Middle school history teachers confront the same challenge every day: how to convey the breadth and depth of a curriculum that spans centuries, countries, and cultures. In Making History Mine, Sarah Cooper shows teachers how to use thematic instruction to link skills to content knowledge. By combining thought-provoking activities and rich assessments, Sarah encourages teachers to challenge students to make history personal and relevant to their lives.

Built around eight themes—examining the role of the individual, understanding point of view, assessing the impact of rhetoric, finding patterns in the past, writing analytically, connecting current events to historical precedents, igniting passion through research, and exploring ethics and morals—Making History Mine offers young adolescents a window to the wider world. This comprehensive volume gives teachers and students a solid framework for exploring and understanding history, including how to analyze primary source documents, extrapolate themes, and detect bias in a historian’s argument. A one-page description at the beginning of each chapter explains the embedded skills and shows how the lessons correlate to state and national history standards. Making History Mine includes dozens of short activities, in-depth projects, guiding questions, and effective strategies to help teachers bring history to life in the classroom. Students will learn how to imagine themselves in the past, making decisions that changed the world. Through role playing, debates, and service learning they will gain the skills to make their own histories count.