History as Prologue

Category: Teaching History

  • Teaching American History badly-part 2

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    Mark Thomas
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    Teaching American History badly well In the previous post I listed five essential skills students must have to access history in a meaningful way. Personal concept of historical time Bias recognition Strong search strategies Organizational skills (for evidence/data) Ability to generate essential questions In this post I’ll focus on the first of these. For the…

  • Teaching American History badly

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    by

    Mark Thomas
    in

    Teaching American History badly – Part 1 Just to clarify, this post isn’t intended as a how to. The scope of this entry is to reflect upon what conditions tend to encourage a person to find relevance between his or her life and past events and personalities. With few exceptions, the traditional means of teaching…

  • Social studies, civil rights and the bigger picture

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    Mark Thomas
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    Social studies, civil rights and the bigger picture There have been three presidential administrations, including the Obama Administration, since I last participated in a social studies methods class. Over the years, I’ve focused on units and lessons that support those broad themes of social studies without much deliberate thought given to those stemming concepts. Like all fundamentals…

  • Engaging History Lesson: The Emancipation Proclamation

    Engaging History Lesson: The Emancipation Proclamation

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    by

    Mark Thomas
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      President Abraham Lincoln first shared with his entire cabinet a draft of what would become the Emancipation Proclamation on July 22, 1862. His plan received a mixed reception among his advisers given the dire times in which the administration faced. When teaching about the Emancipation Proclamation, the dynamics surrounding the processes leading up to…