Teaching History Today and in the Future - Böcker

The methods of teaching history in grades 6-12 have changed over the last few years to be more interactive and collaborative. More and more, teaching and learning revolves around an essential triad of inquiry, primary sources, and literacy in a collaborative classroom environment. Teaching History Today is about placing inquiry, primary sources, and literacy foundations of history instruction front and center in the education of preservice history teacher candidates and in-service classroom history teachers. By focusing on these major components of teaching and learning, readers can learn how to organize the massive amount of historical content into effective units. They can see how to integrate the learning of content with the development of skills. And they can gain expertise into how and why to engage students collaboratively in the learning process.

The methods of teaching history in grades 6-12 have changed over the last few years to be more interactive and collaborative. More and more, teaching and learning revolves around an essential triad of inquiry, primary sources, and literacy in a collaborative classroom environment. Teaching History Today is about placing inquiry, primary sources, and literacy foundations of history instruction front and center in the education of preservice history teacher candidates and in-service classroom history teachers. By focusing on these major components of teaching and learning, readers can learn how to organize the massive amount of historical content into effective units. They can see how to integrate the learning of content with the development of skills. And they can gain expertise into how and why to engage students collaboratively in the learning process.

Science fiction literature and film are an underappreciated source for the teaching of history. Finding material that can excite a student’s curiosity can be a key towards greater student engagement, especially among students who are taking history as a requirement, rather than from interest. The discovery that they can read or watch science fiction as part of their classwork often comes as a pleasant surprise. Beyond its popularity, however, utilizing science fiction for class assignments has certain pedagogical advantages: it introduces students to new vistas in historical thought, helps them learn how literature and film can be applied as a primary source, and can encourage participation in projects that are enjoyable. Each chapter provides case studies focusing on a different subject in the modern history curriculum and in addition to providing an analysis of specific texts and/or cinematic sources, gives suggestions on assignments for the students.

Science fiction literature and film are an underappreciated source for the teaching of history. Finding material that can excite a student’s curiosity can be a key towards greater student engagement, especially among students who are taking history as a requirement, rather than from interest. The discovery that they can read or watch science fiction as part of their classwork often comes as a pleasant surprise. Beyond its popularity, however, utilizing science fiction for class assignments has certain pedagogical advantages: it introduces students to new vistas in historical thought, helps them learn how literature and film can be applied as a primary source, and can encourage participation in projects that are enjoyable. Each chapter provides case studies focusing on a different subject in the modern history curriculum and in addition to providing an analysis of specific texts and/or cinematic sources, gives suggestions on assignments for the students.

Engaging the Past: Action and Interaction in the History Classroom provides practical steps toward using engaging strategies in the classroom to teach students to think historically. These strategies include an approach developed by the author called “The You Decide! Lecture,” and innovative ways to use board games and role-playing games in the history classroom. The goal is not simply to add window dressing to fundamentally dull lessons, but rather to re-examine how teachers think about students as learners of history. This book follows the growing trend within historical pedagogy to care less about content coverage and more about deep engagement, student learning, and the importance of historical thinking. The students in our classrooms today are the history teachers of tomorrow and awakening them to the exciting complexities of the past is critical to keep the study of history thriving.

Engaging the Past: Action and Interaction in the History Classroom provides practical steps toward using engaging strategies in the classroom to teach students to think historically. These strategies include an approach developed by the author called “The You Decide! Lecture,” and innovative ways to use board games and role-playing games in the history classroom. The goal is not simply to add window dressing to fundamentally dull lessons, but rather to re-examine how teachers think about students as learners of history. This book follows the growing trend within historical pedagogy to care less about content coverage and more about deep engagement, student learning, and the importance of historical thinking. The students in our classrooms today are the history teachers of tomorrow and awakening them to the exciting complexities of the past is critical to keep the study of history thriving.

On graduating high school, many American students believe that the Middle Ages was full of knights, war, all-powerful popes, and, if their content went beyond Europe, potentially an incredibly wealthy man named Mansa Musa, and a Mesoamerican ballgame. In this version of the past, medieval people were backward, dirty, and all believed the earth was flat. While people who work within this chronological time period recognize its complexity, most students are not exposed to the history of the middle ages until they take upper level or graduate classes at universities, if they ever get that far. Given recent national and international events, it is evident that leaving this complicated and nuanced history for so late in a person’s educational journey is doing a social as well as educational disservice. In a quest to help teachers remediate this problem, several scholars of the global Middle Ages and Medievalisms have written lesson guides to be used by teachers of World and United States history for grades six through twelve. the goal is to create a collection that a teacher would be able to implement in their classroom with minimal additional work.

On graduating high school, many American students believe that the Middle Ages was full of knights, war, all-powerful popes, and, if their content went beyond Europe, potentially an incredibly wealthy man named Mansa Musa, and a Mesoamerican ballgame. In this version of the past, medieval people were backward, dirty, and all believed the earth was flat. While people who work within this chronological time period recognize its complexity, most students are not exposed to the history of the middle ages until they take upper level or graduate classes at universities, if they ever get that far. Given recent national and international events, it is evident that leaving this complicated and nuanced history for so late in a person’s educational journey is doing a social as well as educational disservice. In a quest to help teachers remediate this problem, several scholars of the global Middle Ages and Medievalisms have written lesson guides to be used by teachers of World and United States history for grades six through twelve. the goal is to create a collection that a teacher would be able to implement in their classroom with minimal additional work.

Accessible Africa: Teaching and Learning About an Unfamiliar Pastprovides educators ranging from middle school to high school an accessible account of the major developments in African history, paired with pedagogical strategies and approaches related to teaching the continent’s past. Based on decades of teaching African history at the collegiate and high school levels, it became clear to Cleveland and Panzer that most students had learned very little about Africa – beyond the Transatlantic Slave Trade – prior to arriving in their classrooms. This absence is not surprising, as educators readily admit that they do not feel comfortable teaching about Africa because they feel both unqualified and uninformed. Accessible Africa addresses these issues by providing both accessible content and associated teaching strategies related toroughly the past 5,000 years of African history, up to and including contemporary developments on the continent. Major historical themes include trade routes, slave trades, imperialism and colonialism, decolonization, and modern Africa.