“Since the beginning of time…” We’ve all read student papers that begin with this absurd opening. But I’m sympathetic. Writing is hard, and writing a good first sentence is particularly challenging. I wrote a post last year about teaching like we write, recognizing the importance of clear introductions and conclusions in all forms of communication,…
Thank you for visiting our new website. Since 2011, Teaching United States History has been the premier forum for critical reflection on pedagogy in the college-level U.S. history classroom. But we are working to make this site even more useful. Links along the top of the homepage will soon house a host of primary sources,…
We’ll see you next fall with new conversations and a few new voices. Stay tuned.
For my second half survey this semester, I am asking my students to evaluate the significance of shifts in media technology. We began the semester with a discussion of commercial photography. You can read more about that assignment here. Our second assignment focused on the radio in the 1930s. After reading Tom Lewis’s short OAH…
As discussed in an earlier post, my second half survey this spring focuses on changes in media. In three assignments, I am asking the students to evaluate the relative impacts of commercial photography, radio, and television. The survey at Rice divides at 1848, a great luxury for the first half, but a considerable strain…
We are thrilled to have a guest post from Christopher R. Versen of Bridgewater College who shared his insights at the AHA as to how we should teach the Native American Church controversy. He shares an abbreviated summary of those remarks here. Finding ways to get students to engage the complexity of American Indian…
Who doesn’t venerate Martin Luther King Jr.? When I ask my students for their three favorite Americans, King is nearly always at the top of the list, besting Thomas Jefferson, Sojourner Truth, and Abraham Lincoln. But I would argue that MLK’s consensus position as a member of the American pantheon has more to do with…
We are thrilled to have a guest post today from Ariane Liazos, Preceptor and Faculty Associate at the Harvard Writing Program. Ariane led a roundtable discussion at the AHA on the how we teach writing in undergraduate history courses. In the following post she summarizes the insightful conversation that ensued. At the January…
Several months ago, I wrote about the importance of teaching like we write, that is having class sessions with clear introductions and conclusions. I believe that the same logic extends to the way we think about a semester-long course. As I get ready to begin my courses next week, I am trying to think about…
Tis the season… to grade. But while the pile of essays to grade grows higher and higher, I’ve been distracting myself by planning for my next semester courses. I am thinking of pulling a dramatic audible and restructuring the assignments for the second half of my survey course. And I’d like to do so around…
