PBS/WETA Civilians worldwide are increasingly the targets of war crimes. This unprecedented series examines the evolution of postwar justice in investigating genocide, ethnic cleansing and other atrocities and in prosecuting the perpetrators.   The full title of the series is "Dead Reckoning: War, Crime, and Justice from World War II to the War on Terror." The episodes are slated to be shown on Monday evenings, December 5-19, 2016, but check local listings. “The General’s Ghost” (12/5/2016) “The Blind Eye” (12/12/2016) “In Our Time” (12/19/2016) Here's a description from a one-page fact sheet…

Civil War Drummer Boys: Integrating Music into Social StudiesJing A. Williams, Deborah Check Reeves, and Paige M. Wright Mission Impossible: Turning Essays on Enduring Issues into Respectful Ethical Debates Jennifer Ingold

These three chapters are from the NCSS book, The Human Impact of Natural Disasters—Issues for the Inquiry-based Classroom edited by Valerie Ooka Pang, William R. Fernekes, and Jack L. Nelson. Bill Pisarra presents a geographic perspective on natural disasters, while Marc Norman reviews the psychological impact of natural disasters in school. Margaret Smith Crocco and Thomas Chandler look back at Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.   NCSS Members can access the full text of the book online here . The book (which is NCSS Bulletin 110) can also be ordered in print from…

If you are reading this introduction, then we are guessing that you are a social studies educator and/or teacher candidate who is interested in finding diverse, authentic, and engaging ways to better prepare your student population for participatory citizenship through the use of primary sources. If so, then this book will be a terrific resource for you. The authors of the chapters in this book are some of the leading thinkers, scholars, and educators in social studies education and routinely utilize primary sources in amazing and dynamic ways in their methods courses, as well as in pre-K–12…

Sarah Segal is a middle school teacher in Hood River, Oregon, specializing in history and social studies, language arts, and art. She has been a classroom teacher for more than 20 years, is a former president of the Oregon Council for the Social Studies (OCSS) and current member of the NCSS Book Award Committee.

In Pursuit of Equity: Book Banning and Censorship Book bans in schools and libraries are on the rise. Last school year, more than 850 individual titles were impacted by censorship efforts of local groups and state decision-makers. How can educators and students navigate censorship in their communities? NCHE and NCSS united for a fourth virtual Equity Summit in October 2023 in support of our history and social studies educators and students, with a focus on book-banning and censorship. These are the session recordings from the Summit. 

“Understanding Sacrifice: An ABMC Education Program about World War II in Northern Europe” is a free online collection of classroom activities related to World War II, found online at abmceducation.org. Created by 18 teachers from around the world, each activity was made by researching the life of one fallen American hero from that war who is buried in an American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) cemetery in Europe. There are activities for science, art, and history. There is also an entire non-fiction book (a free PDF), “When the Akimotos went to War,” by Matthew Elms, about two young men…

Jennie Bauduy is Senior Editor of Social Education and Editor of Middle Level Learning. She also manages production of the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People book list. Jennie’s previous experience includes reporting for Reuters and various newspapers in Central America and the Caribbean on elections, natural disasters, migrants and refugees, as well as on the environment and climate change. Democracy building and climate change are two issues that are particularly important to Jennie. She has an M.S. in journalism (Columbia University) and a B.A. in Latin American Studies (…

The Century Knights of Rho Kappa chapter at Century High School in Sykesville, Maryland (chapter advisor Anne Dorwart) has done two main service projects this year. They collected food and water for the Cold Weather Shelter in their county.  The Cold Weather Shelter permits homeless people to spend the night out of the cold.  In the morning they are given water, a breakfast bar of some variety, and a snack to take with them. The Century Knights chapter decided to help a local group and collect granola and other bars, snacks, and bottles of water.  They held the drive at the school for a week…

Venture Smith’s Autobiography and Runaway Ad: Enslavement in Early New York Alan J. Singer Classroom Debates Made Easy Kathleen M. Doyle King Coal: A Piece of Eastern Pennsylvania History Jill M. Beccaris and Christine Woyshner Coal: An Energy Source to be Reckoned With