"A Place at the Table" contains a teacher's guide, a 40-minute videotape and a 144-page textbook. The kit is designed to help students explore the historical, ongoing struggle to realize the national ideals of freedom and equality. This teacher's guide comprises 13 lesson plans (one for the video and one for each of the 12 chapters in…

This theme issue of "The Goldfinch" focuses on music as an art using sound in time to express ideas and emotions and contains articles featuring appreciations of some of Iowa's renowned musical artists. The first article gives an overview of music in Iowa's history. The next article describes Antonin Dvorak's summer sojourn in Spillville…

Contains a poster appealing to immigrants in the 1920s to attend classes at one of four Americanization schools to learn English. Teaching strategies to help teachers use the poster in secondary U.S. history classes are included. The poster is a primary source material from the National Archives. (RM)

Presents an exercise that can help students understand the concept of national interest and deal better with foreign policy issues. Students use a chart with information about the United States and 10 other countries to answer questions such as what criteria the United States should use to select allies. (SR)

This set of social studies resource materials was designed to help Oklahoma teachers supplement or replace curriculum used for kindergarten through sixth grade. Each of the seven sections in the document presents a topic for an elementary grade: Myself, Kindergarten; My Group, Grade 1; My Neighborhood, Grade 2; My City, Grade 3; My State, Grade 4;…

Outlines a project dealing with Cuban immigration within the context of U.S. foreign and immigration policy. Examines how Cubans have adapted to and affected their American communities. Discusses how instruction for the project utilized television, textbooks, and other printed materials. (BSR)

Examines the events leading to and immediately following the declaration of war on Mexico in 1846. Includes the second and third pages of Abraham Lincoln's "Spot Resolutions" and presents teaching suggestions for interpreting the document and assessing public opinion. (GEA)

Presents a lesson for secondary students which teaches that the U.S. Constitution has changed in a variety of ways and that it has a direct effect upon the lives of citizens. Provides a worksheet and a lecture outline covering three methods of constitutional change and Supreme Court cases such as Dred Scott and Brown vs. Board of Education. (GEA)

This theme issue of "Goldfinch" focuses on the definition of 'hero' and uses examples from Iowa's history to demonstrate the definition. Heroes of all ages have appeared in legends and real life, facing different challenges in the circumstances of life. The heroes profiled are ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. Those…

This textbook is an American history course intended for upper grammar grades and junior high school. It covers the time from European colonization to the post-World War I era.

This History of the United States has been prepared in order to meet the views of that large and increasing class of teachers who are aiming at definite results in this study. This manual is designed as a working book, and hence discards both the high-flown narrative style and the meaningless details of the majority of school histories. The text…

Describes how most groups that have settled in the United States came to fulfill their dreams. We can be optimistic about the future and the American dream if we accept the fact that we will have to live with fewer material goods and share more of what we now have. (RM)

Examines what the American dream means to ethnic Americans. Specifically discussed are: (1) how official documents of the dream have dealt with ethnicity; (2) how ethnic groups have interpreted the dream; (3) how the 1960s redefined the dream; and (4) the future of the dream in terms of changing American ethnicity. (RM)

To enliven her class' study of the American West, the author had students write letters as if they were pioneers heading west. The results were developed into a school play, an excerpt of which forms the bulk of this article. (SJL)

Readings and activities in this elementary school unit are designed to introduce students to Amish culture. Specific reference is made to the Amish communities in Iowa. Four lessons focus on the history of the Amish in the United States, Amish family life, community life, and customs (such as clothing and occupations) in modern Amish communities.…