Teaching high school history with picture books can enliven social studies content, advance students’ higher-order thinking skills, and help facilitate differentiated instruction.

Quality children’s literature, specifically picture books, can be extremely helpful to teach social studies concepts to students of all ages, including secondary, by sharing important messages through simplistic, imagery-filled text. Learning names and dates is not enough. We must be prepared to help children ask questions, and discover their answers through creative thinking, reasoning, judging, and understanding. Presenter Jessica Torre ESC Region 12, Waco, TX

Picture books often address complex topics and can provide a visually arresting approach for teaching secondary as well as special needs students.

“Why are people marching?” Given today’s level of activism, this is a plausible question many students may have. Although only some students voice the questions, it is very likely that many more have pondered why people are protesting after seeing reports of events such as the Women’s March (equality for women), March for Our Lives (about gun control), Black Lives Matter (for racial justice), Janitors March (for fair pay), and Keep Families Together (demanding the Trump administration reunite immigrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border). As elementary teachers, our subsequent…

The authors show how elementary-school age students and teachers can use picture books, young adult literature, and poetry to uncover and explore the hidden histories and untold stories of Elizabeth Jennings, Ida B. Wells, Jackie Robinson, Sarah Keys Evans, and Claudette Colvin, among others, and their protests for African Americans’ right to ride in trains, streetcars, buses, and other forms of public transportation. 

Some key strategies can help provide students with a balanced picture of the founding fathers while honoring the lives, stories, and experiences of victims of slavery.

The 100th anniversary year of the Nineteenth Amendment offers an important opportunity to deepen student understanding of the women’s suffrage movement.

Those who would ban or burn books recognize that the threat to their power comes when people learn to think for themselves.

The present from the Maasai people to the American people described in a picture book offers an ideal opportunity for teaching young students about 9/11 in a manner that highlights global citizenship and compassion.