Cynthia Resor achieves a worthy goal of creating an engaging entry point into history through examining themes in social history. This engaging, accessible book features teaching strategies that are tied to both Common Core ELA and the C3 Framework, assisting teachers in making explicit connections to both standards and students.  For any teacher struggling to connect students to the past, ... Read morethis book holds a promising instructional path to making history relevant through essential questions and primary source sets.
Kathy Swan, PhD, project director and lead writer of “College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards”; professor, Social Studies Education, University of Kentucky Don a fresh pair of social history glasses and gain a new approach for making history alive and relevant for your students. Let Cynthia Resor be the ophthalmologist for your teaching of history and you and your students will see things, some old, new, for the first time.
James A. Percoco, award winning historian, educator, member of the National Teachers Hall of Fame, and author, “Take The Journey: Teaching American History Through Place-Based Learning” (2017), “We Stand: Teaching about Conflict in U.S. History” (2001), and “A Passion for the Past: Creative Teaching Dr. Resor manages to address three of the most important yet often overlooked dimensions of social studies education at the secondary level: use of primary sources in the classroom, an emphasis on social rather than political history, and the need to inject an element of entertainment into instruction. This work stands as a first encouraging step toward reforming social studies education in the 21st century.
Chris Snow, 2010 University of Chicago Outstanding Educator Award; National History Club Association Sponsor of the Year; history teacher, Henry Clay High School, Lexington, Kentucky Cynthia Resor's book is an innovative and unique approach to teaching thematic units. Excellent resources are provided for European and American history from medieval times to contemporary. The information is easily adaptable to any time period.
Sharon E. Graves, Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame, Eastern Kentucky University Distinguished History Alumni, 2014 Gilder Lehrman Kentucky History Teacher This book with its many examples and resources provides middle and secondary history and social studies teachers an excellent avenue for engaging students in the study of history. The topics are authentic and meaningful in the here and now for middle and secondary age learners. Additionally with the current goal for students to demonstrate 21st century skills, this text offers teachers numerous primary source documents for lessons that help students analyze, think critically, communicate, and become more aware of and informed about their world.
Rodney White, professor emeritus, Social Studies Education, Eastern Kentucky University Show Less