Offers a review of various authors' interpretations of historical mindedness and perspective. Lists ten educational outcomes achieved through the development of historical mindedness and concludes that its development provides a frame of reference in which a more balanced and comprehensive view of life is cultivated. (JDH)

Discusses and gives illustrations of how to use comic books to teach history. Explores the historical background of comic books and includes detailed procedures for helping students develop their own history comics. Praises this approach as a way to enliven secondary social studies and motivate students. (GEA)

Dime novels, a form of American/Canadian subliterature that gained popularity from 1840 to 1910, entertained with fast-paced action, high adventure, and ethically uplifting stories emphasizing the triumph of good over evil. Students can approach North American history creatively and practically by locating, collecting, and organizing information…

Presents a plan for using melodrama for teaching about the Progressive era. Argues that the melodrama can be a method for historical research. Explains procedures, guidelines on design, and evaluation methods. Includes a sample melodrama, outline handout, observation form, and review form. (SG)

Reviews how the popular stereotypes of American Indians have changed since the colonization of North America. Once seen as noble savages by European settlers, the popular stereotypes changed to become less and less positive as colonization advanced. Urges teachers to vigorously challenge the stereotypes and negative images. (JDH)

Describes an activity in which high school students learn about the Depression through the Pop Art of that era. Activity has students interview a relative or other person who lived at the time of the depression, produce five drawings depicting the experiences related to them by the interviewee, and exhibit the drawings in the classroom. (AEM)

Provides classroom procedures for adapting the nineteenth-century-style song slide show to middle school history instruction. Suggests student production of song slide shows as individual or group projects. Argues that the activity can capture the drama of history and stimulate student curiosity about the past. (SG)

Describes historical background of the "Living Newspaper" theater, the procedure in using the genre as a classroom activity, and the evaluation of the activity for student learning. Presents an example of play design and an observation-debriefing form, concluding that this medium stimulates student curiosity about the past and may be…

The purpose of the study was to discover various reasons for teaching United States history in the secondary classroom. The information was intended to assist teachers in identifying, designing, and formulating their own rationales for classroom use. Two questions provided the focus for the study: (1) what rationales for teaching history were…

The document provides United States history teachers with suggested teaching techniques from a variety of popular culture genre used during the thirties to help secondary students examine various social, cultural, economic, and political events, that encompass the Great Depression era. The popular culture forms described and discussed as…

Describes how 4 historical, popular, culture mediums may be used to help stimulate student curiosity about the past and provide practice in using and understanding the historical method. Highlighting the slave experience, the mediums are: (1) the antislave almanac; (2) the dime novel; (3) the moving panorama; and (4) the propaganda play.…

Covering teaching, learning activities on the pre-college level, this document reviews more than 200 published articles, chapters, and monographs to examine ideas held by those who teach history. Descriptive statements representing goals, objectives, and rationales relative to history were constructed for the purpose of examining these concepts.…

Reviews the origins of melodrama, essential components for instructional purposes, and key elements that help melodrama succeed. Suggests methods for implementation of content-focused melodramas in history classes and methods to evaluate student understanding of the content. (RS)

Discusses the use of melodrama as a method of historical research that provides students with an opportunity to study historical events and themes. Presents an activity based on the civil rights movement. Includes an example and handouts for creating a melodrama in class. (DK)

Discusses the use of a "crankie," a simple story device made from a cardboard box, in studying women's history in the high school classroom. Presents an example of a crankie story which focuses on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery (Alabama) bus boycott. Describes an evaluation process and assesses the activity's instructional value. (GEA)