Doing History: Investigating With Children in Elementary and Middle Schools

Now in its fourth edition, this popular text offers a unique perspective on teaching and learning history in the elementary and middle grades. Through case studies of teachers and students in diverse classrooms and from diverse backgrounds, it shows children engaging in authentic historical investigations, often in the context of an integrated social studies curriculum.

The central assumption is that children can engage in valid forms of historical inquiry-collecting and data analysis, examining the perspectives of people in the past, considering multiple interpretations, and creating evidence-based historical accounts. In each chapter, the authors explain how the teaching demonstrated in the vignettes reflects basic principles of contemporary learning theory, thus providing specific examples of successful activities and placing them in a theoretical context that allows teachers to adapt and apply them in a wide variety of settings.

New in the Fourth Edition

• Expanded coverage of world history in two new chapters
• Integration of new technologies to support history instruction
• Updated classroom examples, bibliographies, and references

Linda S. Levstik is Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Kentucky.

Keith C. Barton is Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Adjunct Professor of History at Indiana University.