Article Review: Roberts, Scott L. (2011). Using counterfactual history to enhance students’ historical understanding, The Social Studies, 102:3, 117-123. by Steven Mills In this article Roberts, a grade 8 Social Studies teacher from Georgia, challenges his students to ask historical “what if?” questions and to portray creatively the new histories resulting from these changes. Roberts [...]
Rethinking Social Studies Education
ARTICLE REVIEW: THE THOUGHT EXPERIMENT Zarnowski, Myra. (2009) The Thought Experiment: An Imaginative Way into Civic Literacy. The Social Studies, March/April 2009, 100 (2). Reviewed by Kristin DoumaUniversity of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada The central argument of Zarnowski’s article is that through the use of thought experiments, students can make history relevant to their world [...]
Boyd, L. (2011). Exploring AlternateFutures. GreenTeacher (94), 35-38. Reviewed by Greg Barmby, Universityof Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Inthe article “Exploring Alternate Futures,” Lloyd Boyd presents the idea offuturing, a concept meant to explore the possibilities of what our future couldlook like, depending on the events to come. Boyd is interested in the cause and effect our actions could have on [...]
The first things that came to mind when I first watched “The Story of Stuff” were “wow” and “what’s the bias?”. This critique of “The Story of Stuff” does an excellent job of using evidence to negate, or at least weaken, some of the broad claims made in video. I stand by “The Story of [...]
With all the attention SOPA and PIPA have received in the past few weeks, Canadians are starting to realize that the proposed changes to the Canadian Copyright Act (Bill C-11), which are going to make an appearance in the House of Commons in the coming weeks, are going to attempt to do the same. This [...]
It’s important to examine as many sources of information as possible on any given issue. The Northern Gateway Pipeline is promising to be one of thew most controversial issues the country of Canada may face in a generation. For the Social Studies practitioner the pipeline issue has many facets – local, provincial, national and global. [...]
I think it is very important for the true story about the Canadian Governments shameful behaviour to be spoken to with truth and common sense. Gerald Amos takes a stand and sets the record straight. A leader any community could be proud of. Please take the time to read this article: http://www.terracedaily.ca/show9198a/NO_APOLOGY_FORTHCOMING?mid=574740 Rethinking Social Studies [...]
This news story about a WWII Royal Air Force bomb recently found in the Rhine river would be great to use in the classroom for multiple reasons. First, it could serve as a great introduction to WWII, or to the allied bombing of Germany, because it is a current news story about how the war [...]
Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. These days of remembrance are crucial to all of us as prospective/acting Social Studies teachers as they shed light on past events and open up opportunities for all of us to get engaged with our history. This particular date commemorates the massacre [...]