Discusses the sparse coverage of religion in United States history textbooks. Presents four such textbooks' explanations of the stories of Christopher Columbus and the Massachusetts Bay Colonies. Underscores the relative absence of detail about the religious underpinnings of the two historical situations. Identifies other U.S. historical events…

Describes the first map to divide the globe into five symmetrical climatic zones. Discusses Ambrosius Macrobius's map as a statement of earthly limitations rather than physical reality. Suggests its significance for teaching world history is as an example of deductive cartography that influenced and challenged late medieval Christian thought. (DK)

Presents an annotated bibliography of nine ERIC documents on the history of U.S. foreign policy. Includes teacher resource materials and instructional guides. (CFR)

Discusses the role of sports in U.S. history. Describes primary sources and scholarly articles available for use in integrating sports history into history courses. Addresses questions about sport and society in the United States from the Puritans through the present day. Suggests that sports have been used to limit upward mobility and maintain…

Presents a lesson plan in which George Bellows's painting "Both Members of this Club" is analyzed as a historical document illustrating the Progressive movement. Suggests that the lesson can introduce students to a different form of historical communication. Includes background information and procedures for approaching the lesson.…

Presents a lesson plan using original documents of the wartime correspondence between President Franklin Roosevelt and baseball commissioner Kenesaw Landis. Explores the status of baseball during World War II to determine the importance of sports in U.S. culture. Includes background information and copies of the correspondence. (DK)

Describes two video discs for classroom use. Explains that the discs present collections of still images representing Western civilization and non-European world history. Suggests that the discs be used for individual student reports or in cooperative learning groups. Discusses hardware necessary for using the materials. (DK)

Presents ideas and activities to be used in a course on the history and systems of psychology. Explains that the students prepared topic summaries to demonstrate knowledge rather that formal testing. Describes projects such as a reaction journal, intellectual genealogy, textbook comparison, and multiple timelines. (DK)

Presents study results of fifth graders' attitudes toward history. Includes interviews with the student subjects concerning what they know about history, what they want to know, and reasons to study history. Concludes that fifth graders are interested in history and familiar with the past but vague on the interpretive nature of history. (DK)

Discusses the report of a subcommittee of the Committee of Ten dealing with history, civil government, and the political economy. Describes the makeup of the committee, its goals, and its findings on ways to improve the school curriculum. Explains that the committee advocated a broad social studies approach to the teaching of history. (DK)

Presents a lesson plan on the San Antonio River missions. Suggests that students will learn about the role of Spanish missions in the history of the Southwest, the psychological and cultural factors that led Indians to accept mission life, and Spanish contributions to agriculture through irrigation systems. Includes student readings, maps, and…

Examines the sources of structural metaphors in the knowledge base of three experienced secondary teachers who used the metaphors to construct content meaning for students. The article looks at how the teachers perceived, organized, and gave meaning to themselves, their experiences, and their worlds. (SM)

The California History-Social Science Framework seems less prescriptive than some other state curriculum guides and more open to individual teacher decision making. However, the framework's main audience appears to be textbook publishing companies. Reforms will be implemented not by knowledgeable teachers, but by sanctioned textbooks aligned with…

This article examines issues in teaching history to pupils with severe learning difficulties (SLD). It argues that use of statutory tests, inaccessible to many SLD pupils, restricts curriculum development; that history should start with material from the most recent past and work backwards; and that history must be made accessible without…

Outlines a method of using Charles Dickens' novel "Great Expectations" as a part of a history unit covering Victorian England. Shows how history instructors might use the book and the film version to broaden student views of reading. (HB)