history Archives - A Lesson Plan for Teachers

Teaching Inquiry in the Social Studies Classroom

Posted on November 8, 2021November 8, 2021 by Michele Luck

Some states are adopting an inquiry design model for teaching Social Studies for primary, middle, and high school students. While this approach is definitely a model we should all be following, we should take it a step further. We should...Read More

Teamwork and Collaboration in the Classroom: An Exercise to Assess Direction Following

Posted on December 2, 2019July 25, 2020 by Michele Luck

How do you feel when a hundred different directions are thrown your way? Maybe your principal comes into your classroom after a stressful class period, listing off five things to-do within the next week? Or a student asks questions about...Read More

Creating an Interest in History in the Elementary Classroom

Posted on July 5, 2019July 25, 2020 by Michele Luck

In today’s technology-centered society, sparking an interest in anything that isn’t the latest app or gadget is difficult. Further, with Social Studies programs being cut around the country and History departments consistently underfunded and understaffed, many of our children are...Read More

Why Do We Have to Learn History?

Posted on October 1, 2015July 25, 2020 by Michele Luck

By this time in the semester, students have taken the first unit test and they are starting to ask the BIG questions... Why do we have to take this class? Why is history important? How will I ever use this...Read More

Quick Thought Thursday: A Hot Tub Conversation on American Education

Posted on January 22, 2015July 25, 2020 by Michele Luck

When you are living life on the road in a motorhome, the one thing you do not have is a bath tub, and the shower just doesn't do the trick for sore muscles after spending the day out on my...Read More

Losing History: My Breakdown at the National Mall

Posted on November 6, 2014July 25, 2020 by Michele Luck

As teachers of History, we are constantly devalued. Students ask why they must take our courses, administrators take our class time for assemblies or testing, states push the teaching of everything but History, and in comparison to requirements in other...Read More

Analyzing Legislation: A Political or Social Approach?

Posted on October 9, 2014July 25, 2020 by Michele Luck

In my first few years of teaching, I taught with a U.S. History teacher who believed every law was passed simply because Congress saw it as what should be. He gave no credit to the social movements that encouraged the...Read More

I’m Off To Make the Donuts: Your Boring Curriculum Problems Solved

Posted on September 12, 2014July 25, 2020 by Michele Luck

Every Social Studies certified teacher could be assigned a number of different courses in the Social Studies Department. My first year of teaching was just that nightmare, with 6 different preps within 3 different courses. I taught both honors and...Read More

That Dream Trip

Posted on May 12, 2014July 25, 2020 by Michele Luck

Since I started reading (and actually being read to as a small child) I have imagined visiting the places in my favorites stories or books. The settings always came off the page to me and were so visual in my...Read More

As the Quiet Saves the World

Posted on May 8, 2014July 25, 2020 by Michele Luck

We often read stories of Anne Frank's being hidden in her neighbor's home to escape Nazi persecution, or we watch movies about Oskar Schindler and how he saved over 1000 Jews by setting up a factory filled with Jewish labor...Read More