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How do we teach about war? How can social studies teachers empower students to understand how wars are started, how they are fought, and how they are ended? Films about war are featured in nearly all social studies classrooms across the US, with practically every American teenager watching at least one “historical” film during their time in middle and high school. Without the mandatory class viewing, most of these movies would not have been seen by them otherwise. Film is the medium through which most Americans learn about their national past. But a passive viewing of a movie about war does little to help students learn to be critical thinkers about their country’s choices. In The Defe...
Teaching and learning through Hollywood, or commercial, film and television productions is anything but a new approach and has been something of a mainstay in the classroom for nearly a century. However, purposeful and effective instruction through film is not problem-free and there are many challenges that accompany classroom applications of Hollywood motion pictures. In response to the problems and possibilities associated with teaching through film, we are developing a collection of practical, classroom-ready lesson ideas that might bridge gaps between theory and practice and assist teachers endeavoring to make effective use of film in their classrooms. We believe that film can serve as a...
The FOX television show The Simpsons has been around for over 30 years, with more than 700 episodes. A satirical, animated comedy, The Simpsons has millions of fans around the world and its numerous characters are instantly recognizable. Two of the main characters, children Bart and Lisa, are in elementary school and their educational experience is satirized frequently, with episodes taking place at Springfield Elementary and featuring their teachers, classmates, and administration—often with biting criticism of curriculum, privatization, and standardized testing, to name a few. The Simpsons also features episodes retelling historical events, where the family experiences different countrie...
Teaching with film is not a new approach in the social studies classroom. Different publications, such as Hollywood or History, have bridged the gap with challenges attached to using historical film and engage students through inquiry, not entertainment. To continue with the Hollywood or History strategy, this text uses television shows (sitcoms) to brings issue-centered curriculum to middle and high school classrooms. By exploring issues in specific episodes, students can learn the history behind an issue, relate it to their lives, and develop an informed decision associated with the issue. The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) framework is an integral part to the exploration of issue-centered curriculum. In each chapter, the students will work through the four dimensions and develop critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. My hope is that this text can play a small role in walking practicing teachers through the C3 framework while allowing students to learn about issues that affect society and the communities where they live.
Critical Perspectives on Teaching in the Southern United States presents new and provocative insights into education in the Southern United States, from the perspective of educators with a variety of experiences. This book foregrounds the Southern United States as having unique sociopolitical, sociohistorical, and sociocultural contexts which directly influence knowledge and classroom pedagogies. Contributors use a range of critical frameworks that coalesce around methods including: self-reflection through research, social justice advocacy, and culturally responsive, culturally relevant, culturally sustaining, and asset-based pedagogies. Through the lenses of these critical frameworks, sever...
America’s schools are constantly in the news today for safety concerns, contested curricula, teacher quality, test scores, and a variety of other topics. Although most people spend at least 12 years in school systems, they know little of the history or evolution of American schooling. The collection of papers assembled in this book are divided into three categories which greatly impacted American schooling: people, policy, and practices. This work seeks to shed light on what has occurred in curriculum history in the past so as to help readers develop a deeper understanding of how our system of schooling arrived at its current state. The first section of the book examines the stories of peo...
The student teaching experience is often considered one of the most influential aspects of teacher preparation. Key in the success of student teaching is the university supervisor. During the student teaching experience, the university supervisor is mainly responsible for helping pre-service teachers relate university coursework with the situated experiences in schools. However, much like the various other spaces and places in teacher education, facilitating teacher learning is an incredibly complex endeavor. This edited volume addresses the complexities of supervising student teachers from three distinct vantage points. First, salient issues regarding the supervision of student teachers suc...
The rationale for the present text, Hollywood or History? An Inquiry-Based Strategy for Using Film to Teach About Inequality and Inequity Throughout History stems from two main things. First and foremost is the fact that the reviews of the first two volumes in the Hollywood or History? series have been overwhelmingly positive, especially as it pertains to the application of the strategy for practitioners. Classroom utility and teacher practice have continued to be the primary objectives in developing the Hollywood or History? strategy. The second thing is that this most recent volume in the series takes it in a new direction--rather than focusing on eras in history, it focuses on the themes ...
American democracy is at a critical crossroads. Rancor, division, and suspicion are the unfortunate byproducts of the contentious 2016 presidential election. The election also bred a measure of civic uncertainty where citizens of all ages struggle to find and define their roles within a functioning democracy. No Reluctant Citizens: Teaching Civics in K-12 Classrooms is designed to help social studies teachers reinforce the centrality of civic education through a series of hands-on, participatory, and empowering activities. From civic literacy to human rights, from service learning to controversial issues, No Reluctant Citizens: Teaching Civics in K-12 Classrooms explores an array of topics that ultimately provides K-12 students the conceptual and practical tools to become civically engaged.
The challenges of teaching history are acute where we consider the world history classroom. Generalized world history courses are a part of many, if not most, K-12 curricular frameworks in the United States. While United States history tends to dominate the scholarship and conversation, there are an equally wide number of middle-level and secondary students and teachers engaged in the study of world history in our public schools. And the challenges are real. In the first place, if we are to mark content coverage as a curricular obstacle in the history classroom, generally, then we must underscore that concern in the world history classroom and for obvious reasons. The curricular terrain to c...