Students Abroad

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This selection is a bit of a departure from the other content in this section, but it's a government resource which is well worth notice.

Going abroad is a life changing experience—one that permanently alters a participant's viewpoint on the world. It's unlikely that a school will allow a field trip abroad, but it is possible to arrange a summer tour for students through a travel group. Seeing the places read about in textbooks gives history a reality or immediacy otherwise difficult to conjure.

If you're willing to take on the responsibility, and you're in the lucky position to be able to do so, there's still a great deal of planning necessary for group travel. Students Abroad pulls together many of the most relevant resources.

Travel Documents covers pertinent information on passports, visas, and registering your trip. The latter allows U.S. embassies to contact you in case of local emergency or family emergency back home.

Under health, you'll find alerts and country specific information, insurance information, and more.

Other highlights include emergency information; tips for GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual) travelers, women, and travelers with disabilities; information on what to leave at home; preparation checklists; and links to the latest international alerts.

Peace Corps

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The Peace Corps has a three-fold mission. First and foremost, the organization sends volunteers to communities around the world which have requested assistance in creating sustainable solutions to real world problems. Second (and third, really), is an interest in increasing international understanding and friendship—of non-Americans for Americans and vice versa.

One of the most exciting options the Peace Corps offers educators is the World Wise Schools Correspondence Match program. The program permits educators to request a pen pal relationship with a Peace Corps volunteer in a region of the world and area of interest (agriculture, business, education, health, or environment) of their choosing. Maybe your students could discuss the lasting impact of the Vietnam War with a volunteer in Southeast Asia or how U.S. business history has altered life in China or Central America. This could also be an excellent way to introduce social studies students to the connection between history and geography and fields more often taught at the collegiate level, such as anthropology and international relations.

Another feature offered is a collection of more than 120 lesson plans. These are not focused on history per se, but you may be able to find a lesson which will strengthen themes you are pursuing in the classroom. One such lesson involves planning a service learning project. Oral histories are a classic way to combine service learning and history.

U.S. Fire Administration

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The United States Fire Administration is a division within the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It exists specifically to assist in the prevention of and response to fire.

So, what does the USFA website have to do with teaching history? Narrowly speaking, not a great deal. However, the service does provide a statistics page. While the statistics are decidedly recent, remember that what has just happened gives students an excellent frame of reference for "living," that is, really absorbing, historical knowledge by relating it to what they know.

QuickStats offers a few major points on fire injuries, deaths, and losses from 2003 to 2008. Other pages offer information on fire locations (outdoor, residential, etc.), states with the most fire-related deaths, and wildfires.

Try using this information to put past disasters in perspective or even to discuss firefighting methods in the past versus today (particularly great for localized urban histories). An example would be that the number of people who died in the 1911 Triangle Factory Fire ( or the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire) was 4% of the number of civilians killed in fires in 2008 (and more than the total number of firefighters killed in the line of duty). 4% in one fire (essentially like 1 student in a class of 25)!

Federal Emergency Management Agency

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FEMA exists to work with external organizations in order to, in their words, "prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from" disaster.

For starters, try the organization's listings of declared disasters—conveniently sorted by year or state, permitting you to access period-specific information or disasters which were local to your area. Listing content varies. Some merely state that a declaration was issued (which would be an excellent point from which to begin searching local newspapers), while others contain news bulletins. Declarations date from 1953 to present, and cover all 50 states—in addition to the Federated States of Micronesia, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Marshall Islands, the District of Columbia, and Palau.

Another possibility is analyzing a past disaster for governmental process and aid, using the offered disaster declaration definitions and relief procedure. Unclear exactly what hazardous materials, heat warnings, terrorism, or tsunamis entail? Take a look at the various disaster types.

Maybe you would like a visual? FEMA also provides maps, including inundation maps from Hurricanes Ivan, Katrina, and Rita.

Finally, FEMA offers a kids' page. From there, you can access a disaster readiness page, complete with games and appealing animal "guides," which may make historical disasters seem more relevant to those of today. Consider comparing today's disaster kit contents (under "Step 1: Create a Kit") to what individuals would have had in the past. Other options include a multiple choice quiz, information on disaster types, an interactive map of current disasters, and a virtual library. This last contains photos, video files, maps, web links, and suggested reading.

Realizing the Value of Primary Sources

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India Ink, ". . . Lodge. . . ," Thomas Nast, June 25, 1892, Library of Congress
Question

My middle school students prefer to read secondary sources. How can I explain that primary sources are also valuable in understanding historical events?

Answer

What an interesting question! It provokes other questions—what is it about secondary sources that your students like? And what kinds of secondary sources do they like? Textbooks and movies are a familiar genre for students in middle school and offer a much tidier story than reading primary sources. Primary sources, given their variety, seem very different from these; and may offer challenges to your students that they are reluctant to tackle. Consider that primary sources about the same event can directly contradict, that they can contain antiquated or complex prose, and that the background knowledge necessary to understand a primary source can be substantial; and it definitely makes sense that your students balk at using them.

But this complexity, and the need to analyze and read them carefully, is exactly why your students need to work with them.

So what to do? While explaining to your students the value and importance of primary sources is one approach, combining that explanation with a few activities designed to show, rather than tell, students their importance can be invaluable. Some teachers do activities designed to make the nature of history more explicit for their students. These can range from activities that use everyday situations to uncover the existence of multiple contrasting sources about events to those that require students to investigate a historical question by consulting multiple sources. Both kinds of activities can be used to make points about differences and relationships between primary and secondary sources and the necessity of consulting primary sources to understand history.

For example, "everyday" activities could include:

  • Students write accounts of the first day of class or school, teacher selects some to read, and then the class discusses why and how they differ. If a school newsletter addressed the beginning of school, use this to introduce secondary accounts into the activity.
  • Stage a brief dramatic episode (for example, a verbal altercation) with a colleague and then have students write what happened. Compare accounts, generate questions that need to be asked of the accounts, and then consider how these interact with a hypothetical account of the same from the school newspaper—the secondary account in this activity.
  • Read, analyze, and compare conflicting accounts of a community event that you find in the school or local newspaper. Identify what primary sources were consulted and the role they play in the story the newspaper tells.

More historical activities include:

Using detective work as a metaphor for introducing primary sources and the central role they play in creating those secondary accounts can be useful. See this Research Brief or this one for a quick look at studies that included teaching students what primary sources were and how they were used by historians.

You may also get buy-in from your students if you select primary sources that you judge especially interesting for them. For example, try using childrens’ voices from the past (See this Depression Era lesson or this Civil War lesson.) or sources addressing topics they are interested in like music or sports.

But in any case, even if students are initially resistant to primary sources in your classroom, we encourage you to use them and help them learn why studying history without them makes little sense as they are the raw materials of the discipline. Primary sources also offer rich opportunities for helping your students practice and hone their reading and analysis skills, critical abilities for their future.

Selective Service System

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The Selective Service System was set up as an individual agency in 1940 to organize military draft registration and the induction of drafted soldiers. Contrary to popular opinion, the draft, was in use until 1973 during both times of war and peace. Not all military positions filled by the draft were combat.

The Selective Service System website is not particularly rich in useful classroom resources. However, if you are planning on teaching a unit on World War I or II; Korea; or, in particular, the Vietnam War, information on the draft could be a good way to get students to imagine themselves in a historical position.

Try the statistics page for the total number of inductees for the previously mentioned wars, as well as the annual totals between 1917 and 1973. You can also access the Vietnam lottery results.

If your high school students are concerned about the draft, you can read up on changes since the Vietnam War era, or access the actual Military Service Selection Act, complete with all amendments through 2003. An overview of the service history and policy, designed for teachers, is also available as a PDF file.

Two other primary source documents are available as links from the site. These are Executive Order 11967—Relating to Violations of the Selective Service Act and Proclamation 4483 Granting Pardons For Violations of the Selective Service Act.

Teaching for Historical Understanding in Inclusive Classrooms

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A teacher helping her students understand primary sources. NHEC
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Teaching historical thinking can be tricky, especially in classrooms of mixed ability. Yet it is possible for all students, even those with learning disabilities, to learn how to think about complex issues like historical evidence, bias, and corroboration of sources. Ralph Ferretti and Charles MacArthur of the University of Delaware and Cynthia Okolo of Michigan State University have shown that the right instructional techniques can help improve the learning of all children.

Description and Findings

The researchers designed a 5th grade social studies unit to teach historical content and historical thinking. The unit was taught in three 5th grade classrooms, where students with and without learning disabilities worked together to learn about western expansion.

Students were asked to investigate the experiences of one of three groups: miners, farmers or Mormons. Students answered the question: should these groups have gone west? Then they created a multimedia report about their investigation. Throughout the unit, students worked in groups that brought together students with and without learning disabilities.

As they worked on these projects, students were taught lessons to enhance their understanding of historical content and historical thinking, including:

  • An investigation of primary sources: diaries, drawings, photographs, memoirs, and letters.
  • A focus on historical thinking in which students learned how to evaluate evidence and corroborate sources, the importance of qualifying conclusions, and methods for understanding who wrote the source and for what purpose.
  • Direct instruction in cognitive strategies for retaining information about western migration such as the importance of understanding the people and the problems they faced.

At the end of the unit, the researchers saw improvement in all students' understanding of historical content and historical thinking.

In their understanding of historical content, both groups of students improved their scores on a series of tests. However, general education students improved more than their peers with disabilities. (This finding is different from the authors’ results in other similar studies that showed both groups were able to similarly improve at understanding historical content.)

In their understanding of historical thinking, both groups had comparable gains on a series of tests. In other words, students with and without learning disabilities increased their understanding of how to construct an historical argument based on historical evidence.

The study suggests that there are benefits of inquiry-based instruction for all students. The authors conclude that "students with disabilities can understand authentic historical practices and meet the demands of rigorous curricula."

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Photo, Teaching a deaf-mute to talk, OK, Lewis Hines, April 1917, LoC
In the Classroom

When working in heterogeneous classrooms, group projects focused on historical questions can help all students learn more about investigating and understanding the past.

  • Carefully select small groups that bring together students with and without learning disabilities.
  • Begin by framing history as a narrative, a story of what happened to a particular group of people living in the past.
  • Provide the student groups with primary source documents that shed light on the people and time period you are investigating, and guide them to think about the narrative elements of history: Who are the people we are investigating? What was it like to live in their communities during their time? What challenges did they face and how did they respond to those challenges?
  • Provide students a variety of ways to contribute to the group investigation—including but not limited to writing, speaking, and gathering written and pictoral evidence—to open more avenues for participation.
Sample Application

History is a narrative, a story of what happened to people in the past. In some instances, as in the case of western expansion, it is the story of people who encountered problems that required them to take action. The researchers asked students to investigate the stories of different groups by gathering information about the following narrative components:

  • Who were these people? (Miners/Farmers/Mormons)
  • What problems did they face in their place of origin?
  • What were their reasons for deciding to move west?
  • What challenges did they face on their trip?
  • What occurred when they reached their destination?
For more information

Ralph P. Ferretti, Charles D. MacArthur, & Cynthia M. Okolo, "Teaching Effectively about Historical Things," Teaching Exceptional Children, v34 n6 p66-69 Jul-Aug 2002.

Cynthia M. Okolo & Ralph R. Ferretti, "Knowledge Acquisition and Technology-Supported Projects in the Social Studies for Students with Learning Disabilities," Journal of Special Education Technology, v13 p91-103 1997.

Bibliography

Ralph P. Ferretti, Charles D. MacArthur, & Cynthia M. Okolo, "Teaching for Historical Understanding in Inclusive Classrooms," Learning Disability Quarterly, v24 n1 p59-71 Win 2001.

Reading Abraham Lincoln: A Case Study in Contextualized Thinking

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Abraham Lincoln statue from the Lincoln Memorial. NHEC
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Teaching history is not only about teaching students what happened in the past; it’s about teaching them how to think about the past. Many students instinctively employ modern perspectives when reading historical documents—a practice historians call "presentism." Students have to be taught to "think contextually," learning to recognize how the past differed from the present. In a significant study, Sam Wineburg revealed that even among teachers contextual thinking is a unique skill that needs to be intentionally developed.

Wineburg and his colleagues worked with 12 pre-service teachers participating in a fifth-year certification program at the University of Washington. They asked those teachers to "think aloud" and make visible how the teachers thought about six historical documents from the nineteenth century.

In this small study, being a history major turned out not to be a reliable predictor of being able to contextualize historical documents. Even college students with strong history content knowledge can fall prey to presentism. The most sophisticated historical readers, on the other hand, build a social context for the historical documents they are reading, drawing inferences from each document, establishing a spectrum of ideas for the period, and reading multiple documents in conversation with each other.

Drawing Inferences from Documents

Historical documents tell readers something not only about their author, but also about the world in which he or she lived. One document from the study, for instance, is a campaign speech made by Abraham Lincoln, in which Lincoln seemingly reveals deep bigotry toward African-Americans. But Lincoln’s words cannot be separated from the occasion on which they were uttered, the location of the debate, or the kinds of people who were in attendance. In short, the speech may tell us something about Lincoln, but it may tell us even more about middle America in 1858.

Establishing a Spectrum of Ideas

In order to build a social context for understanding historical documents, students need to have a general understanding of what people thought about particular issues at that time. In the case of Lincoln’s comments on race, students can better understand the context in which he made them by reading documents written by defenders and opponents of slavery. Examining excerpts from white supremacist John Bell Robinson and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, for instance, helped successful readers understand how slavery was understood in Lincoln’s own time.

Reading Across Documents

Looking at the ways in which different documents from the same period inform each other is another way of building the social context of the past. The technique, which historians call "intertextual reading," involves reading each document with the others as backdrop, weaving them together to bring to life the world of the past.

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Image of bust, Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, New York Public Library
In the Classroom

The past, as L.P. Hartley wrote, is a "foreign country," which means that people thought, spoke, dressed, and lived in different ways than we do today.

  • Think about how you can help your students understand this strange place, where people lived differently, had different rights, and believed different things.
  • Begin by asking students to figure out where they stand on a particular issue. Then, reminding them that they are dealing with a different time and place, give them a number of documents focusing on a particular historical issue.
  • Have students make lists of what they can infer about the time period from these documents. How was it different from our world today?
  • See if students can use the documents to establish a spectrum of ideas for the period, and ask them if modern perspectives fall within the poles established by that spectrum.
  • Reminding them that they should be reading across the various documents, ask them to paint a general picture of this past world.
Sample Application

The two excerpts below are from think aloud exercises with two participants in the study. While those participants were teachers rather than students, they nevertheless reflect the same strengths and weaknesses exhibited by younger readers. Take a look at the first one:

Lincoln was not so much...working in the interest of the black man, for altruistic sense. . . he’s not giving them equality in personhood.

The criticism that Lincoln is not giving African-Americans “equality in personhood” is a distinctly modern one that ignores the fact that Lincoln was operating in a very different time in American history. Further, the reader draws conclusions about what Lincoln stood for, ignoring the fact that Lincoln was speaking in the context of a political campaign.

Now take a look at how the second reader approaches a historical text:

. . . I get the feeling that he is wrestling with something that doesn’t really have a good solution. This is the best you can have for now. . . He was real one-dimensional in the first article, kind of a slimy politician. Then he has another side with the letter to Mary Speed, kind of human. And now this is again another, it’s beginning to fill out, but now I see him more as the chief executive and trying to deal with problems, trying to balance a war, thinking ahead, what are we going to do after the war and sort of coming up with—and this is prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. Is this prior to the Emancipation Proclamation? Yes, this is prior. So, I mean he may have had this idea in mind, so he’s thinking forward, and how are we going to deal with this huge number of slaves? Maybe colonizing is certainly a viable option in 1862. It kind of reminds me of what the British did with Australia. Ship all the undesirables down to Australia.

Unlike the first reader, this seasoned one considers the fact that, however distasteful it strikes us today, creating a black colony may have been "a viable option in 1862." Further, instead of taking Lincoln’s words as clear evidence of what the future president believed, the reader notes that different Lincolns appear depending on the context: a "slimy politician" in one, a "human" side in a second, and a "chief executive" in a third.

For more information

Teachinghistory.org's Teaching Guide Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) in the History Classroom further discusses leading students toward synthesized, contextualized understanding.

Avishag Reisman and Sam Wineburg, "Teaching the Skill of Contextualizing in History," The Social Studies 99, no. 5 (Sep-Oct 2008), 202-207.

Bibliography

Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001).

National Center for Education Statistics

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According to the official site, “The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.”

If you're looking for information on educational trends or teaching strategy analyses, try the NCES Publications and Products Search, or browse publications from the last 90 days to review the latest. If you’re not sure where to begin, try the subject index. Examples of titles available include "Teacher Strategies to Help Fourth-Graders Having Difficulty in Reading: An International Perspective" and "High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007." Statistical projections are also available.

Another option is to look through the surveys and programs section to find your area of interest, and then browse a given project’s products. Of particular interest is the elementary/secondary section, which includes information on national statistics, school to work transitions, high school activities, safety, library use, family involvement in childhood education, rural education, and more.

Quick rundowns, "Fast Facts," of certain topics are also available. These include average reading scale scores, SAT scores, teacher trends, English as a second language, and students with disabilities.

The website also provides a number of relevant tools. Teach high school? Point your students toward the College Navigator to help them begin their college search.

Finally, the Kids' Zone also offers a graph making tool and a fun quiz feature. The quiz includes civics and history options for fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade students. Students can select five through 20 question versions. When they’re done, they can click on the "National Performance Results" icon by each question’s answer to see how their knowledge of the question compared to students around the country.

Indian Health Service

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According to the Indian Health Service website, the organization's mission is "to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level." This is accomplished by serving as the primary health caregiver for these populations and through a direct relationship to both the federal government and tribal organizations.

Every year you teach students about Native American history; but, while everyone knows that the British, U.S. citizens, Spanish, and French still abound, do your students know that Native American tribes are still active today? One way to increase student interest in Native American history might be to show how their past treatment is still relevant to the status of today's Native American groups. Yet another possible benefit of addressing their modern lives is the bridging of the conceptual gap between social studies years of civics and American history.

The main offerings of use to educators on the Indian Health Service website are statistics and photographs.

The statistic sets which can be found include an overview of health disparities, as well as additional short sections focusing on diabetes, HIV, behavioral health (drug use and suicide), and death by injury. The Division of Program Statistics also offers publications on national and regional health trends and mortality, population, and special reports on Alaska natives. Special reports include statistics for specific demographic populations, such as children or the elderly.

Most historically-minded of the site's offerings, the photo gallery is extremely easy to navigate. You are first asked to select an image category: "Administrative," "Ceremonial," "Clinical," or "Public Health." From there, you select a more specific image content subcategory and a time period. Time period options include historical images (1887-1969), all time periods, or individual presidential administrations. The end result is that you don't have to spend any great amount of time to find precisely the image that you want. This is the sort of image gallery you'll wish every site had.

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