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Southern United States folk music is rich in not only sound, but in voices of the past. Folk songs were created by working class individuals who described aspects of their life in connection with societal issues and events. Folk songs, now digitally archived, can serve as primary historical sources that can be used to enhance the secondary social studies U.S. history curriculum. The vast offerings of folk songs can allow students to listen, read, and analyze the lyrics to gain a deeper understanding of the U.S. South, shed the hillbilly stereotype that Southerners have been historically subjected to, understand why and how Southerners spoke out against injustices through song, and analyze the lyrics that portray the history of southern folklife. Based on the National Council for the Social Studies' Themes of Social Studies and integrating folk songs from such online sites as the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institute, curriculum implications are presented for students to reflect on the Southerners' settings, perspectives of events and issues, and methods of protest. Modern technology's preservation of folk songs that would otherwise be absent from history not only has the power to educate, but also to keep southern folk music alive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the teaching of disability history, specifically concerning the historical figure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Drawing upon literature from multicultural education, disability history and disability studies in education (DSE), the authors discuss historical content and teaching ideas for instruction about FDR. The authors present findings from a content analysis of six middle level and secondary United States history textbooks, noting unanimous coverage of FDR's disability resulting from polio. These textbooks noted how he overcame his disability and strengthened his character, referenced his decision to conceal his disability, and quoted FDR directly regarding his disability. The authors follow this analysis with discussion of several middle and high school teaching ideas that might augment textbook coverage and representation about FDR. This article explores how teachers of United States history might further develop their teaching of history through the inclusion of disability history within the context of a famous historical figure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metacom's War, also known as King Phillip's War, sets a pattern of national expansion through displacement of native people that echoes throughout American history. Helping students further understand this war through the examination of Mary Rowlandson's primary document provides educators and students with an opportunity to delve deeper into the complexities surrounding the convergence of cultures in colonial America. In this article, I provide an overview of the context that led to the conflict between the native populations and the European settlers. Additionally, I highlight passages from Rowlandson's narrative that are relevant to upper-elementary students. The passages are accompanied by questions to assist students as they examine the primary source for a deeper understanding of the people who strove to survive in seventeenth-century Massachusetts. Examining primary sources is one piece of the multifaceted process of historical understanding. In this article, educators learn the historical content of the period and a structured process for their students to examine the primary source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details a professional development program focused on the use of essential questions in reframing U.S. history learning experiences in elementary, middle, and high schools. Teachers identified four problems in designing and teaching engaging, relevant, and challenging U.S. history lessons. Each problem was addressed through the teachers' use of essential questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author describes her use of direct instruction to introduce the skill of determining source reliability in a fifth-grade unit on immigration in American history. She structures instruction to help students establish a thinking-skill strategy that results in not only an understanding of immigration in the late 1800s to early 1900s, but also a skill that can be used in their daily lives. This step-by-step example of direct skill instruction presents samples of student and teacher dialogue, sample historical sources, a thinking-strategy map, graphic organizers, and a written assessment. The author concludes by describing a brief student summary of what students learned about immigration and the skill, and she notes where additional scaffolded skill instruction and practice should be used in subsequent units of the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human history is often shaped by the outcomes of arguments, not only in the sense of disputes between people or governments, but in the sense of the more rational pursuit of trying to convince others to accept or do certain things by offering reasons that are presented as compelling for so doing. Yet history teachers have done little to help students learn how to identify arguments in this sense, figure out what the arguments being offered are, and evaluate them. This article shows how a generic instructional technique—infusing direct instruction in skillful thinking into content instruction—can be used in the teaching of American history in ways that help students develop and use these thinking skills and that enhance their deep content understanding of the history being taught. The context is a secondary school classroom studying American history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights events included in the Colonial Williamsburg History and Civics curriculum which demonstrate the organization and unfolding of case studies. The events discussed are the revolutionary resistance from 1765 to 1776, reconstruction from 1865 to 1877, the wave of immigration from 1840 to 1860 and the establishment of the national highway system. The case study approach allows students to dig into the ideas and issues that the U.S. faced as it embarked on a political adventure. Issues covered include the establishment of a democratic republic over a vast landscape, which was accomplished in a dynamic and changing world.

This article focuses on a case history of a methods course for teaching and learning American history. The design of the fifteen-week course was described as well as its rationale and course narrative. Part one of the course was designed to help preservice teachers construct a new understanding of social studies teaching and learning. The second part of the course provides a definition for history. Students in the course witness the teaching of historical content from three different epistemological positions. The method for investigating a course's influence involves a data collection system with assumptions that the methods course was problematic for those learning to teach American history.

Discusses the use of prediction-making model in history education in the U.S. Approaches to understanding the people in history; Overview and goals of prediction-making model; Explanation and application of the prediction-making model.

The article claims that the only way to meet challenges in the U.S. is to have an informed and engaged citizenry which can be accomplished through history education with a focus on civic engagement. According to the article, the U.S. is an ideal expressed in the Declaration of Independence and implemented through the Constitution. The author states that education is the key to reactivating civic life since an educated citizen is an engaged citizen. It is argued that a curriculum should emphasize how past generations have engaged civic debate in their communities and nation while helping students acquire the ability to challenge opinions and the skills needed to debate issues in their communities.

This article describes the personal and pedagogical contexts for the development of a 9/11 curriculum. The author relates his own experiences learning of the event and teaching it soon afterwards and the subsequent development of a nationally distributed 9/11 curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses the importance of continuing study of the events surrounding 9/11. She also provides ideas on how the 9/11 Education Trust's curriculum can be implemented in a variety of classroom settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]