Publication Date: November 10, 2017
(Print Publication Date: October 13, 2017)
Pages: 224
This book offers the tools teachers need to get started with an innovative approach to teaching history, one that develops literacy and higher-order thinking skills, connects the past to students' lives today, and meets most state standards (grades 7–12).
The author provides over 60 primary sources organized into seven thematic units, each structured around an essential question from U.S. history. As students analyze carefully excerpted documents—speeches by presidents and protesters, Supreme Court cases, political cartoons—they build an understanding of how diverse historical figures have approached key issues. At the same time, students learn to participate in civic debates and develop their own views on what it means to be a 21st-century American. Each unit connects to current events and dynamic classroom activities make history come alive. In addition to the documents themselves, this teaching manual provides strategies to assess student learning; mini-lectures designed to introduce documents; activities to help students process, display, and integrate their learning; guidance to help teachers create their own units; and more.
Book Features:
Rosalie Metro is an assistant teaching professor in the College of Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has taught U.S. and world history at the middle and high school levels.
"The design and organization of Teaching U.S. History Thematically encourages educators at all levels (e.g., teacher education programs, preservice social studies education candidates, and inservice social studies teachers) to reflect upon the curriculum and its purpose and to adopt an innovative approach for high quality lessons that promote an inclusive story of all Americans throughout history. Not only is the book a thorough and comprehensive guide for teachers, it is an invaluable tool for educators looking to encourage and enhance reflective practice and promote meaningful, engaging, and inclusive teaching and learning."
—Teachers College Record
'Metro’s work is a useful source for those thinking of becoming social studies teachers. Rather than tell these new teachers what and how to teach, Metro’s work suggests a different approach. Some college and university professors might find the overall approach interesting if they are involved in training secondary education social studies teachers. It may help candidates think through curriculum development and lesson and unit planning."
— H-Net
"This is an indispensable guide for any teacher looking to bring serious intellectual engagement to the history classroom."
—Sam Wineburg, Stanford University
"Written from a practitioner’s perspective, Rosalie Metro provides a wealth of suggestions for structuring a year-long U.S. history course based on themes rather than solely on the timeline. Full of thought-provoking essential questions, engaging primary source documents, and an impressive array of classroom activities, Teaching U.S. History Thematically is the must-have resource for history teachers looking to stay relevant in our modern learning landscape."
—Diana Laufenberg, lead teacher and executive director, Inquiry Schools, Philadelphia, PA
"Teaching U.S. History Thematically provides teachers a practical yet compelling response to problems in history education. Metro’s approach to providing historical study through themes, primary sourcing, inquiry, and current topics combines what educational researchers and policymakers denote as best educational practices. The book is a useful resource for novice and experienced history teachers, social studies teacher educators, homeschooling, and community educators. I am excited to use in my college classes; this is required reading!”
—LaGarrett King, University of Missouri
“A remarkably thoughtful and engaging aid to teaching U.S. history. Using carefully chosen primary documents, Metro raises pointed questions that will help teachers and students alike wrestle with the place of the past in the present.”
—Jill Lepore, Harvard University
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