Back Cover: Politcorum libri octo [and other works]. [and] In Politica Aristotelis introductio. [and] Oeconomium, a Raphaele Volaterrano traductum. Bookbinding commissioned by Thomas Wotton, c. 1550-1551. Image uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by user "DimitraCharalampidou" on 10 September 2015. Creative Commons 1.0 Universal license (image modified). [Image link].

From the earliest conceptualizing of a new course to the final assessment of enrolled students, talented history teachers intricately weave their immense skill, expertise, and innovation to produce extraordinary history classes. This form of academic artistry is known as Course Design.

In this issue, a trio of educators take the stage, each presenting their unique approaches to course design. Roya Fathalizadeh begins with "Exploring the Possibilities and Challenges of Teaching United States History Thematically." Next, Claire Mayo offers "Centering Assessment on History Learning Outcomes through Ungrading: How to Implement Specifications Grading in History Courses." Finally, Derek Murray shares "Actively Constructing and Understanding the Past with Team-Based Learning."

Exploring the Possibilities and Challenges of Teaching United States History Thematically
  by Roya Fathalizadeh   (pp. 409-442)

Centering Assessment on History Learning Outcomes through Ungrading: How to Implement Specifications Grading in History Courses
  by Claire Mayo   (pp. 443-470)

Actively Constructing and Understanding the Past with Team-Based Learning
  by Derek Murray   (pp. 471-503)

Full Reviews Section   (pp. 505-514)

Dobrow, Julie. Love and Loss After Wounded Knee: A Biography of an Extraordinary Interracial Marriage
  by C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa

Hardacre, Helen with Yoko Suemoto. Shinto Shrines in Prewar and Wartime Japan
  by Dana Mirsalis

Hunter, Antwain K. A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865
  by J. Jacob Calhoun

Ibargüen, Irvin. Caught in the Current: Mexico's Struggle to Regulate Emigration, 1940-1980
  by Alejandro Quintana

Quarshie, Nana Osei. African Pharmakon: The Asylum as Shrine from Slavery to the Return
  by Kwame Essien

Rabin, Shari. The Jewish South: An American History
  by Jill Fields

407   Awards & Recognitions 2025-2026

515   Index to Volume 59

406   Contributors to The History Teacher
504   The History of The History Teacher
525   Questionnaire for Potential Reviewers
526   Membership/Subscription Information
528   Submission Guidelines for The History Teacher

520   National History Day: Join the NHD Alumni Network
521   National History Day: Professional Development with NHD
522   Military Historians are People, Too! (mhptpodcast.com)
522   History in Focus (historians.org/history-in-focus)
523   Society for History Education: The Eugene Asher Teaching Award
524   Society for History Education: Excellence in History Education

Roya Fathalizadeh is an Iranian-American scholar, educator, and DJ from Louisville, Kentucky. She is a former high school social studies teacher and has received her Ph.D. in Learning, Literacies, and Technologies from Arizona State University with a focus in Hip Hop Based Education.

Claire Mayo has a Ph.D. in Modern European History from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), and was a lecturer in the Department of History. UTK's Teaching and Learning Innovation Center provided much-needed support for publishing her work on ungrading assessment models. Currently, she works as a research development professional in UTK's Tickle College of Engineering. As an independent scholar, she studies and publishes on disasters, knowledge production, and human rights in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Derek Murray is a husband, father, educator, historian, and learning specialist grateful to be living and working as an uninvited guest in unceded ləkʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Territories. He earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of Victoria (2018) and teaches casually in the History Department at Capilano University. His full-time position is coordinator of the Academic Success Centre at Camosun College in Victoria, BC, Canada.