With contributions from leading experts across disciplinary fields, this book explores best practices from the field's most notable researchers, as well as important historically based and politically focused challenges to a field whose impact has reached an important crossroads. The comprehensive and powerfully critical analysis considers the…

Traces the history of Arthurdale, West Virginia, a homestead community established by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Division of Subsistence Homesteads in 1933. Includes Arthurdale's community projects, activities, and schools. (RW)

Recommends the use of cemeteries as the focus of student research in secondary social studies. Presents methods for initiating such a project and guidance for appropriate student behavior. Includes a list of suggested activities for cemetery studies. (CFR)

Completing the trilogy of local Amityville history written entirely by high school students using interviews, local newspapers, and documents, this journal contains 11 articles discussing the social, political, cultural, and educational scene of the community. The articles are: "De Facto Segregation in the Amityville School…

Recognizing the importance of studying the community to develop a historical perspective in students, this lesson module tells the story of Fort Wayne, Indiana from the first Indian settlements to the present. It is written in narrative form and each segment of the story contains learning activities to reinforce and enhance it. Learning activities…

Describes community assessment component of four-part training model designed to prepare doctoral students to carry out mental health promotion projects in rural settings. Incorporates windshield survey, ratings of community impressions, archival data, community leadership analysis, key informant interviews, person along-the-street interviews,…

This unit was developed to help students gain a sense of personal identity by examining their heritage. This is accomplished through a study of their genealogical beginnings, their county, and their ancestors' way of life. Part I of the unit engages students in activities investigating their background such as writing an autobiography,…

This booklet describes how students and other researchers can use historical resources in their community to explore the history of their school and to determine how that history relates to community-wide and statewide developments. Although the manual is written primarily from the perspective of the public schools, the underlying theme of the…

This manual presents a sequence of assignments to encourage students to commit themselves to a writing project in which the content is derived from their own purposeful investigations of subjects within their local community. Introductory information explains how the instructional sequence works, indicating that: (1) students are asked to…

This document presents a program designed to provide students with a comprehensive and interesting way to study their community. Although developed for secondary students, the program activities, with slight modification, should be equally successful with intermediate-level students. Using the community as the area to be studied, a major focus of…

Secondary level student historians used oral history interviews, local records, newspapers, and personal events to depict the story of their town, Amityville, New York. Students chose their own topics, researched available materials, and wrote the papers. Many of the articles are enhanced with interesting local photography. An illuminating picture…

Designed for inclusion in an eighth grade course on U.S. history or civics, this unit introduces local students to the history of Alexandria (Virginia) through a study of its buildings and urban growth. By examining factors which have changed the community (technology, transportation, economic influences) as well as the relationship between…