Breaking Away from the Textbook: Creative Ways to Teach World History

Teaching history should not simply be an endless recitation of irrelevant facts, entombed between the covers of a textbook. Instead, Breaking Away from the Textbook offers a fascinating journey through world history. Not a comprehensive, theory-heavy guide, this book instead focuses on exciting classroom activities, methods for students to grapple with human issues, and innovative ways to show students the relevance of the past to the world today. Simply put, this book makes world history fun. Soon your students will be busy debating, thinking, applying, and learning about information that will stay with them for a lifetime. The key to this unique work is that it incorporates various disciplines, including art, music, and writing, to create a vibrant classroom. The first volume covers prehistory to the Renaissance, and the second covers the Enlightenment to the 20th century. The third volume, More Creative Ways to Teach World History, covers ancient times through the 20th century and beyond. All three books include pictures and drawings, appendixes, indexes, maps, and a bibliography, and are appropriate for all grade levels.

Ron H. Pahl is a longtime world-history buff who does not like history teachers who bore their students with endless lectures. His belief is that students learn more in active, rigorous, and enjoyable classrooms, and he has applied this belief to his high school classrooms for more than 20 years. He teaches and coordinates the social studies teacher education program at California State University, Fullerton.