Search

This manuscript explores the power of using inquiry in a second-grade classroom to make students' understanding of citizenship more complex. It describes an inquiry unit in which students studied primary sources, engaged with fiction and nonfiction children's literature, and participated in interdisciplinary learning to further understand the Civil Rights Movement and the Underground Railroad. Through their understanding of these powerful historic events they came to new conceptions of what it means to be a good citizen. The paper not only describes the unit and how it played out in the classroom it also explores the tensions between teacher directed and student directed inquiry, the ways in which teachers can, and often must integrate English Language Arts into their inquiry in order to find time for it, and the necessity of trusting both students and teachers in their ability to guide their own learning in community. In addition, it describes ways of discussing racism with young learners in both a historical and contemporary context.

After having seen Jody Picoult's "Plain Truth," which is on the paperback best-seller list from "New York Times Book Review," and an ad for a novel called "A Version of the Truth," in this article the author talks about truth and how it is being told by some writers from a different point of view. It seems that truth is everywhere, and also nowhere. Look at the oxymorons of today: virtual reality, true lies, docudrama, infomercials, situational ethics. Then there is that old saw, truth is stranger than fiction, or its mirror image, fiction must be more real than life in order to be believable. Many are sold semi-autobiographical novels, memoirs of dubious provenance, historical fiction, and creative nonfiction. Writers invent the truth every time they pull words from their minds and set them to paper. Hence, some writers tell their own version of the truth, which is to say, they tell lies. As an historical novelist, particularly one that writes for young people who must never be lied to, the author grapples with the question, is history "true"? But do all writers tell lies, those who write novels that deal with social and political and religious ideas? Since she may never resolve this issue, the author stands beside Anne Lamott when she advises, "Tell the truth as you understand it. If you're a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act--truth is always subversive."

Presents an interview with Jerry Stanley in which he talks frankly about his view of history, his writing process, the creation of his historical works, and his personal past. (SG)

Cradle of the Texas Republic. By Robin Montgomery and Joy Montgomery. (Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2022. Pp. 156. Paper, $21.99, ISBN 9781-46715-190-0.) This book offers a history of Montgomery [...]

Examines why editors publish certain books and trends in book publishing: memoir, business, management, history, spirituality, religion, science, self-help, and fiction. Provides an annotated bibliography of 21 books predicted to do well in the fall of 1997. (PEN)

University of New Brunswick--St. Thomas University, Fredericton 31 May-1 June 2011 but not included in this volume: Marie-Claire Arsenau, "Africadian and Acadian Catholics of Southville, Nova Scotia" Patti Bannister, "Achieving [...]

Examines some of the educational theories of Jean Jacques Rousseau that relate not only to teaching techniques used in modern schools but also to the writing of nonfiction for children. (GT)

Reviews six new children's books on the topics of animals, biorhythms, and history of science. (GT)

The winner of the l985 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction discusses experiences relating to the writing of "Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun." (EL)