The first Teaching American History (TAH) grants were made available to K-12 schools from the Department of Education in 2002. They provide money to school systems for three-year projects to form partnerships with area organizations with the goal of increasing the American history knowledge of teachers and students. This study focuses on the…

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…

Many at-risk students and students with learning problems struggle to understand social studies textbooks. Textbooks have been described as being "inconsiderate" of their readers (B. B. Armbruster & T. H. Anderson, 1988) because their authors have relied on an expository, rather than narrative, approach. In this article, the authors…

Each month, "Curriculum Review" offers teachers mutual support, the sharing of ideas, and words of encouragement to help them face challenges in the classroom. The April 2005 issue of "Curriculum Review" contains the following articles: (1) "We Hear from Readers"; (2) "What They're Saying"; (3) "Google Plans to Digitize Big Library Collections";…

This article reports on a project that situates language teaching in the subject matter classroom, illustrating how a functional linguistics perspective can raise secondary school teachers' awareness about the language challenges of their discipline and enable them to engage in discussion about language and content with their students. We report…

Social studies educators have long promoted inquiry learning as a valuable method of instruction. Specifically, research into the use of inquiry methods in the teaching and learning of history has demonstrated that this method has much to offer. Recently, the use of technological tools, including the Internet, has received attention as a means of…

In this article, the author describes the graduate research seminar she taught on "History and Media." Her objective for the course was to engage graduate students in an inquiry-based investigation: What roles are the new media technologies playing in the changing nature of historical practice? In preparation for the weekly class session, seminar…

The integrative studies model for classroom activities that the author proposes and illustrates in this article combines the chronological focus of traditional disciplines with the thematic orientation of an interdisciplinary approach. A theme or pattern acts as the vehicle for organization. Students are presented with a variety of information…

The Document-Based Question (DBQ) is an integral part of the United States History Advanced Placement Exam, and is required as part of an exam that also includes answering two general "free response" essays and a multiple choice question section. For the DBQ, students are given a question about a specific time period in American history,…

In this article, the author relates her experiences teaching a history course titled "Introduction to the Modern World." She relates how some of her colleagues immediately began providing her with unsolicited warnings regarding the difficulty of engaging students in world history and the impossibility of covering "500 years of the whole world" in…

Globalization provides history teachers with an opportunity to link past to present in new ways and to test historical thinking. This is particularly true in world history surveys, but has relevance to Western civilization or United States history surveys as well. For globalization in turn, the historical perspective offers opportunities for more…

This study explores how children in English primary schools perceive time and chronology in storybooks--whether the children are aware of the devices used in stories to manipulate time and chronological sequence, and whether their responses demonstrate their own ability to use these devices. Children aged between 3-9 years were involved in…

The term geohistorical archaeology was adopted to describe the combination of the techniques and concepts of historical geography, historical archaeology, and history. It is suggested that the field offers the potential of enhanced research and instruction as it pertains to the early historical settlement of an area. Particular emphasis is placed…

This paper demonstrates the significant potential for history teachers to contribute to the development of children's spirituality through the use of literature within the history curriculum. Using four case studies of history teaching in English comprehensive schools, the paper outlines a holistic approach to the subject--drawing upon art and…

In this article, the author relates how his school beats up the post-national examination blues by staging a "May Madness" competition. The competition is like a "tournament of historical figures" wherein students are asked to debate which historical figures were more significant until they have a "Final Four" and, eventually, a winner. The author…