Teachers have an innovative resource on this website to support their classes using Moss Bluff Rebel as supplementary reading in Civil War, Texas and American frontier history.

Sidebars are stories of context, corroboration, interpretation and other information associated with primary news stories.  Author Philip Caudill has written sidebars for each chapter of Moss Bluff Rebel that are posted here under the Sidebars navigation point.    
 
“Using the book and the internet – one generally perceived as owned by the teacher, the other clearly claimed by students as theirs – gives students more control of their learning,” Caudill said.  “Combining the two can help spark class discussion for a unique, more enjoyable learning experience,” said Caudill.    
 
“Students often say history isn’t as fun and interesting as they would prefer,” said Caudill.  “This combination of an easy-to-read bona fide historical biography of a Texas pioneer on the nineteenth century frontier with 21st century Internet technology – classical print and computerized digitization in a complementary package – can help teachers engage students more fully in their studies.”

Teachers can assign one or more chapters of Moss Bluff Rebel then invite students to go online to read each chapter’s associated sidebars.  Most students won’t consider the assignments drudgery, since the book is written in an easy-to-read, narrative style, the chapter sidebars are short and the students are challenged to log onto the web to read them. 

Click here to go to the Sidebars page.