Child's Letter to President John F. Kennedy about Physical Fitness

By Missy McNatt

The featured letter from a nine-year-old boy to JFK will highlight the need to promote physical fitness in our schools, and can ignite class discussions of issues such as federalism, Title IX, and the overall health of Americans.

The Baghdad That Was: Using Primary Sources to Teach World History

By Joan Brodsky Schur

The documents presented here will help students imagine Baghdad at its height as a hub of civilization under the Abbasid Empire.

Abraham Lincoln: American Lawyer-President

By Brian Dirck

Teaching Activity by Tiffany Willey

Apocalypse When? How to Teach about Human Survival Using the Internet

By C. Frederick Risinger

The selected websites provide information and lesson plans for educating students about the looming food crisis, soil degradation, and other natural forces threatening humankind.

Editor's Notes

Get in the Groove, Let's Make a Move!: Students in Israel Confront a Transition with Service Learning

By Abigail S. Chill

Faced with the challenge of a school move, eleventh-grade students take on the roles of photographers, mapmakers, researchers, artists and public speakers to help prepare their school community for the transition.

The Civil War Battle That Helped Create a State

By Kay A. Chick

What makes an event worthy of the history textbooks? In this lesson, students study a little-known Civil War battle to broaden their understanding of historical significance.

Teaching Social Studies as a Subversive Activity

By Charles L. Mitsakos, Ann T. Ackerman

The constraints created by NCLB and under-performing textbooks mean that teachers have to devise new ways to advance education for democracy.

Authentic Intellectual Work: Common Standards for Teaching Social Studies

By M. Bruce King, Fred M. Newmann, Dana L. Carmichael

Students who have the opportunity to construct knowledge, rather than simply reproduce what they have been given, experience far greater learning, engagement, and achievement.

Revealing the Invisible: Confronting Passive Racism in Teacher Education by Sherry Marx

By Margaret Crocco

Embracing the Future through Social Studies

By Michael M. Yell

Today's educators must deliver instruction that is forward-looking to equip our students with the skills and perspectives needed in this fast-changing world.