This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Teaching with PrimarySources in Social Studies Feb. 25, 2025 Studies Weekly Its often difficult to connect students to the real-world, real-time applications of events from history and the real people who lived them. The primarysource. We let the people of history tell their own story.
At NCHE conferences , for example, a glance at the program reveals that most sessions focus on an important moment or a major problem in history and offer a strategy to present it in a new way. This writing tends to be engaging, brief, and pointed, relating history to current concerns, and spanning political perspectives.
It’s the hardest primarysource I teach and I’m sure many of you feel the same. After doing a general walk through of the articles (hitting the high points) – I like to sort the differences between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. If you are new to Active History Teacher, then let me tell you.
With his monotone voice and lack of enthusiasm, he could convince anyone that history is incredibly boring. As a high school history teacher, whenever I meet new adults and we talk about our professions, I often find myself being met with a familiar reaction: "I disliked the subject in school, but now I find it interesting."
From Frayer Models to define key terms and concepts, to Sketch and Tell-O and 8Parts Sourcing for visual analysis and critical thinking, each day offered a structured and interactive way for students to connect with history.
For the past year, Teaching American Historys webinars have been about the presidential election. So lets take a step back and look back at an entirely different aspect of US history. So lets take a step back and look back at an entirely different aspect of US history. Last spring, we broke down the presidential election cycle.
Also, if you’re interested in how AI can be used effectively in education, check out an article I contributed to in EdWeek: Can AI Be Used Effectively in Class? This part helped students connect primarysource analysis to the broader motivations for European exploration, further deepening their historical thinking skills.
According to an article by Occupational Therapy Helping Children, proprioception is often referred to as a sixth sense because it tells the body where it is in space. The article explains: Its very important to the brain, as it plays a large role in self-regulation, coordination, posture, body awareness, focus, and speech.
As Publications Manager at Teaching American History , I frequently hear the following from our teacher partners: I love teaching with primarysources! My district has dropped our textbook and we are switching to primarysources. appeared first on Teaching American History. But which one should I use?
Patty Topliffe, who teaches social studies at Woodstock High School in Vermont, said teaching vocabulary and other literacy skills to her students helps them understand primarysource documents. This past academic year, all high school English and history teachers received training; this fall, it’s science and math teachers’ turn.
Staff and faculty members at Teaching American History have heard from our teacher partners that they want nonpartisan election resources that elevate classroom discourse beyond political bickering and horse race coverage. This concise history is perhaps the best account we have of the election of 1800.
It also offers a YouTube channel on which historians discuss their work , making history come alive for contemporary youth. The UC Davis California History Social Science Project frames current events within their historical context , connecting students’ present to the past. Washington University in St. government as well.
Unfortunately, many of their names and personal stories are lost to history. Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich said, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” We must rely on primarysources to learn about this historical period. How have these advancements changed American history? A monument?
In the classroom, educators can explore a variety of Constitutional resources with learners by reading primarysources, reviewing changes to the Constitution throughout American History, and analyzing historical arguments relating to the founding of the United States and the Constitution today. Since its ratification, the U.S.
Edited by Jeremy Bailey and intended as a secondary and post-secondary document reader, American Presidency contains 39 introduced and edited primarysources, discussion questions, and a thematic table of contents. Article Two states, “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
Recent news articles are highlighting a request to ban access by Florida elementary students to Amanda Gorman’s poem A Hill We Climb. The reason for the request? “it is not educational and have indirectly hate messages.” ” The specific passage that “have indirectly hate messages”?
For example, I will have students read an online article and complete an interactive notebook graphic organizer based on what they read. I have these available for my entire curricula in World and US History. I have a thorough World History PBL packet that can be used in any unit.
So when one student says she plans to study the Bermuda Triangle, the professor recommends that she ask a librarian—maybe the one who talked to the class earlier in the semester—to help her curate a reading list of secondary sources. You don’t want to read 30 articles,” the professor says, “you want to read seven.”
And that means the pinnacle of TAH’s professional development for teachers has arrived as well: our Master of Arts in American History and Government (MAHG) program at Ashland University in Ashland, OH. The four questions cover a variety of topics, eras, or themes in American history and government. Students answer two of these.
One-Day seminars are the easiest way to engage with Teaching American History in person. For a few hours, teachers can dive into the content of primarysource documents through a discussion with colleagues facilitated by a scholar. The post Preparing for a One Day Seminar appeared first on Teaching American History.
He did, and Livingston soon found herself sitting in an introductory college course in US history. The next semester, she took two more US history classes, then realized she’d found her major. The next school year, she was asked to teach not only the regular-level geography course but also AP Human Geography and World History.
Sean Brennan Brennan, a frequent participant in Teaching American History seminars , has long promoted civic education and civil cooperation at the local and state level. The post Sean Brennan Leads Bipartisan Reading of the Declaration appeared first on Teaching American History.
Primary documents give us unexpected perspectives on history. Landen Schmeichel sees this often when using documents in his Advanced Placement US History course at Legacy High School in Bismarck, North Dakota. Those ideas birthed what I would say is the greatest nation in human history.
According to an article by Youki Terada called Understanding a Teachers Long-Term Impact, teachers have the greatest impact on student achievement compared to any other aspect of schooling. You know the heartbreak of seeing your students struggle with things that can’t be fixed inside the classroom. But, still, you try.
While right-wing legislatures restrict the teaching of Black history, we are pleased to support teachers who work to teach truthfully about U.S. In a class with teachers , Delmont explained the relevance of learning this history. We’ll add more once teachers use the new paperback edition.
Tim Matthews, a middle school history teacher outside Boston, uses iCivics games to teach the Constitution, which his class calls “the rulebook.” Last fall, the folks at iCivics anticipated a 20 to 30 percent bump in game plays, in line with what happened in the election year of 2012.
In Norfolk, Virginia, the juniors and seniors enrolled in an African American history class taught by Ed Allison were working on their capstone projects, using nearby Fort Monroe, the site where the first enslaved Africans landed in 1619, as a jumping off point to explore their family history.
Inspired by Ian Mortimer’s English history Time Traveller’s Guide series and David Mountain’s podcast The Backpacker’s Guide to Prehistory , I also drew on Nanjala Nyabola’s critiques of travel guides’ Othering and colonial outlooks, which shaped class discussions on ethics, identity, and tone in writing.
A Conversation with Sonja Czarnecki Sonja Czarnecki, 2022 MAHG Graduate “In order to understand history, you have to do history,” Sonja Czarnecki insists. In October, Czarnecki’s article “Migrant Music” was published in The Chronicles of Oklahoma. I felt like I’d won my own History Day contest!” I had a blast.
History students. For the full 90-minute block period students discussed, jotted down notes, and exclaimed in both horror and shock as they learned about a sliver of our country’s hidden history. Paradoxically, teaching people’s history leaves more room for hope than any other educational framework. Here are just a few.
When the AP United States history students at Aragon High School in San Mateo California, scanned the professionally designed pages of www.minimumwage.com , most concluded that it was a solid, unbiased source of facts and analysis. Will students investigate the sources of controversial claims? Northport, N.Y.,
For more on this, check out this article in Slate. I worked for a company that would send me to students’ homes to tutor for the SAT, ACT, and various AP history courses. Our prompt was: “Please summarize the key points of this primarysource for me.” Used ethically, AI can be a force of equity in education.
This document is excerpted from our CDC volume Race and Civil Rights , which contains classroom-ready primarysources, introductory essays and discussion questions. The post Bayard Rustin and Nonviolent Resistance: Shaping the Modern Civil Rights Movement appeared first on Teaching American History.
6th insurrection at the Capitol (I have a lesson for this here ), I came across an article about the only "successful" coup or insurrection in US History. This is something that needs to be a part of a US History curriculum. There are 8 sets of primarysources, each with a few short paragraphs explaining them in context.
Thus, many of the primarysources after the ratification of the Constitution concern various rules governing debate, which bills can be sent to the floor, what powers the committees will have, and so forth. The post Joseph Postell on How Congress Actually Works appeared first on Teaching American History.
Jesse Hagopian: The Condemnation of Blackness is a history of the construction of the idea of Black criminality in the making of the United States, and it reveals the influence of this pernicious myth rooted in statistics on our society and our sense of self.
The ASHP staff knows that such changes dont emerge overnight; as we look backward and ahead, we remain committed to making our work as history educators help generate greater understanding of the current historical moment. This week, administrator and multimedia producer David Scheckel shares a primarysource.
Whitaker to talk about his book, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America , a history of the idea of Black criminality in the making of the modern United States. I appreciated hearing about the history of how data has been (mis)used to construct a narrative of Black criminality.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content