In the News

By Richard Byrne A People's History of the United States is frequently used by U.S. History teachers in my school and in schools around the country because Zinn tells the history of the United States in a story that it is often different from that told in textbooks. A People's History of the United States gives students an alternative perspective on history. The Zinn Education Project is a website designed to help teachers use A People's History of the United States in their classrooms. The Zinn Education Project provides complete lesson plans for use in elementary school, middle school, and high school settings. In some cases the lesson plans include document excerpts and references to A People's History of the United States. You can search for lesson plans by time period, theme, or by student reading levels.

By Alan Singer

As a social studies teacher, a political activist, and a historian, I am a big fan of Howard Zinn, and I very much enjoyed watching The People Speak on the History Channel Sunday night. Well-known and not so well-known actors read speeches, letters, and other primary source documents from the history of the United States. There were also photo montages and songs. It was not great theater or television, but it was a wonderful teaching tool. I have been using many of these documents in my social studies classes for the past four decades. They show aspects of United States history that are either ignored or minimized in most traditional textbooks and curricula. In the near future I hope we see secondary school students across the country participate in similar readers. Our schools, and our country, very much need it.

Currently, I have pre-service teachers in my social studies methods classes use Voices of a People's History as a resource book when preparing lessons and units. I will now recommend that they have schools purchase copies of The People Speak and that they themselves sign up for the resources available from the Zinn Education Project (http://www.zinnedproject.org). I am pleased that an article I wrote about high school students tracing the history of slavery in New York City is included (Please note I did not get paid).

As their announcement states:

The new site features over 75 free, downloadable teaching activities for middle- and high- school students to bring a people’s history to the classroom. These are the best U.S. history-teaching articles from the Rethinking Schools archives. The site also lists hundreds of recommended books, films, and websites. The teaching activities and resources are organized by theme, time period, and grade level.

Though teachers would have to modify the materials to make them accessible to English Language Learners, the site is truly extraordinary. It’s development is timed with last night’s debut on the History Channel of The People Speak presentation. It was narrated by Howard Zinn and based on his best-selling books, A People’s History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States,

I’m adding the new website to The Best Teacher Resource Sites For Social Justice Issues.