One spring afternoon, a group of young black students enter a local eating establishment with one modest desire--to sit with friends and enjoy a cup of coffee. They wait patiently, but are only served dirty looks, cold shoulders, and some choice words. Such an experience was not uncommon in Chicago in the early 1940s. Segregation, though illegal,…

Medical doctor and geologist Dr. Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden selected more than 30 scientists, technical personnel, and artists, including photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran, to join the survey of the Yellowstone region in northwest Wyoming territory. Thomas Moran was an accomplished artist when he joined the survey to…

Narratives encompass ways of thinking historically and several skills of the historian, and Tom Holt believes it is imperative that educators teach--and their students learn--how to construct historical narratives. Understanding and constructing history as narratives opens up the historical project for students. Moreover, demonstrating how…

Developing disciplinary literacy in history requires that classrooms become an environment where students can engage in discursive practices typical of the profession. Disciplinary literacy refers to the specialized ways of reading and writing used in history to construct historical arguments and ways of reasoning. Learning history includes using…

This article explores a two-year professional development initiative with four state geographic alliances. Professional development planners, whether planning for a large- or small-scale initiative or one with unlimited or limited funding, will benefit from learning about this successful professional development activity and how the impact in the…

The purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which Opportunity to Learn (OTL), is associated with students' achievement in US History. Opportunity to Learn stems from the basic premise that there is an important relationship between the quality and frequency of classroom instruction and students' levels of academic success. The authors…

Populism is a relevant issue in the teaching of American history. Historically, the standard interpretation of Populism perceived the movement as favorable. How educators handle conflicting views of Populism is important in engaging students in critical thinking. This article describes the history of American Populism, explains how Populism can be…

This paper examines the connection between translation and narratives of history, with particular attention to Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" and its Spanish version, "La otra historia de los Estados Unidos". It is argued that translation interacts with history in many ways: translation is fundamental to history and, in…

In this paper we aim to describe how secondary school teachers explain multicausal historical events. To that end, we recorded and analyzed seven classes on "The discovery and colonization of America". The results show that secondary school teachers do not simply deal with history as a catalog of actions, characters and dates. On the contrary,…

This paper explores the relationship between the teaching of history (the academic study of the past) and the teaching of heritage (meaningful stories tying people to a collective past). The research was conducted in a Jewish high school whose explicit mission involves teaching history through a US history course and heritage through an Israeli…

Scholars often define historical reasoning as constructing defensible interpretations of past events. Drawing on critical theory, this article suggests that it also entails consciously framing one's topic of inquiry. The article examines an instructional unit that aimed to foster this expanded view of historiography. Forty students, ages 14-15,…

How do teachers and schools create meaningful learning experiences for students with diverse skills, abilities, and cultures? How can teachers authentically assess the learning of their students and build on their strengths and interests in ways that enrich the larger community? How can schools become places where everyone is learning from each…

Recent reports on the media saturation experienced by the twenty-first century student have brought about an increased interest in focusing attention on the issue of visual literacy in today's schools. Concepts such as instructional personalization, where approaches to curriculum design and instruction are created to concentrate on the…

The History Harvest project (http://historyharvest.unl.edu) is an open, digital archive of historical artifacts gathered from communities across the United States. Each year, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of History partners with local institutions and community members within a highlighted area to collect, preserve, and share…

Background/Context: The nature of the impact of state-mandated accountability testing on teachers' classroom practices remains contested. While many researchers argue that teachers change their teaching in response to mandated testing, others contend that the nature and degree of the impact of testing on teaching remains unclear. The research on…