The book, "History of the Okinawans in North America," is reviewed by its translator, who also summarizes the history and culture of the Okinawan community in California. Okinawans long considered themselves an oppressed minority among Japanese and desire a separate history in order to preserve the community and its cultural heritage.…

This learning kit begins with a glossary of terms to help students learn about California Indians and their food. The kit explains that California Indians were the first people to live in the area now known as California, and that these tribes differed in the languages they spoke, the regions they lived in, and the foods that they ate. It explains…

For this kindergarten classroom activity, students are asked to pretend they have just won a trip to four historical sites: (1) Lincoln Memorial; (2) Mount Rushmore; (3) White House; and (4) Statue of Liberty. The activity instructs the students to keep a journal of the trip (taken via the Internet) so that a presentation can be given to the class…

To raise the literacy achievement of secondary school students, some schools train their whole faculties in general reading and writing strategies to implement across the curriculum. Content-area teachers often resist this approach, however, fearing that setting aside time for literacy instruction will dilute the academic rigor of mathematics,…

Anniversaries of major historical events, such as the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, "Brown v. Board of Education," provide social studies teachers with the opportunity to connect their classroom study to broader public conversations about the event and its significance. This article reports on one such…

Unit Three in an American history curriculum prepared for the Los Angeles high schools is concerned with the westward movement. Discussed are the early explorers and trappers, the acquisition of new lands, California's early history, and the settlement of the Great Plains. The chapters include a summary reading, several activities, some enrichment…

In this activity students (in pairs) become explorers and map readers tracing the best land routes to travel between select U.S. cities. They learn who were the first known explorers who broke the trails and who were the first groups of people to follow the trails. The activity tasks each pair of students with instructions to determine the…

This annual meeting site guide is the fourth to be published by the National Council for Geographic Education as part of the "Pathways in Geography" series. The chapters illustrate some of the interactions between people and place that have helped shape the Santa Barbara (California) region over the centuries. The book includes an…

This guide is intended for Bay Area (California) teachers who are interested in incorporating information on California Indians into their unit on California state history. The guide's purpose is to list resources in the Bay Area to help this unit come alive for students. Considerable care has been taken in the guide to choose only those resources…

Attempts to explain in extremely abbreviated form what caused the evacuation and how the Japanese minority reacted to their exclusion and rejection, focusing on three general causes: collective dispositions, situational factors, and collective interaction. (Author/JM)

A teacher educator who prepares students for teaching (and teaching about) culturally diverse students found her class hardly able to identify key names and phrases associated with civil rights/multicultural education issues. She recommends more emphasis on cultural diversity in the education of teachers, given rapid demographic change. (DM)

This essay recreates the exciting Latin music and dance scenes of post-World War II Southern California, showing how Mexican Americans produced and consumed a range of styles and, in the process, articulated their complex cultural sensibilities. By participating in a Spanish-language expressive culture that was sophisticated and cosmopolitan,…

This report continues the California Postsecondary Education Commission's ongoing examination of the nexus between postsecondary education and workforce development, focusing on the projected needs for skills and knowledge in a 21st century global economy. This is the second in a series of policy briefs developed for that project. The first brief…

On Wednesday, April 18, 1906, an earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter magnitude scale and lasting 48 seconds, erupted along the San Andreas fault with a flash point originating in the San Francisco Bay area. The force of the earthquake tore apart buildings and roads, causing water and gas mains to twist and break. The resulting effects of the…