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The objective of this essay is to assist secondary school world history teachers in helping students develop an understanding basic economic concepts through learning about two successful pre-industrialized economies: The Florentine Republic and Tokugawa Japan. We includes a short introduction about the importance of integrating economic concepts in history instruction; narratives suitable for teachers and many high school students on the economies of the Republic of Florence and Tokugawa Japan; and an annotated list of pedagogical resources suitable for more extensive study of both societies.

In working with pre-service and beginning middle grades social studies teachers, the authors have found that those teachers often struggle to organize and sequence content in meaningful ways. Although many national and state curriculum writing bodies have provided organizational frameworks to guide teachers in designing instruction for middles grades social studies, those same bodies have failed to assist teachers in the task of sequencing instruction in ways that assure learning. This article provides a practical sequencing framework that assists middle grades social studies teachers in designing effective instructional units that connect and integrate all of the social studies disciplines.