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Local
History Archive
We will be updating this section in the near future. See our eBook below:
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
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