Joan Brodsky Schur

I ran across a letter from a Mormon woman in the latter part of the 19th century back to her sister in England. In the letter, she described the community, the land, and their living conditions trying to encourage her sister to emigrate. Then came the clincher: she said that if her sister would consider coming, she would give her own husband up to a polygamist marriage, for, said she, “half a husband is better than none at all.” Such are the gems of original documents if we just know where to find them and what to do with them. Our author has lots of ideas and concrete examples she has used in classes with excellent success. Schur has the following chapters: History from the eyewitness viewpoint; Diaries: writing from opposing viewpoints; Travelogues: eyewitness perspectives on a growing nation; Letters: arguing the past in written correspondence; Newspapers: conflicting accounts of the same events; Election speeches: advocating for your candidate; Scrapbooks: documenting the past across time. For school librarians and history teachers, here is a treasure trove of activity ideas. No, the whole unit is not here, but that can be planned around these excellent uses of materials. Sometimes, we run onto nuggets worthy of attention and even though it defies backwards planning where we begin with objectives, we know how to construct that part to work around a sound idea. So, for those who want to use original resources, have done so with mixed results, or are tired of the same old uses, here is the book to stimulate those creative juices again. Highly recommended.… (mer)