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Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train – DVD
Film. By Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller. 2010. 78 minutes.
Documentary on life and work of Howard Zinn.
Individuals in US History, Labor, Organizing, Social Class, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present
Book – Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. 2005. 702 pages.
Howard Zinn’s groundbreaking work on U.S. history. This book details the lives and facts that are rarely included in textbooks — an indispensable teacher and student resource.
African American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Economics, Education, Immigration, Imperialism, Labor, Laws & Citizen Rights, Native American, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery, Social Class, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, Women's History
Andrew Jackson and the “Children of the Forest”
Teaching Activity PDF. By Bill Bigelow. 5 pages.
A lesson in which students develop critical literacy skills by responding to Andrew Jackson’s speech on “Indian Removal.”
Promoting Social Imagination Through Interior Monologues
Teaching Activity PDF. By Bill Bigelow and Linda Christensen. 3 pages.
Empathy, or “social imagination,” allows students to connect to “the other” with whom, on the surface, they may appear to have little in common.
Language Arts, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, Women's History
‘What We Want, What We Believe’: Teaching with the Black Panthers’ Ten Point Program
Teaching Activity PDF. By Wayne Au. 7 pages.
The author describes how he used a study of the Black Panther’s Ten Point Program to help students assess issues in their own communities and to develop Ten Point Programs of their own.
African American, Civil Rights Movements, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity
Frederick Douglass Fights for Freedom
Teaching Activity PDF. By Bill Bigelow. 7 pages.
A lesson to introduce students to the numerous and varied ways African Americans resisted their enslavement, using the autobiographical Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, published in 1845.
The Truth About Helen Keller
Article for Teachers and High School Students – PDF. By Ruth Shagoury. 6 pages.
A review of children’s picture books about the life of Helen Keller reveals the omission of any description of her active role in key social movements of the 20th century.
Rethinking the U.S. Constitutional Convention: A Role Play
Teaching Activity PDF. By Bob Peterson. 14 pages.
A role play on the Constitutional Convention which brings to life the social forces active during and immediately following the American Revolution with focus on two key topics: suffrage and slavery. An elementary school adapation of the Constitution Role Play by Bill Bigelow.
Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Native American, Slavery, Women's History
Re-examining the Revolution
Background Reading PDF. By Ray Raphael. 7 pages.
Based on his book Founding Myths, Raphael critiques the textbook portrayal of the American Revolution. The textbooks say that “a few special people forged American freedom” which “misrepresents, and even contradicts, the spirit of the American Revolution.”
“We Had Set Ourselves Free”: Lessons on the Civil Rights Movement
Teaching Activity PDF. By Doug Sherman. 4 pages.
The author describes how he uses biographies and film to introduce students to the role of people involved in the Civil Rights Movement beyond the familiar heroes. He emphasizes the role and experiences of young people in the Movement.
African American, Civil Rights Movements, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity
The Color Line
Teaching Activity PDF. By Bill Bigelow. 6 pages.
A lesson on the countless colonial laws enacted to create division and inequality based on race. This helps students understand the origins of racism in the United States and who benefits.
African American, Laws & Citizen Rights, Native American, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery
Salt of the Earth: Grounds Students in Hope
Teaching Activity PDF. By S.J. Childs. 6 pages.
The author describes how she introduces students to the classic 1953 film Salt of the Earth about a miners’ strike in New Mexico.
Panama, the 1991 Gulf War, and the War at Home
Teaching Activity PDF. By Robert Standish. 15 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 22 of Voices of a People’s History of the United States on Panama, the 1991 Gulf War, and the War on the Poor in the United States.
Bush II and the “War on Terror”
Teaching Activity PDF. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 18 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 24 of Voices of a People’s History of the United States on George W. Bush, the “War on Terror,” Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Patriot Act.
Democracy & Citizenship, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
Hip Hop Speaks to Children: a celebration of poetry with a beat
Book – Fiction. Edited by Nikki Giovanni. 2008. 80 pages and CD.
A celebration of poetry with a beat. Includes CD with selected recordings of poems and historical background.
American Indians in Children’s Literature
Website. By Debbie Reese.
Critical perspectives of indigenous peoples in children’s books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society-at-large.
Bread and Roses, Too
Book – Fiction. By Katherine Paterson. 2006. 275 pages.
Moving young adult historical-fiction novel based on a major strike in Lawrence, Mass. in 1912.
The Power In Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States
Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow and Norman Diamond. 1988. 184 pages.
Role plays and writing activities project high school students into real-life situations to explore the history and contemporary reality of employment (and unemployment) in the U.S.
Columbus and Las Casas
Teaching Activity PDF. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 15 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 1 of Voices of a People’s History of the United States on Columbus’ arrival in the “New World,” and the contrasting accounts of Bartolome de Las Casas and Eduardo Galeano.
