Exploring Your Choices - Social Studies

Supplement to National Council for the Social Studies PublicationsNumber 32May/June 2008www.socialstudies.org

2What Having Students “Write the

Constitution” Taught MeThomas Ladenburg

4Teaching and Learning with

Timelines Linda Tripp, Cindy Basye, Kathy Jones,

and Vicki Tripp

8A Novel Idea:

Historical Fiction and Social Studies Janie M. McManus

10Making Choices: An Exploration

of Political PreferencesPaige Lilley Schulte and Travis Miller

16Student Handout:

Create a Time Line of Recent History

ExploringYour Choices

2 May/June 2008

Middle Level Learning 32, pp. M2–M3©2008 National Council for the Social Studies

What Having Students “Write the Constitution” Taught MeThomas Ladenburg

As I listened to the reasons why it was not fair for Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York to have as many votes as the rest of the country combined, my mind traveled back some thirty years to my daughter’s and my son’s fifth grade classes, where similar discussions took place. I remember when, at his conven-tion, my son argued that states should not be allowed to “quit the country,” for it would be the same as if his friend, David, “quit their clubhouse and took the building with him.” 1 Although the founding fathers would not have made this exact statement, it was a great indi-cator to me as a teacher. It showed that my son was imagining himself in the role of an advocate for federalism, and this emotional involvement meant that he was more likely to remember the historical material. It also suggested that he was imagining that he might, with his peers, engage thoughtfully in the civic challenges that would face his own generation.

I do not recommend that every middle school teacher try to replicate the debates that resulted in the creation of our cur-rent Constitution. My unit of study on the Constitution was designed for high school students,2 but I would like to use

the example of middle school students “helping to create the fundamental law of the land” to make a few points about planning this and other units of study. I want to do this because my success with this unit and those based on similar prin-ciples of curriculum development helped me survive 47 years in the classroom and live to enjoy all of them.

Four StepsLet me begin by explaining the peda-gogical core of my Constitution unit of study. It incorporates a sequence of activities that give es sential structure to the units. The first informs students about the background and context of the event to be studied; the second chal-lenges students to decide what action should be taken; the third teaches them what actually happened; and the fourth directs them to assess the actual results. This assessment may require students to determine the underlying cause of an event (such as the Civil War), analyze the motives of the actual decision-makers (the Constitutional Convention), or evaluate the wisdom of the decision (dropping the bomb on Hiroshima.)

While my granddaughter’s class was

taught a few things about the Articles of Confederation and the problems the United States experienced during the that critical era, high school students were introduced to a far more sophisticated version of the Constitutional Convention unit. In addition to the question of fair representation, the older students must decide how power should be divided between the national and state govern-ments; whether a system of checks and balances is needed; what should be done about slavery and the slave trade; and what personal rights, if any, need to be protected. Students assigned to take on the roles of the 23 most important found-ing fathers are provided with brief biog-raphies and excerpts from the debates at the Convention so they can faithfully argue their founder’s position on each of these five issues. Invariably, passion and intensity fills the classroom as students give speeches, debate, caucus, compro-mise, and finally vote to resolve the issues set before them.

After the Convention simulation, stu-dents are ready to learn what actually happened in Philadelphia in 1787. They learn how the issues at the Convention were resolved; they learn of the delicate balance struck between national and state powers; and, by having gone through the process themselves, they more fully appreciate the Great Compromise. In addition, they learn about the intri-cate system of checks and balances, the shameful compromises on slavery, and the decision not to include a Bill of Rights.

The fifth graders were ready for my grand entrance. Dressed in a borrowed colonial outfit, I was playing George Washington and welcoming my granddaughter’s class to their “Constitutional Convention.” Thanks to the work of a very competent fifth grade teacher, the class was well prepared to deliberate whether each state should retain one vote as it had under the Articles of Confederation, or whether states with more people should have more votes. I did not need to explain the issue to the class. They were eager to give their speeches and engage in heated discussions.

Middle Level Learning 3

High school and middle school students gain an appreciation for the framers of a Constitution that has allowed the Union it created to survive and prosper for well over 200 years.

The fourth component of this unit has students examine the founding father’s work. Having students reflect on the entire unit by evaluating the decisions they had made in their roles as found-ers and comparing them to the decisions made more than 200 years ago revives the dynamics of the simulated debates and makes for thoughtful assessments.

Moving Through HistoryBut can the kind of dynamic illustrated in the Constitution unit be found else-where in the U.S. history curriculum? I believe it can and that it should in order to make history relevant and exciting. The Federalist Era, which can start with the debate over ratifying the Constitution as written by the founders, is replete with questions on the role government should play in foreign and domestic policies. It can end with the evaluative question: whether the Federalists deserved to be re-elected. The pre-Civil War period lends itself to moral dilemmas: deal-ing with the issues surrounding slavery, expanding west ward over lands occupied

by Native Americans and Mexicans, and fighting a war within a nation to keep that nation whole. The evaluative question here can be to decide on the underlying causes of the Civil War: north-south eco-nomic differences, the westward spread of slavery, or the “fanaticism” of specific abolitionists and slaveholders.

Reconstruction raises the issue of racial justice again at the price of national (white) unity, and sets the stage for a later unit on civil rights. The Industrial Revolution pits laissez-faire capitalism against concern for smaller businessmen, workers, and immigrants. Units on for-eign policy, the Progressive Era, the 1920s and 1930s, World War II and the Cold War, Indochina, and the Civil Rights Movement also contain critical issues that lend themselves to “deciding” what actions the participants in the historic process should take.

Student-to-StudentPerhaps the most important lesson I have learned from my Constitution unit was the importance of exercises that require students (in the fifth grade, high school, or even college) to interact with one another. Nothing is more conducive to involving students in understanding the process of how history is made than

seeing that people living at the time had choices. Students can simulate making these choices, learn what choices were actually made, and then evaluate those choices.

I can see an opportunity for a Constitution Convention-like simula-tion activity in so many places in history courses in the middle and high school grades. Not only do students learn the material, they rehearse with people their own age a vital role that they will play their whole adult lives—that of a citizen.

Notes1. Sadly, this particular 21st-century mock Conven-

tion never did get to decide how power should be divided between the national and state govern-ments. Lesson time had to be saved to prepare for the Massachusetts Academic Assessment tests.

2. In the years that I have been teaching, I have cre-ated many units and a collection of lesson-chap-ters (some professionally published and others self-published) in American history, based on the principles outlined in this article. Educators who are interested in examining PDFs may send an e-mail to t.ladenburg@verizon. net.

The author addresses a fifth grade class in the role of a founding father.

Thomas Ladenburg taught for 37 years at Brookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Earlier, he was at the Education Development Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts and at high schools in Connecticut (Lee and Hillhouse, where he served as Department chairperson; North Haven; and Meriden) and New Jersey (Westfield High).

4 May/June 2008


Teaching and Learning with Time LinesLinda Tripp, Cindy Basye, Kathy Jones, and Vicki Tripp

Questions that RevealTo the teachers present, the time lines clearly indicated the possible relation ships among the biographies in question. To sev-eral students this was not obvious at all. For our group of informal teacher-researchers, this episode raised several questions. In what ways do students under stand—and misunderstand—time lines? How are time lines used and taught in textbooks and history-related materials? What potential do time lines offer for helping students make sense of history?

Time lines abound in social studies and other textbooks, in bio graphies, and occasionally in juvenile historical fiction. Adult authors assume that time lines clarify information and events and help students develop accurate chronology and even a sense of cause and effect. But do they? Our work as teacher researchers indicates that there are often gaps between what adults assume students know and understand and how students actually make sense of, and assimilate, information.

As teachers and teacher educators, we have long believed that quality teaching demands an in-depth knowledge of stu-dent thinking, development, and learning. To be most effective in our teaching, we must plan instruction and select resources that meet students at their point of need.

Teachers must be consistently aware of how students perceive information. As practitioners, we look for broad trends as well as individual idiosyncrasies in student under stand ing.

After observing the student responses described above in one fifth-grade class-room, we wondered if these responses were unique to this particular group of students or if they represented broader patterns of thinking among fifth- and sixth-grade students. Therefore, we designed some simple activities allowing us, as practi-tioner-researchers, to gather information about student conceptions and misconcep-tions regarding time lines. Our activities, which included student reading of time lines, interviews, and construction of time lines, were implemented in four middle grade classrooms representing the varied socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds that comprise our community.

Understanding Student ThinkingIn four fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms, we asked students to read and respond to questions about a simple time line summa-rizing the career of baseball legend Sammy Sosa (adapted from a DRA booklet)1 and a complex time line illustrating the cultural and political events of an era (The History of Us).2 We also asked them to create time

lines that merged personal information with world events that had a clear begin-ning and end (discrete in time) as well as events that are ongoing. We conducted whole-class discussions and lessons, as well as small group interviews, to help us understand what and how students think.

With a few exceptions, we found that fifth and sixth grade students understood the chronology of time lines. They read left to right along the horizontal or top to bottom on the vertical axis and did not have difficulty identifying what happened first, next, before or after. Beyond these basics, however, their under standing was often incomplete or confused due to

• limitedbackgroundknowledgeabout events and people depicted, and

• alackofknowledgeofcertaingraphic conventions used in time lines (see example, page 16).

Responding to a question about why the Sammy Sosa time line ended in 1999 (the year the booklet was published), a student wrote, “He was born in 1968. And he died in 1999.”

In a small group interview, three fifth graders pored over a time line in The History of Us. This visually busy graphic shows lines arising from a drawing of actress Lucille Ball, reaching up to bracket the period from 1951 to 1957, and cap-tioned with the words “Lucille Ball stars in television.” Other events in history and popular culture are identified for the inter-vening years 1952, 1953, 1954, etc. The interviewer pointed out the convention and asked students how they interpreted it. The following conversation ensued.

Ms. B’s fifth grade class was discussing what they knew about Malcolm X prior to reading a biography of the civil rights activist—part of an on-going study of the ’60s. One student asked,

“Did he know Abraham Lincoln, JFK, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?”Quickly, the teacher sketched parallel time lines on the board, indicating that while

the lives of JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X overlapped, Abraham Lincoln had died long before any of the others were born.

The students gazed with interest at the impromptu time lines until one student raised his hand,

“Yes, but did Malcolm X know Abraham Lincoln?”


Boy 1: She probably was born here and died here.

Girl 1: But she’d only be 6.

Girl 2: It shows the years she starred on TV: 1951 and 1957.

Girl 1: I call my neighbors Ricky and Lucy.

This interesting snippet of conver-sation provides several insights into student thinking. The first is the auto-matic assumption by Boy 1 that beginning and ending dates imply birth and death. Although Girl 1 quickly challenged this assumption (she recognizes the incon-gruity of the dates as a life span), Girl 2 incorrectly interpreted 1951 and 1957 as two discrete dates in which Lucille Ball starred on television. The final comment (about presumably comical neighbors) illustrates students’ ongoing need to link information to their personal lives.

Layers of InformationAfter several small and large group ses-sions focused on reading time lines such as these, we gave students an assignment: create a time line that combines personal and non-personal information. The next day, students brought to class their lists of personal life events. We then paired students and asked them to create a single time line that included

• threepersonaleventsfromeachpartner,

• threeeventsfromalist(preparedby the teacher), of discrete (or single date) national and interna-tional events, and

• oneitemfromalistofeventsspanning a time period (for example, the presidency of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, or the emergence of bird flu).

Our goal was for them to merge per-sonal information with events from the larger world, to deal with multiple events around a single date, and to incorporate information spanning the period of their own life in appropriate ways.

The results replicated the patterns we had observed as students tried to interpret published time lines (Sidebar, page 6). Similar issues emerged: Students matched dates and events in chronological order. They tended to see time lines as a series of discrete events, and as long as the informa-tion was consistent with this format, they were successful. They were unable, how-ever, to integrate items that deviated from basic chronology such as over-lapping or layered events spanning several years. While a few children successfully solved the various aspects of the task, many did not. Some teams could not maintain the basic chronology when partners had overlapping events, and they resorted to side-by-side entries for the same year, or completely parallel time lines. Most could not decide how to deal with a continuous event and finally placed it as a discrete entry using the beginning or ending date (Sidebar, page 6). Although our observa-tions of these struggles were initially made in upper elementary classrooms, we later found that many high school students exhibited a similar confusion.

Time Lines and TextbooksWe extended our informal investigation by looking more deeply into the information available to teachers and students in text-books. Graphics called time lines generally fall into two categories, identified by Steve Moline in See What You Mean.3 The first is the flow time line, which represents a sequence of events with uneven spacing. Arrows indicate the direction of sequence, which may wind and twist. These are sometimes referred to as chronologies and are most commonly found in biographies and other trade books. The second type of time line, a graph, shows a time period divided into measured increments with consistent spacing. A graph depicts not only chronology, but shows visually the temporal relationships among events.

Surveying several social studies text-book series that cover grades 1 through 6, we found time lines consistently rep-resented as graphs and introduced to stu-dents as early as the third grade, usually with a strategy lesson followed by a unit review time line and questions. Through

the grades, the time lines become increas-ingly complex. The earliest time lines are simple horizontal graphs. Later, vertical and parallel time lines appear. Textbook demands were at a literal, concrete level, emphasizing retrieval of information rather than historical understanding. Questions posed to students focused on identifying dates (When did X happen?), identifying sequence (Which happened first? What happened before X?), and making math-ematical calculations (How many years passed between X and Y?)

Time line strategy lessons appeared once in each textbook at each grade level. The strategies were referred to again in the unit review for that chapter. A time line generally appeared once more in a different chapter or context. Questions, as described above, focused students on recall and simple comprehension. Very sel-dom did questions lead students to make evaluations and judgments or to synthesize information. We found little evidence that lesson questions took students to higher-level thinking or used time lines as a tool for developing deeper historical under-standing.

An Underutilized ResourceWe think that time lines are an under-utilized resource for assisting students to think deeply about historical information for several reasons. Time lines, by their nature, compact a great deal of complex information. Students at the elementary level or early middle grades do not always deal successfully with the conventions of time lines because they lack background knowledge about historical events and time line conventions. Experiences with time lines in elementary and middle schools usually do little to alleviate these problems. Textbooks often treat time lines as an end in themselves, rather than a tool for understanding. Thoughtful teaching can, however, change that.

In developing a vision for working with time lines in history, we do not want to discount the value of chronology and sequencing. It can be helpful to have a simple graphic showing at a glance which events happened concurrently (or ear-lier or later) in a time period. Cause and

6 May/June 2008

Figure 3: Above. This fifth-grade partnership of academically successful students planned their work carefully, spending time creating a rough draft before committing their final time line to paper. They were successful in merging two sets of personal information along with national and world events. The exception is the continuous event (concern over “mad cow disease”), which they showed as a single point on the time line at the correct location for the beginning date.

Sidebar: Commentary on Student Work Samples

Figure 1: Above. A pair of fifth-grade students struggled with chronology as indicated by the placement of The Titanic movie (which was first released in 1997) after the personal information about playing games. There is no indication of why the date of 3/37/98 (an impos-sible date) is associated for this student with playing games.

Figure 2: Above. Two fifth-grade girls were able to put their personal information in chronological order and did appropriately integrate information from the broader world (The Titanic movie/Athena moon probe), but could not solve the problem of merging two sets of information. They resorted to roughly parallel time lines with one student’s information at the top and the second student’s information at the bottom.


effect, or the influence of one event on another, can be suggested, but not estab-lished, by the time line.4

Many problems in student under-standing arise because time lines repre-sent someone else’s summary of complex events. To students, timelines appear to be established and unchanging. Without guidance, stu dents do not understand that a time line is created by a person with a point of view about the informa-tion, someone who has made choices about what will be included, and what will be left out. Further, textbook les-son plans usually offer little to engage students or provoke thinking, confining questions to mathematical calculations and sequence.

Questioning the Time LineThe time line can be a tool for developing understanding if it is approached in a constructivist manner. Teachers support student under standing in a variety of ways, includ ing modeling and mediating different types of time lines and leading students to discuss the meaning and use-fulness of various graphic conven tions. Multiple time lines, ranging from broad overviews to focused information, can accompany any unit of historical study. We suggest that teachers regularly engage students in higher level thinking around varied time lines by using a protocol which we call “Questioning the Time Line.” The goal of working with a time line is to help students internalize some of the thinking involved in its creation. The protocol consists of a series of short, but thought-provoking, ques tions:

• Whatpurposedoesthistimeline serve? How does it help you understand this time in history?

• Whateventsdidtheauthorselectfor the time line? What other events could have been included?

• Whydidtheauthorselecttheseparticular beginning and ending points for the time line?

Let students know that there are no clear, black and white answers to these

questions. Students and teachers must cer-tainly speculate as they develop answers. That process, however, forces students to consider the thinking behind the creation of any given time line and to view it as a product of deliberate choice.

Students gain facility in using this questioning process by beginning with simpler time lines (life of a president, for example) and moving to more com-plex ones (history of the Civil Rights Movement). Time lines are demystified as students grow in their ability to think about creation of a time line. In her book Reading History, Janet Allen describes the process of having middle school stu-dents compare and contrast multiple time lines to identify commonalities and to generate ques tions.5

Understanding grows by doing. Linda Levstik and Keith Barton, in Doing History, suggest that students should be engaged in developing time lines by deciding what should be included (an activity that involves judgment and evalu-ation). We concur that students need to be engaged in creating a variety of time lines throughout their school careers. Students must go beyond the “personal lifeline” to integrate larger local, state, national, and international events, which emphasizes that they are part of the larger world.

The period examined should also increase: students may begin with per-sonal life spans, but then extend back-wards to include their parents’ and grand-parents’ life spans. At every step, students can be engaged in deciding on appropriate beginning and ending points, which events are worthy of inclusion and why, how those events relate to one another, and how those relationships can be shown.

Students must also experiment with layering information. A time line covering several hundred years may be a perma-nent classroom visual. However, students will create time lines that focus on a spe-cific topic such as prominent people, civil rights, women’s suffrage, or the Civil War. They must then decide how to condense the in-depth time line within the larger, broader classroom visual, dealing with

issues such as what information best rep-resents the period and how to fit it into the larger picture.

Creating time lines around important topics and considering how to combine various time lines forces students to pri-oritize and summarize information. It is an activity requiring in-depth study and judg ment. It teaches students to become critical consumers of time lines prepared by others, as well as creators of their own historical understanding.

Notes1. J. Beaver, Developmental Reading Assessment (K-3):

Sammy Sosa (New York: Celebration Press, 2003), 1.

2. Joy Hakim, The History of Us: All the People (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), endpapers.

3. Steve Moline, I See What You Mean: Children at Work with Visual Literacy (Portland, ME: Stenhouse, 1998).

4. A classic demonstration that sequ ence (or correla-tion) does not always reveal causation was done with a graph showing that the number of murders per month in a city rose and fell in parallel with sales of ice cream. Does ice cream cause murder? No, there is a third force that is likely driving the other two variables: summer heat.

5. Janet Allen with Christine Landaker, Reading History: A Practical Guide to Improving Literacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

6. Linda S. Levstik and Keith C. Barton, Doing History: Investi gating with Children in Elementary and Middle Schools (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001).

Linda Tripp is retired from the Albuquerque Public Schools where she worked for 30 years as a classroom teacher and instructional coach. She has also been an adjunct instructor with the University of New Mexico in teacher education and is currently a member of the NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Books Selection Committee.

Cindy Basye worked for 19 years as a classroom teacher and mentor before retiring from the Albuquerque Public Schools in 2007. She has also been an adjunct instructor with the University of New Mexico in teacher education. She currently resides in Oregon.

Kathy Jones is program co ordinator for the Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico’s Pathway Program. She retired from the Albuquerque Public Schools where she taught for 34 years. She also worked as a support teacher for the University of New Mexico.

Vicki Tripp is a speech/language therapist who retired from the Albuquerque Public Schools in 2007 with 32 years of experience. Her primary focus was work in inclusion classrooms improving students’ access to the general curriculum.

8 May/June 2008

A Novel Idea: Historical Fiction and Social Studies Janie M. McManus

Eye OpeningI begin class by reading aloud for approxi-mately ten minutes. I choose novels that provide an alternative perspective on history and those that focus on cultural aspects of major events in history. For example, in Behind the Bedroom Wall, a Holocaust sanctuary story is told from the viewpoint of a young German girl. Korinna is devoted to Hitler and her Nazi youth group, Jungmadel, until she finds that her parents are hiding a Jewish woman and her young daughter behind her bedroom wall. Not only must she keep this secret from her friends, but she must also decide whether to turn her par-ents in as enemies of the state. Through getting to know the young Jewish girl in hiding, Korinna comes to see that her Jungmadel leaders have been lying to their young followers, and her dedication to the Fuhrer wanes.

Most American students have grown up being able to take freedom for granted, especially the freedom of religious expression. Discrimination of this sort is almost incomprehensible to them. Through Korinna’s eye-opening experi-ence, students begin to understand how the Jews became the outcasts and scape-

goats of Nazi society, how a Holocaust can happen.

A Series to Build UponAfter reading aloud the first book in a series, I often assign students to read one or more books in the same series as homework to be done over several weeks. For example, in The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, a ten-year-old girl who lives in Taliban con-trolled Afghanistan is faced with a momen-tous decision. After the Taliban arrest her father, Parvana is faced with the dilemma of whether to cut her hair and dress as a boy so she can work in the streets of Kabul. Parvana quickly realizes that she must if her family is to survive. This book provides a girl’s view of how restricted life is under the Taliban—from the requirement that women wear the

burqa (cloth that fully covers the face) to public executions that serve to display the power of these supposedly religious men.

After the students and I have read this book aloud, I assign each class to read Parvana’s Journey and Mud City, the sec-ond and third books, respectively, in the series. The students’ response to this tril-ogy has been impressive. Many students who seem to be reluctant learners have become engrossed in this series. They discuss the books with each other in the hallways. I have seen grades improve and self-esteem increase, and I attribute these

successes to the use of emotionally and intellectually en gaging material for this age group. Most important, my middle school students are reading and enjoying it!

Lives in HistoryO ther cul tural aspects of history are addressed in these novels. For example, the ancient custom of foot binding in China is discussed in Ties that Bind, Ties that

Break; a sixteen-year-old German soldier (who is fluent in Russian, the language of his mother’s family) survives by switching uniforms with a dead Russian soldier when he is trapped behind enemy lines


With all the teaching methods that come and go, one method can be counted on to benefit students consistently—reading. Incorporating historical fiction novels into the social studies classroom is both relatively easy and worthwhile. South Carolina’s standard course of study for the seventh grade focuses on modern world history, from approximately 1600 to the present.1 To provide students with practice in reading as well as interest them in the narrative of history, I have incorporated historical fiction in my lessons through read-aloud sessions and classroom novel sets that are used for homework.


Literature for YouthEllis, Deborah. The Breadwinner.

Berkeley, CA. Groundwood Books.

2000, cover illus. Pascal Milelli.

_. Parvana’s Journey. Berkeley, CA.

Groundwood Books. 2002.

_. Mud City. Berkeley, CA. Groundwood

Books. 2003.

Namioka, Lensey. Ties that Bind, Ties

that Break. New York. Dell-Laurel Leaf.

1999.

Whelan, Gloria. Homeless Bird. New

York. Harper Collins. 2000.

Williams, Laura E. Behind the Bedroom

Wall. Minneapolis, MN. Milkweed

Editions. 1996.

Wulffson, Dona. Soldier X. New York.

Penguin Group. 2001.

Yen Mah, Adeline. Chinese Cinderella.

New York. Random House. 1999.

Resources for TeachersKrey, DeAn M. Children’s Literature in Social

Studies: Teaching to the Standards. Bulletin

95. Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 1998.

Notable Social Studies Trade Books for

Young People. Previous years’ lists are

available as free PDFs at www.social

studies.org/resources/notable. The most

current list is an NCSS member benefit,

published in the May/June issue of Social

Education, which is sent to all members

in the spring, including subscribers to

Social Studies and the Young Learner.

The current list is also available online

to NCSS members only at members.ncss.

org. The list is a joint project of NCSS and

the Children’s Book Council.

Sandmann, Alexa L. and John F. Ahern,

Linking Literature with Life: The NCSS

Standards and Children’s Literature for the

Middle Grades, Bulletin 99. Silver Spring,

MD: NCSS, 2002.

Si lverblank , Fran. An Annotated

Bibliography of Historical Fiction for

the Social Studies Grades 5 through 12.

Washington, DC: NCSS, 1992.

in Soldier X; a thirteen-year-old girl in modern India is forced into an arranged marriage in Homeless Bird, and a young Chinese girl is an outcast in her own family because her mother died after giving birth to her in Chinese Cinderella. Students are able to identify with main characters who are pre-teens and teenagers. In many of these stories, the main characters use education as a way to improve their situ-ation, which reinforces the positive and practical benefits of learning.

I have discovered these books and others like them through persistent use of the book companies’ online search feature, through browsing book fairs, consulting the Notable Trade Books in Social Studies annual lists, and avid reading of young adult historical fiction. (See Resources for Teachers, below.) I have purchased the classroom sets of these novels over several years through use of my own money and grants.2 Each classroom set is rotated among my four classes.

Pacing and AssessmentMost of the reading assignments last for four weeks; each week the students are required to read approximately 50 pages. I give the reading assignment on a Friday and quiz the students on the following Friday. Each quiz consists of ten true/false questions. Because the syntax of true/false questions can be confusing, I read aloud each question so that students can ask for clarification if they need it, and the whole class benefits. I derive these questions (about factual knowledge) from information that appears in various places throughout the assigned pages. This way, if a student only finishes 40 of the 50 pages assigned one week, his or her grade is not ruined.

Any incorrect answer on the quiz counts off seven points instead of ten. Therefore, if a student misses one question they still make an A, and if they miss two questions they will receive a B, etc. This results, in my experience, in a good spread of grades without grade inflation.

A Process of DiscoveryThe facts of history that students learn

through reading these books serve as a reference point when we study these time periods in social studies. The read-ing helps build background knowledge, which is desperately needed by my group of students, since this is their first modern world history class. Students are able to make a connection between some previously obscure historical fact and relate it to something that they know from reading. It makes history come alive for them. Naturally, some students will not read all of the assigned books, but if they only read some of the assignment, this is more reading than they would have done if I had not assigned these books. Also, grades are listed on their progress reports by title of the book and page numbers, so parents can readily see whether their child is reading. Parents have been receptive when I contact them to say that their child does not appear to be keeping up with the reading. In eight years of teaching, I have not yet heard a complaint from parents about this type of assignment!

Using historical fiction in my social studies classroom has changed my method of teaching. I am excited each time I assign a new novel and look for-ward to the process of discovery that my students will encounter because of reading. The best part is that I know that reading is good for my students and that they will grow from the process. These books help me to build a relationship with my students by giving us a com-mon topic for conversations. It may be difficult to verify whether this method improves state-mandated test scores, but I have seen how reading is good for these students in terms of their subject knowledge and motiva tion to learn. Why stop now?

Notes1. “NC Standard Course of Study,” (2006), www.dpi.

state.nc.us/curriculum/socialstudies/scos/.

2. Grants to help teachers acquire classroom book sets are occasionally listed at www.teacherscount.org

Janie M. McManus teaches seventh grade social studies at South Middle School in Lancaster, South Carolina.

10 May/June 2008

Making Choices:An Exploration of Political PreferencesPaige Lilley Schulte and Travis Miller

With these aims in mind, we col-laborated to create a lesson for seventh graders that might be especially engaging during a presidential election year. It was taught over two 50-minute periods. The purpose of the lesson is

• Toinvitestudentstoconsiderhow we form opinions about political issues, parties, and can-didates

• Tohavestudentscomparesomeof the policy positions of the two

major presidential contenders

• Togivestudentspracticediscuss-ing the issues and the candidates in a civil and thoughtful manner

Food Choices on the TableA “focusing event” or “anticipatory set” is an activity that introduces the lesson and motivates students to learn.3 It arouses their curiosity, stimulates a need to know more, and provides a memorable learn-ing experience. An effective anticipatory set can also set the tone for the rest of

the lesson and stimulate higher-order thinking. The focusing event described in this article invites students to compare things, re-evaluate their comparisons in light of new infor mation, and then make a final decision.

In this “Making Choices” anticipatory set, the teacher places a sign labeled “A” on one table, and one labeled “B” on another. He explains,

• AfterIplaceafooditemoneachtable, you must silently determine which of the two items you prefer and then walk to the appropriate side of the room, closer to table A or table B, to show your prefer-ence.

He places the first set of items (canned corn on table A and canned green beans on table B) and invites students to stand up and “vote with their feet.” Students congregate on the two sides of the room. Now it gets tougher for the students. The teacher explains,

• AsIplacenewitemsontablesAand B, you must silently decide which food set you prefer as a whole. Your deliberations should include not only the most recently placed item, but the whole collec-tion on each table. Once you have made your decision, walk to the appropriate side of the room. I may call upon you to explain your decision.

Preparation for active citizenship in a democracy is a primary goal of social studies education. Effective participation goes beyond simply voting once a year or so.1 Social studies teachers can provide experiences that give students the opportunity to analyze information, examine views that are different from their own, and make informed decisions. Such experiences can help students understand how attitudes and beliefs, information from the media, and conversations with fellow citizens all influence an individual’s opinions and political choices.2


Table 1: Choices on the Table

This is a suggested list of foods for the anticipatory set.

The teacher places items on the tables in the order shown.

Table A Table B

1. Canned corn Canned green beans

2. BBQ chips Nacho chips

3. Apple pie Brownie

4. Cola Diet cola

5. Oatmeal Sweetened cereal

6. Coffee Hot chocolate

7. Spam Peanut butter


The teacher continues adding items to each table, pausing as students re-evalu-ate their position and choose a preferred side on the basis of all the items now on the tables. Students pause to think, then cross the room or stand still to indicate their “new position.” When students stop moving, the teacher may call on an individual student and ask,

• Whydidyou“standyourground”and not move at this time?

• (Or,toadifferentstudent)Whydid you change our mind and move to the other side?

This activity works best if the first items placed on the tables are foods that students will likely be willing to give up, and the last ones are foods that students likely either love or hate (Table 1). The idea is to set out the items so that most students will feel compelled to change sides at some point. The goal should be to encourage deliberation over items, but in the end, most students should have a strong sense of conviction toward one particular table.

The teacher asks open-ended and probing questions to encourage students to think carefully as they indicate their shifting but deliberate preference:

• Whyareyoucontinuingtostayon this side?

• Whyareyouswitchingtoadif-ferent side?

• Whyhaven’tyoumovedeventhough I have placed two new items on each table?

• Whydidyouswitchtothissidewhen I put oatmeal on table A?

• DoyoulikeSpam?Ifnot,whydid you stay on this side even though you don’t like it?

The teacher continues at a thought-ful pace until all items are “on the table,” and all students have chosen a final side.

The teacher now leads the students in reflecting on the activity, posing ques-tions to initiate discussion and help stu-dents make connections between their decision-making process in the activity and more complex choices that a person might make about political issues.

Reflecting on the ActivityWhile the class is still standing near their preferred table, the teacher asks questions about what just happened, and why.

• Raiseyourhandifyoustayedatone table throughout the entire activity.

• (Tothesestudents,heasks)Isthere one particular item that kept you at your preferred table?

• Amongthoseofyouwhomovedback and forth a lot, what item helped you make your final deci-sion?

• Iftheitemyoulikemostwasplaced on the other table, would you move to that side? Explain.

• Whatitemdoyoudislikethemost on the other table? If this item were placed on your side, would you switch to the other table? Why or why not?

The teacher tells everyone to return to his or her desk and then asks questions that invite students to make a mental leap toward thinking creatively about a citi-zen’s political decision making.

• Thinkabouthowdecidingona preferred table of food items might be related to a citizen’s choices in the voting booth.

• Forexample,thereseemedtobeonly a few students who loved all of the items on one table, or completely disliked all items on the other table. How can we relate this situation to voters and politi-cal parties?

Possible connections that students might make during the ensuing discussion include how each item could relate to a specific political issue, including issues that are controversial. Explain to stu-dents that political parties have official stated positions on various issues that are described in an official document called a “party platform.” The individual positions are “planks” in the “platform,” which the two major parties vote on every four years at their presidential conven-tions.

A discussion of students’ individual choices during the focus activity can be connected to how people often choose their political parties according to how the parties stand on various public policy issues. For example, sometimes voters feel so strongly about one issue that they will change their party affiliation based on it.

This discussion can be rather free-wheeling and creative. Analogies that students might make between themselves and adult voters, and between food items and policy positions, do not have to be carefully reasoned or particularly realis-tic. The point is to get students thinking about various factors and forces that can be involved when citizens make politi-cal decisions — and excited about the prospect of learning more.

Examining Candidates’ PositionsThe focusing event described above can set the stage for a lesson that introduces new concepts and terms related to politi-cal parties in the past or present; assesses students’ initial ideas and opinions; grapples with current political issues; and/or analyzes candidates’ positions (or party platforms) on various issues. In our second lesson, the teacher segues into a discussion about how people seek to match their own opinions with a can-didate’s positions before voting.

The teacher leads a discussion to assess students’ prior knowledge. He asks stu-dents to brainstorm a list of contempo-rary issues that are important to everyone in the United States, as well as issues that are especially interesting to young people. (Sidebar 1). The teacher encour ages stu-

12 May/June 2008

dents to give reasons for listing specific issues as important. He asks students to rank the issues from the most to the least important, in their own view. The teacher then asks some questions:

• Whatarethemainpoliticalpar-ties in the United States?

• Whatdoyouknowaboutthemajor positions of each party?

• Wheredoeseachpartystandonissues that you listed as impor-tant?

• Andhowcanyoufindthatout?

The teacher introduces the next part of the lesson, which is comparing some of the policy positions of the major can-didates for president (Table 2, pages 14–15). In preparation for this lesson, the teacher has made stacks of “sentence strips” that contain individual position statements, but do not reveal the author. (Sidebar 2). The teacher now instructs the students to

• CreateaT-chartbyfoldingablank sheet of paper in half and labeling one half “Democrat” and the other “Republican.”

• Takeone“sentencestrip”asthestack is passed around and read it.

• Fromwhatyouknowaboutthecandidates and the political parties, guess which candidate holds this position.

The teacher then calls on individual students to read aloud and place (the teacher’s copy of) the sentence strip in the appropriate column on a large T-chart displayed on the front board. He gives clues to any student who seems unsure of what the correct placement might be. The teacher then asks the class to give a “thumbs up or down” to indicate whether students think the statement has been placed with the

correct candidate and political party. The teacher clarifies the correct answer (shown in the first column of Table 2, page 14). The students construct the T-chart on their desks, statement by statement, until the chart is complete.

Students with little prior knowledge may need more prompts from the teacher throughout the activity. The chart-making activity can be a spark that inspires interesting discussions. Take time for students to speak their opinions and observations. Ask them to state their source of information: Have they learned about the candi dates by listening to their parents’ conversations? Watching television? Reading Internet sites? Talking with friends?

Once the T-chart is correctly complet ed, the teacher can introduce students to the website procon.org, a nonprofit organization that presents the major candidates’ various positions (in a “pro” and “con” format) on its well organized website. 3 Students can check it out as an extension activity. The web-site is the source of the information on Table 2.

Note: As we go to press, it is unclear whether

Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator Barack

Obama will be the Democratic Party’s final

presidential candidate. Thus, we have provided

samples from all three presidential hopefuls,

and students need to con struct a three-column

chart (not a simple T-chart) to accom modate

these quotes.

Making a ChoiceAt this point, the teacher recalls for the class the process of choosing table A or B during the focusing event. He asks students to remember how they ranked various public policy issues earlier in the lesson. Then the teacher addresses the class:

• Placeacheckmarkbesidethestatements you agree with on your T-chart.

• Whichissuesdidyouconsiderto be the most important?

Sidebar 2: Preparing Sentence Strips

Here is a way to get individual position state-ments into the hands of your students so they can examine them one at a time and then match them up with a candidate (or a political party).

Use a paper cutter to slice off and dis-card the first column of Table 2 (page 14). Duplicate the remaining part so there is one copy per student. Then slice across the rows so that each Democratic or Republican can-didate position statement now appears on a separate “sentence strip.” Keep the stacks of strips separated and organized by topic (i.e., do not shuffle the stacks).

You now have eight stacks of state-ments on current public policy issues, but the source of each statement is not shown. That is, each sentence strip is missing its first column of information, which identi-fied who holds a particular position. (The teacher keeps one master whole, of course, to serve as the key.)

During the lesson, the teacher distributes one statement at a time for the class to dis-cuss. Students then make an educated guess as to which candidate (or political party) is the source of the statement. The teacher provides the correct answers later in the lesson.

Sidebar 1. Seventh Graders’ Sampling of Current Issues

Civil rights Health Care

Crime Homeland Security

Defense Immigration

The economy Intelligent design

Education Kyoto protocols

Energy policies Oil drilling in protected areas

Faith-based Patriot Actinitiatives

Farm policies School accountability

Finance reform Social programs

Foreign policy Social Security

Free Trade Taxes

Global Warming War in Iraq

Gun control Women’s Rights


• Towhatextentdothecandidates’positions line up with your opin-ions?

• Doyoufeelreadytochooseonecandidate over the other?

• Isitdifficulttochooseaparticularcandidate? Why or why not?

• Howistheprocessofchoosingacandidate similar to the process you went through in the focusing event? How is it different?

A writing assignment can serve as an assessment of learning. For example, stu-dents can describe various policy issues and give their opinions about the impor-tance of each. As a possible extension activ-ity, students can research the candidates’ positions on various issues with the use of the ProCon website, candidates’ websites, and other sources (Sidebar, p.13).

Invite Critical ThinkingBecause this lesson is based on explora-tion and inquiry, it is important to give students the opportunity to build their own opinions and ideas. The teaching suggestions help students learn from and enjoy the lesson—and realize that choos-ing one’s opinion on an issue of public policy is more complex than choosing food items on a restaurant menu. The teacher should

1. Use divergent questions before, during, and after the focusing event and throughout the lesson. Planning questions that promote higher order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evalua-tion is critical to the effectiveness of this lesson.4

2. Accept student responses without correcting them, at least initially. Allowing students to express their ideas can help you assess prior knowledge and identify mis conceptions and stereotypes as well as encourage student response.5

3. Act as a devil’s advocate. Ask questions that challenge students to question or examine their initial opinions, decisions, or sources of information.

4. Avoid authoritative lecturing. Rather than providing explana-tions, guide students into recog-nizing patterns and making the connections themselves through the use of questions.6 In addi-tion, give students adequate time to reason carefully, so they can construct a thoughtful response to open-ended questions.

5. Be strictly nonpartisan. It’s impor tant that students, their parents, and the principal view this lesson as nonpartisan. Help students to be respectful of each others’ opinions, especially when there is disagree ment. The teacher should not state his or her own preference (on any issue or candidate), but rather encour-age students to state their own opinion and then ex amine the values and reasoning that support it. If students have stated a politi-cal preference in discussion or in writing, that state ment should be excluded from any assessment.

It is important throughout this lesson for the teacher to offer a psycho logically safe learning environment, one in which students can express doubt, change their minds, and adopt playful attitudes toward uncertainty. The lesson calls for “toler-ance, respect for diversity of ideas, and open-mindedness.” 7 It allows students to ponder complex and controversial issues in a developmentally appro priate man-ner. It is consistent with standards calling for middle level teachers to assist learn-ers in under standing politics, to guide learners as they explore the nature of the American political culture, and to allow learners to find answers to questions such as: “What is politics?” and “What are the foundations of the American politi-cal system?” 8

Finally, it helps to have an antici patory set involving food to start off the lesson with a playful tone. Students were still talking politics as the period ended and they all headed for lunch.

Notes1. Linda S. Levstik and Keith C. Barton, Doing History:

Investigating with Children in Elementary and Middle Schools (London: Routledge, 2005).

2. Ronald W. Evans and David W. Saxe, eds., The Handbook on Teaching Social Issues (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2007). First published by NCSS in 1996, this book can be purchased at www.infoagepub.com/products/content/p471905b 36bc10.php.

3. ProCon.org, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) public charity whose mission is “promoting educa-tion and informed citizenship by presenting contro-versial issues in a simple, nonpartisan, primarily pro-con format.”

4. Benjamin S. Bloom, ed., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The Classifi cation of Educational Goals. Hand book I, Cognitive Domain (New York: Longman, 1956).

5. “ENC Focus: How to Make a Grabber H.O.T. in 5 Minutes” (Columbus, OH: ENC Learning, 2005), enc.org/features/focus/archive/.

6. Ibid.7. Evans and Saxe, 4. 8. National Council for the Social Studies, National

Standards for Social Studies Teachers (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 1994), www.socialstudies.org/teacher standards/.

Background on Teaching Controversial Issues

GLOBAL WARMING—Beverly Milner Bisland and Iftikhar Ahmad, “Climate Change Draws World Attention: The 2007 Nobel Peace Award Goes to Al Gore and IPCC,” Social Education 72, no. 2 (March 2008): 69-74.

GUN CONTROL—James H. Landman, “Out of Range: An Interview with Mark Tushnet on the Second Amendment” (Looking at the Law), Social Education 71, no. 5 (September 2007): 237-242.

HEALTH INSURANCE—Judy Terando, “Lesson Plan. Uninsured in America: Background, Activities and Critical Analysis,” www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/ teachers/lessonplans/health/uninsured/.

IRAQ RE-DEPLOYMENT—Choices for the 21st Century Education Program, Brown University, “The U.S. in Iraq: Confronting Policy Alternatives,” Social Education 70, no. 7 (November/December 2006): 433-441.

Paige Lilley Schulte is an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana.

Travis Miller is a social studies teacher at St. Tammany Junior High School in Slidell, Louisiana.

14 May/June 2008

Table 2. Candidates’ Positions on Some Major IssuesAs compiled by ProCon.org on March 19, 2008.

Hillary Clinton, Democrat

PRO

Should all Americans have a right to government or employer subsidized basic health care?Under my plan, we won’t require small businesses to cover employees. Instead we will pro-vide tax credits to ensure that many of them do. These tax credits will be based on size and average wages, so that small businesses can provide health care without destroying their bottom line... Government also needs to do its part to promote shared responsibility. Under my plan, the government will provide tax-credits to insure that every single American can afford health insurance.”

John McCain Republican

CON

Should all Americans have a right to government or employer subsidized basic health care?America has the highest quality health care in the world. Our job is to preserve it. Our job is to keep the costs down. Last year, the Medicaid inflation was 10 percent. ... No program in the world can survive under that. So of course we want to remove the employer … tax, and tax incentives, and move it to the individual. Give the individual a $2,500 refundable tax credit, a family a $5,000 tax credit.

Barack Obama Democrat

PRO

Should all Americans have a right to government or employer subsidized basic health care?I believe that the millions of Americans who can’t take their children to a doctor when they get sick have that right. …If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less… [W]e will ask all but the smallest businesses who don’t make a meaningful contribution today to the health coverage of their employees to do so by supporting this new plan.

Hillary ClintonDemocrat

PRO*

Are humans substantially responsible for global climate change today?[T]he President [George W. Bush] and Vice President [Dick Cheney] refuse to admit that there were any human contributions to global climate change. There are climatic changes that are so-called natural, but we have so changed the atmosphere that it has a ripple effect...Yes, there are natural reasons why the climate may get warmer but we put so much CO2 into the atmosphere that that changes the natural forces...

John McCainRepublican

Not clearly PRO or CON

Are humans substantially responsible for global climate change today?I also believe that strengthening our energy security goes hand-in-hand with addressing global climate change, which I believe is real with human activity contributing to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Barack ObamaDemocrat

PRO

Are humans substantially responsible for global climate change today?Global warming is real, is happening now and is the result of human activities. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. Glaciers are melting faster; the polar ice caps are shrinking; trees are blooming earlier; oceans are becoming more acidic, threatening marine life; people are dying in heat waves; species are migrating, and eventually many will become extinct.

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*Note: The ProCon.org website lists Sen. Clinton’s position as “Not Clearly Pro or Con” on this issue on 3/19/08.


Table 2 Continued Candidates’ Positions on Some Major Issues

Hillary Clinton Democrat

(Has changed from CON to PRO)

Should the U.S. set a timetable for troop withdrawal in Iraq?(Con) It is time for the President to stop serving up platitudes and present us with a plan for finishing this war with success and honor—not a rigid timetable that terrorists can exploit, but a public plan for winning and concluding the war.—Nov. 29, 2005

(Pro) The Secretary of Defense should commence the redeployment of the Armed Forces from Iraq not later than October 1, 2007, with a goal of completing such redeployment within 180 days.—Apr. 26, 2007

John McCain Republican CON

Should the U.S. set a timetable for troop withdrawal in Iraq?Young men and women are risking their lives as we speak in Iraq. And I know that they will be in greater harm’s way if we withdraw from Iraq, as we keep debating over and over and over again. … I understand that if the American people don’t continue to support this effort that we will be forced to withdraw. But it’s also my obligation to tell the American people and my constituents in Arizona that I represent, what the consequences of failure will be; and I believe they will be catastrophic.

Barack Obama Democrat PRO

Should the U.S. set a timetable for troop withdrawal in Iraq?The first part of this strategy [in Iraq] begins by exerting the greatest leverage we have on the Iraqi government—a phased redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq on a timetable that would begin in four to six months. …For only through this phased redeployment can we send a clear message to the Iraqi factions that the U.S. is not going to hold together this country indefinitely—that it will be up to them to form a viable government that can effectively run and secure Iraq.

Hillary ClintonDemocrat

PRO

Are more federal regulations on guns and ammunition needed?I remember very well when I accompanied Bill to Columbine after that massacre and met with the family members of those who had been killed and talked with the students, and feeling that we had to do more to try to keep guns out of the hands of the criminal and of the mentally unstable.

John McCainRepublican

CON

Are more federal regulations on guns and ammunition needed?John McCain believes that banning ammunition is just another way to undermine Second Amendment rights. He voted against an amendment that would have banned many of the most commonly used hunting cartridges on the spurious grounds that they were “armor-piercing.”

Barack ObamaDemocrat

Not clearly PRO or CON

Are more federal regulations on guns and ammunition needed?I’m a strong believer in the rights of hunters and sportsmen to have firearms. I’m a believer in homeowners having a firearm to protect their home and their family. It’s hard for me to find a rationale for a 19-clip semi-automatic. I said at a forum earlier this week, “If you need 19 rounds to shoot a deer, you probably shouldn’t be hunting” and so that I think is something that we should be able to have a reasonable conversation about.

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16 May/June 2008

the back page

Middle Level LearningSteven S. Lapham MLL EditorRichard Palmer Art DirectorMichael Simpson Director of Publications©2008 National Council for the Social Studies

Supplement to National Council for the Social Studies PublicationsNumber 32, May/June 2008www.socialstudies.org

Middle Level Learning 32, p. M16©2008 National Council for the Social Studies

Create a Time Line of Recent History

Construct you own time line of recent events. You can show how people and events have been related over time by creating a time line with several layers. Sources of information could include an interview with your parents, a social studies textbook, and an encyclopedia. Begin by asking about the life of a living older relative, such as a parent, aunt, uncle, or grandparent.

The Years on a Line. Start with the year your relative was born. You don’t have to make a tic mark on this line for every single year on the line. It’s okay to mark every 5th or every 10th year, right up until the present year. (See the example below.)

Layer 1: Personal Events. Mark some of the important dates in the life of your relative, such as the year he or she was born, when he or she graduated, traveled, married, had children, or found employment.

Layer 2: Technology and Innovation. Mark the years that some recent inventions first came on the market, such as the home computer, cell phone, DVD, or iPod.

Layer 3: National Events. Mark some things that happened in the USA, such as a new federal law (Clean Water Act), a U.S. Supreme Court decision (Miranda v. Arizona), economic high or low points (housing market crash), population milestones, presidential terms, major constructions, or major disasters.

Layer 4: World Events. Mark things that affect many countries such as treaties (such as the Kyoto Protocol on global warming) changes of leadership (such as the Secretary General of the United Nations), awards (such as the Nobel Prize for Peace), successes (eradication of smallpox), or wars and natural disasters.

Your finished time line should include at least three events in each of the layers : 3 personal, 3 technology, 3 national, and 3 international events.

Your finished time line should include at least one event that spans a period of time, which can be shown as a line segment. In the example below, “Mom attends college” spans four years.

Some layers can be above the main time line that shows the years, and some can be below the line. In the example below, layers 1 and 2 are above the line, and layers 3 and 4 are below the main line. This makes it all a bit easier to read.

* Teachers: See “Teaching and Learning with Timelines” in this issue of Middle Level Learning, May/June 2008, pages 4-7.

Student Handout*

1

2

3

4

Mom is born Mom in College

Mom marries Dad

Cell Phones DVDs

Me!

Moon Landing ChallengerDisaster

Clean Water Act Attack of 9/11

Nixon meets Mao in China

USSR breaksapart

Kyoto Protocol on Global Warming

20051965 1975 1985 1995

Home Computers

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Exploring Your Choices - Social Studies