Social Education
April/May 1997
Volume 61 No. 4

The Human Face of Immigration: A Literary Approach
Dennis Banks
In the face of today's largely negative debate over immigration, reading stories about immigrants can help students understand that-while the faces and the ethnic backgrounds may change-people's reasons for wanting to come to America remain fairly constant.

Teaching United States History Thematically
Mary Connor
A thematic approach can generate excitement about recurrent issues in American history as students journey not once, but many times, from past to present in the course of a year's study.

Life Stories in Children's Books
Jeanne McLain Harms and Lucille J. Lettow
Using children's literature to present life stories can reinforce young children's understanding of life span and how goals formed in childhood may help determine an individual's future.

Now Is Your Time!: A Middle School History Unit
Elizabeth Yeager, Frans H. Doppen, and David Middleton
Four types of questions based on "historical thinking" and applied to a book by Walter Dean Myers form the core of a middle school course on African American history at the University of Florida's K-12 Developmental Research School.

Flashback: Comparing Two Approaches to Teaching World History
Joseph Khazzaka
A study compares the effects of two methods of teaching-by flashback or through a chronological approach-on student learning about the Persian Gulf region and student attitudes toward world history.

Citizenship Education and the World Wide Web
C. Frederick Risinger
From "Thomas"-with its up-to-date summaries of bills moving through Congress-to RealCom's links to political interest groups of every stripe, the World Wide Web has much to offer in citizenship education; the question for teachers and students is how best to make use of it.