Search

In the age of accountability, there is increased pressure to deliver high-quality education in a limited time period is greater than ever before. Teachers are often left to struggle with issue of determining what knowledge is necessary, and to what depth it may be explored in the classroom. There is a need for strategies to both incorporate the best forms of historical knowledge and to cope with the increased demands on our teachers. The purpose of this article is to examine the idea of what constitutes 'historical knowledge,' the issues of breadth and depth, and to suggest strategies for history teachers on how to deal with the challenge of finding the 'right' balance between breadth and depth in their history courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author describes the use of literature circles in a social studies methods course for elementary preservice teachers and analyzes their effectiveness in teaching powerful social studies ideas. Literature circles encourage students to take more of a leadership role in the classroom, expect their active involvement, and challenge them to think more deeply about social studies content within texts. Students can compare different perspectives on the same historical event, such as the encounter between Columbus and the Taino, and reasons for including and omitting important ideas. Students can also note similarities and differences among cultures and current and historical events through literature circle discussions. However, teachers must carefully select texts which focus on powerful social studies ideas, emphasize the goal of thoughtful discussions when introducing literature circles, and be ready to raise significant issues ignored in the literature circle discussions during follow-up class discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The French Revolution can be a difficult subject to teach. Students often struggle to relate to events that happened more than two hundred years ago in France. In this article, the author suggests three key causes for the failure of the revolution that social studies teachers can focus on when teaching this topic. He also provides several stories teachers can tell their students in an effort to link past events to students' lives. He then presents possible lesson plans that use various technologies to attract and keep the interest of students with different learning styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]