This book offers the tools teachers need to get started with a more thoughtful and compelling approach to teaching history, one that develops literacy and higher-order thinking skills, connects the past to students' lives today, and meets social studies 3C standards and most state standards (grades 6-12). The author provides over 90 primary…

Best-selling author Marcia L. Tate brings her trademark "dendrite-growing" teaching strategies to this practitioner-friendly collection of brain-compatible methods for engaging K-12 students in social studies. Included are 20 proven strategies and more than 200 grade-leveled activities for applying them. Teachers will find concrete ways to…

This paper describes a project which was set up to provide secondary students with an opportunity to examine, analyze, and reflect on the role of children and youth in the first half-century of the American republic and draw meaningful comparisons with their own experience in contemporary American society. Thirty-five students, enrolled in a…

This book describes how theater can create an impetus for productive learning across the curriculum. Dorothy Heathcote's "mantle of the expert" approach is discussed in which teachers and students explore, in role, the knowledge they already have about a problem or task while making new discoveries along the way. The book also presents a…

This paper is one of a series of ERIC/ChESS publications intended to give practical tips on teaching various topics and disciplines in the precollege social studies curriculum. The tips offered in this publication, written by seven authors, are intended to help teacheres deal with both content and teaching strategies in American history. Each of…

Casting students in grades 5 through 12 in the roles of reporters, lawyers, and detectives at the scene of a crime, this interdisciplinary activity involves participants in the intrigue and drama of crime investigation. Using a hands-on, step-by-step approach, students work in teams to investigate a crime and solve a mystery. Through role-playing…

This book provides guidance on high-impact teaching practices, offering first-hand accounts of award-winning teachers. Nine chapters include: (1) "Award-Winning Words of Wisdom," with topics: "High School Teaching Tips" (Jenny W. Holmstrom); "What Is a Good Teacher?" (Carey Jenkins); "Student Creativity"…