American Educator: Fall 2013

  • News in Brief

  • Tools for Teachers and Resources

  • Where We Stand

  • Letting the Text Take Center Stage

    How the Common Core State Standards Will Transform English Language Arts Instruction Timothy Shanahan

    There is an iconic childhood moment that spans generations. My father, a boy in a clapboarded, one-room schoolhouse, along with the only other student in his grade, endured it; I timidly shared the experience with 50 Pattys, Connies, and Billys shoehorned tightly into an amber-lit classroom; the...

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  • A. Philip Randolph

  • Bayard Rustin

  • Strengthening the Student Toolbox

    Study Strategies to Boost Learning John Dunlosky

    It's the night before her biology exam, and the high school student has just begun to study. She takes out her highlighter and reads her textbook, marking it up as she goes along. She rereads sentences that seem most important and stays up most of the night, just hoping to get a good enough...

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  • Walter Reuther

  • ShareMyLesson

  • Teaching the March on Washington

    On August 28, 1963, the March on Washington captivated the nation's attention. Nearly a quarter-million people—African Americans and whites, Christians and Jews, along with those of other races and creeds—gathered in the nation's capital. They came from across the country to demand equal rights...

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  • The Move to Unity

    Labor's Role in the March on Washington William P. Jones

    Nearly every American and millions of people around the world are familiar with Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, yet most know little about the March on Washington at which it was delivered. The tremendous eloquence and elegant simplicity of the speech meant that many, then and...

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  • Key Figures behind the March

    Randolph, the Consensus-Builder Charles Euchner

    A. Philip Randolph
    Life: 1889 –1979
    Born: Crescent City, FL
    Work: Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, President
    Role in March: Architect

    The only person allowed a good night's...

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  • Key Figures behind the March

    Rustin, the Coordinator Extraordinaire Charles Euchner

    Bayard Rustin
    Life: 1912–1987
    Born: West Chester, PA
    Work: Civil rights activist
    Role in March: Chief Organizer

    After years of controversy, Bayard Rustin lived for the day when...

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  • Key Figures behind the March

    Reuther, the Labor Ally Charles Euchner

    Walter Reuther
    Life: 1907–1970
    Born: Wheeling, WV
    Work: United Auto Workers, President
    Role in March: Speaker, Supporter

    Walter Reuther bathed in applause after delivering his...

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  • Living History

    Two Civil Rights Activists Remember the March on Washington Norman Hill, Velma Murphy Hill

    There is little reason to believe that late August was any kinder a thousand years ago in the swampy wilderness that hugged a bulging curve of the Potomac River than it was in the early years of the seventh decade of the 20th century. By 1963, the swamps were long gone. So were the area's...

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