Learning about people from long ago and far away poses a challenge for students because such people seem so distant and different. The lack of easily comprehensible text-based primary sources compounds this problem. Using a built environment as a primary source makes people from the distant past more accessible, concrete and exciting. Broadly…

The social studies classroom can and should be a place where students learn critical thinking skills, but too often, especially in the middle grades, students are asked to focus on discrete facts on which they can be tested. The purpose of this article is to suggest that sixth graders can learn the critical thinking skills of "historical…

Research in historical cognition and learning suggests that study and practice of the reading and thinking habits of professional historians--such as the attribution, assessment, and contextualization of primary sources--are necessary for children and adolescents to understand historical events and ideas (Stearns, Seixas, and Wineburg 2000;…