Jean Piaget's cognitive theory was used to investigate the economic reasoning of children and adolescents. Findings indicate student reasoning becomes more abstract, other directed, and flexible with increasing age; five concepts are prerequisites to understanding other economic concepts; and the rate at which economic reasoning develops varies by…

A scavenger hunt can be used to help secondary students develop social skills and experiential background knowledge, and a key word can help them develop better notetaking skills with audiovisual aids. A variety of activities can be used to sensitize elementary students to the visually and aurally disabled. (AM)

Describes how most groups that have settled in the United States came to fulfill their dreams. We can be optimistic about the future and the American dream if we accept the fact that we will have to live with fewer material goods and share more of what we now have. (RM)

Describes how public schools, one embodiment of American dreams, have ricocheted, between dreams and nightmares and promise and despair, over the last century and a half. (RM)

Discusses how the cyclical rise and fall of U.S. hegemony has had an impact on the American dream. Commitment to the American dream means participation in the worldwide struggle for liberation from the modern world system and liberation into a new kind of global social order. (RM)

Examines what the American dream means to ethnic Americans. Specifically discussed are: (1) how official documents of the dream have dealt with ethnicity; (2) how ethnic groups have interpreted the dream; (3) how the 1960s redefined the dream; and (4) the future of the dream in terms of changing American ethnicity. (RM)

Discusses how the mom-and-apple-pie facet of the American dream no longer seems to be working. Ways to redefine that dream so that women, men, children, and families are comfortable with each other and are able to develop a mutual dependence which also allows for mutual independence are examined. (RM)

Contains three case studies designed to encourage students to evaluate the concept of the American dream. The student materials focus on the issue of slavery, early twentieth-century immigrants to the United States, and a successful Mexican American in 1982. (RM)

Print and nonprint materials for teaching about the American dream at the elementary and secondary levels are cited in this annotated bibliography. Books, journal articles, ERIC documents, 16mm films, filmstrips, and cassette tapes are included. (RM)

A high school student discusses symptoms of Americans' lack of interest in pursuing their dreams. The American dream has been replaced for many by the need for financial security. The decline of the American dream is reflected in our political leadership and in the decline in importance of intellectual pursuits. (RM)

Contains a poster appealing to immigrants in the 1920s to attend classes at one of four Americanization schools to learn English. Teaching strategies to help teachers use the poster in secondary U.S. history classes are included. The poster is a primary source material from the National Archives. (RM)

Contains an annotated list of free or inexpensive materials that may prove useful to K-12 social studies teachers, either as supplements to standard curricular materials or simply as sources of interesting information. (RM)

Four outstanding elementary teachers from different parts of the United States talk about instructional innovations that have worked for them. (RM)

Discusses three language concepts which require urgent attention of social studies teachers. Students need practice in processing the ideas of the social sciences. More attention needs to be directed to teaching the vocabulary of the social studies. Building a background of basic knowledge in social studies is essential. (RM)

Contains suggestions to improve the quality of secondary social studies students' writing. For example, teachers should stagger expository writing activities over an extended period. The intended audience of the writing should include the student's peers. (RM)