Teaching History With Popular Media: Strategies for Inquiry-based Learning

This book combines innovative inquiry-based teaching strategies with rich qualitative descriptions from middle and high school students to document how popular media can be effectively integrated into the history classroom. The first book to address teaching history with multiple forms of popular media, this work demonstrates how incorporating movies, music, and graphic narratives increases students' engagement, builds historical thinking skills and teaches critical media literacy.

Each chapter highlights a piece of popular media focusing on diverse topics including under-represented subjects like the Ludlow Massacre, the Harlem Hellfighters, and the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War while providing detailed lesson plans aligned with Common Core Standards. Also included are tips on teaching inquiry inductively, proactive planning, and specific examples of how to transfer the teaching tools to other forms of popular media.

Chad William Timm is a professor of teacher education at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. With 30 years of experience teaching history, his work has been published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Popular Culture and Philosophy Series', and Poverty In American Popular Culture.