To contribute to social studies' and history teachers' bank of resources, the book list presented in this article was compiled by the Education Outreach Program (EOP) of the National Arab American Women Association (NAAWA). These books provide an alternative voice and a more colorful picture of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with…

What should U.S. schools teach about U.S. actions abroad when students in the classroom have varied or conflicting memories, ideas, and experiences? Should schools teach the dominant narrative of U.S. benevolence and innocence in world affairs so as to instill patriotism in children? What kind of patriotism are we concerned with here? Or should…

Oslo Accords have stringently underscored that both rivalries, the Palestinians and the Israelis, must abstain from incitement to terror and violence. Their educational systems, consequently, have to refrain from convulsive, fundamentalist, and heinous skirmishes leading to stalled reconciliation. History school textbooks are deemed, from both…

A comprehensive study has yet to be carried out depending on the historical environment particular to the Elementary Schools in Northern Cyprus. The aim of this study is hence to determine whether the coverage of historical environment subjects in elementary school social sciences textbooks is absorbed or not by the 4th and 5th Grades in the…

History labs invite students to examine primary and secondary source documents related to an essential question. The sources used in a history lab should represent multiple perspectives so that students are aware of the varying accounts of and opinions about historic events. By being exposed to multiple perspectives, students also learn about…

School segregation and inequity are deep-rooted realities in U.S. society. Despite historical efforts at integration, too many schools are de facto segregated, and those serving mostly students of color are routinely under-resourced when compared to those servicing mostly white students. Teachers and students can struggle to talk about this…

The purpose of this article is to explore three fifth grade students' misremembering of the beginnings of American history as a form of mediated action, active agents using cultural tools provided by a sociocultural setting to represent and interpret the past (Wertsch, 2000). Data come from a 10-month qualitative case study of history instruction…

The authors investigate how an integrative approach can be applied to teaching of different disciplines at school. Interdisciplinarity can be defined as a process of answering a question, solving a problem or addressing a topic that is too broad to be dealt with by a single discipline. In addition to an integrated understanding of the topic, the…

In this study a group of elementary teachers use illustrations, rather than written text, to introduce their students to the peoples and places of the ancient silk routes. The illustrations are from two picture books; "Marco Polo," written by Gian Paolo Cesaerani and illustrated by Piero Ventura (1977), and "We're Riding on a…

Decision making is one of the essential skills advocated by the National Council for the Social Studies for effective citizenship in a democratic society. Leaders in any society make decisions that influence many lives. In a democratic society, we expect that deductive and inductive reasoning guide decisions made for the common good. However, what…

In this article, the author points out that in this increasingly visual world, outstanding films can engage classes and lift the curtain on the cultures and modern history of Latin America. He recommends some of the most gripping and perceptive films on this topic, and offers advice on how teachers can provide the background to these dramas and…

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…

Using an approach based on a Harvard study that found "when the whole body is involved, the number of brain cells brought to the learning activity doubles," the author offers over one hundred kinesthetic activities for classroom use. Activities are organized by content area, include directions for number of players, objective, and…

"Differentiating Instruction With Menus Grades 3-5" offers teachers everything they need to create a student-centered learning environment based on choice. Addressing the four main subject areas (language arts, math, science, and social studies) and the major concepts taught within these areas, these books provide a number of different types of…

This description of the plan of civic education in the Indianapolis elementary schools has been prepared because of a growing, general interest in the subject, and because of the numerous inquiries as to existing methods of organized elementary civic training. The Indianapolis teachers and school authorities would be the last to claim that they…