eBooks

Teaching Social Studies Through Genealogy
Flexibly Designed for Middle School through Advanced High School

Even the most exciting events, people, books, or ideas can be boring to your children if the information has no meaning for them. Also, the best lesson plans complemented by technology or new teaching techniques will fail if your children do not connect to the material. The researching of one's family history overcomes this dilemma in a very effective manner. This book will show you how to encourage your children to investigate their families and their legacies as a part of any curriculum. Along with a guide to the twelve steps of a genealogy portfolio this book includes 15 lesson plans complemented by readings, worksheets, internet sites, and genealogy charts. Buy this eBook from Fictionwise.com | About Fictionwise.com


The Genealogy Notebook
Flexibly Designed for Middle School through Advanced High School

The Genealogy Notebook is a family history organizer. The notebook is divided into sections focusing on a family member; father, mother, and grandparents on both sides of the ancestral tree. Each family group includes worksheets to record vital statistics, family timelines, treasured moments and, finally, a section to write a biography on that person. Each section is then grouped by a summarizing Family Group worksheet and Ancestral Chart. This notebook will help your children keep vital statistics on their family history as well as interesting facts they will want to preserve for future generations. The Genealogy Notebook concludes with a section called Grandparents and Beyond. This section includes an article on how to find information on their ancestors as well as Genealogy Charts which will aid them in the process. Buy this eBook from Fictionwise.com | About Fictionwise.com


All History is Local: The complete Guide to teaching U.S. History through local primary sources
Flexibly Designed for Middle School through Advanced High School

Textbooks, by definition, are a survey of historical facts. They are an excellent compilation of causes and effects, maps, facts and figures but they rarely tell a "story" that is meaningful to most people-- especially teenagers. Noted historian and best-selling author David McCullough spent ten years researching his Pulitzer Prize winning book Truman and six years on his recent best seller John Adams. Yet he doesn't consider himself a historian-he considers himself a storyteller. Relatedly, we should teach our children in the same manner--history should be taught as a story. Yet it is not a story that should be told TO your child, it is a story that should be created BY your child through investigation, problem solving and, finally, writing. In other words, your child should not only becomes the storyteller but the creator of the story. Textbooks do not accomplish this goal as they often over-generalize history and certainly do not personalize important events. History books are excellent resources but they should not be the center of your child's learning.

Your child's approach to learning history should be the same approach a detective uses to investigate crimes: 1) gather all the facts; 2) solve unanswered questions; and 3) compile all the facts so that the truth is identified. The approach of this book is very similar to the detective. Your child, by using local primary resources, investigates "history". Through researching historical information and then solving unanswered questions they discover the real .story..one that is personal, interesting, and often left out of the history textbooks. This method involves original research, writing, and imagination. It allows your child to follow their personal interests and learn core content material at the same time.

In the Local History Research Project your child chooses a person from your town (or family tree) who served in the American Revolution, Civil War, WWI, or WWII (or any war or event since WWII). Any time period can be used for this project, but for the purposes of this book the best primary sources available are usually connected to the military. Certainly, the history of the United States can be told through military conflicts as almost every generation has experienced war since the American Revolution. Once the soldier or event is identified your child will gather and analyze sources on this person (or event) and then tell their story through writing a creative nonfiction biography. This is a flexible project that can be modified to meet the needs of many different types of learners. This book will guide you and your child through this process. Buy this eBook from Fictionwise.com | About Fictionwise.com

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