History Connected

Storyboarding the Revolution

2011-12-20T18:17:00.002-05:00

A visual activity I have created for my classroom combines activities that we participated in, in two different History Connected Seminars. I would borrow images from our most recent visit to the MFA, broadcasting images the Revolutionary War. I would then borrow an activity we did during our visit to the Antiquarian Society last year where we told a narrative through images.

I would create an electronic gallery of images by providing multiple different paintings from the Revolutionary War and asking groups of students to tell a story using five of the images. They can order the pictures either in chronological order, or in some other interesting artistic order. The end goal is to explain America’s revolution using MFA images as a medium of story telling. The narrative they create needs to explain some aspect of the Revolution, some examples being the story of the average American helping out, the bravery of General Washington, overcoming long odds against the British, or the story of slaves fighting for the Continental Army.

I believe this activity will ask students to look at bigger, overarching themes in the war, which will help them to address enduring legacies that have had long-term impact on the country. The activity can also be augmented to address a unit’s essential questions directly.

Here is the gallery students can use to create their storyboards: http://educators.mfa.org/galleries/gallery_create/4316

Slavery and the Declaration of Independence

2011-11-29T07:51:00.001-05:00

In the spirit of our seminar on the Declaration of Independence, and our reading of the book Friends of Liberty, I decided to run an activity in my classroom about the absence of slavery in the Declaration of Independence. I would begin with a simple question:

What did Jefferson really mean by “All men are created equal?” How was he able to write this while simultaneously owning slaves?

Student opinions will vary, but the class discussion should center around the idea that even if some people supported freedom from slavery, they did not support equal opportunity for all people. In fact, Jefferson privately thought that the Africans may need to be sent back to Africa. Next I would present the paragraph about slavery that Jefferson had actually written into the Declaration of Independence.

“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemispere, or to incure miserable death in their transportation hither. this piratical warfare, the opprobium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. [determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold,] he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce [determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold]: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he had deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.”

I would have the class break up into small groups to generate answers to the following questions.

1. How does Jefferson blame slavery on the King?

2. Why would he think it was politically advantageous to do so?

3. Why was this section removed from the published Declaration?

4. Why would Northern delegates who had no love for slavery allow the Southern states to remove this section?

The class would wrap up by striking an important chord: Slavery was put on the back burner because Independence was considered the more important of the two issues. This became a trend in US History, with future failures to address slavery in the name of compromise. I would end class by stating that although Jefferson did not truly mean “All men are created equal,” his word did leave the door open for future generations to gain the long lost sense of equality.

Battle Lines: War Letters and Teaching American History

2011-11-06T08:32:00.003-05:00

I love to blog with my students. I think it is a fantastic forum for homework, polls, idea sharing, and classwork management. Truthfully, unless there is a random October snowstorm that causes widespread week-long power outages, I think it is one of the best ways to communicate with students. I believe it is an important part of the future of teaching.

Being a blogging history teacher, I am constantly on the lookout for good online databases of primary sources. I recently discovered a new go-to source for war letters that spans American history, The Gilder Lehrman Institute: Battle Lines.

I intend to use this site for my unit on World War I. The letters from George Shisholm, Lawrence Hopkins, and Edward and Goldie Marcellus are featured from this conflict. They are digitized, read, and translated into typed text. They share stories from the WWI fighters home to loved ones. They are user friendly and perfect for high school history students.

I intend to direct my students to this site and have them analyze the three letters. I want them to study the letters for connections to course content, common themes, and interesting details. They will have to describe the letters, explain what they indicate about WWI from an American perspective, and write a fictional response to one of them from the perspective of the recipient. These responses will appear on our class blog so other students can read what their peers wrote.

I'm looking forward to using yet another great Gilder Lehrman tool with my classes. This site will be a perfect companion to last years War and Society themed TAH lessons and materials.

A New Year in History Connected!

2011-11-02T19:47:00.002-04:00

On October 27, year 3 of the History Connected TAH grant began with a great school day seminar that covered varied topics from Lincoln and the wider world to curriculum realignment to an update on Common Core Standards. This was a great start to a promising year for the grant.

After our annual pre-test in the Reading Computer Labs, Professor David Quigley from Boston College gave a riveting lecture on Lincoln and the greater world. This was a great way to start the year because his ability to put the Civil War in a global context was fascinating. I know I have always taught this topic from an American perspective, but Professor Quigley used a series of primary sources from Lincoln to put the Civil War in a much larger Atlantic context. One source of note was Lincoln's eulogy of Henry Clay - a source I know I will use regularly in the future.

In addition to the academic lecture, the Reading history department led a presentation on the realignment of their curriculum to teaching U.S. history in a global context. Additionally, Professor Pat Fontaine from UMass Lowell presented on the Common Core Standards. Both of these presentations brought to light major changes happening in the teaching of history in public schools at the national, state, and local levels. It was great to hear about a local district like Reading realigning their curriculum to a system that reduces redundancies, allows for a technology-supported version of co-teaching, and a logical progression of change over time, historical themes, and a global context.

Professor Fontaine supported the ideas behind this realignment with her explanation of the Common Core Standards with an explanation of their connection to Race to the Top funds and a new teacher evaluation tool. All of these topics indicate great changes to how we, as history teachers, will do out jobs. There are going to be great changes to our profession because of federal, state, and local mandates and it is exciting to consider being leaders in these changes instead of the recipients of them. Professor Fontaine emphasized the role of writing in the history classroom. A website of note from the day is www.bubbl.us. This is a great online tool for creating graphic organizers that I am excited to use on my blog for upcoming writing assignments.

I am very excited to explore ways to teach American history from a global context. It's going to be a great year in History Connected!!!

Defining a Gentleman

2011-10-28T19:14:00.003-04:00

At a book group meeting last year, we read the book Paul Revere's Ride. As a part of that meeting, we were handed out different pictures of paintings of revolution era figures. Two pictures in particular, Thomas Gage and Paul Revere demonstrated the differences in how Britain and the Colonies defined themselves, and defined what was proper. These artist's renderings give a small glimpse in the incompatibility between British and American leaders and their ideals.

My US History I class is now approaching the Revolutionary War unit, and with it the creation of an American identity. The following assignment was created for my May History Connected project and will be implemented in my classroom next week:

Assignment: Defining a Gentleman

The contrasts between mother country and colony continued to grow as the years passed. The British policy of Salutary Neglect allowed the colonies to take control of their own political and economic interests, and gave them a taste of independence. In this time, colonies like Massachusetts began to develop their own separate identities from the British and the British crown.

Sir Thomas Gage saw himself as a gentleman in a very traditional, old world sense. He came from wealth, went to the best military academies, and rose through the ranks to become a prominent British official serving as Governor of Massachusetts.

Paul Revere saw himself as a gentleman as well, but in a very different fashion. He was a hard working silversmith who came from a more modest source of family wealth, and worked tirelessly in his community to build his reputation as a leader in the Boston revolutionary movement. Two men, different goals, different worlds, different definitions of what it means to be a gentleman.

1. 1. Analyze the picture of Paul Revere. Explain how it lends a window into how he wanted to be portrayed. Factor in all aspects of the picture, including his clothes and his handling of his craftsmanship.

2. 2. Analyze the picture of Thomas Gage. Explain how it lends a window into how he wanted to be portrayed. Factor in all aspects of the picture, including his military uniform and the setting of the portrait.

3. 3. Compare and contrast the two portraits. How does it show the difference between the Revere’s and Gage’s definition as a gentleman? How does this illustrate the larger differences between Great Britain and the American colonies?

Local History Connections

2011-10-25T19:52:00.004-04:00

We've all been there. Progress reports come out, a poor test grade is earned, or a student simply wants to increase their grade average. I regularly have students asking for extra credit and I'm not always comfortable coming up with appropriate assignments for this.

Over the summer I was inspired by the Primary Source local history presentation to solve this very problem. I've found that focusing on local history is the perfect solution to the extra credit issue. Using my class blog, I've launched the Dracut Memorial Project. This project (accessed at http://historywithmrscarney.wordpress.com/dracut-memorial-project/) encourages students to see the memorials in our community that normally fade into the landscape. While only one student has participated in this, I anticipate the end of the first quarter will see an increase in participation. I'm excited to see how this works!

Media Role in American Wars

2011-10-25T18:42:00.003-04:00

Welcome back everyone! Year 3 is on us, and I am very excited to engage ideas and materials with all of you once more.

In case you missed it, our 1st meeting this year focused on a lecture about media portrayals in the Vietnam War and the modern era. We discussed several prevailing thoughts about the role of the media in the war, and what effect it had. A few examples include:

1. Did negative press hurt morale and force a withdraw?

2. Is it ok to be critical of the war effort as a reporter in the field? Are there some things that the American people are better off not knowing?

3. Does reporter imbedding in military units ruin objectivity?

I applied this concepts to my Sociology class in a class discussion about values make up the American value system. I asked my class whether questioning the government could be considered patriotic, and whether protesting is an American value in the 21st century. The question resulted in a wide array of opinions, with both sides of the aisle being represented. Some people thought that the country was built on questioning authority, and others said that protests (like Occupy Wall Street) were irresponsible and un-American. Both sides agreed that 9/11 has affected an entire generation, creating much gray area on this topic.

Each student was given an assignment to go home and ponder the comparison between Vietnam protests, and the lack thereof for Iraq or Afghanistan. How has the media covered the war on terrorism? Why aren't people protesting another long and costly American War? Had the media become neutered with restrictions on access? Has the American public stopped asking important questions out of fear of terrorism? Why was Vietnam so much more profoundly opposed? Their ideas were crunched into talking points on index cards, and brought in for a robust class debate.

I was very impressed that the students came up with such strong opinions about how the media covers modern wars. Thanks to History Connected for the assist.

Three Great Book Excerpts for US History I

2011-10-19T21:12:00.004-04:00

There is no doubt that my teaching has greatly benefited from being a participant in the TAH Grant. With five years under my belt, I have been able to acquire a plethora of materials, new skills and a deepened breadth of knowledge about American history.

In this blog, I’d like to share how I use three books that we read in our book groups. Although I use a great deal of excerpts from readings which I obtained from the grant, the three highlighted today are standards that I use every year.

The first excerpt that I assign is from Founding Myths, Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past by Ray Raphael. “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World: Lexington and Concord”, which is the title of chapter 4, works well to teach about the many rebellious actions the colonists in Massachusetts engaged in before the events of Lexington and Concord. Raphael includes statistics regarding the cost and volume of arms and powder the colonist accumulated prior to 1775. Additionally, he offers a superior explanation of how the British government was systematically ejected from western Massachusetts in 1774.

After we finish the Revolutionary War, I assign the first chapter; “The Call for Convention” from A Brilliant Solution, Inventing the American Constitution by Carol Berkin. Without a doubt, Berkin writes a very clear and easy to understand explanation of the Articles of Confederation and the reasons why this first constitution fell short of expectation for many. Being much more pleasurable to read than a text book, Berkin writes with a narrative style and offers interesting details about the process of throwing out the Articles and constructing the Constitution.

The third selection that my students receive regularly is from The Approaching Fury by Stephen B. Oates. I excerpted from the chapter titled “Crosswinds:, pp. 97 to 185. In Oates’ book, he takes on the personality of famous antebellum characters and has put together monologues which reflect their personalities and views before the Civil War. The characters in this selection include Frederick Douglass, John C. Calhoun, George Fitzhugh, Abraham Lincoln, Harriett Beecher Stow, Stephen Douglas and John Brown. By reading the monologues of these historical characters, the students get an incite into their personalities and are exposed
to the issues of the period as seen by each of these Americans.

Textbooks are a necessary part of learning US history, but by offering well written and researched writings by talented authors, our students can access historical issues in depth.

Gearing Up For Year Three!

2011-10-17T19:08:00.002-04:00

In preparation for year three of History Connected, year two's participants gathered together on October 4th for a night of sharing, listening and learning.

We had the pleasure of sitting in on an eye opening lecture from Professor Rick Bayles, an ex-war time correspondent and current BU professor. Upon learning of his first have accounts on battle field correspondence I immediately went back to my lesson plans on the Vietnam War and added in the newly acquired information.

During our sharing conference our group shared lesson plans on the Home Front during the Civil War, Japanese Interment, the American Revolution and Paul Revere. All of the projects incorporated aspects of year two's focus on War, Society, State Citizenship.

With only one week to go, I am eagerly awaiting the start of year three and the theme of American Encounters: U.S. History in a Global Context and hope to take away as much as I did during year two.

National History Day and History Connected

2011-10-13T19:09:00.002-04:00

My high school is an avid supporter and participant of National History Day. Over the years, our students have grown from hating this program to truly appreciating the skills it teaches and the products they are able to produce. We have sent students to Nationals in Maryland but have yet to be successful there. The experience though has been once in a life time for our students.

This years theme is Revolution, Reaction and Reform.

As my students begin the process of picking topics I find my self drawn to previously discussed History Connected topics. Already, I have mentioned the Bread and Roses Strike, the Roberts v. City of Boston case, the abolitionist movement and role of the media during war time (as discussed during our sharing conference).

I'm excited to be to able to put my History Connected experience to use with a wide range of students and outside of the classroom. I only hope that they become as interested in these topics that I am.

2011-10-07T17:32:00.001-04:00

What do Paul Revere, The Civil War, September 11, the film “Glory”, World War II homefront and Haverhill’s War Memorials have in common? These were the lesson topics discussed at the curriculum sharing portion of our wrap-up day On October 4. Teachers are using diverse strategies: poetry, Prezi, podcasts, and cooperative learning activities such as ‘fishbowl’, and tableaux. Combining these strategies with the rich ‘out of the box’ content we learn makes for engaging lessons that students can grab on to. Even though as teachers we present every day, it can be daunting for us to present to our peers. As these lessons were presented however, the colleagues were very open and positive about commenting on how they could apply aspects of these lessons in their own classes and encouraging further exploration about the topics. Presenters were very generous in sharing ideas, insights and materials with others. The curriculum sharing was such a wonderful culmination of year two…….

And now: Looking forward to Year Three…

A full day at The MFA’s New American Wing..The JFK Library!!! Wow Kara-- you have outdone yourself. Look at this season’s offerings. The idea of History Connected is brought to a whole new level.

Introduction: American Encounters: US History in Global Context
“Submitted to a Candid World:” The Declaration of Independence in a Global Context
American Art and History in an International Context at the Art of the Americas Wing, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Antebellum American Religion and Reform in an International Context
Transnational Migration since the Late-Nineteenth Century
Presenting History: Using Weebly to Create Student and Teacher Websites
“The Wilsonian Moment:” Woodrow Wilson’s Post-World War I Diplomacy on the World Stage
“Bringing the Foundation of Freedom:" The Global Influence of U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1960s

The idea of History Connected is brought to a whole new level. Religion, the world scene, art, politics, JFK, migration- topics that all social studies teachers will be able to use creatively in their classes. My high school students tend to become more engaged in lesons when there is a relevant theme. The U.S. on the world scene has never been more relevant than now.

Let us then... carry on !

A Current Events Blog

2011-10-06T20:20:00.002-04:00

I was inspired this summer during the Primary Source Institute by Mary and the blog she set up for her US History II class. This is my first year teaching American Civics and Government and I quickly learned that my most of my students have no idea what is going on with issues in our government. I decided that I want my students to be reading current events on a regular basis so I set up a current events blog. Each week every student has to find a current event article related to the American government. They must post a summary and opinion on the isssue discussed in the article. After the initial posting is done, each student must read another classmate's post and make a thoughtful comment about it. Sometimes I give the students a specific topic for the current event, but most of the time the topic is their choice. I like to see what topics they are drawn to and what their thoughts are on the issue. When I see that students are writing about the same issues, I will bring the topics up for a brief discussion in class. I can also determine which issues need some clarification. I am interested to see how their comments will evolve throughout the school year as they learn more about the American government.

I have been so pleased with the current events blog that I have started using blogging in my US History I class as well. I give them a higher order critical thinking question and the students must post a response. For example, I gave them a scenario about being a poor, low class citizen in England who has been given the opportunity to go to America. Would he/she take it? All the students post their decisions and their reasons why.

EDMODO has been a great tool for my foray into blogging. Each class gets assigned a code so this means I can set up separate blogs for all my classes. The students can only see what their classmates have written and it is easy for me to keep track of each student's contributions.

Teaching with a Theme

2011-10-05T16:39:00.009-04:00

For the past two years I have been inspired to bring as much as possible of my professional development endeavors into the classroom. This task has been daunting at times since I feel that just about everything I learn about, I could find a use for in my class. The challenge comes with fitting it all in and deciding what to actually use and what to cut out. To help with this dilemma, I decided to add a “theme” each year to my U.S. History II course. These themes come from the professional development programs I have been apart of. So far, it has worked out well. I share my “theme” for the year with my students on the first day of school, in conjunction with going over the requirements for our department-wide focus for U.S. History II, the Sophomore Research Paper. At Wilmington High School, all students have to write a historical research paper using primary sources. We provide students with the same guidelines and rubrics and get them started during term one and finish up term three. Therefore, it made the most sense for me to have students connect the paper topics to this theme I would be integrating into our class throughout the year.

For the 2010/2011 school year, my theme came from a NEH Landmarks of American workshop I attended in Cleveland, MS at Delta State University entitled “The Most Southern Place on Earth.” This was the most valuable professional development experience of my career! I gained an unbelievable amount of resources that I was excited to share with my students. At the top are some pictures from a display case I created from all of the materials.

My students used many of these sources in their research papers. This workshop is being offered this year, so I encourage you to apply. You can find more information here: http://www.blueshighway.org/mostsouthernplace.htm. I highly recommend it! I started that school year introducing the theme of “Southern Culture” into my course. We aead and had a jigsaw discussion from a chapter of James. C. Cobb’s The Most Southern Place on Earth and all students’ research papers had to connect to southern culture in some way. I honestly believe that in addition to learning the state frameworks, my students walked away with a strong understanding of southern culture and its impact on historical events in the U.S.

This year my theme is War and Society, which was inspired from the History Connected Primary Source Summer 2011 course. So far, all students have picked a research paper topic that connects to the theme. Next we are going to have a jigsaw discussion on an excerpt from Richard E. Rubenstein’s Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War. This will provide us with a framework to discuss American Wars as we analyze Rubenstein’s key rationales for war presented in his first chapter. I am also going to implement the projects I created from History Connected as well as materials from book groups, day and summer seminars. I hope this year will be as successful as last year and that I my students will learn more about the thematic concept of the impact on war on society!

Empowering Students In the "Choice" for War

2011-10-04T15:16:00.002-04:00

Through a series of five lessons titled, Mobilizing the Hearts and Minds of the American Public in WWI, students are asked to consider through primary source analysis and debate how the government, most often represented by the President and Congress, shape public opinion, and, by extension, the responsibility of the public to embrace their democratic responsibility of participation. I wanted to share a few activities that are a part of this series.

First, as a starting point to the series, I felt it important to remind students of the basics, to start at the foundation of the US government and country, the US Constitution. In this first activity, students are asked to recall what the Constitution says about war, what power and authority do government officials actually have? In a twist on the traditional KWL chart, I ask students to brainstorm what they know or think they know on what the Constitution says about war AND what they think the Constitution should say about war. Students are then asked to skim through the Constitution, correcting or affirming what they knew or thought they knew. By giving students the opportunity to brainstorm what the Constitution should say about war, you provide an opportunity for debate, evaluation, and exploration. Debrief as a whole class, reflecting on what surprised them, hypothesizing reasons for what the Constitution says and omits about war, and critiquing and evaluating the effectiveness of “direction” it provides. As a homework assignment, I ask students to brainstorm an amendment they feel will address, clarify, protect a value that has been left vulnerable by absence or lack of clarity.

At the end of this series of five lessons, in which students have read presidential and congressional speeches, supporting and opposing war, and analyzing propaganda posters, students are asked to participate as members of a democratic nation. Students are required to reflect and apply the concepts they’ve discussed as a class and write a letter to their state’s senator or representative. They must find out who their representative is, his/her address, and their position on the war in Afghanistan. Students’ letters must introduce themselves, state their opinion on the US’s involvement in Afghanistan, defend their opinion with two or three reasons (reasons that were discussed throughout the lessons), and end with a strong and persuasive conclusion.

I accessed Wilson’s address to Congress asking for war, Senator LaFollette’s “It has no popular support,” speech, and the North American Review’s, “War is a blessing, not a curse,” article from History Matters, American Social History Productions, Inc. [http://historymatters.gmu.edu/]. To see more of these lessons, check back to the History Connected website! [historyconnected.wikispaces.com]

Thinking about the summer...

2011-10-01T09:47:00.000-04:00

As usual I am amazed at how we all sat in the classroom and got the same training this summer, yet the projects are incredibly varied. This is a reflection not only on our own personalities and priorities, but on the needs and interests of our students.

My own project attempts to connect U.S. History to Child Psychology by examining how children remember war. Students will use their own memories as well as quotes from children as far back as the civil war to gather information. They will showcase their learning by performing a voicethread.

Quotes from participants on their projects:

“I worked on a film study focusing on the segment The Homefront from ABC's news The Century, America's Time with Peter Jennings.” MC

“It will provide students with the historical context necessary to understand how the Civil War ended, and the important role that Haverhill citizens played in it. The inspiration for this unit came from the discussion of The Republic of Suffering” EB

“My project is called "How We Remember: Local Historical Monuments." Students look at a Google Earth tour of local memorials. They learn to look for symbolism and use the "Artifact Analysis" worksheet from the National Archives. Later, they create an original local monument to honor the anniversary of the 9 11 2001 terrorist attacks using what they have learned.” AJ

“My project has the students analyzing two documents, Lincoln's letter to Horace Greeley and the Emancipation Proclamation. They do so in hopes of getting a better understanding of Lincoln's feelings toward slavery as president and personally.” CC

While we know that text books are a valuable resource, real teaching tools are all around us, as is evidence of history. Books, monuments, documentaries and primary documents are brought to life for students as they go through the activities. Depth of understanding and the realization that these things really do matter to us increase as students use critical thinking skills such as analysis, comparison and evaluation in such inviting ways.

Thanks to Primary Source and History Connected in allowing us to explore these issues!

The History Behind Memorial Day

2011-09-24T14:30:00.002-04:00

Although I know we are 4 months beyond the last Memorial Day and will wait 8 more months before it comes around again, I was fascinated to learn how it came to be through my readings from the History Connected program this year. I knew it became an official American holiday in the late twentieth century, but I did not know the roots of Memorial Day stretch all the way back to the post-Civil War era.

To understand this American desire to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice, one must first understand the scale of death that Americans were coping with in the wake of the War Between the States.

The number of soldiers who died between 1861 and 1865, an estimated 620,000, is approximately equal to the total American fatalities in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined. The Civil War's rate of death, its incidence in comparison with the size of the American population, was six times that of World War II. A similar rate, about 2 percent, in the United States today would mean 6 million fatalities.-Faust, pg xi.

So how did they cope? How does a society ensure that it does not forget the horrors of a war like that, but at the same time prevent the memories from becoming all-consuming and preventing progress?

I found the answer in another book.

Soon after the war ended, the GAR [Grand Army of the Republic, a large and successful Union veterans organization led by a U.S. senator and former Union general named John Logan] began to encourage the commemoration of Memorial Day, a day dedicated to remembering the war dead. To a certain extent the GAR had merely standardized and formalized an increasingly common observance. In the South, as early as 1865, groups of women decorated the graves of Confederate soldiers and held memorial services in the spring. The custom spread north in 1866 and 1867 and was celebrated on a wide variety of spring days. The GAR played a crucial role in turning Memorial Day into a widely observed holiday in the North and in eventually making it an official federal holiday.-Piehler, pg 58.

Of course, being who I am, I wanted to find out more and to find some multimedia resources I could share with my students when the holiday comes around again next year. After a little searching on YouTube and TeacherTube, I found a decent little video on the history of Memorial Day, formerly referred to at Decoration Day, at History.com.

OK, so I have a good video clip of the history. Now how do I connect all of this to their own lives? I needed a video that showed the students how meaningful Memorial Day still is. Unlike the post-Civil War era, many Americans in our time don't know anyone who has died in sacrifice for our nation. The history should touch our students in order for them to best learn from it. History.com came through again with a touching tribute that contains both historical and present-day footage. I teared up when I first watched it.

I managed to work all of this information into my final project for Year Two of the History Connected program. Feel free to check it out to learn more. It is called Civil War: Behind the Scenes, and it strives to show students the parts of Civil War history that are often glossed over by text books and state curriculum frameworks.

I hope this information on Memorial Day will be useful to you and your students in 8 more months. In the mean time, we should encourage our students to be mindful of the sacrifices others make for us more often than once per year on an official holiday.

Resources:
Faust, Drew Gilpin. This Republic of Suffering: Death andthe American Civil War. New York:Vintage Civil War Library, 2008.
Piehler, G. Kurt. Remembering War the American Way. Washington:Smithsonian Books, 1995.

History of Memorial Day Video, http://www.history.com/topics/memorial-day-history/videos#history-of-memorial-day

Memorial Day Tribute Video, http://www.history.com/videos/a-memorial-day-tribute#history-of-memorial-day

History Connected Institute Inspires A New Memorial

2011-09-23T12:39:00.000-04:00

Over this past summer, I was able to be a part of the History Connected Summer Institute. During this institute, we spend one day focusing on the war memorials and went on a walking tour of some of the memorials, monuments, and markers that the city of Lowell had present. After much discussion, my colleague Tracey Kassin and I began to discuss the possibilities of applying this new knowledge to creating a 9/11 memorial for the town of Wilmington, which we both teach in. We have taken the time over the summer to meet a number of times with our Superintendent of Schools and Town Manager in order to create a war memorial for those who have recently lost their lives in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as those who lost their lives during 9/11. Initially, the memorial was scheduled to be on our town common along with our other war memorials. After lengthy discussions and meetings we agreed it might be best to arrange to have the war memorial in the courtyard of our new high school. With the upcoming ten year anniversary, we have worked to organize a committee which will meet with the team of engineers and architects that are presently designing our new high school. We have created a 5-6 day lesson plan on War Memorials using the text Lies Across America by James W. Loewen as a resource. We hope to have the students involved in the process as much as possible. This is a great teaching and learning experience for our students and something that is important for our Town. This project is a long term project which will be student based.

The progress that we have made so far with this project is as follows. We have already formed a 9/11 Memorial Committee consisting of 35 students, the town manager, superintendent of schools, and two history teachers (Tracey Kassin and myself). We kicked off this project on September 11th of this year during the 10 year anniversary tribute which our town hosted on the common. Along with members of the police, fire and military members of our town, Our committee president (student) and I were able to each give a speech to all those present explaining the goals of our 9/11 Memorial Committee. Tracey Kassin has designed a website for our Memorial Committee and we have already begun to receive calls and e-mails from people who are interested in contributing financially or lending a helping hand. The committee has been working on designing containers to collect donations from students of all ages in the various school buildings, as well as designing t-shirts to sell as fundraisers on Veterans and Memorial Day. .We have also organized a field trip to the 9/11 Memorial in New York City for our student to visit, pay their respects and learn more about this event. This project is student based and a long term project, which in the end will serve as a great teaching/learning experience as well as a memorial for those who have sacrificed for us.

Wilmington Inspired by Primary Source: War and Society course!

2011-09-20T13:28:00.001-04:00

In the summer of July 2011, Mark Staffier and I took the course offered by Primary Source, a History Connected summer institute, which focused on War and Society. After listening to our guest lecturer and viewing Lowell monuments on our final day, we began discussing the commitment our town has to honoring veterans and its strong patriotic values. It was there, as we sat around a table on the bottom floor of the Pollard Memorial Library, during our final hours of our week-long course, that we decided we would like to try and get momentum going for a 9/11 Memorial in Wilmington. Two months later, I can not believe how our initial discussion has led to a town-wide, student-driven initiative to have a 9/11 Memorial! I shouldn’t be surprised though, because Wilmington Public Schools and the Town of Wilmington have always been supportive of me, personally as a teacher, and of the values this memorial would represent. Most importantly, Mark and I knew that we had the student-body at Wilmington High School that would bring the energy, enthusiasm, passion and hard-work to make this a reality.

Since July, Mark and I have met with and spoken to school and local officials to see what options were available to us. Wilmington Superintendent, Mrs. Joanne Benton, immediately gave us her full support. She single-handedly helped shift this memorial from an idea to a project. After that, we received support from Town Manager, Mr. Michael Caira, building principals, and local groups in town. With their collaboration, we now hope to make this memorial part our newly anticipated high school!

When school started, our colleagues in the Social Studies Department jumped right in, offered their help, and got students in their classes on board. We held an informational meeting and that is where the heart behind our project developed. Much to our delight, the students took over! One student, who was nominated President of the committee, Senior Matt Palermo, came to the meeting with a computer animated image of a design, which spring boarded our discussion as students offered their suggestions. From there, we talked about fundraising ideas and outreach initiatives to the town. Since then, we’ve had an endless stream of students stopping by our classrooms. Some are new faces that want to get involved, while others are ones that attended our meeting and have logo designs and new ideas. They simply can not wait until our next meeting to talk about this with us! All of these students are excited, which really brings such positive energy into my day! What amazes me the most is that all of these students have really only experienced 9/11 second-hand, yet they are full-committed to this project. We are so lucky to have students like that!

On the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11th, Mark and Matt were invited to speak at the Town Common at a ceremony to announce our initiative. For those of you that know me, you are probably not surprised to know that I suggested Mark do the speaking! I am more of a behind-the-scenes person, to say the least! As I stood out there with some fellow colleagues, parents, students, committee members and people from the town, I was again inspired to commemorate the lives that were lost on that horrific day.

I spoke with people around me about where I was that day. Like so many others old enough to remember, I will never forget that day. I was two weeks into my teaching career and had no idea how to explain to a room full of teenagers what I had seen when I snuck into the back of the library, during my free period, to see some of the coverage. By the time I got there, I saw the towers collapse live....then twenty minutes later, I had to go back to teaching. At that point, we did not share what was happening with our students. Then, after our principal made an announcement and gave us permission to discuss it, I was still at a loss. No one had talked about that sort of thing in an edu class or student-teaching. In retrospect, I see that nothing could have prepared any of us and that there was no right/wrong way to deal with it. Years later, I am able to appreciate being in a Wilmington school when that happened. Back then, the staff was very tight-knit, with many young colleagues that bonded during their first few years teaching and were welcomed by the veteran staff. I am still close with those people today. So in this way, I can tell you that being part of a project of this magnitude serves two purposes for me on a personal level. First, I want to show my gratitude for the town that supported and encourage my professional endeavors, both ten years ago and today. Secondly, as I am now having students in my class that do not remember experiencing 9/11, I would like to share with them all of the positive things that came out of living through that event and acknowledge the sacrifice and loss of the lives that perished.

If you want to stay posted on our project, check out our website for updates: https://sites.google.com/site/wilmington911memorial/

Thank you to Primary Source and History Connected, funded by the Teaching American History grant for providing the inspiration for something that will forever impact the students of Wilmington High School and the Town of Wilmington and honor the lives lost because of 9/11.

Monuments as a Teaching Tool

2011-09-05T21:12:00.002-04:00

This summer at the Primary Source Institute the idea of using monuments as a mechanism for teaching about history was presented. I decided to incorporate this idea into the lesson plan I am creating on the U.S. conflicts with the Native Americans in the nineteenth century. For the first three days of the lesson students will learn about and analyze the various conflicts. Seeing that these conflicts are viewed quite differently than they were in the nineteenth century I thought students could examine these different perspectives by developing memorials for the last two days of the lesson. This activity will also help the students put themselves into the shoes of the people involved in these conflicts.

The students will be divided into four groups. Each group will create a memorial from a different perspective. There will be two Native American groups who commission memorials, but one group is from 1890 and one is from 2011. There will be two United States government groups who commission memorials, one group is from 1890 and one is from 2011. A discussion of each group's final product will not only allow students to delve deeper into the conflicts themselves, but help them realize all the factors that play into the development of momuments themselves.

I have not tried this yet so we will see how it goes!

Lincoln Without the Sugar Coating

2011-07-31T20:36:00.002-04:00

TAH’s Encounters and Exchanges, the predecessor to History Connected, began five years ago. It’s first history book club discussion group read Founding Myths by Ray Raphael. The presentation, Race and the Civil War, given by Professor Patrick Kelly of University of Texas at San Antonio at History Connected’s summer institute, made me think it would be fitting to include Lincoln, as his Gettysburg address initiates the re-founding of the United States, recalling the sacred principles of 1776, in this book.

Professor Kelly opened with the idea that Lincoln is the victim of his myth, -that he was, from the start, a hero to the slaves, their champion, working for and in their best interest- which unfortunately overshadows two of his greatest qualities, the evolution of his thought and his role in the transformation of the US to a multicultural democracy. Professor Kelly used the Freedmen’s Monument in Lincoln Park to illustrate this myth. A picture of this monument would serve as a great hook. Perhaps your essential questions could be, “How is Lincoln remembered?” and “How should Lincoln be remembered?” In opening a lesson with a picture of the Freedmen’s Monument, you could use the following questions to guide a student discussion in pursuit of these essential questions, “What is the message of the statue?,” “What is the purpose of the monument?,” and “What are the different interpretations of the monument?”.

Professor Kelly used two primary source documents that reveal insight into how Lincoln should be remembered. In an August 22, 1862 letter written in response to critique from the editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley, Lincoln explains and defends his interpretation of his duty as President, to save the Union. (In analyzing this document, a great starting point would be to ask students to county how many times Lincoln uses this language/idea.) This focus of Lincoln’s letter is essential to understanding not only his interpretation of his constitutional responsibilities but of how he gained public support for the war. Though some Northerners were against slavery, it didn’t mean that they cared about the individual slave. I constantly remind my students of this reality, that though whites were willing to die in defense of their country, very few would be willing to die for an African American. It’s a harsh reality, but illustrates the constituency that voted for Lincoln in 1860 and he would need them to vote again for him in 1864.

Professor Kelly paired this source with Frederick Douglass’s “Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln,” April 14, 1867, which was delivered at the unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument. Frederick Douglass puts it out there, reminding people, in light of the statue of Lincoln guiding an African American up from his knees and out of his chains, that Lincoln was a politician, doing what he needed to do for his people. The words of Douglass seemed to sting at first, it was almost blasphemous to me to present Lincoln with the sugar coating of his myth.

So where does that leave Lincoln? No fear, we can still keep him on a pedestal. Professor Kelly ended his presentation in stressing that the greatness of Lincoln was that he was a flawed person from a flawed society, but he launched America into a new, multicultural democratic nation. As the idea of myths in history have been popular in the history classroom, hooking students’ interest with the real story, perhaps, this lesson idea would be an interesting continuation of this thread throughout your curriculum. I know I am interested to see how my students interact with these documents and their understanding of Lincoln and American society develops!

Summer Institute 2011

2011-07-19T10:52:00.006-04:00

After this past weeks summer institute I plan to incorporate two of our trips to a course that I am slowly but surely putting together for my history department at my high school. The course that I have been putting together is a local history course. In this course we will be examining our immediate local history in Wilmington and then expanding to outer cities like Lowell, Boston, Lawrence, etc. I also would eventually like to incorporate other New England states like New Hampshire and maybe even Maine someday.

The two trips that we were able to take advantage of during our History Connected Summer Institute have provided me with great resources and information that I plan to incorporate into this course. Beginning with the trip to the city of Lowell, it was so fascinating to see all of the war memorials and history that was in the city. I immediately focus on industry when I teach about Lowell, but another angle of history we could incorporate would be how the city/society dealt with American conflict/wars over time.

The other trip that I would love to include in this course was to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I believe that our students would gain a great deal (military history) if they were able to visit the Naval Shipyard. The history that has taken place in that Naval Shipyard alone is such an intriguing story, I am positive that our students would be engaged. Starting in 1800 and continuing today, this shipyard is so rich in history, it defines our country and how it has faired throughout our times of success and struggle.

The last portion of our trip was to Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH., which provides us with social history and views during the events that have taken place in our country beginning in 1630 up until present day. We were able to take a tour of Fitz John Porter: Civil War Hero or Coward? and trace the life and military career of Porter. This activity is something our students would engage themselves in and take a great deal away from it. We were also able to witness the construction of a wooden vessel (gundalow) at the Puddle Dock which is part of the history of the Piscataqua shipbuilding process over the past 300 years. Also, Strawbery Banke provided us with some great social history from the World War I and II time period. The experience that we had in the Rationing Store and the Victory Gardens were great hands on experiences. Our students would be amazed at the sacrifices that took place during these times and how much war really did impact society at that time. I am optimistic that I will be able to share these experiences with my student someday through a local history course.

The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides

2011-07-19T09:54:00.004-04:00

After reading the book Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides by Christian Appy, I was very impressed. Appy provides his readers with multiple perspectives on the Vietnam War, including various political and military viewpoints. This is a quality that is seldom found in historian’s works, but one which I value very much.

From a teacher’s perspective it is nice to find a book on a historical event in which the historian provides all sides of the incident. Much like the book Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II by Ronald Takaki, which we had been previously assigned, my students are able to read specific assigned chapters and use them to argue or write about their point of view. After reading the book Patriots, I have decided to use three different sections of this book along with some of the scenes from the movie We Were Soldiers. In teaching about the Vietnam War, I have assigned my student three specific sections of the book Patriots. I am going to have them read all three of these sections and then compare the reading with one of the extra scenes from We Were Soldiers.

Before introducing the video, I am going to have my students read pages 130 -135, the Dennis Deal. They will analyze the quote at the beginning and then discuss their thoughts on the section of the text. I will bring up issues such as the Vietnamese tradition of Death Day and issues our soldiers were confronted with, such as guilt, trauma, and they dealt with it. Following this discussion we will preview some of the deleted scenes from We Were Soldiers. The following class I will assign them the “Henry Prunier reading on page 38. We will also discuss this reading and proceed to watch the actual movie We Were Soldiers.

Lastly, I plan to incorporate the final section of this book when I am discussing the Cold War. I am assigning my students to read pages 87-89, which deals with Sergei Khrushchev and his views on his father and the issues in Vietnam. After reading Patriots, I immediately have incorporated three different sections of this book into my teaching. I look forward to using more portions of this book in the future and I am glad that were introduced to such a great resource.

Connection to MA Frameworks: US II 20. Explain the causes, course, and consequences of the Vietnam War and summarize the diplomatic and military policies of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

War of 1812 Through the Eyes of Children... and Primary Source Analysis Skills Too!

2011-07-12T20:46:00.003-04:00

Although I am also a participant, I had to opportunity and honor of presenting a breakout workshop at this year's History Connected summer institute. Since the focus of the institute this year is on the impact that American wars have had on American society, I reached back into my files from a few years ago when I taught U.S. history in 8th grade to find a webquest I created on the War of 1812. Teachers got to "play student" and take part in a shortened version of the 4 day lesson. Click the screen shot below to see the webquest website.

Here is a brief day by day guide of the primary sources and analysis skills that students use as they complete the 4 day webquest.

Day 1: Introduction to the Webquest and Madison's Declaration of War

Students choose to be either Eliza or Joshua. Both are 14-year-olds living in the United States before and during the war.

Then the students move on to reading Madison's war message explaining his reasons for asking Congress to declare war. Since the lesson was written for heterogeneous classes of 8th graders, I needed to find a way to break down the speech into manageable parts. So, I put excerpts of the speech in a worksheet with missing words or phrases. Students had to skim the speech for the excerpts to fill in the missing information and then answer guided questions that helped them understand the meaning of Madison's words.

After completing this analysis, students wrote a half page journal entry from the perspective of Eliza or Joshua reacting to the news and incorporating some of the reasons for war from the primary source into their writing.

Day 2: Old Ironsides - U.S.S. Constitution & the H.M.S. Guerriere

After reading some brief historical background on the importance of the battle between these two frigates early in the war, students read Oliver Wendell Holmes' peom Old Ironsides, which was actually written as a memorial several decades later. Holmes remembers the reactions of his fellow Americans in his childhood during the actual war. Reading 19th century poetry is daunting for 8th graders. So this time, students are asked to choose one stanza and translate its meaning into their own words. Then, as with Day 1, students write a half page journal entry from the perspective of either Eliza or Joshua reacting to the American victory and huge boost in morale.

Day 3: The Burning of Washington D.C.

On the third day students experience a big let down after the huge victory of the U.S.S. Constitution early in the war. The British successfully blockaded the entire Atlantic coast, and then captured and burned the capital, Washington D.C. This time students look at an engraving and political cartoon that were created at the time reacting to the events. They also read First Lady Dolley Madison's letter to her sister expressing her fears as the British approached the city. To understand the significance of the images, students are either asked to identify items in them or to recognize the mood of each image to interpret the reactions that people had at the time. For Dolley Madison's letter, students once again scan for excerpt in order to complete them and then answer questions about them. Finally, once again, they write a half page journal entry from the perspective of Eliza or Joshua reacting to the horrible news.

Day 4: Fort McHenry & the Star Spangled Banner

On the last day of the exercise students learn about the bombardment of Fort McHenry and the events that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the poem that would eventually become our national anthem. Once again, 19th century poetry is not the most engaging content for 8th graders, so they are asked to choose one of the stanzas that we do not sing as part of the anthem song and put it into their own words. It helps students to understand that although the bombardment caused major destruction, the fact that Americans held the fort served as an inspiration to carry on. Students then write one last journal entry reacting once again.

Reflection

Hopefully, after completing the 4 day exercise, students will understand the variety of emotions that can be triggered by war. Typically there is enthusiasm at the start when people believe in the cause. Early victories, like the U.S.S. Constitution, can fuel that fire. But devastating defeats, such as the burning of Washington, tend to give people a dose of the realities of war and they might even start questioning whether the war is worth the cost. The activity gives students, who have never experienced wartime sacrifice, some empathy. In order for students to truly understand, and hopefully remember, history they need to be able to relate to the people who lived it. Hopefully, this activity gave them an opportunity to do just that.

A Civil War Walking Tour of Lowell

2011-06-15T07:37:00.001-04:00

This year’s book group inspired me to bring the study of the Civil War home to my students. As a teacher at Lowell High School, I’m quite used to lots of history in this city. The students are very used to it as well. Throughout grammar school and into their junior year in high school, Lowell students are subject to informative trips to the mills and in-class presentations by outstanding park rangers. Every bit of Lowell history that is offered to our students is of the highest quality and executed by extremely qualified and knowledgeable individuals at school and in the community.

The Civil War touched so much of this country and that is well understood; but specifically, what about Lowell? My search for an answer to this question was inspired by Professor Robert Forrant, as well as one of the books that we read this year, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust.

In front of Lowell High School and City Hall is a magnificent monument located on a triangle in the middle of a busy intersection. Each day I drive past it and I try to gather some information from afar as I look through my moving car window. Not long ago, I realized that it was a Civil War monument from my glances. With a little bit of digging, I discovered that it was a monument and grave site of two men whose names were Ladd and Whitney. These two men were from Lowell, and were two of the first four men killed in the Civil War.

With this information, I went right to the Lowell High librarian who provided me with additional Civil War information. I learned that the City of Lowell’s library (Memorial Library) was named in honor of those from Lowell who were killed in the war. In the Library, there was a great deal art work and decoration honoring the those who serve in the war including three enormous murals pained by Paul Philippoteaux of Gettysburg’s cyclorama fame.

Armed with this information, I uncovered an additional treasure. On Jackson Street in Lowell there is the Lowell Gallery which is a framing store. The proprietor, Guy Lefebvre is a significant student of Lowell Civil War history and has created a fantastic small museum in his store. His museum emphasizes the Lowell’s native son Benjamin Butler an the Ladd and Whitney Monument.

Without hesitation, I put together a walking tour of these sites for my students. Allotting two periods for each class, we walked to the Ladd-Whitney Monument, the Pollard Library and ended up at the Gallery on Jackson St. My reward for putting the entire thing together was hearing multiple students say, “I didn’t know that this was here.”

For this year, my work is done.

(Photographs courtesy of John Wren.)

Voicethread for the Civil War

2011-06-14T19:52:00.003-04:00

At the Primary Source Institute last summer I was introduced to Voicethread. With this website a person can post pictures and make comments about the pictures. I had been wanting to use it all year, but just never seemed to have the time. Finally, at the end of the school year I was able to use it to introduce Reconstruction. I posted seven pictures from the end of the Civil War that represent the problems the United States was facing. The students then got usernames, passwords and either typed or recorded their comments about each picture. To see what was done you can go to voicethread.com/share/1251356/

There were pros and cons to this activity. The students definitely enjoyed it. In our discussion of the pictures after they viewed them it was evident that the students read and listened to their classmates comments. Several of them told me that they had wished we did this earlier and more times during the school year. My one disappointment was over the quality of the comments. I did give this to ninth graders, but comments like "is that a tree?" were not particularly insightful. Next year I will give more guidance in the types of comments I would like them to make.

After doing this activity, I got to thinking that I would be a great way for students to tell a story about some aspect of the Civil War. They would create their own voicethread. As it has been mentioned already in the blog, there are a lot of photographic resources for the Civil War. Students could focus on a battle, camp conditions, or Lincoln's role in the war and relay that information by putting a series of pictures together. They would then provide historical facts and commentary on the pictures. After the projects are complete other students could view the individual voicethreads and make comments or ask questions.

I was surprised at how much this seemingly simple activity interested the students. Over the past several years I have been trying to integrate more technology into the classroom, but the response I received over this activity has proven to me that I need to make an even more concentrated effort at doing this.

A Year in Review

2011-06-13T20:44:00.003-04:00

Like many of you, I have spent the last few days winding down my curriculum and wrapping up my school year. With this comes the obligatory final exam review.

My students of course ask, what is on the exam? What should we study? Any my reaction is always- EVERYTHING! HA

In all seriousness though, as I look back on this year, spent both in my classroom and with History Connected, I am drawn back to Paul Revere's Ride.

I constantly remind my students that it only takes one person, one idea and one action to change the world.

Although recent actions in our political arena have brought up Revere's name again, my students and all of us, as History Connected participants, will never forget Revere's role in the play that was the American Revolution.

reflections...

2011-06-09T10:51:00.000-04:00

As I was reading through the current blog page I was interested by the amount of subject areas and methods that reflect ‘today’. I pulled a few quotes from the blogs and the following are my personal reflections:

Many students question the value of studying history but comparing past elections to the “Presidential election of 2012” or even Obama’s election can bring history to life.

“As the nation remembers the sesquicentennial of the Civil War”, this topic keeps coming up on the radio and television. Many students will agree that all the issues raised by slavery and abolition have not really been totally dealt with in today’s society- there is still observable inequity. I saw a trailer for the upcoming movie “The Conspirators” about Lincoln’s assassination- hopefully many will go see it.

“Reflection: A great deal of students did not understand the idea of a paradox.” I loved this lesson because a paradox is truly a compelling problem and its important for students to understand that these things happen today as well as to our human family throughout history—what a connection to the past.

These methods allow the students to interact with history in technological ways they are very comfortable with:
“I started my blog”:
“Polldaddy and Survey Monkey”
“Create a Prezi or website about their person”
Such a wide variety of activities that can help translate history into a ‘language’ they understand

Election Activity

2011-06-08T21:27:00.002-04:00

With the Presidential election of 2012 about to launch into national relevance, the topic of American elections is becoming increasing important to address in the classroom. I have found myself touching on the topic in both my US History I class and my Sociology class. Civics and voter participation are topics that transcend all areas of social studies.

A lesson about American elections should begin with a question to the class: how important is to vote in America today? Most students generally consider voting to be a privilege that they do not have yet, and therefore have not put much thought into.

Last year during a HC seminar on the right to vote, we were shown an image of the election of 1852. The picture made voting day out to be a celebration, with people drinking and bringing their families. Politicians engaged on a personal level with voters, even feet from the ballot box. The picture really got me thinking, how much has voting and pride in civic responsibility changed since then?

In my US History I classes, I put two pictures on the board, one of the election of 1852, and another of present day voting procedure. Lining them up, I asked each student to draw several conclusions about each, and then to compare the two. The results were striking, indicating that modern day voting is less a celebration and more a chore that people don’t love, but might feel guilty about not doing. The lines, sterile environment, and lack of good natured campaigning sucks much of the excitement out of the institution of exercising your voice in a Democratic system. I then asked my students the pros and cons of the voting procedure in both pictures. While one fails to generate excitement, it did help to provide a fair and uncorrupted result.

Upon completion of the compare and contrast exercise, I then proposed a statistic to my students that only 40% of all eligible voters between the ages of 18-24 actually vote. Immediately afterwards, my students began to brainstorm how to bring interest and excitement back into Election Day. To key was to attract more voters to the polls, not to have a party. With that in mind, students engaged in an open discussion about how to achieve this elusive goal of increasing voter participation.

A Response to Patriots by Christian Appy

2011-05-18T14:08:00.001-04:00

Jean M. Acciavatti
Haverhill High School
May 18, 2011

Response to Patriots

Christian Appy has taken on a huge undertaking with the penning of this volume. The scores of interviews of Vietnamese and Americans- some well known, others just everyday people- is daunting. One thing is clear. Most people are very opinionated about the Vietnam War. As a child during the war, I was very aware of the antiwar sentiment- at least from the media's perception of it. One of the things I didn't know however were that there were theatre troupes whose mission it was to protest. I had no idea that many Vietnamese simply considered themselves that- not northern and not southern. I never really thought about what Vietnamese children thought about the war- but they must have had strong feelings given the part many played in both formal and informal battle. How many of them had witnessed the horrors and were simply 'playing' them out without realizing the finality of it all. Soldiers and other leaders who were merely doing their jobs suffered much ill will as did their own families. It is also amazing to me that prewar most Americans had never even heard of Vietnam and couldn't find it on a globe before the war. And most agree that nothing that was happening in Vietnam had much bearing on American life. The Vietnamese were interested in developing themselves—so --why were we there?

Sesquicentennial! Civil War Letters: Sources and Ideas for the Classroom

2011-05-11T18:03:00.000-04:00

As the nation remembers the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the web is teeming with great resources to engage students. With recent efforts to digitize archives and sources for greater public access, there are phenomenal resources that capture individual points of view…so many that you can really capture a picture of the whole war through individual voices and experiences. Civil War letters are a phenomenal way to pull students into the everyday perspective of war… North or South, home front or battlefield, male or female, white or black. Letters reveal motive, emotions, aspirations, as well as details about daily life. There are endless ways you could use letters to help students understand the Civil War. Firstly, consider the essential questions that frame your unit, what do you want students to know about the Civil War? Personally, because of the nature of the Civil War, I feel it is important for students to know why people fought…what caused this massive and tragic loss of life? It’s valuable to let student curiosity guide their inquiry as it creates a greater sense of ownership and interest. Using a generic question, such as, “What can we learn about the Civil War from this letter?” you can have students choose from any collection…one you’ve created or a data base on the web. If you want to put more time into organizing the sources, you could create stations with letters from specific regions, topics, points of view, and as the students rotate through the different stations they can treate the letters like pieces to a mosaic. One use of Civil War letters I found particularly interesting was having the letters narrated. The Patriot Ledger had a “Civil War Letters home from Quincy Soldiers” special in which letters were read aloud. Try using voicethread, or jing, to narrate your letters.

The New York Times posted several of Robert Gould Shaw’s letters in his defense of Washington, DC as a member of the elite New York Seventh Regiment, before he commanded the Massachusetts 54^th Regiment. This might be an interesting connection to the film, Glory. Though these letters are before Shaw’s leadership with the 54^th, they are a great resource, particularly because of his background…coming from education and wealth. The letters capture a well spoken insightful perspective of the war and his mission, to defend the capital…it would definitely make for an interesting comparison with a soldier from less wealth an education, or an African American soldier.

I really liked Maine State Archive’s Civil War Sesquicentennial. There are dozens of letters catalogued by their date, author, subject, and town. There is also a search box so you can look for certain terms that appear within letters. This source is unique in that it presents perspectives that reveal how war impacted whole communities. The organization allows one to search for specific aspects of war.

A little closer to home, I’ve also really enjoyed the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Looking at the Civil War, Massachusetts finds her voice. The selection accessible on the MHS website includes sources from many perspectives, that of MA governor, John Andrew, to a soldier’s letter to his wife. These two perspectives would make an interesting comparative.

PBS, of course, never fails. PBS has a pretty extensive lesson plan involving Civil War letters. The Civil War Trust also has an extensive bank of lesson plans, some having to do with letters as well.

Using excerpts from Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides by Christian G. Appy

2011-05-11T14:54:00.005-04:00

Brief Overview: To supplement my unit on the Vietnam War, I shared three excerpts with my students from Christian G. Appy’s book. I used three different teaching styles with these readings and assessed their enduring understanding through their analysis of three quotes on our unit test. Included below are the three excerpts I used, the questions I posed to the class and my reflection on their use in the classroom. It is my hope that maybe you could use or modify some of this in your own classes. I would love to hear about other excerpts you have/plan to use!
Connection to MA Frameworks: US II 20. Explain the causes, course, and consequences of the Vietnam War and summarize the diplomatic and military policies of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

“Kick the Tires and Light the Fires” pgs 61-75
Method of Instruction: Informal Class Discussion In class I gave out this reading and gave students about fifteen minutes to skim. We then spent about fifteen minutes discussing the answers to these questions.
1. What did “sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem” mean?
2. Discuss JFK’s role in Vietnam.
3. Do you agree with Malcolm Browne’s idea that in the early 60’s the U.S. was waging a secret war in Vietnam?
4. Explain Le Lieu Browne’s perception of President Diem.
Connection to unit objective(s):
• Summarize Vietnam’s history as a French colony and its struggle for independence.
• Examine how the United States became involved in the Vietnam conflict.
Reflection: I think my students really understood the problems that stemmed fro Diem’s policies and the complexity of U.S. involvement at that time. They were most fascinated with Malcolm Browne’s account and we had a great discussion about the impact of the media and powerful images. Lastly, they loved the story behind Malcolm and Le Lieu. In retrospect, I think I could have saved on class time by asking them to read the account at him and coming in prepared to discuss in class.

“From Civil Rights to Antiwar” pgs 142-145
Method of Instruction: Individual Written Assignment I gave this assignment for students to complete in class on a day I was out on at a TAH seminar. Students were asked to complete the reading and answer the following questions individually and hand in for a graded assignment.
1. Describe the paradoxical relationship between civil rights and antiwar movements.
2. Analyze the following quote: “The promises of the Great Society have been shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.”
3. Briefly explain the impact that the Vietnam War had on SNCC.
4. What was the controversy surround Muhammad Ali? Do you agree with his decision? Explain.
Connection to unit objective(s):
• Explain the impact of the war on American society.
• Explain the draft policies that led to the Vietnam War becoming a working-class war.
• Trace the roots of opposition to the war.
• Describe the antiwar movement and the growing divisions in U.S. public opinion about the war.
Reflection: A great deal of students did not understand the idea of a paradox. I have plenty of dictionaries in my classroom and I always stress being an active learner so I was disappointed that not many took the initiative to grab a dictionary! I also had to address question #2 in class because instead of answering the question based on the reading, they drew from prior knowledge. Most of their answers focused on funding of the Great Society being affected by the war, when in the article they suggested Martin Luther King, Jr. was referring to the contradictory goals of this working-class war and the philosophy behind the Great Society. Students did seem to be engaged about brief account of Muhammad Ali and they had some questions for me the next day!

“From Cambodia to Kent State” pgs. 376-389
Method of Instruction: Jigsaw Discussion For this assignment, I asked all students to read the introduction and then answer questions 1 and 2. After that, I assigned each student one of the three primary source accounts (Anthony Lake, A.J. Langguth and Tom Grace) and assigned them the corresponding questions. After ten minutes of silent reading time, we got into groups of three and students shared their answers to questions 3-5. This took about fifteen minutes. We then reconvened as a class and shared out the responses to all questions.
1. Explain Nixon/Kissinger’s military strategy in Vietnam at the start of 69.
2. How did Nixon deal w/the media, pubic knowledge and support of the war? Give 2 examples.
3. Explain Anthony Lake’s moral dilemma when he resigned. Do you agree with is decision to resign?
4. What did A.J. Langguth find in his research about the effectiveness of Vietnamization?
5. How did Tom Grace’s experiences at Kent State shape him? Were you surprised by any of his account?
Connection to unit objective(s):
• Describe the antiwar movement and the growing divisions in U.S. public opinion about the war.
• Describe Nixon’s policy of Vietnamization.
• Explain the public’s reaction to the Vietnam War during Nixon’s presidency.
Reflection: Students did really well with this excerpt and method of instruction. We had a really active discussion on all three questions as students expressed their personal opinions about the topics. We discussed mistrust the government, the scariness of Kent State from both sides, the decision of Lake to resign and the battle for the hearts and minds in connection to Vietnamization.

Formal Test Assessment
Quote Analysis: Pick three of the following quotes. In a paragraph, briefly explain what they mean and whether you agree with the idea behind them. (5 pts each)

1. “Sink or swim with Ngo Dihn Diem.”-American journalist in regards to Washington’s policy.
2. “You could smell the burning flesh.”-Malcolm Browne
3. “The promises of the Great Society have been shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
4. The United States is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
5. “No Viet Cong never called me nigger.”- Muhammad Ali
6. “Quitting wasn’t heroic.”-Anthony Lake
7. “They didn’t want to fight.”-A.J. Langguth
8. “As much as we hated the war on April 29, we hated it more on April 30th.”-Tom Grace
Reflection:
Below is the percentage of students that chose the above quotes to analyze

#1-11.5%
#2-11.5%
#3-25%
#4-3%
#5-16.8%
#6-6%
#7-5.3%
#8-23.9%

I was pleased that all quotes were chosen at least three times and not surprised that students gravitated towards #3 and #8 since those were the ones we had the liveliest discussions on. Click here to view some student samples.

Image of book was taken from:
http://www.amazon.com/Patriots-Vietnam-War-Remembered-Sides/dp/0142004499

Focusing on the individual, not just the event

2011-05-09T15:38:00.006-04:00

Besides my US History classes, this year I have the pleasure of teaching 9th grade World History. In Stoneham, the 9th grade curriculum focuses on the French Revolution through the modern era (or whatever that means). Every year we struggle with finishing the content, typically rushing through WW II- many of my students' favorite part of history.

This year we decided to mix things up a bit...

After reading Double Victory I realized there were so many untold stories of World War II and that I would love to integrate this idea of telling their story with my 9th graders.

Together the 9th grade teachers designed and implemented a new research project:

Unknown Heroes and Heroines of World War II

Although some are not really "unknown" to most, they were certainly unknown to my students.

Much like National History Day, students pick a topic which corresponds to a theme and then has 4 options to present the information. The options are:

1. Creating a 3-D model which depicts an important event in the life of their person
2. Write a historical paper
3. Create a Prezi or website about their person

And my personal favorite...

4. Become the person and present their findings to the class!

Although the 9th grade curriculum is not completely relatable to TAH content, the theme of an War, Society, State and Citizenship is. Many of my students only know World War II because of the violence.

With this project we hope that they will also be able to put a face and a story with the great conflict and above all else, understand the conflicts impact on the people who lived through it.

Possible options include:
Primo Levi Spitfire Women

Jean Moulin

Blogging to Teach History

2011-05-03T19:13:00.005-04:00

I have to admit that at the beginning of this year I was struggling to come up with more meaningful homework for my 11th grade US II students. I found myself underwhelmed at the thought of end of textbook section questions yet I wanted a forum that would offer a level of consistency. It was for these reasons that, well into the school year, I started my blog: http://www.historywithmrscarney.wordpress.com/. It has offered everything I was looking for and more in terms of having a consistent, flexible, differentiated, and meaningful homework. I believe this will only be more successful when I start the next school year with this tool.

I started the blog from scratch, exploring wordpress on my own until I figured out how to do what I wanted to do. In retrospect, there are a million resources out there to guide teachers through the process of using blogs and online journals with classes. The most comprehensive list of resources I have found is published on the University of Missouri website at: http://ethemes.missouri.edu/themes/520?locale=en. This only validates my opinion that this is the future of teaching.

As I have continued to learn about blogging, I have discovered how to post important dates, upload class notes, change my theme to reflect the current unit, and embed polls, video, and audio. I have assigned primary sources, webquests, oral history audio bits, primary source video clips, secondary sources, and interactive maps. I cannot say enough how excited I am about this new forum to bring history to students.

Polldady.com in the Classroom

2011-05-01T12:35:00.000-04:00

At our last school day seminar, Kara introduced two survey websites that offer free limited accounts, Polldaddy and Survey Monkey. She mentioned in her presentation that she had used it in her class and found it quite adaptable to the classroom. As I was listening to her presentation, I was struggling with a scheduling conflict at school the next day. My dilemma was that I was scheduled for the computer room for the following three days with all my classes, but my honors classes had not presented their previously assigned group posters. Although one hates to give-up valuable and scarce computer room time in out school, but the question kept going through my head, “What good is a group poster project if the groups can’t present their posters to the class”. Suddenly an idea came to me. I could have my classes present their posters in the computer room and I could use Polldaddy.com for student responses. If these survey sites were truly easy and intuitive I could set-up a free account, create a survey, and have available to my students by the next morning. I must admit, this was quite a lofty goal to achieve with no experience and less than 24 hours to accomplish. Well, the lesson went off without a hitch as Polldaddy.com proved to be as easy to use as I had hoped.

My first step was to open a free account at http://polldaddy.com/signup-free/ . Once completed I found that I could choose from three types of “polls”; polls, surveys and quizzes. I chose to create a survey as this format would allow me to create nine multiple choice questions with one space for the students’ name. The template that Polldaddy offered was a simple, multiple choice question with the possible responses to be the typical a,b,c…etc. So, I created nine questions that I wanted each student to respond to after they viewed each poster presentation. Since the presentations were in groups, I only had seven groups per class that needed to be surveyed. Fortunately, Polldaddy allows you to duplicate your surveys, so once I created a survey that I liked, I just duplicated it seven times for each class and called each one “Group A”, “Group B” and the like.

The next step was getting it to the students. Fortunately, I have a Wikispaces web page that I created from a previous school-day seminar that I could use to post my surveys for the students. Polldaddy walks you through cutting and pasting the “code” that you could paste as a “widget” on your site. If you click on the following link, you will be able to see the page my students saw as they watch the groups present their posters: http://dehushistory.wikispaces.com/Poster+Poll. From that page, you can click on a survey and see the very simple survey that I created the night before the presentations.

After the class presentations were made and the students responded to each presentation, I logged on to my Polldaddy account and cut and pasted their poll results to a folder on the computer network that all the students could accesses. This way, each group could go view how their classmates rated each of their presentations. Please note, that as I have only a free account, I can’t access sophisticated statistical information, but I didn’t need it. Here is what the students could see on their computers by just saving the results and pasting them on an accessible folder: http://dehushistory.wikispaces.com/file/view/%27Group+H%27+Reports+Polldaddy_com.mht. After I cut and pasted the groups’ results and posted them for them to see, I cleared the data from each group survey so that it would be ready for the next class.

Needles to say, my students love this new electronic method of interacting with class presentations. As an audience they were attentive, and seemed to enjoy critiquing while they were listening.

Using Double Victory in the Classroom

2011-04-25T08:10:00.003-04:00

Using Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II by Ronald Takaki

Background:
After teaching World War II for the past thirteen years, I feel as if I am constantly struggling to find new ways to gain the interest of our students. Teaching US History and World History both present their own challenges. By the time our students have reached World History in the eleventh grade, they have already been exposed to World War II in either US History II and/or a World War elective that our school offers. Having said this, I have continued to struggle over creating new ways in which I can present World War II to our students in a new and interesting manner. I hope to be able to teach our US History II course in the years to come and incorporate this new strategy. After reading Double Victory and participating in the follow-up book group, it became apparent to me that this book would make an excellent source to use in my classroom.

Changes in my teaching from TAH:
Reading Double Victory provided me with a great deal of new information that I previously either didn’t know about or did not have sufficient research on. As I began to read this book, I couldn’t help but think of how much this book would enrich the teaching of World War II in my classes. Ronald Takaki provides us with a multicultural view of Americans during World War II. What he does differently, is that he tells his story through the eyes of a variety of ethnically diverse Americans. He writes about the lives of a Japanese American, African American, Native American, and a Mexican American. Although each story is very different, they share a common thread, which is their struggle to defeat the enemy abroad, while trying to defeat the enemy at home, racism. This year, my teaching of World War II had changed because I was able to incorporate these heroic stories into my classroom. After introducing these stories to the class, the majority of my students reflected on the lesson and commented on how they never realized or connected the two front wars that these diverse groups were confronted with.

This Year’s Lesson:
After reading and participating in a discussion on Double Victory, I immediately made changes to my lesson plans for World War II. The initial adjustment that I made was to share this information through class lecture and discussion with my students. The following class, I divided my class into four small groups and assigned them to one of the four stories which Takaki wrote about in Double Victory. Their task was to read and analyze the struggle of their assigned character and then prepare to share it with the class. Their class discussion went very well a few days later and their interest level was very rewarding. The last portion of this lesson involved these same groups to prepare for a trial to prosecute the United States for their mistreatment of these individual groups during World War II. Using a trial rubric that I have incorporated in years past for my American Law course, I was able to show the students the criteria that we would be following/grading on. The students conducted outside research to strengthen their arguments and carried out a successful trial procedure.

Results:
Using Double Victory in my classroom proved to be worthwhile. My students were provided with a viewpoint that the majority of them had never been exposed to previously. Like any first time lesson, I have some changes that I will be making before using this lesson in my classroom next year. I may try to incorporate other primary sources to the various groups to help them with the trial preparation and provide them with more background information to build their cases on. I also believe that I need to make some adjustments to this lesson in order to successfully incorporate it in with my college level course. I tried this lesson this year with my honors course and will have to adjust it for my lower level students.

Connection to National Historical Thinking Standards:
Standard 1: Chronological Thinking
A. Distinguish between past, present, and future time.
B. Identify the temporal structure of a historical narrative or story.
C. Establish temporal order in constructing historical narratives.
D. Measure and calculate calendar time.
E. Interpret data presented in time lines and create time lines.
F. Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration; explain historical continuity and change.
G. Compare alternative models for per iodization.

Standard 5 : Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making
A. Identify issues and problems in the past.

Incorporation of Technology

2011-04-22T12:54:00.003-04:00

History Connected has been a literal treasure chest of resources and information. Its amazing just how often I am able to find practical application, not just for myself but for my colleagues as well. Technology and visual education has always been a part of my teaching style, so that has been my biggest take-away so far.

Wakefield recently hosted a technology fair where teachers were able to pick a 1/2 hour workshop off a list of options. I ran a quick workshop on the uses of Prezi in the classroom as an alternative to PowerPoint. It was well attended by fellow History teachers, as well as colleagues from many other disciplines. When I demonstrated its uses, I termed it "one stop shopping" for PowerPoints. Due to Prezi's simple nature and extreme flexibility, it makes it more visually appealing, more dynamic, and easier to add in multimedia. I once wrote a graduate thesis on the need to show cause and effect through a clear concept map of associations. Given Prezi's "path" that allows teachers to sequence talking points, my enthusiasm for its potential is considerable.

In regards to other uses of technology, I am creating a project for my US History I class about sequencing the events leading up to the Civil War using the program Photostory. This program allows students to create a picture slide show (using the Ken Burns photo panning effect) and record voice-overs to narrate over the pictures. The students will receive a series of pictures on the following topics:

1. Election of Lincoln (1860)

2. Secession of South Carolina

3. Dred Scott decision

4. Harper’s Ferry

5. Selection of Jefferson Davis

6. Lincoln/Douglas debates: Introduction of the Freeport Doctrine

7. Creation of Republican Party

8. Passing of the Fugitive Slave Act

9. Publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

10. Firing on Fort Sumpter

Ideally, each topic will have 5 pictures that help to tell the story of that event. The students will use these pictures to literally narrate the powder keg effect of national events that lead to Civil War. Students will proceed to upload their Photostory videos to a blogspot link on my Wakefield teacher homepage. Once these Photostory projects are linked together in sequence, they will paint an overall picture of the road to war. This assignment will be a nice method of making my curriculum and my classroom more student-centered.

Informal Use of RAFT

2011-04-14T19:20:00.003-04:00

One strategy I have found myself using over the last few months is the RAFT writing approach. It has provided me with an alternative to the standard opinion essay. It has also helped me focus on what I want my students to accomplish in their writing. When I draft an assignment I think about the role I want the students to take on, who the audience is supposed to be, the format of the writing and the exact topic. I don't usually present the assignment with the term RAFT, but require all the major components. I used one of these assignments for my ninth grade U.S. History I Honors class after completing a lesson on Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I have provided the assignment below.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Fires Back

Elizabeth Cady Stanton is tired of hearing her critics mock the women's rights convention at Seneca Falls. She no longer can stand listening to these men ridicule her desire for the right to vote.

Stanton has decided to write an editorial in a newspaper firing back at these men. What do you think she would say?

Write one paragraph (6-7 sentences) that reveals Stanton's feelings towards her critics and her goals for the women's movement. Spelling and grammar will be part of your grade.

Remember - the writer is Stanton and her audience is her critics.

As you can see, the term RAFT is not included, but all the elements are there. Students put themselves in the role of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, their audience is clearly identified as well as the format. The topic is Elizabeth Cady Stanton's goals for the women's rights movement. I did review with the students what an editorial was before sending them out to complete this assignment. It is a short writing assignment, but the paragraphs I received from the students lived up to my expectations. It is an easy way for me to assess my students' understanding of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

I like to have my students try to put themselves in the shoes of the people they are studying. RAFT provides an effective means for doing that. I altered RAFT a bit by using the guidelines to have the students draw a picture. The students had to draw a picture based on how they thought the Native Americans or the Chinese would convey the events of the gold rush. The students role was the Native Americans or the Chinese, their audience was high school students of today, the format was a picture and the topic was treatment of the group during the gold rush. Some of the images were quite impressive, not only for their accuracy, but the sense of brutality that was displayed against these groups as well.

Using Prezi for Civil Rights Timelines

2011-04-14T15:41:00.011-04:00

Background: I’ve always felt uncomfortable covering the Civil Rights Movement as a cohesive, singular movement that was distinct enough to be in its own unit. The reality is that the movement that took place in the 1950’s and 1960’s is so well-embedded throughout our entire modern American History course. For this reason, I developed a timeline assignment where I asked students to pick a start and end date, and then ten important events to go on a timeline of the struggle for the civil rights of African Americans. I always found it interesting to see what events students picked out. Lastly, I asked them to pick one event, do a bit of research and then analyze its impact on the “Civil Rights Movement” as a whole. Still, my focus in this unit was previously just on the civil rights of African Americans.

Changes to my instruction from TAH: After listening to Dr. Keyssar’s lecture at a TAH seminar last year (fall 2009) I began to consider the idea of a constant struggle for voting rights that has no clear ending or beginning. This idea translated to my teaching of the Civil Rights Movement. Last year I asked students to define the idea of civil rights and then based upon their definitions, create their timelines. We discussed “unalienable rights,” rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights and even health care as a possible civil right. I also created a Photostory that presented broad ideas about the fight for civil rights in our country. We watched the Photostory and then had a lively class discussion. Thus, the timelines my students created last school year where not just of civil rights for African Americans. Some students included women, workers, Native Americans, disabled people, and gay couples.

This year’s lesson: I found my changes in instruction last year to be very effective in engaging students in the Civil Rights Movement unit. I knew I wanted to keep those changes and the timeline assignment as I was heading into the unit this year. After attending the TAH technology seminar (winter 2011) I was anxious to try out the use of Prezi in my classroom and realized I could possible do it with my timeline assignment. The problem is, as I’m sure many of you can relate to, is that I didn’t really have time to teach my students how to learn a new type of software during class time. Our school is really focusing on the idea of creating 21 Century Thinkers who “are capable of living and working in a global society.” (Wilmington High School Mission Statement) Keeping that in mind, I decided to challenge my students to learn how to use Prezi on their own. I left it open as an option so they could create their timelines on paper or online through Prezi. The “carrot” was getting extra credit for using Prezi with the stipulation that they learned in completely on their own. They could ask for help before or after school but not during class time. I felt comfortable doing this because using Prezi was only an option and they would be rewarded with extra credit for taking on this challenge. I also created a sample and showed them it in class so they could get a sense of what it was and what I was looking for.

Results: Of my 42 students in two classes, 38 of them chose the Prezi option. Of those 38, only one of them came outside of class for extra help. I did give them one class period to work on it and I showed them how to make their Prezi public and get the link, but otherwise, I let them work and monitored it, but did not help them learn how to use the software. They did not seem to have any issues and found it easy to work with. My students posted their links on a google doc so they could access each others and we did view some of them in class. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time class time to do formal presentations.

Reflection: I was amazed at my student’s work. When we pulled up their presentations in class, a lot of the questions were about how they used certain features of Prezi. Most of them were able to learn the software better than I had! As for the content, I was surprised at how many of them focused on Gay Civil Rights. WHS has a Gay-Straight Alliance and many students took part in Day of Silence Project for LGBT awareness. I think there might be a correlation with the efforts of our GSA as well as increased national media attention to this issue. Our students are definitely becoming more aware of the struggles of our LGBT population. I do have some ideas for improvement for next year’s lesson. First, my students were asked to write an analysis of one of the events on the timeline. Not all of them put the paragraph on the Prezi which is what I wanted them to do. I also want to emphasize that Prezi does not have spell-check (to my knowledge) so I would recommend my students write their paragraph in a word program and then copy/paste or (and even more practical in my opinion!) proofread their work carefully. There were lots of typos in their work. I think there could be some differentiated instruction of this assignment. For lower level students or students that need more structure you could assign them a focus (ie. African Americans, women, Native Americans) and have their paragraphs be a description of the event. For higher level students, you could challenge them in their analysis to link the event they are focusing on to two other events on the timeline. Some of my students did that on their own, but I think I may make that part of next year’s assignment. Lastly, I would love to have enough class time to view all student work. My students were very excited to show off their work and I do believe it is a worthwhile endeavor.

Connection to National Historical Thinking Standards:

Standard 1: Chronological Thinking

A. Distinguish between past, present, and future time. B. Identify the temporal structure of a historical narrative or story. C. Establish temporal order in constructing historical narratives of their own. D. Measure and calculate calendar time. E. Interpret data presented in time lines and create time lines. F. Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration; explain historical continuity and change. G. Compare alternative models for periodization.

Standard 5 : Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making A. Identify issues and problems in the past.

Click here to view Prezi’s that resulted from this assignment.

Below is the Photostory used in class

Turning History Students into Detectives

2011-04-08T10:34:00.002-04:00

How can I turn my history students into detectives?
One of the most valuable skills we can teach our history students is to use evidence from the past to develop their own opinions about historical events. One popular program that many high schools use is the DBQ Project. Students use textual and visual primary and secondary scholarly sources to answer a question. For example, my sophomores recently had a class debate based in the evidence from the DBQ entitled "North or South: Who Killed Reconstruction?" Essentially, students use evidence from experts and first-hand witnesses to solve problems, just like a detective would. The program has a fabulous reputation and student essays that result are well-thought-out and evidence-based. Unfortunately, one small pitfall of the program is that it requires a lot of paper and not much technology.

Why not combine technology with historical evidence analysis?
I found a great website that enables student to do the same kind of analysis in a webquest style environment. Surprisingly, students are more enthusiastic about the same tasks when they can simply use a computer instead of doing the writing out with pencil and paper. Historical Scene Investigation puts famous dilemmas from history into "case files" and asks students to solve the mysteries. Students analyze primary sources, similarly to the DBQ Project, but the entire task can be done online.

Recently, my freshmen were finishing up their unit on the causes of the American Revolution. As a review of some of the events, we spent two class periods in the computer lab where they chose to work on one of two case files:

The Boston "Massacre": Students read about the event, sifted through both American and British first-hand accounts, and decided whether justice was served at the trial where 6 of the 8 accused British regulars were acquitted.
Lexington and Concord: After reading both American and British first-hand accounts, students had to decide the historical question: Who fired the first shot? Was it the Minutemen or the British regulars?

How should I introduce the website and assignment?
To introduce the assignment, I also used technology. I used the SMART Recorder program, part of the SMART Technologies suite of software that comes with my SMART Board, to create an instructional video. Students watched it in class, and, if they ever got confused during the process of completing the work in class or at home, they could reference the video anytime since it was posted on our class website.

What kinds of documents did students work with?

Then it was time to get down to work. Students worked hard in class analyzing great sources like:

Paul Revere's famous engraving that started the use of the term "massacre" to describe the event, The bloody massacre perpetrated on King Street

The chromolithograph by John Bufford that dramatized the death of Crispus Attucks: Boston Massacre, Mar. 5, 1770.

Entry for April 19th 1775, from the diary of British Lieutenant John Barker swearing that the American provincials fired first at Concord: "...a number of people, I believe between 200 and 300, formed in a common in the middle of town; we still continued advancing, keeping prepared against an attack through without intending to attack them; but on our coming near them they fired on us two shots, upon which our men without any orders, rushed upon them, fired and put them to flight; several of them were killed..."
And of course a conflicting sworn account from 34 minutemen who reported that the British regulars fired first: "...at which time, the company began to disperse, whilst our backs were turned on the troops, we were fired on by them, and a number of our men were instantly killed and wounded, not a gun was fired by any person in our company on the regulars to our knowledge before they fired on us, and continued firing until we had all made our escape..."

So, how did the students do?

Well, when it came to the question over whether justice was served in the trial that followed the Boston Massacre, one student contended:

In Document D, created by John Bufford, it shows colonists are attacking, while others are getting slaughtered by the soldiers' guns. In Document E by Alonzo Chapel, it shows colonists holding weapons attacking the soldiers. In Paul Revere's depiction, it shows innocent colonists being brutally killed. I believe that the colonists were not innocent. They did somewhat attack the soldiers. But shooting the colonists was not justified. I believe that justice was not served. How can branding someone's thumb be a justified exchange for someone's life? All of the soldiers should have been put in jail and branded because they killed a group of people over a small conflict that could have been solved a different way.

In the case of Lexington and Concord, one student argued that the American rebels must have fired the first shot because:

The British had well disciplined soldiers who would not fire without an order. This is clear as one British soldier commented on their intent not to fire and said, "we still continue advancing, keeping prepared against an attack though without attacking them." This line clearly represents how the British did not want to fire on the Patriots.

It was satisfying for me, as their teacher, to read that these 14 and 15 year old students were combining their own opinions and reasoning skills with evidence from the past. Their number grade was based on a rubric I developed according to the assignment description and class standards we have developed throughout the school year. Overall, however, I think they did pretty well, don't you?

Creative Writing in the History Classroom

2011-03-31T18:48:00.005-04:00

It’s the end of a long March after a winter bombarded with snow-days and the forecast is predicting snow on the first of April. I, firstly, want to offer some encouragement and cheer to my fellow teachers who are on the front line defending Fort Sanity. I have found this true for myself, and hope it will be useful to you as well, that during this long and transitional time of year when we’re itching to say good-bye to Winter and Hello to Spring, it helps to remember to design lessons and activities that revive the excitement, interest, and creativity in teaching and learning. Creative writing strategies may provide the necessary ray of sunshine for your classroom, yes, your history classroom.

The Buzzards Bay Writing Project (BBWP) presented writing strategies for the history classroom at the History Connected December Seminar, War and Protest. They highlighted two forms of creative writing, RAFT and Found Poems. RAFT, an acronym for Role-Audience-Format-Topic, provides students with a unique way to analyze a primary source and make connections with a historical event. After selecting a primary source, teachers assign, or allow students to choose, their role, which can range from a specific person, to a general character, to an inanimate object; an audience, which can vary from personal, public, supportive, oppositional, or undecided; a format, which can be at any level of formality, from a postcard to a speech; and a topic that connects to the purpose of the lesson. Students develop valuable insight through considering the personality and point of view of their role and the word choice, tone, and purpose given their audience, format, and topic. BBWP modeled RAFT with two primary sources, Jackson’s defense of the removal policy (Role, Andrew Jackson; Audience, “aborigines;” Format, address to the tribes as they prepare to leave; and Topic, why this action is necessary) and a Memorial and Protest of the Cherokee Nation (Role, Cherokee Nation; Audience, people attending the “funeral” of the Cherokee Nation; Format, Eulogy; Topic, Our People). RAFT has the potential to deepen students’ understanding of an event and develop their historical thinking skills by prompting them to consider historical perspective and competing historical narratives.

Found Poem is a unique way for students to synthesize concepts from a primary source and organize them into a creative visual. You literally “find” a poem in a source…it’s easier than it sounds. Found Poem is broken down into manageable steps so that no “traditional” poetry writing skills are needed; students don’t necessarily need to know they are writing a poem! I’ve slightly modified/clarified BBWP’s procedure for Found Poem: 1. Teacher should share the idea of a found poem with the class, show a model or model the process. 2. Students read passage independently, highlighting key words or phrases that help to define the meaning of the passage. 3. Students may either work individually or in pairs or small groups to arrange words and phrases into a Found Poem. Encourage students to consider the use poetic devices such as imagery, personification, simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, alliteration, rhythm, and rhyme, as well as the use of white space and writing words in a shape, size, and direction that reflects their meaning. 4. Students come together and share their poem. I really like Found Poem because of its effectiveness in exploring and evaluating key concepts within a source and because it requires students to express the meaning, tone, and significance in a format that’s easy for others to understand. Its accessible procedure and creative format encourages participation from different learning styles and learning abilities. BBWP modeled Found Poem with an 1838 letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson protesting the removal of the Cherokee Indians from the state of Georgia. Each group of teachers had a few paragraphs to read and from which to “find” a poem. Together, we collaborated on what phrases and ideas best represented our section as well as how to visually represent them. As each group presented, I learned about the entire document. Found Poem also leaves the teacher with excellent, content-rich wall décor that continues to teach long after the lesson. I used this with my world history class and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. One of my favorites has the poem written in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. It’s on my wall and we refer back to it whenever we need a refresher on the ideas of freedom that have shaped the world.

Two resources I’ve used to help add more writing, creativity, and thinking, without necessarily creating a lot of grading for myself, are

The Story in History: Writing your Way Into the American Experience by Margot Fortunato Galt and Content-Area Writing: Every Teacher’s Guide by Harvey Daniels, Steven Zemelman and Nancy Steineke.

I’m interested to know what documents you’ve used or what documents you think would work well for RAFT or Found Poem. What other forms of creative writing do you use in your history classroom?

Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer

2011-03-30T17:57:00.003-04:00

To date, the book that has captivated me the most this year is Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer. This meticulously research account of Revere’s ride is a must read for teacher who teaches the revolutionary period. Full of interesting antidotes, little known facts and compelling action, Fisher has put together a read that I am planning to excerpt for my students next fall. Paul Revere’s Ride will not only engage them with Fischer’s writing, but intrigue them to learn more about this remarkable hero of the early revolution.

One of my favorite poems is “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”. Published on a wide scale in 1861, this lengthy masterpiece of Longfellow’s is in my opinion, a masterpiece. Unfortunately, the poem that I love so much is full of historical flaws and inaccuracies. In fact, I am almost embarrassed to admit that I like it, as I think of myself as a fairly current student of History.

Fischer, among others, has taught me just how wrong Longfellow’s poem is and where the major inaccuracies about Revere’s ride come from. Generally, I believe that most of America has learned about Revere’s ride from Longfellow’s poem and not from scholarly products on the man and his adventures in 1775. The first principle myth that Fischer revels is that Revere rode alone. On the contrary, Revere was one of two major riders out of Boston that night. He and William Dawes road from the British infested town of Boston via two different routes to guard their message against capture. Secondly, Longfellow neglects to highlight in his poem that Revere and Dawes ignited an explosion of other alert riders that evening. These additional riders took messages about the British on the march north and south of Boston; as far as Connecticut and New Hampshire. Thirdly, Longfellow never mentions in his poem that Revere and many others had been ‘alert riding’ for quite some time by the 18th of April. They were experienced and they had made the surrounding towns well aware of their roles and their alert system. Additionally, Longfellow omits that General Gage and the British command was very much aware of all of the ‘alert riding’ going on prior to the 18th. In fact, patrols were deployed to thwart as many alerts as possible that night. It’s hard to conclude with the mentioning the fact that Longfellow depicts Revere completing his mission and terminating his “Midnight Ride” in Concord Towne. Fischer reminds us that Revere was actually captured by one of those British patrols with William Dawes. A young doctor by the name of Prescott completed the Revere/Dawes alert in Concord after meeting them by chance not far from Merriam’s Corner.

The ‘Paul Revere myths’ created by Longfellow were a great necessity to this country when the poem was written in 1861. At the time, the country was at the brink of Civil War and the war seemed inevitable at the time. This country needed a patriotic super hero, and Longfellow worked hard to produce it through his classic poem. The most ironic part of this part of history is that the country always had a super hero in Paul Revere. In 1861, Paul Revere was not as extensively researched as he is today. Longfellow could never be expected to know as much about Revere and everything that was connected with him as Fischer gives us in Paul Revere’s Ride. Longfellow’s understanding of the Ride created a true folk hero through a tremendously enjoyable poem. What Fischer reveals to us are a myriad of reasons why America always had a true hero in Paul Revere.

Teaching Historical Context With Primary Sources & Podcasting

2011-03-04T10:37:00.004-05:00

The Philosophy Behind the Lesson
Now that the second half of the school year is well-underway, I am becoming more and more cognizant of the fact that I need to teach my freshman students certain skills to prepare them for the larger-scale research projects that await them in their sophomore classes next year.

One of those skills is historical context.

Professor Claude Bélanger at Marianopolis College describes historical context as:

The context is understood as the events, or the climate of opinion, that surround the issue at hand. They help to understand its urgency, its importance, its shape. What was happening at the time of the event or the decision that sheds some light on it? In what type of society did the event occur? An urban one? A rich one? An educated one?

The Lesson
I wanted to come up with a fun way to teach my freshmen this concept. So, I opened the class with an explanation of historical context. We happen to be studying American colonial society prior to the American revolution. So, the two issues I chose to highlight were the Great Awakening and colonial westward expansion into Native American lands.

Each group received one primary source quote or excerpt to analyze. They did some pre-reading the night before, and now they had to apply that knowledge and set up the historical context to explain how people of the time might feel and why they might make the statements assigned to them.

Click here to see the handout they received.

They had the first half of class to do their research and writing, and then we recorded their results in a podcast during the second half of class. Groups sent two representatives up to my desk, and they recorded there using a simple headset with microphone and my AudioExpert.com account. (Audio expert is something covered and demonstrated in an earlier History Connected Seminar this year.)

I published the podcasts before the kids even left the classroom using my PodBean.com account. PodBean is easy to use. If you know how to write a blog using Blogger or WordPress, PodBean is relatively intuitive.

Here are the podcasts that resulted:
D Block Podcast

Podcast Powered By Podbean

C Block Podcast

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Finally, to follow up on the lesson and ensure that everyone got the historical context for all of the quotes, students were assigned to go online and listen to the podcast one more time for homework. They were to take notes on the historical context explained by each of the other three groups on their handout from class.

Reflecting on the Results
The students really liked this lesson because...

It reinforced and reviewed the reading and outline work they had done the night before.
They got to work in groups and talk to each other throughout the class (it was a student-centered activity).
They love publishing podcasts online. Fourteen and fifteen-year-olds love to hear their own voices!
Also, I often send emails home informing parents when we publish podcasts or videos from class. Parents love hearing what their children are learning directly from their mouths and in their own words.

I really liked this lesson because...

It was quick, one 55 minute class period.
The kids were engaged and motivated the entire time they were in class.
The work they are doing is applying the knowledge they have already learned. It isn't about spitting back information they memorized, it is about higher order thinking.
Also, I tend to get a lot of feedback, from both parents and students, when our lessons result in something we publish. Parents email me and comment on the actual podcast. I can also see how many "hits" each podcast gets right on the PodBean site, so I know that students are going back and listening.

Thoughts of Summer

2011-02-17T14:12:00.004-05:00

With a break from the snow and a day of unseasonably warmer weather my thoughts turn to History Connected summer plans.

The History Connected project will offer a Summer Institute titled War and Society from the American Revolution to the War in Vietnam. This exciting course offered by our partner Primary Source will examine the impact of war on American society during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. This institute will explore the ways in which American society was shaped by the United States' involvement in various wars at home and abroad during this period. Themes will include the experiences of men, women, and children on the home front, labor and the war effort, the struggle for racial integration in the Armed services, anti-war movements, and the commemoration of war in American collective memory.

Teachers at a past summer institute work on document analysis.

War and Society from the American Revolution to the War in Vietnam:

Course dates: July 11 - 15, 2011

Location: Reading Memorial High School

Course time: 8:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. (with a longer field trip day TBD)

Follow-up session: October TBA, 2011

PDPs/Graduate credit offered: 67.5 PDPs or 3 professional development graduate credits

Teachers who are interested in furthering their summer professional development might consider one of the many Landmarks in American History and Culture workshops for school teachers offered by the National Endowment for the humanities. Descriptions of their rich course offerings are available at: http://www.neh.gov/projects/landmarks-school.html.

Timely Reading on the Civil War

2011-02-02T17:12:00.021-05:00

History book discussion study groups have been part of History Connected programming since the grant’s inception in 2009. Working with Bob Forrant, a professor of history at UMass Lowell, our teachers come together in monthly meetings to discuss a range of books related to our yearly theme of “War, Society, State, and Citizenship.”

Professor Forrant’s work with our teachers in the History Book Discussion Study Group was recently featured in the online “e-news at UMass Lowell.” Read the full article “Professor, Alum Lead History Book Club” online at http://www.uml.edu/Media/eNews/Teaching_American_History.html.

Our most recent book group meeting focused on a discussion of Drew Gilpin Faust’s This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. While Faust’s book is ranked as #1 on Pulitzer Prize winning historian James McPherson’s list of the “Five Best Books about the Civil War Away from the Battlefield,” teachers engaged in serious discussion regarding how to utilize this book’s content with students in ways that evoke historical empathy and a greater understanding of the impact of the Civil War on soldiers, their families, and the nation as a whole.

Our online discussion forum featured thoughtful replies that illustrated teachers’ attempts to make meaning of Faust’s important text. Teachers addressed selections and strategies that could be used in teaching this grim, yet humane and important subject in the U.S. history classroom.

"Faust's work on the American Civil War is in all respects depressing, brutal, and a period of our history that most of us would prefer to comprehend with statistical relevance," commented one of our teachers, "but teh deeply painful truth is that death is very real. The struggle to understand death was unavoidable." As was written in the 1864 Daily South Carolinian, "Who has not lost a friend during the war? We are a land of mourning. As another teacher summarized, "The study of these ordinary soldiers is important for our students' learning and understanding of the intense impact of this war on American society, economics, politics, and culture."

With this year marking the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, many history organizations are providing updated websites and increased access to a variety of Civil War resources. The History Connected wiki (www.historyconnected.wikispaces.com) site contains a variety of online resources related to teaching about the Civil War. Highlights include:

Disunion
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/disunion/
One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Americans went to war with themselves. Disunion revisits and reconsiders America's most perilous period -- using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded.

Timeline: The Civil War Interactive, The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/10/20/opinion/20101029-civil-war.html
An unfolding history of the major events of the Civil War using contemporaneous coverage from the New York Times' article and photo archives.

Pictorial Americana
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/toc.html

See the Table of Contents to access a variety of images from every year of the Civil War. Additional links provide access to images of Women's Activities during the Civil War and African Americans during the Civil War.

...

Virtual Museum Exhibit at Clara Barton National Historic Site
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/clba/index.html

This exhibit showcases the extraordinary life, tenacious personality, remarkable leadership, and humanitarian contributions of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. Visitors can explore Clara Barton's rich professional work and honors, engaging personal life and letters, and take a virtual tour of her Victorian-style Glen Echo, Maryland home and American Red Cross headquarters.

New York Historical Society Podcasts

https://www.nyhistory.org/web/default.php?section=whats_new&page=public_programs_media

Two renowned Civil War historians – Drew Gilpin Faust and David W. Blight – examine the lives that were irrevocably changed by the Civil War and the mental and physical suffering of a nation. Scroll down the site to access.

“New Interpretations of the Civil War.” History Now, American History Online. December 2010. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/12_2010/interactive.php

The “Interactive History” component provides images of selected Civil War letters. Along with transcripts this site provides audio narrations of the letters along with a lens that changes the script writing into type making it easier to read.

...

Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/
Digital archive with letters, newspapers and other documents pertaining to two communities – one in Pennsylvania and one in Virginia – during the Civil War

Toward Racial Equality: Harper’s Weekly Reports on Black America, 1857 - 1874

http://blackhistory.harpweek.com/

In an age before radio, television, and the Internet, print publications ruled the news business and Harper’s Weekly was king, capturing the lion’s share of the nation’s newspaper audience. This site provides access to rich primary sources (though some of which would be deemed very offensive today, teachers should use care in presenting these valuable resources to students). This site is a valuable resource which provides an important perspective on the history of African Americans.

Not Just a Man’s War: Women in the American Civil War 1861-1865
http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/manswar/
This site provides a simulation for students in which they take on the role of a young woman in 1862 who has recently left her girlhood home to join the war effort for your side in the Civil War or War Between the States. Through work with primary sources, a cyber scavenger hunt and historical letter writing, students work to present new learnings in a class presentation.

See the History Connected wiki at http://historyconnected.wikispaces.com/RepublicofSufferingReading and http://historyconnected.wikispaces.com/ParticipationintheAmericanCivilWar for other Civil War teaching ideas and resources.

Resources to Share!

2011-02-01T20:24:00.005-05:00

The History Connected project has made extensive use of its wiki site http://www.historyconnected.wikispaces.com/ as an archive of resources related to History Connected programming. As the wiki is available on the web, participating teachers and anyone with an Internet connection can access session resources, suggested websites, and other materials related to History Connected programming.

We look forward to expanding the use of the History Connected blog so as to highlight our programming and share information and resources on an ongoing basis. Beginning later this month, our History Connected Teacher Fellows will be featured blog authors, highlighting content, strategies and resources related to the History Connected project and yearly theme of "War, Society, State, and Citizenship.

Year One Offerings

2009-09-11T23:35:00.001-04:00

Workshopsand Institutes Year One

View more presentations from Reading Public Schools.

Register Online for History Connected

2009-09-11T17:30:00.005-04:00

To register to participate in History Connected click on the link below to access the online form:
Register for History Connected

Check Out Our New Website

2009-09-11T17:04:00.002-04:00

The new History Connected website is now available. Check it out at http://www.historyconnected.org/. The History Connected site is the place to go for information about the History Connected TAH project. It will include program descriptions, information about our workshops, resource ideas, a grant calendar. The site will also eventually contain a library of teacher created lessons.

History Connected: A New Teaching American History Grant

2009-07-27T10:54:00.000-04:00

The Reading Public Schools is pleased to announce that it is one of ten Massachusetts school districts and one out of 123 school districts across the country who have received a United States Department of Education Teaching American History grant to improve the quality of American history education.

The Reading Public Schools in partnership with the Danvers, Dracut, Haverhill, Lowell, North Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, and Wilmington Public Schools received a grant totaling $999,818 over three years for the History Connected project.As part of the new History Connected project, the Reading Public Schools will develop activities in partnership with the Department of History at Boston College, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell Graduate School of Education, the Tsongas Center for Industrial History, and Primary Source, a nonprofit history and humanities organization based in Watertown.

History Connected will draw connections across time and place to the enduring themes and issues of U.S. history. Global connections between the United States and the world are an important feature of the program. So too are connections between ideas, individuals, documents and events as they developed on the local, national, and international levels. Over the course of three years, program participants will explore the connections that have shaped American history through three themes:
Year One: Equality, Citizenship, and the Law
Year Two: War and Society: The Civil War to Vietnam
Year Three: American Encounters: Movements of People and Ideas

The goal of this program is to demonstrate how school districts and institutions with expertise in American history can collaborate over a three-year period to ensure that teachers develop the knowledge and skills necessary to teach American history in an exciting and engaging way. “This project will greatly assist teachers in providing students with the knowledge and skills necessary to acquire a deep understanding of the history of United States so that they may develop a strong sense of civic and community awareness and involvement” said Patrick A. Schettini, Jr., J.D., Superintendent of the Reading Public Schools.

School day seminars, history book discussion study groups, historic site visits, and summer institutes will be offered over the course of the project.