General comment: Congratulations to you and your fellow teachers for being able, apparently and at least for the moment, to avoid being forced to redirect your teaching toward rote preparations for standardized tests. Would that more teachers around the country could do the same!

The approach you are hoping to take -- integrating multiple forms of expression into a curriculum previously limited to narrative texts -- is similar to the one modelled by Roy Rosenzweig and Steve Brier in their "Who Built America," a linked high school/intro. college textbook/cd-rom which addressed US late 19th to early 20th century history by including text, recordings of contemporary speeches, video, music, art, etc. WBA is worth investigating, if you aren't familiar with it already.

Where are you located? There are funds available that might support the kind of curricular innovation you are encouraging.

SPECIFIC - Industrial Revolution Aragon Mill (Trad.) Peg and Awl(Trad.) - U.S. Western Expansion Buffalo Skinners (Trad.) - U.S. Depression a huge series of Woody's songs ("So Long...," etc.) - 1950s Ballad of Sherman Wu Jack Ash Society try some Tom Lehrer favorites: "Wild West is Where I Wanna Be," "Wernher Van Braun"

The lists will go on and on.