At one high school outside of Boston, most students look forward to their daily American history class. They love their teacher's regular pop culture references and arrive ready to participate in the lively and contentious debates. Yet, despite Almira's fondness for the teacher and deep commitment to academic success, this class causes her more apprehension than any other. While Almira is able to use diligence and academic skills to bridge her English language gaps in other subject areas, American history is a particular struggle. Her lack of context for learning, or perhaps her lack of cultural understanding about the past of her adopted nation, including unfamiliar names, places, and events, makes completing class readings and following discussion far more challenging for her than it is for her American-born peers. Despite the efforts of an enthusiastic and engaging teacher, Almira feels overwhelmed and resentful about the time she must devote just to tread water in her history class. How can teachers help immigrant students, like Almira, have a more positive experience in their study of United States history? The authors began to examine this problem by talking to immigrant students themselves, many of whom were nonnative English speakers, at two large, diverse public high schools outside of Boston. Their sample group of immigrant students, included both "reluctant learners" and college-bound high-achievers, who all indicated that studying U.S. history had been a struggle. They conclude that teachers of U.S. history need to be attentive to the special needs of this population, and should respond to "four main areas of concern": (1) building empathy for the difficulties associated with learning a language; (2) understanding how second languages are acquired; (3) adapting curricula to students' language needs; and (4) employing literacy skills in the disciplines.