Get started with an innovative approach to teaching history that develops literacy and higher-order thinking skills, connects the past to students' lives, and meets state and national standards (grades 7-12). Now in a second edition, this popular book provides an introductory unit to help teachers build a trustful classroom climate; over 70…

Learn how to design history lessons that foster students' knowledge, skills, and dispositions for civic engagement. Each section of this practical resource introduces a key element of civic engagement, such as defending the rights of others, advocating for change, taking action when problems are observed, compromising to promote reform, and…

Looking for social studies adventures to help students find connections to democratic citizenship? Look no further! This book provides just the answer teachers need for engaging students in field trips as researching learners with emphasis on interdisciplinary social studies plus skills in collecting and reporting data gathered from field…

Reviews the political history surrounding the development of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Includes a shortened and simplified version of the major articles of the Ordinance. Identifies three instructional resources for teaching about the Northwest Ordinance in secondary schools. (JDH)

Teaching about the Amistad case provides correlations to the National Standards for History, and Civics and Government. An overview of the events of 1839 is given in this lesson plan. Seven student activities include reading and using primary source documents, writing journal articles, viewing the movie "Amistad," and giving…

This book presents a teaching unit that focuses on efforts to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957--efforts that resulted in a crisis that historian Taylor Branch once described as "the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War." The unit explores civic choices--the decisions people make as…

This curriculum guide for North Carolina social studies teachers stresses the fact that social studies traditionally has accepted the dominant burden of preparing young people to inherit the right and the responsibility of effective citizenship. It is the single curriculum area whose subject matter is the entirety of human experience. The sequence…

Argues that teaching about the United States Constitution can stimulate thinking about key political issues and citizenship values. Offers a list of constitutional issues and questions which students and teachers should address. Concludes that continued study and discussion are essential to the preservation of the ideals contained in the…

Summarizes the events leading up to and the investigation that followed the Watergate break-in. Presents a lesson plan using primary documents that allows students to explore the workings of congressional investigations, the key figures in the scandal, and the arguments of the different participants. Includes copies of the documents. (DSK)

Descriptions of lessons within each of three computer-based curricula for high school students (U.S. government, U.S. history, and introductory economics) are presented in this instructor's manual. Each curriculum is divided into lesson units and covers basic concepts. The reading-level is approximately tenth grade. Each unit consists of a pretest…

Focuses on using an integrated approach to furthering both literacy and social studies goals. Provides an annotated bibliography of children's literature that helps students become informed citizens. Includes suggested activities and discussion questions with each entry and links these activities to goals listed in the national standards. (DSK)

Discusses rules used in the House of Representatives from 1836 to 1844 to suppress discussions of slavery. Presents a lesson using primary documents that allows students to assess the role of the "gag rule" in creating sectional tension and to follow the transformation of an individual in the growing dispute. Includes documents. (DSK)

"Ordinary Americans" covers 500 years of U.S. history, from 1492 to 1992, in almost 200 readings, plus scores of archival photographs. The book relates the traditional events of U.S. history, but as an ordinary person lived it. Thus, the story of the Boston Tea Party is told not by Samuel Adams, but by George Hewes, a cobbler. The story of the…

Provides an annotated bibliography of instructional materials for teaching about the United States Constitution. The materials span the grades K-12 and are drawn from non-commercial publishers and documents in the ERIC system. Included is a list of 12 organizations which provide technical assistance and instructional resources. (JDH)

This guidebook proposes a different way of teaching history: start from today and keep asking questions. The guidebook's theory is that as students investigate possible answers, they make connections across miles and centuries. It contends that, along the way, they experience that essential insight of the social studies point of view has…