Education Commons^™

Historical Inquiry: Who Has The Power? Using Film To Introduce Students To Medieval Social Class Structures, Megan Todd, Janie Hubbard

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Using film in the classroom to teach history has long been endorsed as an effective pedagogical method when the lessons’ purposes and goals are clearly supported with facts. This article, which includes a National Council for the Social Studies C3 inquiry-based lesson plan, is targeted for educators who aspire to help students understand basic European Medieval history and engage in critical thinking. Medieval history is listed in many U.S. state curriculum standards and international teaching benchmarks; thus, this lesson contributes a teaching-ready source, particularly to introduce students to historical concepts, geographies, and politics (i.e., power structures). Clips from A Knight’s …

The Green Book: Race, Geography, And Critical Understanding, Mark Pearcy Ph.D.

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Social studies teachers face a number of disciplinary challenges--for instance, insufficient geographic knowledge, fewer opportunities for critical analysis amid shrinking instructional time--and, in terms of confronting discrimination and disparity, an increasingly racially segregated society. Teachers can, however, make excellent use of historical resources and modern mapping tools to empower students in their analysis of the Jim Crow era and segregation in American daily life. This article describes the use of The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide produced from 1937 to 1963 for African-American drivers which detailed American businesses which catered to black travelers. Using the data from these books, …

Integrating Creative, Critical, And Historical Thinking Through Close Reading, Document- Based Writing, And Original Political Cartooning, John H. Bickford Iii

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

State and national education initiatives prescribe diverse thinking through age-appropriate content area literacy tasks at all grade levels. History education researchers encourage teachers to intentionally integrate content, methods, and assessment in discipline-specific ways. This paper—targeting middle level and secondary students—proposes a fusion between scrutiny of juxtaposed texts, evidentiary writing, and creative expression of newly generated understandings. This model elicits students’ content area literacy through close reading and text-based writing; it evokes students’ criticality through historical thinking and creation. Interested teachers are offered a representative sample of student work.

Teaching Students To Challenge The Status Quo: Recognizing Oppression In African Film, Roberta Di Carmine

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to share experiences and strategies about teaching race and oppression with African films and promote the use of non-Western films in the classroom. By referring to bell hooks' and Richard Dyer's works, the paper discusses how teachers have a responsibility to create a learning environment in which students learn to be open minded and to challenge the status quo.

African films offer an opportunity to achieve this goal. Films such as Black Girl demand students’ attention but also require in-depth discussions if we want to raise students’ awareness of films as political weapons …