While the intergenerational bonds remain strong for children with elder relatives living close by, increasingly children in the U.S. lack meaningful connections with older adults. Divorce and family mobility are two major causes, and some youth are affected by negative stereotypes of older people. Bringing seniors into classrooms or taking…

Service-learning projects help students make connections to their community and help them to think about civic participation. The projects can range from very simple short-term philanthropy to very complex direct involvement by the students across multiple years. Students learn both social problem-solving skills and academic knowledge through…

This research study sought to understand the current state of Holocaust education in Romanian classrooms and how sociocultural and institutional forces influence its treatment. By identifying the obstacles, challenges, and successes of Holocaust education in Romania, this study can both disseminate the techniques and conditions that bring about…

To help students meet the demands of society, the University of Houston is using the framework of learning communities and constructivism to create a cross-disciplinary approach to teaching to provide media-rich thematically linked courses to engage a diverse student population. A case study investigated three semesters of thematically linked…

This case study investigates how the use of an interactive whiteboard (IWB) leads to pedagogical change within a UK secondary school classroom. A teacher's experiences as recorded in a reflective journal, and the responses of students as recorded in a questionnaire, are set within the context of rhetoric about the value of IWBs. It is argued that…

Under the auspices of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID), the Department of History at the University of Kansas recast its doctoral program to emphasize career preparation. Its creative approach has earned the department national visibility. In this article, the author describes how the department came to reenvision graduate education,…

This report presents recommendations reflecting ideals essential to the study of history. Its purpose is to assist college and university history faculties in their efforts to offer students a coherent curriculum and to strengthen their claims for a central place for history in their institutions' programs. A brief summary of existing conditions…

This paper discusses plays and companion art pieces suitable for use in the United States history classroom. After a poster from a production of Max Frisch's "Biedermann und die Brandstifter," the paper presents a list of 18 questions ("lenses") for the study of plays with a historical connection; a list of 15 plays for…

A volume in the Scholastic Homework Reference Series, this document provides fourth to sixth grade students and their parents with the information they need to complete U.S. history assignments. With the help of Dial-A-Teacher, which has operated a telephone helpline since 1979, this American history reference guide presents easy-to-understand…

Developed through a broad-based national consensus building process, the National History Standards project has involved working toward agreement both on the larger purposes of history in the school curriculum and on the more specific history understandings and thinking processes that all students should have equal opportunity to acquire over 12…

This volume examines the history of the State of Hawaii. The book is organized, as most history books are, chronologically; however, it also is arranged thematically. Four aspects of Hawaiian history are divided into three time periods. Unit 1, "Precontact to 1900," addresses that era from the political, economic, social, and land…

This special theme issue of the OAH Magazine of History contains articles that present a variety of perspectives on the Columbian Quincentenary--the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyages of discovery. The articles include: "Exploring the Columbian Quincentenary through Historiography" (John Hebert); "Science, Religion,…

This document, from the lesson plan series, "Teaching with Historic Places," examines the Native Americans who lived on the plains along the Knife River in what is now North Dakota. Following an introductory section, the document sets out student objectives, teaching activities, readings, and illustrations. The teaching activity…

This document, part of the lesson plan series, "Teaching with Historic Places," examines the role of rice farming in U.S. history. The lesson, which focuses upon the era of the Southern plantations, includes sections setting out student objectives and teaching activities, as well as notes on visiting the sites. There are subsections of…

This volume of essays is collected and reconfigured from more than 150 original speeches and papers of Milton Meltzer. Throughout the book, Meltzer makes a case for the value of good writing and the importance and utility of literacy instruction using nonfiction. Meltzer addresses the need for better-written history texts and encourages students…