First graders engaged in an extended historical inquiry. Close readings of secondary and primary sources evoked rich class discussion. Scaffolding directed students' scrutiny of secondary sources for historical gaps; they ably detected source and intent within the primary sources. Students articulated newly constructed understandings through…

After three decades of scholarship describing why and how students ought to be taught to think historically, this study asks what happens when they are. Ten high school students from a school that incorporated historical thinking into all history coursework repeated the think-aloud task from Wineburg's 1991 study of the cognitive processes…

Metacom's War, also known as King Phillip's War, sets a pattern of national expansion through displacement of native people that echoes throughout American history. Helping students further understand this war through the examination of Mary Rowlandson's primary document provides educators and students with an opportunity to delve deeper into the…

Students in elementary gifted class use discovery to learn about life in industrial New England. Taking multiple days to analyze this topic, students use artifacts (chairs), discussion, and primary sources to explore the politics of the 1830s. They examine the workings of Hitchcockville, Connecticut, and a Massachusetts Shaker colony. Students…

Documents history of Lowell, Massachusetts, from the careful planning of town, the recruitment of farm family daughters into the labor force, the demise of the town, and Lowell's subsequent regeneration as a high technology center in the 1970s and 1980s. Suggests that the study of this town's history can illuminate the study of current U.S. urban…

This collection of essays and short stories is designed to provide a glimpse of life in the factory for the women who worked in the cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1840s. The book, which contains two primary sources (i.e., materials written by contemporaries), and three secondary sources, begins with a brief introduction to the…

This lesson, which is based on a field trip to Lowell, Massachusetts, focuses on Lowell's preeminence as a textile weaving center beginning late in the 18th century. The lesson offers advice for managing the tour group, provides historical background on Lowell, the textile industry, and the United States and the world in general at the time, and…

This field trip program, three 45-minute hands-on workshops and a 30-45-minute interpretive tour, provides students with the opportunity to explore the many ways that the Industrial Revolution significantly changed modes of U.S. work, lifestyle, and land use. The workshops complement one another by exploring different aspects of these changes.…

Discusses the Salem witchcraft trials as a reflection of the social and moral values of colonial Massachusetts and New France. Traces the history of the trials. Describes other instances of witchcraft and folk superstitions during that same historical period. Provides primary sources of a picture, map, and excerpts from letters pertaining to the…

Examines a primary source-based kit that describes the life of a young woman factory worker in early 19th-century New England. The kit includes five document sets, utilizing maps, newspaper articles, deeds, letters, poems, and other artifacts. The document sets illustrate various topics including mill life and personal life. (MJP)

This field trip program consists of a 60-minute interpretive tour, a 90-minute hands-on workshop, and a 20-minute slide show at the Lowell, Massachusetts "Invention Factories." The program explores invention and its significance to the modern world. The workshop complements the tour by bringing the significance of historic resources to…

This field trip program, a 75-minute interpretive tour and a 90-minute workshop, provides students with the opportunity to explore what it was like for newcomers from many different cultures to move to an industrial city. The workshop complements the tour by bringing the significance of historic resources to life. The tour focuses on the…

This field trip program consists of a 90-minute interpretive tour and a 90-minute hands-on workshop. The tour and workshop explore the role of water power in the Industrial Revolution. On the tour, students discover firsthand the unique resources of Lowell, Massachusetts, and the Park, while the workshop brings these historic resources to life as…

Presents a lesson plan that focuses on witchcraft in the Atlantic world. Describes each of the four sections of the lesson that encompasses learning about terms and religious views on witchcraft to the history of witchcraft in New England, in the United States, and the Salem (Massachusetts) witchcraft trials. (CMK)

This field trip program, a 90-minute interpretive tour and a 90-minute hands-on workshop, provides students with the opportunity to explore the causes and nature of the conflict between workers and owners which grew out of the Industrial Revolution. The workshop complements the tour by bringing the significance of historic resources to life as…