| Review | The History Teacher, 38.1 | The History Cooperative

Review

Jump Back in Time: A Living History Resource, by Carol Peterson. Portsmouth, N.H.: Teacher Ideas Press, 2004. 208 pages, $29.50 paper.

K-12 social studies teachers who agree with David Kobrin that "information provided by a teacher or textbook is generally, and wrongfully, perceived as knowledge," and that knowledge is "something created through a process of personal involvement that allows for complex relationships between the learners (including the teacher) and the text and context of the classroom," will find the constructivist approach to teaching advocated in Carol Peterson's book Jump Back in Time: A Living History Resource of interest. The author asserts that the impetus for her book came from the desire of K-6 students to not simply "hear about history[but] to live it." It is designed to provide elementary history and social studies teachers with a resourceone that engages students in "living history events"for accomplishing this goal. The author defines living history events as full-day activities in which students rotate through a series of fourteen to seventeen stations, each of which is organized around a particular theme. For example, in one of the four living history events or curriculum topics, Pioneers, students navigate through fourteen learning stations designed around themes such as the "Old Adobe Cantina," "Blacksmith Shop," and "Miwok Village." In addition to Pioneers, Jump Back in Time addresses the following living history events or curriculum topics: Ancient Cultures, Native American Culture, and Colonial America.

After a brief introductory chapter in which the living history model is introduced, the remaining four chapters of Jump Back in Time are organized around the above individual living history topics. Within each of the chapters, Peterson provides elementary teachers with an array of activities in which students explore historical events. These might include cooking related foods, dressing in native costumes, playing ancient games, creating crafts, designing inventions, singing period songs, examining maps, and evaluating historical legends. The book is organized with classroom teachers in mind. Each of the living history curriculum topics includes all of the required information needed to develop and implement the individual learning stations for that particular living history event. Included in this extensive activity database are instructions, cooking recipes, project checklists, invention diagrams, game boards, and historical fact sheets and background notes. Access to and utilization of this information is enhanced by the use of bulleted outlines and single-page activity sheets, which permit teachers to make multiple copies of these student handouts. This teacher-friendly design makes it easy, as well, for classroom educators to assemble and distribute packets for each of the learning station facilitators be they, colleagues, older students, or parents. In addition to its classroom-ready format, Jump Back in Time includes a glossary of terms for use with each of the four living history events. Teachers will also find among the documents included in the appendix section of the book, a sample station-to-station rotation schedule, and draft letters to parents and station facilitators/volunteers. Elementary history and social studies teachers will find these timesaving resources to be easily adaptable to fit their individual classroom needs.

One shortcoming of Jump Back in Time , however, is that, although marketed for grades K-6, the history content addressed in each of the four living history events are more aligned with the third through sixth grade history and social studies curricula of most states. The majority of activities, moreover, appear to target the interest and ability levels of students in the primary grades (K-3). Indeed, many middle school history and social studies teachers would not find the living history instructional model and accompanying activitiesas outlined in the bookto be age-appropriate or challenging enough for their older students. With respect to national standards, the focus of Jump Back in Time is aligned perfectly with Era 2: Colonization and Settlement and Era 4: Expansion and Reform of the National Standards for U.S. History, as well as Era 2: Early Civilizations and the Emergence of Pastoral Peoples and Era 3: Classical Traditions, Major Religions, and Giant Empires of the National Standards for World History.

The other shortcoming of this resource book is that it overlooks perhaps the greatest resource available to elementary history and social studies teachers for brining history to life primary documents. Many of the activities outlined in Jump Back in Time could be enhanced by the integration of primary documents, such as diary entries, letters, historic maps, patent diagrams, and photographs. Teachers familiar with Jackdaws primary document sets or kits will be somewhat disappointed that similar primary document collections are absent from this resource. To be fair, however, the author does not claim that Jump Back in Time is a primary document resource book, but this does not negate the fact that such documents would greatly enhance the ability of students to engage in these activities in a more informed and authentic mannertruly becoming student historians. This should not deter elementary teachers, though, from adopting the living history events model or incorporating many of the activities outlined in the book in their history and social studies curriculum. Jump Back in Time remains a great resource for transforming the history classroom into a learning laboratory, which allows students not only to hear about history but to experience it as well.


Ball State University	D. Antonio Cantu

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