General US History

—Sherry L. Field and Linda D. Labbo
Read a biography. Then examine “pocket contents.” In Lincoln’s vest pocket? A draft for a speech, theater tickets, and a photograph of his family, among other items. “Artifacts” are suggested for the pockets of Benito Juarez (president of Mexico), Grandma Moses (artist), Mary McLeod Bethune (black educator), and others.   read more »

—Jean A. Luckowsi and James J. Lopach
An issues-centered approach to impeachment can help students to both appreciate the wisdom of our constitutional framework and understand why such strong differences over how to interpret the Constitution emerged in the recent debate over impeaching President Clinton.

• http://publications.socialstudies.org/se/6302/

—James Monack   read more »

—Mira Cohen
Some memorable days in our nation’s history are declared holidays, while others are considered days of remembrance. This article explores the process of establishing a holiday to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.

• http://publications.socialstudies.org/se/7307/7307332.pdf

—Wayne Journell
Teachers can use this selection of campaign ads to help students analyze various aspects of political propaganda.

• http://publications.socialstudies.org/se/7307/7307325.pdf

—Katy Benedetto, Alexandra Lamb, and Robert Cohen
With the help of primary sources, teachers can give students the opportunity to reflect on the complexity and contradictions of U.S foreign policy by introducing them to Chile’s September 11.

• http://publications.socialstudies.org/se/7306/7306287.pdf

Gary Fertig and Rick Silverman
Creating biography webs helps young learners recognize how people, economic conditions, and significant events shaped the personal development of historic individuals.

• http://publications.socialstudies.org/se/7305/7305244.pdf

John J. DeRose
Students learn how local history has coincided with national events and trends when they create scrapbooks to document the history of their high school.

• http://publications.socialstudies.org/se/7305/7305240.pdf

—Donna Kay Mau
A classroom activity (in geography/history/current-events) for September of any year. Other items recall the “mighty storms” of Galveston (1900) and St. Croix (1772)—which a young islander, Alexander Hamilton, witnessed and wrote about (see Handout p. 16).

This URL downloads all 16 pages of Middle Level Learning as a black-and-white pdf of about 3.0 MB:   read more »

—Sandra W. Moss, M.D. Book review of “An American Plague” by Jim Murphy. Also in this issue: Handouts and teaching ideas, such as handout/graph “On the Trail of an Epidemic: Yellow Fever in New Orleans, 1845-1860” and “Connect-the-Dots: Making Meaning from Historical Evidence” by Chris Edwards, which discusses smallpox and the Columbian Exchange.   read more »