An article on scripted drama might seem an unlikely choice for an edition devoted to getting students talking. Surely the point about a script is that the words used are chosen and prescribed by others. However, the examples presented here by Helen Snelson, Ruth Lingard and Kate Brennan demonstrate how effectively a well-crafted script can serve…

Flora Wilson argues here for the importance of maintaining a fascination with history as an academic subject for experienced, practising history teachers. Just as medical professionals keep their knowledge up to date by reading the latest research, so too, Wilson argues, should history teachers remain engaged with current historical scholarship,…

Provides background information for a local history project about the 1793 Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) yellow fever outbreak. Offers potential project topics to help students learn about local history and understand life in the eighteenth century United States. (CMK)

Describes an oral history project to help students understand the narrative nature of history. Explains that the project focuses on "the Big Muskie" earth-moving machine and strip mining in southeastern Ohio. Explores the different stages of the classroom project. (CMK)

Explains that students can study local events within a larger context that clarifies larger events or issues. Focuses on the 1861 case of Sara Lucy Bagby (Cleveland, Ohio), an escaped slave, to illuminate aspects of gender, racial relations, politics, and the origins of the U.S. Civil War. (CMK)

Focuses on the importance of teaching critical thinking in history at the college level. Discusses how the author promoted historical thinking in his survey courses through the use of assignments based on a series of paperback books called the Bedford Series in History and Culture. Includes exercises in the appendix. (CMK)

Discusses the use of historical research in a theater classroom. Describes a variation of this exercise in which students in a college history course study a play about U.S. History, write diary entries, research the era and place of the play, and give a group presentation. (CMK)

Discusses how to use music when teaching U.S. History. Provides examples such as teaching about the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the Vietnam War and showing the contributions of African Americans. Includes a discography. (CMK)

Focuses on an interdisciplinary teaching model called the linked course, in which "linked" courses are modified to give more emphasis to logical connections among the disciplines. Describes how history courses can be linked with other disciplines, such as economics or anthropology. (CMK)

Describes how to use the films "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" from 1958 and 1978 and "The Body Snatchers" from 1993 to teach the last 50 years of U.S. history by enabling students to evaluate history as an ongoing analysis and critique of historical eras. (CMK)

Provides a history of school reform in U.S. schools from 1900 until the present. Discusses how educational policy can be included in the history classroom. Considers the differences between liberal and conservative policies, addressing how these two labels can be clarified for students. Includes a list of key sources and materials. (CMK)

Asserts that Steven Spielberg's film "Amistad" fictionalizes the overall facts of the case by inaccurately portraying many of the events that occurred. Explains that the myth-making tradition of Hollywood changes the messages derived from the Amistad court case. Critiques the teaching kit that corresponds to the movie. (CMK)

Reminisces about the day of the March on Washington; in particular, the anticipatory atmosphere that swept the city, the fears of what might occur, and the daily plans that ceased to exist. Concentrates on the passion and fervor of the people who participated in the March and listened to Dr. King's speech. (CMK)

Argues that historic sites permit students literally to make a connection to earlier people that cannot be duplicated in a classroom. Describes how visits to Curtin Village (Pennsylvania), a Juniata River canal (Pennsylvania), the Gettysburg battlefield (Pennsylvania), and the Antietam battlefield (Maryland) are incorporated into a study of U. S.…

Describes the development and teaching of a telecourse survey of U.S. history. Discusses the methods of quality-control used in the production of course materials, the integration of telematerials with traditional textbook lessons, the types of students suited to telecourses, and some disadvantages to telecourses for students. (DSK)