The Hechinger Report

AUGUST 13, 2024

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 primary source documents. Patty Topliffe (center right) and other English and social studies teachers at Woodstock High School, in Vermont.

High School 145

High School Teaching Primary Sources K-12 145

Moler's Musing

OCTOBER 4, 2024

Breaking the “Right Answer” Mindset A lot of students were still raising their hands, hoping for the “right” answer, but I’m working hard to break them out of the mindset that social studies is just about filling in blanks. The revised documents were a mix of Jamestown and Plymouth hardships and survival stories.

Primary Sources 126

Primary Sources Geography History Lesson Plan 126

Thrive in Grade Five

APRIL 20, 2019

Court documents do not explain the charges against him, but in a document dated prior to the accusation, Thomas Gage said that Dr. Toothaker saw two children who were ill and exhibiting “unwanted fits.” Primary source documents report that Bridget continued to proclaim her innocence up to the moment of her execution.

Teaching 130

Teaching Primary Sources History Social Studies 130

Students of History

JANUARY 3, 2023

It's the year 2023, and teaching social studies is more of a challenge than ever before. Between the students, administrators, parents, and the community, social studies teachers are feeling pressure from all directions. Another trend in social studies education is the emphasis on project-based learning.

Social Studies 52

Social Studies Teaching Historic Sites Primary Sources 52

Doing Social Studies

OCTOBER 22, 2021

As we reboot Doing Social Studies, we’d love to introduce you to this month’s author, Nathan McAlister. Nathan McAlister is the Humanities Program Manager – History, Government, and Social Studies with the Kansas State Department of Education. My goal, for this blog post is twofold. Let’s get started.

Primary Sources 67

Primary Sources Archiving Library American History 67

Students of History

AUGUST 12, 2021

These activities include: Sourcing documents Drag & drop timelines Analyzing primary and secondary sources Interpreting and inserting images Notetaking Comparing and contrasting topics 4. Refreshed Themes - each digital notebook set now has its own theme to match the unit.

Social Studies 52

Social Studies Primary Sources World History Civics 52

4QM Teaching

APRIL 30, 2023

We just had a consultant come to my school to do a review of our social studies program. That rubric defined “rigor” as student engagement with primary source texts and artifacts. That rubric defined “rigor” as student engagement with primary source texts and artifacts. I noticed something strange, however.

Primary Sources 40

Primary Sources Artifacts Archiving Social Studies 40

Teaching American History

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

These are free to attend for all social studies teachers and can be in historical locations, school districts, and educational service centers. For a few hours, teachers can dive into the content of primary source documents through a discussion with colleagues facilitated by a scholar.

Primary Sources 52

Primary Sources American History Social Studies History 52

ACRE

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

In the classroom, educators can explore a variety of Constitutional resources with learners by reading primary sources, reviewing changes to the Constitution throughout American History, and analyzing historical arguments relating to the founding of the United States and the Constitution today. Constitution PD.4.C.3

Primary Sources 52

Primary Sources Civics Archiving Government 52

C3 Teachers

DECEMBER 22, 2022

My state requires historical thinking skills to be infused within the social studies curriculum. For the last two years, we negotiated remote learning, masking mandates, social distancing, plastic partitions, hybrid learning schedules, deep cleaning protocols, and a host of other COVID mitigation strategies.

Primary Sources 52

Primary Sources Social Studies 52

Doing Social Studies

APRIL 13, 2020

They were going to connect those arguments to today’s debate over social distancing and closing orders. I was very excited to have them reflect on these documents and then create letters to send to policy makers advising them on the situation. For a copy of my lesson, follow this link. Follow Two Simple Rules.”

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Lesson Plan Charter School History Library 67

Studies Weekly

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

Your Studies Weekly Online classroom contains digital versions of your publications and more online resources like digital lesson plans, videos, and presentations you can project to the whole class.

Artifacts 52

Artifacts Primary Sources Lesson Plan Social Studies 52

4QM Teaching

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

This is indeed a worthy goal: we want history and social studies classrooms to be active places where students are doing the intellectual work of our discipline, and often that work is best done in conversation with peers or with a teacher or both. In the earlier grades we are often looking at a pattern of behavior or an artifact.

Artifacts 40

Artifacts Primary Sources Social Studies Professional Development 40

Studies Weekly

JANUARY 10, 2024

Creating Connections Because Studies Weekly’s print publications are consumable, students can create artifacts to demonstrate their learning by cutting the primary sources and other information out of their publications. “Using both our print and online together gives the greatest benefits by far,” Bagley said.

Artifacts 52

Artifacts Primary Sources K-12 Psychology 52

Teaching American History

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

Joining social studies teacher groups on Facebook, she built her own professional learning community (PLC). “I Her husband was promoted to a new position in Tennessee, where Livingston began teaching fifth through eighth grade social studies and, later, eighth grade US history. Livingston uses her own influence carefully.

Teaching 52

Teaching Geography Ancestry Primary Sources 52

The Hechinger Report

OCTOBER 1, 2017

In the 2015-16 school year, none of the social studies textbooks listed for use in the state’s fourth grade classroom was published before 2005. The Civil Rights Movement was once a footnote in Mississippi social studies classrooms, if it was covered at all. Photo: Terrell Clark for The Hechinger Report.

K-12 90

K-12 Social Studies History Archiving 90

The Hechinger Report

APRIL 18, 2017

Take a game like, ‘Do I have a Right?’ ” said Brian Furgione, a middle-school social studies teacher near Orlando, Florida. “In We encourage students to put their whole project experience on video, [to document] every time they canvas a community or meet with a city councilor,” said David De La Torre, the CAP program manager.

Civics 85

Civics Education K-12 Primary Sources 85

Zinn Education Project

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

The next day, we dove into the document analysis activity compiled by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. After going over key terms and background information (as suggested by Wolfe-Rocca in the PDF version of the activity), I arranged my students in groups of four and they investigated six of the included documents.

History 52

History Teaching Social Studies High School 52

Students of History

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

While they're sometimes belittled, worksheets are an excellent tool for helping students analyze primary sources or better understand a historical event through a secondary source. DuBois "Returning Soldiers" from World War I Activity Vietnam War Pentagon Papers Primary Source Loving v.

History 52

History Primary Sources Lesson Plan American History 52

Teaching American History

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Lomax hoped the young men would bring back audio documents for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. Since all of the projects must incorporate primary sources, students learn how to access online archives such as the Hathi Trus t and newspapers.org.

Social Studies 98

Social Studies Research Archiving American History 98

The Hechinger Report

AUGUST 7, 2023

Jefferson County Public Schools revamped its social studies curriculum in 2019. You can’t skip the slavery unit, or you can’t think to skip Harriet Jacobs’ primary source of her narratives of a slave girl, where she’s talking about being sexually harassed by slaveholder,” she said. Credit: Christina A.

History 98

History American History Teaching K-12 98

The Hechinger Report

JANUARY 14, 2018

To inform his lessons, Gorman chose a curriculum called Teach Reconstruction created by the Zinn Education Project, a collaboration between social justice education nonprofits Teaching for Change, based in Washington, D.C. history and social studies curriculums. and Rethinking Schools, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Teaching 106

Teaching Primary Sources K-12 History 106

Zinn Education Project

MARCH 7, 2024

With documentation and clear explanations, Muhammad challenged prevailing stereotypes about race and crime. I mean, one of the big problems with the so-called AP African American Studies curriculum was the debate over what was a primary source versus secondary source.

Primary Sources 98

Primary Sources History Economics K-12 98