Teaching U.S. history to middle school students can be very rewarding and very challenging; I’ve been teaching 8th grade U.S. history for the past twelve years. Lacking curricular materials, I set about trying to find resources online to help my students connect to the events from our past, but I’ve always felt that materials specifically targeted toward middle schoolers were sorely lacking. Ultimately, I began writing a text for different units we studied throughout the year, using my voice and speaking at a level that connects with my students.
The feedback I received from students was that my text was more engaging and interesting to them. One student said, “It’s like you’re right there in my head, explaining this stuff to me, but not in a creepy way.” Those different texts developed into this book, an all-inclusive examination of United States history from our origins through the Reconstruction period.
Like every lesson in my classroom, this book is fluid and will continue to be revised, tweaked, and updated. I encourage you to check out the first two chapters of the text in the sample; I hope this book will be a good fit for your classroom as well!
