Show notes:

• What is History? How andWhy Should I Teach It by Susan Wise Bauer
• Why Learn History When it’s Already on Your Phone? By Sam Wineburg
  • Sam Wineburg for CBS
  • Research on middle schoolers ability to interpret information on the internet
  • A helpful introduction to teaching historical thinking skills
• Resources for Teaching History:
  • The Big History Project (skills taught: contextualization, sourcing, causation, comparison, continuity & change over time, close reading)
  • Digital Inquiry Group (formerly Stanford History Education Group or SHEG). This organization offers free lesson plans and assessment ideas that emphasize historical thinking skills, perfect for logic stage students. The “Lunchroom I” and “Lunchroom II” lesson plans are a fun introduction to historical thinking skills.
  • A great introduction to history for rhetoric stage students: Telling the Truth About History
• Reading Lists for Hard History
  • American Indians in Children’s Literature Web Page by Debbie Reese
  • Heritage Mom Recommendations for Black History
  • Annotated Reading list for Grammar Stage: Picture Books About Slavery and Freedom via Heritage Mom
  • Annotated Reading list for Logic Stage: Age-Appropriate Books about the Holocaust via School Library Journal (you know your student, some of these may be too heavy for younger logic stage students).
  • Another reading list with both grammar stage and logic stage titles on enslavement: Children’s Books about Slavery and Enslavement via Pragmatic Mom

• (00:00) - Intro
• (00:25) - History as a battleground
• (05:21) - A Drag Queen example
• (08:31) - History as a story and historical "accuraacy"
• (16:49) - 4 historical approaches
• (16:57) - Biographical history
• (19:06) - Progressive history
• (29:35) - Positivist history
• (33:55) - Social history
• (37:33) - How do we teach this?
• (40:10) - History in the grammar stage
• (47:52) - History in the logic stage
• (55:21) - History in the rhetoric stage
• (58:37) - Wrapping up
• (59:22) - Outro

Summary: In this episode, Susan and Susanna discuss their thoughts on teaching children’s literature, particularly older books that have problematic or insensitive content.

Show Notes:

Articles We Reference:

• Are some children’s classics unsuitable for kids? The Guardian
• American Indians in Children’s Literature Web Page by Debbie Reese
• Ted Talk: The Danger of a Single Story
• Booklists and Resources for Finding Windows and Mirrors:
  • https://www.storiesofcolor.com/
  • https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/
  • Heritage Mom Recommendations for Black History

• (00:00) - Intro
• (00:14) - The inspiration for this episode
• (01:03) - Revisiting classic books with objectionable content
• (04:21) - Defining and discussing "objectionable content"
• (18:19) - How do we read these books?
• (25:04) - Break
• (25:13) - Reading classic literature in the grammar stage
• (40:38) - Susanna's experience with classic literature
• (44:32) - Windows and Mirrors
• (47:14) - Classic literature in the logic and rhetoric stage
• (48:58) - There are definitely books that should be skipped
• (52:35) - An important question to ask yourself
• (55:53) - At the end of the day
• (57:25) - Outro

Summary: In this episode, Susan and Susanna are joined by Julie Bogart, the founder of the Brave Writer program. Susan and Julie compare their different approaches to teaching writing and discuss which approach might work best for different types of students.

Show Notes:

• Writing With Ease
• Brave Writer

Julie Bogart’s Books:

• The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning and Life
• Raising Critical Thinkers

• (00:00) - Intro with Julie Bogart of Brave Writer
• (07:29) - A perfect segue story
• (10:20) - The basic philosophy of Brave Writer
• (13:26) - Comparing and contrasting WTM and BW
• (20:37) - An example of an inappropriate writing assignment and a fix!
• (23:33) - The pressure to come up with original content
• (27:57) - How to deal with writing-terrified parents
• (33:26) - What are we going to do about AI?
• (37:25) - Listener question: Left brain vs right brain thinkers?
• (42:31) - Wrapping up