Elementary Education and Teaching Commons^™

A Time For Change: Transforming A New Generation Of Students Into Historical Thinkers, Lauren Seghi

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article describes the advantages of teaching students how to think historically in the classroom. I contend that teaching students how to think historically and "do" history as historians do will help them understand better both the past and the present world around them. It also provides insight into the work of Stanford University clinical psychologist Sam Wineburg and educators and authors Frederick D. Drake, Sarah Drake Brown and Lynn R. Nelson. Especially important is my analysis of Drake's 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-Order document approach. My hope is that this article gives history and social studies teachers a new perspective …

Teaching African American History Through Museum Theatre, Julie Anne Taylor

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article examines museum theatre as a means of teaching African American history and culture. After participating in museum theatre experiences in the galleries of the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, the largest museum of African American history in the country, participants reported having a greater sense of connection to and interest in the past. The study suggests that interactions with professional, costumed actors in theatre sets develop historical empathy and understanding among participants. Historical events seem less abstract, and the impact of those events on people is better understood. This study suggests that collaboration between schools and museums …

Review Of "We Are A College At War: Women Working For Victory In World War Ii", Anne Valk

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of "Saving State U: Why We Must Fix Public Higher Education", Stephen Hansen

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of "The Death And Life Of The Great American School System" And "America’S Public Schools: From The Common School To No Child Left Behind", Michelle Stacy

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Voices Of Cooperating Teachers And Preservice Teachers: Implications For Elementary Social Studies Education, Mary Beth Henning, Eiu-Kyung Shin

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Examining the current beliefs and practices of elementary social studies teachers and preservice teachers suggests that there are similarities and differences between how they perceive their roles as curricular-instructional gatekeepers (Thornton, 1991). Using both survey data and focus groups, cooperating teachers describe their contemporary elementary social studies teaching practices as a blend of stand-alone activities and integrated instruction. Elementary teachers recommend more hands-on activities and literacy development strategies be taught in social studies methods classes. Preservice teachers also reported their preferred teaching practices and rationales in social studies, showing some significant differences from cooperating teachers.

Boosting Chicago: Bird’S-­‐Eye Views As Maps Of Progress, Mark Newman

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Boosting Chicago explores the nature of bird's-eye views, the public face of Chicago views depicted between 1857 and 1916, and offers ideas on using these unique documents in the classroom. Bird's-eye views were popular lithographs of urban communities in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Subjective and incomplete documents, they were artifacts of civic pride. Though little studied by scholars or used by teachers, they offer unique windows into the perceptions of residents regarding their community. Boosting Chicago suggests that views of this city consistently pictured it as a bustling, growing metropolis that acted as a hub and tied its …

Using Historical Court Cases To Explore Prohibition, Kristina Maldre

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The intrigue of prohibition tales and the intricacy of court records present a unique opportunity for classroom use. Integrating historic court records into your social studies curriculum can help strengthen students’ literacy skill set and build historical understanding of social tensions and cultural conflicts of the 1920s.

Rethinking The Social In Social Studies, Jeffrey Manuel

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article reviews new approaches in history, social sciences, and science studies that suggest a rethinking of the social. The article begins by situating the social within a long history of social thinking throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It then examines how these new critical approaches to the social offer useful insights into current intellectual problems in the social studies curriculum.

Review Of "Why School?: Reclaiming Education For All Of Us", Susan Breck

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of "Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City On The Mississippi", Rowena Mcclinton

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

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 …

Ten Illinois Oral History Projects Waiting To Be Assigned, Lindon Ratliff

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The article presents ten oral history projects which could be taught by a high school social studies teacher in Illinois. The author discusses the importance of oral histories as well as teaching strategies which can be used.

Review Of "The Making Of Americans: Democracy And Our Schools", Lauren Seghi

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This is a review of education advocate, E.D. Hirsch, Jr's latest book, The Making of Americans: Democracy and our Schools. It provides an analysis of his thesis and content (ie. sources) with a look at each individual chapter. In addition, I provide both praise and criticism for the work and suggest who might benefit from reading this book.

Review Of "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human", Jennifer Rehg

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Grooming Tomorrow’S Advocates: Preparing Elementary Social Studies Teachers Today, Rachel Finley-Bowman

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) upon teaching and learning social studies at the elementary level are already well known. In light of the discipline’s increasing marginalization in the schools, the methods used to prepare elementary educators for teaching social studies and developing professional advocacy must be reexamined. This article, with reference to relevant scholarship, discusses eight key strategies to promote more effective teacher preparation, including a pledge of advocacy, meaningful pedagogy, pre-service professional development, knowledge of curriculum standards, content expertise, curriculum integration, significant field experience before student teaching, and reevaluation of NCLB.

Power, Politics And Pedagogy: Teaching About Law As A Structure Of Inequality, Matthew Petrocelli, Erin Heil, Trish Oberweis

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this article is to explore ways to integrate into the classroom the Marxist perspective of law. The paper discusses ways to apply the tenets of Marxism to areas of contemporary social debate; namely, the economic, racial, and gender inequalities of the American legal system and the institution of university speech codes for the purpose of exploring these issues in the classroom, particularly with regard to legal apparatuses as tools of oppression.

Review Of "Education And The Cold War: The Battle For The American School", Mary Lopez

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Differing Voices: Stories Of The Holocaust From Various Perspectives A Lesson Plan And Personal Memorial, Lauren Seghi

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This lesson provides students with the opportunity to analyze varying perspectives of the Holocaust. The students will come to understand that the racism and discrimination of the Nazis extended past the Jewish population during the Holocaust. In fact, they will learn that it affected groups such as Polish Catholics, prisoners of war, and the handicapped as well. This will be done by the analysis of photographs, maps and graphs as well as the students' reading and discussion of Holocaust memoirs written by three separate individuals with different.

Review Of "The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberty And Commons For All", James Sabathne

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of "The Long Pursuit: Abraham Lincoln's Thirty-Year Struggle With Stephen Douglas For The Heart And Soul Of America", Jon Parkin

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of "On Deep History And The Brain", James Sabathne

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

A Virtual Tour Of Shiloh, Lindon Ratliff

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

In this article the author discusses a virtual field trip lesson created to assist his high school history students. By using pictures, videos hosted via youtube, and actual battlefield artifacts, the teacher was allowed to better explore the history surrounding the Civil War battle.

Learning With Lincoln: A Teacher Institute Highlighting Abraham Lincoln, Amy Wilkinson

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is one of many educational consortiums that house a national grant program, The Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS), formerly Adventure of the American Mind. The SIUE TPS program began serving K-12 educators in 2002 by offering various professional development opportunities to promote the use of digital primary source collections found at the Library of Congress Web site. This article will offer information and resources about a professional development initiative which highlights President Abraham Lincoln using the digital collections found at the Library of Congress Web site.

The Enemy Within (The Ivory Tower): How Conservatives Came To Despise The Academy, Andrew Hartman

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article gives historical perspective to the recent phenomenon of conservative opposition to the academic liberal arts, demonstrating how anti-relativism shifted from an elitist position to a conservative-populist one.

The Transnational Turn And Trickle Down Disturbances, Tim Lacy

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This is an extended review/review essay of *America on the World Stage*. It begins by briefly analyzing the historiography and theoretical background of the "Transnational Turn." The piece then moves to the book, providing the nuts and bolts, positives, and negatives. I conclude with some larger philosophical issues and suggestions for improvement.

How Can We Teach “Western Civilization” If It Doesn’T Exist? Rethinking The European History Survey Model, Jennifer Miller

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Teaching "Western Civilization" survey courses presents a dilemma to teachers and scholars who find themselves teaching with models, categories, and narratives that they would not only not use in their research, but also actively counter with their research. This article proposes that bringing our research into the classroom means fundamentally rethinking how we teach survey courses, from their conceptualization to the sources used.

Lost In Translation, Kara M. Kavanagh

Dilemmas in Education: A Casebook for Ethical Reasoning

The majority of teachers in America would expect to and be prepared to teach the svastika symbol in relations to Nazi Germany, Hitler, the Holocaust, and as a symbol of White supremacy groups and hatred towards anyone who is not Blonde Haired and Blue Eyed. What would happen then, if a student doodled the svastika for fun or as an art project not related to the history or social studies curriculum?

Stem Storytelling: Using Picture Books To Integrate Mathematics - "Dare To Tinker", Lindsey Herlehy, Karen Togliatti

Publications & Research

This series of activities invites students to engage in a design challenge that elicits mathematical and scientific thinking. In the first activity, the picture book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires will be used as a catalyst to discuss the engineering design process as experienced by the protagonist, a little girl. Suggested questioning techniques and inferential reasoning strategies will focus on the trials and tribulations, frustrations, and successes achieved by the little girl. Additionally, discussion prompts are included to provide students an opportunity to reflect on the little girl as a mathematician and scientist as she takes action and …

Teaching For Deep Learning In A Second Grade Literacy Classroom, Treavor Bogard, Annamary L. Consalvo, Jo Worthy

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

From a New Literacies Studies (NLS) perspective, deep learning involves the acquisition of social and cultural competencies valued within a disciplinary community, not merely propositional displays of what one knows. Drawn from a year-long qualitative inquiry, this case study examines how one exemplary second-grade literacy teacher taught toward deep learning, using a pedagogy of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996). Selected episodes of instruction were analyzed in two phases. Initially, data were examined for evidence of three main competency sets of deep learning--cognitive, inter-personal, and intra-personal (National Research Council, 2012). In the latter phase, analysis focused on the teacher’s pedagogical stances …