Inquiry-Based Lessons in U.S. History: Decoding the Past (Grades 5-8)

I homeschool my 3 children and just got this book. It is FILLED with fabulous projects for the kids to dive into their learning. It encorporates primary sources and either provideside the actual source materials or tells you were to find them online. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for to teach US history. It will give me the materials and lesson plans I need for them to dig deep and learn the material on their own. Most homeschool history programs involve reading LOTS of living books and not much else...maybe crafts...but this will be a wonderful addition to all of our reading! Thanks k you so much for creating this resource! I hope that the authors are working on a world history book too <😉😉> I would buy it in a heartbeat!!!!

I have yet to use this teacher resource for US History as I am currently serving in another capacity. However, based upon my observations, it appears to be one that I would use and adapt when the opportunity arises in the future. It is geared to address higher order thinking skills which should be the goal of all teachers regardless of the subject area. Although it is designed to meet the needs of middle school students, I believe it can be adapted for students on the secondary level, as well.

It is early to write a review cause I haven't taught any of the lessons quite yet. But I'm very excited about this book because it's full of fully formed actual lesson plans with Inqury focus!! Not theory, not just suggestions, materials and specific teaching recommendations. I will come back and up it to five stars if the lessons go as well as I think they will.

I liked some of the strategies used, however these were not new strategies to use. The lesson plan gave the strategy, and links. It doesn’t not include any material. Everything must be found and printed out for use. Some of the links didn’t work, and some content seemed a bit inaccurate. I didn’t spend much time on it. Maybe this summer I’ll give it another try, but I could’ve found this strategies almost anywhere for free.

This is a very useful book for teachers who want to use primary sources to teach history. All of the resources are right in the lesson plan to download so that you don't have to go searching for them all over the place. This is a real time-saver! I think it is aimed more at middle-school, but I can adapt some of these activities for my 5th-grade accelerated class. I just purchased this book, but I am looking forward to using several of the activities.

Excellent book. Can use all the lessons in my middle school history class. Clear instructions. Excellent resource! Wish they wrote more.

The power of Historical thinkers....you & I

As a US history teacher, I’m always looking for enrichment work for my students. These books are way too basic, and I think that they work better for enrichment for elementary school, or for those who have high difficulty in comprehension, or still can’t read very well in middle school. These books are good for students like that, but not for your average middle school student