It is difficult to overstate the power of visual images, particularly historical primary source photos, to provide a window into the past. Here, the authors outline how educators can utilize historic photos to provide students with a deeper understanding of the past. When students do not see their heritage and culture represented in images, the development of their historical understanding can be incomplete or fragmented. Historical understanding can be enhanced, however, when students “see themselves” in the primary sources presented to them.

The use of trade books to foster discussion of historical events and major Supreme Court decisions in the elementary classroom can serve as a powerful method through which elementary students can begin to see themselves as active contributors to the communities and worlds in which they live. In this article and the accompanying lesson plan, the authors share ways to teach about Supreme Court decisions —specifically the decisions that have affected marriage equality—with the C3 Framework.

A troubling observation is that—outside of Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March, during which students are acquiring some knowledge about noteworthy women and minorities—teachers in every grade level often teach about the same figures rather than expanding their lessons to include less-conventional or less-well-known individuals. To address these gender equity gaps related to social studies instruction, the authors established “Little Leaders,” a group consisting of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten girls.

Young children’s self-identification and self-identity are essentially a set of conscious and unconscious beliefs built from experiences.2 Students’ self-image, and their understanding of society, can change when they research how women contributed to our nation and to our daily lives. Such lessons can render these historical figures accessible and relevant. We created a lesson based on inquiry activities as described in the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, introducing students to a compelling question: “Why do we celebrate Women’s History…

In the article “Inspiring Americans: Creating a Community of Engaged Citizens” (pp. 12–16), the authors suggest that children can study biographies of less-known citizens that are diverse in many ways. In this Pullout, we offer an extension activity that brings the topic close to home and school.

In this article, we offer a rich description for how to highlightwomen’s voices in history through storytelling while engaging students in historical thinking skills rooted in primary source documents.

While guest teaching in a third-grade classroom as part of her doctoral studies, the author became interested in how students think about female pioneers and what it means to be first in a historical sense. This article explores the potential of interactive read-aloud books to teach women’s history with young students.

Sports can be a unique platform to teach third-grade students about women’s history and civic values. This lesson addresses two social studies practices for the third grade in the New York State K-8 Social Studies Framework (Gathering, Interpreting, and Using Evidence; and Chronological Reasoning and Causation) and three themes from the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE; PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS; and INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY).

The study of famous Americans has been a long-accepted approach in teaching elementary students about the history of the United States. The first grade unit we describe here, Inspiring Americans, supports the four dimensions of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework,

Early in the semester, during a seemingly benign math lesson over money, one of the students in my second and third grade blended classroom halted the instruction to ask “Wait! Why are there no women on money? Is there any money with women on it?” Never one to miss an opportunity to get my students thinking critically, we took some time to discuss why that might be. In considering how to approach this topic in the classroom, I drew on several areas of research: the marginalization of women in history, the use of inquiry in the elementary classroom, and incorporating discussion in lessons.