The Curriculum Development of Experienced Teachers who are Inexperienced with History-Based Pedagogy

Contemporary education initiatives have rigorous expectations for students’ close readings of, and written argumentation about, complex texts surrounding the same historical event, era, or figure. History teachers therefore cannot rely solely on a textbook and English/language arts teachers cannot utilize a single, whole-class novel; text-based writing is foundational in both classes. The education initiatives mandate half of all English/language arts content to be non-fiction. History and social studies topics, therefore, will increase within all elementary and English/language arts middle level classrooms. This study explored how six upper elementary and middle level teachers developed new curricula, integrated historical literacy and historical thinking within text-based writing, and the efficacy of their assessments.