"All the stuff that happened before you were born is your own kind of Show Way ." This Newberry Award winning book can be used for many different types of activities. In this lesson, Show Way is used to teach map symbols.

This study looks at the development of critical literacy for three pre-service teacher participants, relevant support systems, and pedagogies. It considers how pre-service teacher participants construct knowledge on critical literacy within the methods course. The participants started with their...

In this study, the process and effects of integrating an innovative technology were examined in one U.S. history teacher’s classroom. Specifically, the impact on the teacher and the students from using digital timelines to understand history are presented. Recommendations from this study...

The many discourses surrounding 9/11 place existing civic education in a tenuous space within the current political climate. The challenges of producing a universally acceptable interpretation and approach to democratic education have been compounded in the aftermath of 9/11. Due to a heightened...

Understanding what children know about history or social studies has proven illusive. In this think piece, I explore two dilemmas—the representation dilemma and the testing dilemma—that surround the question, “How do we know what children know?” I conclude that teachers, researchers, and...

The Silk Road is a source of fact and myth. Stretching from Western China to the Middle East, it crossed forbidding deserts and rugged mountains. In this study, students consider the geography and climate of the region crossed by the silk routes and determine the best route a caravan would take...

Banks (1994) names prejudice reduction as one of five dimensions of multicultural education. Although children develop prejudicial beliefs, attitudes, and values at young ages, research demonstrates that when multicultural knowledge and values are combined with intergroup contact, prejudice is...

The eternal question posed by students, “Why do I have to learn this?” is being answered for them every day in the newspapers and on television with respect to the balance of liberty and security in time of war. Teachers often express the need for focused materials that approach this...

Using children’s literature to teach economics is a good method of making unclear concepts seem logical and authentic and has been used effectively by primary school educators for many years. However, finding a popular book that contains clear and comprehensible examples of economic choice,...

This lesson plan is an introduction to the Harlem Renaissance through the award winning, thorough, resource text for youth, Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill. The Harlem Borough was a place in New York where African Americans migrated and overtly...