History & Social Studies
RE-THINKING U.S. HISTORY: What Your Teachers Never Told You
Course No. HI406T, HI506T
Turn your history course from boring to beneficial! We’ve all sat through those dull history classes where the adopted text is the main source of information. Recently, however, historians such as Howard Zinn and James Loewen have revealed the more interesting and controversial aspects of U.S. History in publications such as The People’s History of the United States and Lies My Teacher Told Me. After taking Re-Thinking U.S. History, you will energize your teaching, bring your classroom history curriculum up-to-date, and stimulate critical thinking and debate on key issues in United States history. This course will also show you how real stories about real people are the key to getting your students to enjoy history. Moreover, through this course, you will understand that you can still encourage patriotism while revealing the human cost in the development of the United States.
Using a variety of Internet media sources, recent journal articles, and chapters from books, teachers in this class will review the latest research on re-thinking our history from the view of the common people. This course is most applicable to middle school and high school U.S. History teachers.
Your text cost will vary with your choice. All other articles and readings will be online.
| We advise you to review and download the course syllabus before registering. | Syllabus |
1. That offering multiple perspectives on U.S. History increases opportunities for critical thinking.
2. That the voices of the common people increase student interest in historical subjects
3. That the development of empathy is a crucial component of any history class
4. That comparing and contrasting primary documents is a tool to engage higher-level thinking
5. That recent historical resources provide meaningful stories easily integrated into history units
6. Learn how the politics of patriotism can lead to biased historical information.
