes in his assumptions about and attitude toward teaching. Older and perhaps wiser as well, the author no longer assumes that students already know how to do what teachers expect them to be able to do by…