In 1990 the New York State Board of Regents approved a recommendation that the teaching of history be inclusive and reflect U.S. pluralism by including the contributions of all minorities to the development of the country. While New York is often viewed as an urban state and does have large minority populations in its urban areas, there are 141…

This publication is intended for teachers bringing a class to visit the National Archives in Washington, D.C., for a workshop on primary documents. The National Archives serves as the repository for all federal records of enduring value. Primary sources are vital teaching tools because they actively engage the student's imagination so that he or…

This lesson from the "Teaching with Historic Places" series is based closely on the National Register of Historic Places nomination file on Attu Battlefield and U.S. Army and Navy Airfields on Attu, a National Historic landmark. Materials for students include: (1) a reading outlining the Japanese occupation and U.S. recapture of Attu;…

This report documents the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) special pilot study of group assessment. In 1994, NAEP administered U.S. History projects to a limited number of students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of group assessment, and to gain practical experience in the design, development,…

This booklet is designed to help teachers at all grade levels put the recommendations of "Building a History Curriculum" into practice. The volume offers suggestions and guidelines for curriculum development in world history. The guide is divided into two parts. Part 1, "Introduction," offers: (1) "Guidelines for Planning History Instruction in…

This occasional paper discusses and examines the role of museums as an essential part of history education. The report describes how the nature of museum exhibitions have changed in presenting history to the public. Museums offer a wider variety of presentations and interpretations than the linear, chronological history of years past. New research…

This study reports on the historical conceptualization among Finnish 12-13 year-olds who were given a projective task to yield historical thinking. The case study examines expressions the subjects used and which were studied qualitatively, using "chunks of meaning" as units of analysis, in regard to both their meaning- content and their…

This study examined the effectiveness of two approaches to enhancing the reading comprehension of learning disabled students in the social studies content area. An approach using the graphic organizer in the form of visual displays was compared to the traditional method in which students were presented content through lecture, text, and linear…

While little attention has been given in historiography to the language of historical narrative, and the role language plays in portraying history, the discipline of linguistics, and particularly the subdisciplines of discourse analysis and functional linguistics, have given increasing attention to the discourse of history. Recently, a group of…

This paper discusses research on activity structure design in a project-based science classroom and efforts to adapt designs from this setting to an after-school program involving historical inquiry. Common activity structures such as classroom lessons and Initiation-Reply-Evaluation (I-R-E) sequences are important cultural tools that help…

This final report describes the activities and accomplishments of a three-year grant which enabled the Medici Foundation to organize a series of workshops at which groups of history faculty from small four-year colleges, community colleges, and high schools explored uses of film materials in classroom teaching, especially use of the 5-part public…

This supplementary teaching unit provides students with the opportunity to explore freedom of expression by focusing on Emma Goldman (1869-1940), a major figure in the history of American radicalism and feminism. In a period when the expression of controversial ideas was dangerous, Goldman insisted on her right to challenge conventions. She…

This volume seeks to answer the question "What history should schools teach?" It makes a case for why the teaching of history is vital, and features an interpretation of both U.S. and world history. The chapter on U.S. history is organized into 14 units that correspond to major historical eras: (1) Three Worlds Meet (1450-1600); (2) The Colonial…

These documents are designed to help seventh grade students in New York State understand the role of women and the structure and function of the family in both New York and U.S. history. Students are introduced to the state's first two first ladies: Cornelia Tappen Clinton (1744-1800) and Sarah Livingston Jay (1756-1802). Between 1777 and 1804,…

A high school teacher of history and U.S. Government discusses: the theoretical basis for promoting whole-brained thinking among her students; classroom research she conducted to determine the brain dominance of her students; results of implementation of activities designed to develop more whole-brained thinking in her students; and practical…