Sarah Cooper

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting! This is a place to find my writing, both education pieces and personal essays. I teach history and do academic administration at an independent school just north of Los Angeles. I’ve also written two books about history teaching, Creating Citizens (Routledge, 2018) and Making History Mine (Stenhouse, 2009), and write a regular column for MiddleWeb’s Future of History blog. In my free time, I like to run, cook, play piano, listen to Broadway musicals, search for good bakeries and spend time with my husband and two sons. I’ve also taught English and love young adult fiction. @sarahjcooper01

"Remembering What Matters With Elie Wiesel," Well-Schooled

December 9, 2019December 14, 2019 Sarah Cooper

For the past 18 years, I’ve taught at secular schools with their own rich sets of values. But Ariel Burger’s Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom brought back memories from my early teaching and, in the process, helped me with two teaching conundrums… Continue reading

"How iCivics Helped Me Refresh the Constitution," MiddleWeb

December 7, 2019January 7, 2020 Sarah Cooper

In my 8th grade U.S. history and civics class, which I’ve taught for seven years, our unit on the Constitution has always challenged me because it raises so many questions about curriculum planning… Continue reading

“Taking the Declaration in New Directions,” iCivics

November 19, 2019 Sarah Cooper

Every year, teaching the Declaration of Independence daunts me. The possibilities for modern and historical connections are vast, and I wonder if I could be doing more to cement the favorable concepts from this founding document into students’ minds… Continue reading

"Making Annotations with Less Pain, More Meaning," MiddleWeb

November 18, 2019December 1, 2019 Sarah Cooper

I’m an annotation geek, and my students know it. Whether in English or history, I’m that teacher: the one who asks students to interact constantly with the text as they read. This could be in the margins if they’re looking at a handout… Continue reading

"Shout" by Laurie Halse Anderson, Bookclique

November 13, 2019December 1, 2019 Sarah Cooper

It’s hard to imagine a time when publishers believed “teenagers didn’t like to read,” as Laurie Halse Anderson’s Shout remembers. Into this seemingly barren literary landscape in 1999 flared Anderson’s novel Speak, a now-classic work about a girl’s depression… Continue reading

“Staying Close to Home,” CivXNow

October 21, 2019October 25, 2019 Sarah Cooper

Immediate interest. Personal relevance. Uncontroversial subject matter. These aren’t always the first phrases teachers and students might think of when discussing current events in class. But if we head local… Continue reading

“‘The Hate U Give’: Learning How to Teach Controversial Topics,” MiddleWeb

October 7, 2019October 20, 2019 Sarah Cooper

It has taken me a year to write this post, and I still feel inadequate. I’m writing about this experience because I want to take something from it – to understand better how I can prepare to teach, and then lean into, difficult topics… Continue reading