Exploring Vacation and Etiquette Themes in Social Studies

This book introduces a thematic approach to social history that connects the past to the daily lives of students. Historical overviews of vacation and manners spanning from the ancient world to twentieth century United States provide detailed context for the teacher, emphasize issues related to social class, sex and gender, and popular culture, and examine the methods of social historians. Four unique primary source sets, reading guides, and essential/compelling questions for students are provided that encourage inquiry learning and the development of critical literacy skills aligned with the Common Core Standards for Literacy and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. Each themed chapter includes suggestions for extending each theme to current events, the local community through placed-based education, and across content areas for interdisciplinary instruction. The final chapter provides guidance on how to research additional historical themes, locate relevant primary sources, and prepare themed lessons and units.

Cynthia Resor achieves a worthy goal of creating an engaging entry point into history through examining themes in social history. This engaging, accessible book features teaching strategies that are tied to both Common Core ELA and the C3 Framework, assisting teachers in making explicit connections to both standards and students.  For any teacher struggling to connect students to the past, this book holds a promising instructional path to making history relevant through essential questions and primary source sets., Don a fresh pair of social history glasses and gain a new approach for making history alive and relevant for your students. Let Cynthia Resor be the ophthalmologist for your teaching of history and you and your students will see things, some old, new, for the first time., Dr. Resor manages to address three of the most important yet often overlooked dimensions of social studies education at the secondary level: use of primary sources in the classroom, an emphasis on social rather than political history, and the need to inject an element of entertainment into instruction. This work stands as a first encouraging step toward reforming social studies education in the 21st century., Cynthia Resor's book is an innovative and unique approach to teaching thematic units. Excellent resources are provided for European and American history from medieval times to contemporary. The information is easily adaptable to any time period., This book with its many examples and resources provides middle and secondary history and social studies teachers an excellent avenue for engaging students in the study of history. The topics are authentic and meaningful in the here and now for middle and secondary age learners. Additionally with the current goal for students to demonstrate 21st century skills, this text offers teachers numerous primary source documents for lessons that help students analyze, think critically, communicate, and become more aware of and informed about their world.

Cynthia W. Resor was a middle and high school social studies teacher before earning her Ph.D. in history. She is currently a professor of social studies education professor at Eastern Kentucky University.