For this post, we’re taking a look at Dr. William Bennett and John Cribb’s The American Patriot’s Almanac: Daily Readings on America.
This book focuses on daily readings centered around different people and events from American history. Dr. Bennett weaves an exceptional story of America’s history from the dramatic story of the Jamestown flood through the American Revolution and Civil War all the way to present day. In addition to the daily readings, you’ll also see complete versions of The Declaration of Independence, The United States Constitution, The Gettysburg Address, and several more important historical documents.
For myself, this proved to be a valuable classroom resource for middle school students. I used it to start the class each day with a student reading that day’s entry. After the reading, we as a class would discuss what we other information we knew about that day’s person or event as well as what information we’d like to research to find out more. Students genuinely looked forward to this part of the class each day. I’d highly recommend every social studies teacher, especially those with American history classes, buy a few of these books for the classroom!
