A Thematic Unit on American Expansionism
The assumptions that the US had the right to take over the territories of indigenous peoples around the world, and that those people are better off under US rule, can be critically examined.
Read MoreSCOTUS Affirmative Action Decision: Help Students Examine the Context →
It wasn’t a surprise, but it still hurt.
Read MoreSacred Pasts: Teaching about Religion in World and US Histo
A US history unit on the relationship of church and state, and a world history unit on belief systems
Read MoreTrump’s Not the Only President to Push the Limits of Executive Power: US History Thematic Unit on Checks and Balances
With impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump looming, this is the perfect week to consider a unit on checks and balances among the three branches of government.
Read MoreAgainst World History
I just signed my contract with Teacher’s College Press to write the sequel to my US textbook, Teaching World History Thematically: Document-Based Lessons for the Secondary Classroom. They’ve given me 72,000 words, or 272 book pages—that’s 60 pages longer than my US book, but still…how am I going to cover everything that has happened to humans in the past 10,000 years or so?
Read More4 Guidelines for Inspiring Students to Take Informed Action on Current Issues
My latest blog post for socialstudies.com describes how to bring activism into the social studies curriculum.
Read MoreThe “Story of Thanksgiving”: Pushing Back Against the Master Narrative and the Pinterest-ization of Teaching
A few days after Thanksgiving, my daughter brought home a photocopied booklet from kindergarten. On the cover, smiling cartoon people in frilly bonnets stood side-by-side with and figures wearing moccasins and feathered headbands. One held a turkey on a platter.
Read MoreHow To Design Your Own Thematic, Document-Based History Units →
Guest blog post for SocialStudies.com about how to design your own document-based, thematic history units. I'm honored to have my ideas in such good company!
Read More…more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it…
Having taught James Baldwin's "Letter to my Nephew" in an 8th grade classroom, I can say that it was difficult for my white students to understand why they would need to be accepted, instead of accepting. Most of them had been told all their lives that they should be tolerant, that they should support giving equal rights to all people, without questioning why they were in a position to give instead of to receive. Baldwin’s words turned the world upside down for them. How could they be trapped when they felt so free?
Read MoreFirst Blog Post: How I Got Here
In this blog, I would like to share ideas with readers: insights I gain from presenting on this teaching method at conferences like National Council for Social Studies and the American Historical Association; feedback from teachers who use this textbook; and thematic units that did not fit into the book (for instance, on checks and balances between the three branches of government, and on the role of religion in politics). I may even go back and interview former students who were the captive audience for my trial-and-error process of developing the curriculum to see if they've suffered any longterm trauma or untoward interest in history.
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