Understanding American History through Children's Literature: Instructional Units and Activities for Grades K-8 »

MARIA A. PEREZ-STABLE is associate professor, University Libraries, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.

MARY H. CORDIER is associate professor emerita and adjunct associate professor of Elementary Education, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.

Students connect with Americans of the past through quality works of fiction, nonfiction, biography, folktale, and legend. American history ceases to be remote and unfamiliar and becomes the story of real individuals—colonists, pioneers, Native Americans, immigrants—with diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This book is an excellent support for a literature-based history or social studies curriculum. This book closely integrates American history and children's literature by combining the best features of an annotated bibliography of children's historical literature with the best features of a teaching guide.

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction ix

Part 1: Primary Grades: Kindergarten through Grade 3 1

The People of America 3

Introduction to Units 1, 2, and 3 3

Unit 1: Locating the United States and the Children's Community and State 5

Unit 2: Comparing Families of the Past and Present 9

Unit 3: Folk Tales and Songs of America 25

The New Nation 41

Introduction to Units 4, 5, and 6 41

Unit 4: Exploring the New World 43

Unit 5: New Villages in America 48

Unit 6: Revolution and the New Nation 55

The Westward Movement, Slavery, and Civil War 64

Introduction to Units 7 and 8 64

Unit 7: The Nation Grows: The Westward Movement and Immigration 65

Unit 8: Slavery and the Civil War 82

The Twentieth Century: The Nation Changes 90

Introduction to Units 9, 10, 11, and 12 90

Unit 9: Inventions and Technology 92

Unit 10: Conflicts and Cooperation among Nations 96

Unit 11: Human Rights 104

Unit 12: Everyday Life in the United States 109

Part 2: Intermediate and Middle School: Grades 4 through 8 199

Looking at America's History 121

Introduction to Unit 1 121

Unit 1: Researching the Past 122

From Exploration to Young Nation 131

Introduction to Units 2, 3, and 4 131

Unit 2: Exploring and Settling the New World 132

Unit 3: Colonial Period 143

Unit 4: Revolution and the Constitutional Era 152

The New Republic 162

Introduction to Units 5 and 6 162

Unit 5: The New Republic 163

Unit 6: American Symbols, Literature, and Folk Tales 174

Civil War and Westward Expansion 183

Introduction to Units 7 and 8 183

Unit 7: Slavery, the Civil War, and ItsAftermath 185

Unit 8: Multicultural Growth: The Nation Looks Westward and Immigration Increases 200

America in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 229

Introduction to Units 9 and 10 229

Unit 9: America in the Late Nineteenth Century Through the Great War 230

Unit 10: Technology, the Twentieth-Century Industrial Revolution, and the Rise of Unions 241

America in the Twentieth Century 247

Introduction to Units 11, 12, and 13 247

Unit 11: The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression 249

Unit 12: World War II and the Holocaust 256

Unit 13: The Middle Decades of the Twentieth Century 269

Select Bibliography 285

Index 291