In this article, Sohyun An presents a lesson that she was invited to teach at an elementary school in Georgia for the celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. As a social studies teacher educator and mother of Asian American children attending the school, she has worked with some of the teachers to advance critical…

On August 18, 2020, The United States will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which gave women the vote. Belle La Follette played an important role in helping women gain the right to vote guaranteed in this amendment. She advocated for women in her home state of Wisconsin and across the country. This article…

When the author became a public-school teacher and decided to teach second-grade students about Jane Goodall, he could not find literature appropriate for seven-year-olds. Children's books about her lifework simply did not exist. So, the author used an encyclopedic entry and the knowledge he had from the documentary to form his own text, which was…

The "College, Career, and Civil Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards" guides teachers to initiate complex inquiries by sparking students' disciplinary literacy and critical analysis of rich sources. With effective scaffolding and engaging content, elementary students can explore and contextualize complex historical…

A troubling observation is that--outside of Black History Month in February and Women's History Month in March, during which students are acquiring some knowledge about noteworthy women and minorities--teachers in every grade level often teach about the same figures rather than expanding their lessons to include less-conventional or…

Biography is a popular approach to history education in the younger grades, especially when teaching units of study during Women's History Month, which is March. A biography-centered approach, however, can be problematic when such lessons are not tied to any context, promoting the misconception that individuals create social change in isolation.…

Stories about Abraham Lincoln have captivated children for generations. The Lincoln story has taken on almost mythic proportions, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction or exaggeration. Young readers never tire of talking about Lincoln's early days--from his birth in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky to his childhood in…

Integrating digital video into history lessons can generate enthusiasm and excitement among students about learning history. While some students perceive history to be dull or boring due to lack of personal relevance or applicability, the authors found that creating digital video biographies during a unit of study on the American Revolution…

This issue's "Middle Level Learning" section presents two articles. The first is "Harriet Tubman: Emancipate Yourself!" (by Steven S. Lapham and Peter Hanes). "Argo," which won the 2012 Oscar for best picture, was about a daring escape of six U.S. diplomats from Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. Now imagine the…

Reading, writing, and discussing biographies provide unique opportunities for teachers and students. Critical thinking can be developed through questioning, predicting, and analyzing various biographical mediums--texts, photographs and illustrations, book reviews, websites, films, news articles, etc.--to learn more about an individual's life…

In this article, the author demonstrates how students can use biographies in developing their own personal strengths of character. Because biographies raise issues in context, they provide excellent material for thinking about character traits. Books like those discussed in this article show how people living in actual situations made decisions…

Several new books detailing various aspects of the lives and accomplishments of Wilbur and Orville Wright were written to mark the centennial of their famous 1902 entry into manned flight. This article describes eight books that are appropriate for early- to intermediate-level readers: (1) "Touching the Sky. The Flying Adventures of Wilbur and…

Recently the author was working with a group of elementary bilingual teachers along a remote section of the Texas/Mexico border. She had been asked to facilitate the development of their social studies curriculum for their new dual-language program. She realized that although these teachers had experience working with culturally and linguistically…

Understanding multiple perspectives--how different people see one another and events now and in the past--is often cited as a goal of social studies educators. This article describes one way to encourage children to consider a variety of perspectives on a person's life story, using a literary model as a guide to thinking about the past. The book…

Describes a biography writing project in which second- and fifth-grade students interview each other and write biographical sketches. Explains that this project helps to develop students' reading and writing skills, uses cross-age mentoring, and introduces students to biographical research and writing. Includes a list of ten biographies for…