Kindle Notes & Highlights
After creating your list, sleep on it, then add any forgotten topics the next day. Then (and only then), check a good college textbook in U.S. history to see if you have made an egregious omission.2 If so, add it, but only if you judge it important and are excited to teach it.
Educational researchers point out that U.S. schooling covers too many topics in all subject areas.
How do teachers decide whether to include a given topic? One way is to ask what students need to know about it 20 years from now, when they are in the workforce.
But twig memorization must not be the focus.
Why do I want my students to know all this? What should they be able to do with the information, assuming they recall it once they leave school?
One way to assess the significance of a topic is to consider the continuing major themes of U.S. history to which it may relate.
