Doing History: Investigating With Children in Elementary and Middle Schools

Doing History offers a unique perspective on history instruction in the elementary and middle grades, one that begins with the assumption that children can engage in valid forms of historical inquiry-collecting and analyzing data, examining the perspectives of people in the past, considering multiple interpretations, and creating evidence-based historical accounts. Through case studies of teachers and students in diverse classrooms and from diverse backgrounds, the text shows children engaging in authentic historical investigations, often in the context of an integrated social studies curriculum.

The grounding of this book in contemporary sociocultural theory and research makes it unique among social studies methods texts. In each chapter, the authors explain how the teaching demonstrated in the vignettes reflects basic principles of contemporary learning theory; thus they not only provide specific examples of successful activities, but place them in a theoretical context that allows teachers to adapt and apply them in a wide variety of settings.

Features:
*Classroom vignettes. Rather than a "cookbook" of lesson ideas, this text illustrates the possibilities (and obstacles) of meaningful teaching and learning in real classroom settings.
*Inquiry-oriented instruction. The approaches shown in the classrooms portrayed are those which accord with the recommendations of practically all theorists and researchers in the field of history education. This text is not a hodge-podge of cute activities, but a consistent and theoretically grounded illustration of meaningful history instruction.
*Diversity of perspectives. This is emphasized in two ways. First, the text helps students to look at historical events and trends from multiple perspectives. Second, the classrooms illustrated throughout the book include teachers and students from a wide variety of backgrounds-this gives the book widespread appeal to educators in a variety of settings.
*Assessment. Teachers are provided with explicit guidance in using multiple forms of assessment to evaluate the specifically historical aspects of children's learning. Assessment issues are addressed throughout the text, including the need for assessment of specifically historical skills and knowledge; the integration of instruction and assessment; and the use of multiple forms of assessment-including anecdotal records, scoring guidelines [rubrics], and checklists-to evaluate the historical aspects of children's learning in presentations, projects, essays, and discussions.

New in the Second Edition
* Expanded treatment of assessment, integrated throughout the work. The second edition provides more practical guidance for teachers, addresses the need for assessment of specifically historical skills and knowledge (rather than more general, literacy-oriented assessment), and stresses the integration of instruction and assessment. Readers are introduced to the use of multiple forms of assessment--including anecdotal records, scoring guidelines [rubrics], and checklists--to evaluate the historical aspects of children's learning in presentations, projects, essays, and discussions.
* Updated booklists and citations. The most recent quality children's literature that can be used to support instruction has been added. Citations include the most recent research and other scholarship on the teaching and learning history in the elementary and middle grades.
* Epilogue. New to this edition, the epilogue draws together the primary themes of the text.