Planning a world history course presents a nearly impossible task. One cannot complete a world history course, or even a European history course, without casting a huge amount of historical information onto the curriculum planning scrapheap. An emphasis on the twentieth century means leaving out significant information from earlier times. "But how…

Getting students involved in the process of inquiry takes much more than pointing out a problem, offering sources, and setting them on their way. Fortunately, there are a number of teaching strategies that can be instrumental in engaging students in the process of inquiry. As a teacher of world history in the seventh grade, House of Avalon, at…

Students often report that social studies is their most boring and least favorite subject. As a child, Woodrow Wilson was bored by history, later describing his early studies as "one damn fact after another." Of course, Wilson went on to become an eminent historian, but only after he learned to reach beyond the "closed catechism" of "questions…

Digital history refers to "the study of the past using a variety of electronically reproduced primary source texts, images, and artifacts as well as the constructed narratives, accounts, or presentations that result from digital historical inquiry." Access to digitized primary sources can promote active instruction in historical thinking. A…

"Americans," historian Richard White often reminds his audiences, "prefer celebrating to remembering history." The landscape of the United States is populated with local, state, and national sites, house museums, working farms and other places of collective past that are deemed of historic significance. Many of these sites do…

Elementary and secondary school history students demonstrate a great deal of enthusiasm for making documentary films. With free and easy-to-use software, as well as vast online, archival resources containing images and sounds, students can sit at a computer and make serious and engaging documentary productions. With students affectively engaged by…

During our careers as teachers, professional development specialists, and teacher educators, we have made perpetual attempts to develop instructional strategies and tools for engaging students in historical inquiry. Emphasis in recent years in the field of social studies education has been on the development and use of digitized historical…

Most teachers will endorse "standards" of authentic instruction, including deep knowledge, higher order thinking, substantive conversation, and connections to the world beyond the classroom. When it comes to putting such endorsements into practice, however, they too often accept a standardized view of content that is dull and doctrinaire and…

Suggests twelve strategies for helping students read social studies material with greater comprehension. The strategies include simulations, debates, documents, oral histories, current events, and differing accounts of history. (DH)

Provides historical information on the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" and the role of A. Philip Randolph who originally conceived the idea for the March. Features a letter from A. Philip Randolph to President John F. Kennedy. Includes a list of teaching activities. (CMK)

Explores the work of Frederic Remington, an illustrator who presented an image of the U.S. western frontier that was more myth than reality. Includes excerpts from "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" by Frederick Jackson Turner. Presents a lesson where students find connections between Turner and Remington's views of…

Describes a project for high school students where the students write research papers that incorporate oral history interviews. Provides a list of questions students can answer and excerpts from students' research papers. Discusses which National Council for the Social Studies standards the assignment addresses. (CMK)

Presents information gathered about two exemplary teachers of U.S. history using research methods, such as interviews and observations. Discusses how the teachers fostered empathy in their classrooms by focusing on the use of stories and social themes to connect history to students' lives. (CMK)

Presents a lesson plan on Pompeii (Italy) for middle school students that utilizes a teaching technique called interactive presentation. Describes the technique's five phases: (1) discrepant event inquiry; (2) discussion/presentation; (3) cooperative learning activity; (4) writing for understanding activity; and (5) whole-class discussion and…

Describes the Web site, "History Matters," by focusing on each of the site's separate sections. Explains that "History Matters" offers links to Web sites, primary sources, information on teaching resources for social studies teachers, and links teachers to experts in the social studies field and to other professional development materials. (CMK)