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

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.

MARIA A. PEREZ-STABLE is associate professor, University Libraries, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. She has a M.A. in history from Western Michigan University and an M.S.L.S. from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

MARY H. CORDIER is associate professor emerita and adjunct associate professor of Elementary Education, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. She is a researcher, author, lecturer, and workshop leader in women's history, and in the integration of children's literature into the K-8 curricula. She received her Ed.S. in curriculum development.

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
IntrodlsM