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Teaching Beyond the Timeline
Engaging Students in Thematic History

Teaching Beyond the Timeline: Engaging Students in Thematic History is a practical guide for shifting the the way we teach history in the middle and high school classroom. In order for our students to be truly engaged, we need to help them see the relevance of events in the past, moving from simple rote memorization to requiring students to meaningfully connect historical concepts, people, and events using patterns of comparison, causation, and elements of continuity and change over time. Courses organized around central themes also help to ensure inclusive and relevant curriculum for all our diverse students, a challenge that is difficult to overcome with a traditional, chronological approach. 


Industrial Age and Immigration
Short Nonfiction for American History
Industrial Age and Immigration is the latest volume in the Short Nonfiction for American History Toolkit Texts, part of The Comprehension Toolkit series. This resource highlights multiple perspectives and diverse voices of this historical time period. The last section, from the 1960s on, includes articles illustrating present-day perspectives, events, and issues surrounding immigration and innovation.
Elevating Equity and Justice
Ten U.S. Supreme Court Cases Every Teacher Should Know
Elevating Equity and Justice takes you on a journey through ten U.S. Supreme Court opinions involving public schools. Why these ten? Because they delve into some of the most important topics and situations educators face every day. Covering the landscape of both civil rights (discrimination) and civil liberties (individual freedom and privacy), Bob Kim provides insight into how educators might be able to support students who are at risk or face unique challenges or needs, as well as a sense of how each case impacts schools and education today, including more recent legal developments.
Inquiry Illuminated
Researcher's Workshop Across the Curriculum

Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis provide a structure for inquiry that's predictable, proven, and—most importantly—authentic. With their help you'll:

  • create irresistible investigations in science, history and social studies, or language arts
  • increase students’ independence and agency by gradually releasing responsibility for inquiry
  • effectively integrate literacy and content through strategies for comprehension and critical thinking.
Nurturing Informed Thinking
Reading, Talking, and Writing Across Content-Area Sources
Practical help for teaching students in Grades 3-8 to read, talk, and write across content-area sources.
A Teacher's Guide to the Multigenre Research Project
Everything You Need to Get Started
This ready-to-go resource for helping students create rich, dynamic multigenre projects give you all the tools you need to engage kids in reading, writing, and critical analysis across the curriculum.
The Civil War and Reconstruction
Short Nonfiction for American History
Building on selections from popular children's magazines as well as original articles, these engaging, age-appropriate texts will keep your active literacy classroom awash in historical resources that depict the controversies, issues, and dramas that shaped historical events, including the exploits of lesser-known individuals.
Westward Expansion
Short Nonfiction for American History
60 nonfiction texts, 200+ images, 25 primary sources, and 10 lessons that build background knowledge. You'll help kids understand and draw connections between primary sources so they can create skillful arguments about the era.
The American Revolution and Constitution
Short Nonfiction for American History
Upstanders
How to Engage Middle School Hearts and Minds with Inquiry
Welcome to Sara Ahmed’s classroom. With Smokey as your guide you’ll see how she uses inquiry to turn required curriculum into amazingly engaging units that provide the complexity the standards demand while turning students from bystanders into Upstanders.
Smarter Charts for Math, Science, and Social Studies
Making Learning Visible in the Content Areas
Learn how to make learning visible with truly effective content-area charts that support student engagement and independence. You’ll turn complex ideas into kid-friendly visuals, help children internalize content processes, and even increase your instructional time.
Colonial Times
Short Nonfiction for American History
Systems to Transform Your Classroom and School
Nancie and her colleagues at the Center for Teaching and Learning have created a culture of deep engagement and excellence. Find out how they’ve combined smart, research-supported practices and rich community-building traditions to create an effective atmosphere for learning.
Social Studies That Sticks
How to Bring Content and Concepts to Life
Social Studies That Sticks will transform social studies time by introducing a brain-compatible approach to integrated, standards-based instruction, using the four elements of the human learning cycle: awareness, exploration, inquiry, and action.
In Pursuit of Freedom
Teaching the Underground Railroad
History in the Present Tense
Engaging Students Through Inquiry and Action
History Makers
A Questioning Approach to Reading & Writing Biographies
Teaching State History
Teaching State History shows teachers how to plan a state unit using a culturally relevant, social constructivist pedagogy with connections to literacy, a focus on multicultural teaching, and compliance with state and national standards.
Seeing the Whole Through Social Studies
Past, Present & Personal
Teaching Writing in U.S. History
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