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 differences in historical interpretation are contests over "competing historical narratives" allows students to participate in history as "an ongoing conversation and debate." The history of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement is a case in point. Recent revisionist histories have strongly criticized the "master narrative" of the Civil Rights Movement that permeates "American popular and academic culture." The author placed the Civil Rights Movement master narrative and criticisms of it at the center of her course design. She also developed two linked short assignments focused on students constructing and revising their own narratives of the Civil Rights Movement. She found that using narrative in this way furthered her aims of teaching both historical content and skills in her classroom, and confirmed Tom Holt's arguments and findings. (Contains 25 notes.)