Project Name: Keys to History: Building a Community of Learners and Leaders

Abstract

This project will serve the Florida Keys—1,700 islands spread over 120 miles. A 2010 survey determined that only two percent of upper-elementary and middle school American history teachers in this district feel qualified to teach their subject; 77 percent have not had training in historical thinking skills. The project will build on a new series of advanced U.S. history courses being introduced into middle schools. Each year, 20 teachers will participate in (1) history content seminars, guiding them through readings and assignments; (2) content presentation workshops in the schools; (3) history teaching workshops, focusing on specific historical-thinking skills; (4) professional learning communities, and (5) immersive summer institutes, featuring travel to historic sites. The project teachers must participate in nearly 100 annual hours of professional development. The themes will intertwine primary sources and historic sites, including visits to Massachusetts; Philadelphia; the Washington, D.C., area; and selected locations in the Keys. The strategies involve teachers in planning, using sound approaches to historical content, paying attention to pedagogy and active learning, emphasizing historical thinking skills, and promoting collaboration to help teachers address appropriate assessment methods. The key principle is that content, pedagogy and historical thinking should be interwoven and related to classroom experience. Every participating teacher will create one content-based lesson plan, which will be vetted; the highest rated plans will be uploaded to the project Web site as models. Teachers will also develop additional lesson plans and materials to share with their students and colleagues.

The Freedom Project: Turning Points and Learning Points in American History

Abstract

These districts—the two largest in Delaware—are rated below target in terms of Adequate Yearly Progress. In addition, their American history teachers lack adequate preparation in their subject area. Each year of the project will include four 2-day American history workshops and two week-long summer institutes with field trips for two cohorts of 25 teachers and administrators, who will work in professional learning communities and lesson study teams. Cohort A will learn about events through the Civil War, while Cohort B will focus on post-Civil War history. To prevent attrition and ensure full impact, the project will employ an incentive system in which teachers and administrators who participate for three years will receive annually enhanced stipends. All topics are related to the theme of freedom. The project will concentrate on major eras of American history and more focused case studies of selected turning points in the evolution of freedom. The project Web site will feature videotaped sessions that allow visitors to view guided practice lesson presentations by the instructional specialist, a reader-response blog in which visitors can respond to recommended readings and research lessons, a forum in which visitors can recommend and discuss American history resources and best practices, an "Ask the Historian" component that allows participants to communicate with the project's guest historians, and a featured book site that draws attention to new and notable books.

Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Image
Photo, Year 3~Day 106 +77/365 AND Day 837: U.S. History, Old Shoe Woman, Flickr

Summarizing and paraphrasing is a useful practice for English Language Learners (ELLs) who struggle with understanding history text. By learning how to paraphrase, students can improve at reading and analyzing challenging text and gain a better understanding about what they are reading. Practicing key concept identification and rewording the material in another way helps ELL students understand the history content and the original text more fully.

Responding to English Learners’ Writing with the 3 P’s

Image
Middle school student, NYC

The qualities that make a piece of history writing “good” or “effective” vary, depending on the purpose and genre. For students, this can feel like a moving target! For English Learners, it’s even more challenging.

Your feedback on their writing can help them to communicate their thinking more effectively. However, English Learners often turn in assignments with so many flaws in their writing that it is difficult to know where to start. Overwhelming students with too much feedback will not help their learning.

Being strategic with feedback means:

Joe Jelen on Pocket Camcorders

Date Published
Image
Photography, Pocket Camcorder, 12 Sept 2008, Flickr CC
Article Body
What is a pocket camcorder?

A pocket camcorder shrinks the technology of a video camera to the size of your pocket. While not the highest-quality recording device, pocket camcorders offer an easy way to point and shoot video. Although camcorders have been used in classrooms since the 1980s, greater availability of pocket camcorders has revolutionized the way we think about using video in the classroom. Before, a teacher was lucky to check out one camera for use in his classroom. Today, with pocket cameras costing around $150, schools can afford to have multiple camcorders in teachers’ hands. In addition, the pocket camera affords increased flexibility in storage and editing over its predecessors.

How Can I Afford One?

Pocket camcorders are relatively inexpensive with continually falling prices. Most pocket camcorder models cost between $150-$250. The difference in price is largely dependant upon the quality of video it produces and its memory capacity. When searching for a pocket camcorder, you should consider what it will be used for in the classroom. For most projects high definition video and zoom capabilities are valuable, but not a requirement. However, battery life and ease of uploading should be considered. Controls for recording and playing back video should be easily found on the unit. Many media centers have invested in these devices, but if yours has not and you would like to have a few cameras in your own classroom, funding need not hold you back. Currently, there is a 2-for-1 deal on Flip brand video cameras at the nonprofit DigitalWish.com. Also, you can look into buying refurbished pocket camcorders online for around $75.

Increasingly we see smartphones with video capabilities in students’ hands. This will likely make the pocket camcorder technology short-lived. But for now the pocket camcorder offers all students a chance to learn by creating video. I feel there is no need to worry as the same teaching techniques can be applied with the new smartphones as these devices become widespread.

How Can I Use It?
The new National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies put out by the National Council for the Social Studies includes a number of products that could be created with a pocket camera.

To use a pocket camcorder, you will either need a computer on which to upload the stored video (most often via USB) for editing and sharing, or a way to project video from the pocket camcorder to a television or LCD projector (usually via HDMI cable). Once you figure out the logistics of students presenting or sharing their videos, you’ll need a reason to have students use the cameras! I believe the pocket camera’s true benefit is providing students authentic learning and assessment opportunities. The new National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies put out by the National Council for the Social Studies includes a number of products that could be created with a pocket camera. Students could take pocket cameras home to conduct interviews of those that have witnessed historical events. Or, they could create a public service announcement publicizing healthy habits. Students could also use their cameras to capture visual evidence of culture in their community or create a documentary on a community issue. I have also seen teachers assign students the task of recording and narrating trips to historical sites to share with classmates. I had students create CommonCraft-like videos in which they explained a constitutional amendment “in plain English.” In this project students created a script and a storyboard, and used black-and-white cutouts to help explain their assigned amendment. If rehearsed properly students could shoot their two-minute video in one take and did not need to spend time editing. Aside from a pocket cam, the only other additional piece of equipment necessary is a tripod that will allow the camera to face downward to record action beneath.

The social studies classroom offers many avenues to incorporate the pocket camera into instruction and assessment. I hope that you experiment with other uses for the pocket camera and share them with us here.

For more information

Find product reviews for pocket cameras.

In an earlier blog entry, Jennifer Orr describes using pocket camcorders with her 1st-grade students.

Watch students make movies in our video on the Prince William County, VA program 'Of the Student, For the Student, By the Student.' Students could use pocket camcorders to make their own videos at historic sites.

Joe Jelen on the New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Date Published
Image
Photographic prints, Among first to enter action, 1940s, United States Army--Sig
Article Body
Overview

The New York Public Library offers a digital gallery of many photographs and artifacts from its collections. The NYPL–Digital Gallery features a searchable index of thousands of pictures and artifacts related to a wide variety of subjects in American history. Best of all it is free and easy to use.

How to Find What You’re Looking For

Next time you are looking for a photograph of an important historical figure, try using the NYPL-Digital Gallery to search for images of him/her. A simple search in the NYPL search engine box on the home page can unearth thought-provoking photographs, like this candid shot of President Grover Cleveland. This image says a lot more than the images one would obtain from a basic Internet image search.

Also from the home page, try browsing by subject and look for documents related to your state. There are many great images that capture towns and cities in the past. This is a fantastic way to tie in local history. On a digital map, instruct students to locate where an old building once stood using a site like WhatWasThere.com. Students could also compare this detailed 1911 collection of photos of 5th Avenue to a Google Maps street view of 5th Avenue today to show students the impact of urbanization.

The NYPL-Digital Gallery can also help locate sources that might display social change over time. For instance, you might find pictures showing how bridal fashion has changed over time. If you click ‘Browse Sources’ and type “brides” into the ‘Explore Subjects’ search box, you will see a link to pictures tagged by this subject from 1400 through 1939.

Instructional Ideas

One of the skills we want to teach history students is how to ask the right questions. A way to practice this might be with the use of interesting images, like this one, of a “courting stick” in action. This photo begs students to ask many questions. A courting stick is a long, hollow tube around six feet long with a mouthpiece at each end. It allows courting couples to discreetly speak with one another while maintaining the appropriate physical boundaries. If you simply browse the depths of the NYPL-Digital Gallery for 10 minutes, you are bound to stumble across a treasure like this that will capture your students’ historical curiosity.

Another idea is to have students create a digital timeline incorporating images found in the Digital Gallery to demonstrate the concept of change over time. This assignment asks students to analyze changing American culture. Students could use the subject search feature of the Digital Gallery to find images related to sports, weddings, leisure, and other cultural phenomena in America over the last 250 years.

Allow yourself an opportunity to explore this vast collection of primary sources for use in your classroom. Give your students time to investigate the Digital Gallery as well. After all, this is one way historians craft questions about the past. In my browsing, I stumbled across this revealing group of photos related to African Americans serving in World War II. The photos capture the many ways African American men and women served during the war.

The NYPL-Digital Gallery is a one-stop-shop for primary sources on every topic in American history, and it is organized in a logical way, making it easy to collect documents and images.

The NYPL-Digital Gallery is a one-stop-shop for primary sources on every topic in American history, and it is organized in a logical way, making it easy to collect documents and images. As you search for images you may want to create a collection of images for a class. You will note, above each image is a button to “select” the image. By selecting a picture it is stored in “My Collection,” accessible from the home page and from the menu bar at the top of each page. This function is handy when building a lesson around a group of documents. As you find new ways to use the NYPL-Digital Gallery I hope you will share them with us here.

For more information

The NYPL Digital Gallery is only one of hundreds of primary-source archives online. Search our Website Reviews for more storehouses of visual, textual, and multimedia materials! Once you've found sources, Using Primary Sources gives you tips on modeling analysis for students.

Joe Jelen on Google's Art Project

Date Published
Image
Detail, painting, The North-West Passage, 1874, Sir John Everett Millais, Tate
Detail, painting, The North-West Passage, 1874, Sir John Everett Millais, Tate
Detail, painting, The North-West Passage, 1874, Sir John Everett Millais, Tate
Article Body
Bringing Back the Arts

Unfortunately, the arts are being squeezed out of school budgets and students’ schedules. Most would agree, though, that the arts play a vital role in fostering students’ creativity and helping students ask the “big questions” about the world around them. Fortunately, integrating the visual arts into any classroom just became a bit more fun with the launch of Google Art Project.

The Art Project lends itself particularly well to classrooms with interactive whiteboards with which students can feel like they are standing in the museum.

Google Art Project allows viewers to explore selected museums and zoom in on works of art. For those familiar with Google Map’s “street view” feature, the site functions in much the same way. Users feel like they are walking through the museum and can look up and down at museum features. When a work of art catches your eye, simply click on the image and you can zoom in on incredible detail of the painting or sculpture (see Google’s video about using Art Project). The Art Project lends itself particularly well to classrooms with interactive whiteboards with which students can feel like they are standing in the museum. I personally like the ability to take my time with a painting and have another browser tab open to find out more about a painting as questions arise in my head.

Virtual Field Trips

Detail, painting, 1863-1865, James McNeill Whistler, Freer Gallery of Art, Google Art ProjectMy students get excited anytime I mention the words “field trip,” and with good reason. Field trips not only offer students a get-out-of-school-free card, but also offer them a chance to learn through interacting and experiencing. When money and time are tight, field trips are cut. That is why I am thrilled that technology is allowing students to take virtual field trips. These virtual field trips are growing more interactive and more content rich every day. Google Art Project is the latest development in expanding student access to these rich sites.

A benefit of viewing works of art in a museum is being able to see and appreciate their relative size. As a simple image, one cannot appreciate how small the Mona Lisa is or how large Pablo Picasso’s Guernica is. With Google Art Project, students can get a sense of this by seeing paintings hanging in the museum without leaving their classroom.

Google Art Project provides information and related material when you click on a work of art. You and your students can also create collections of selected pieces to share. This makes it very easy to set up a gallery of artwork from a particular time period or region from different museums.

Using Art in the Classroom
One instructional technique may be to require students to play art detective as they solve when and where an artist lived and produced their work.

The Art Project offers several interesting possibilities to link history with the visual arts. A nice way to begin a lesson might be to have students “walk into the painting,” where students pretend to actually enter the painting and describe the scene using all their senses. Understanding works of art often requires students ask the same inquiry questions they ask in history class. Therefore, one instructional technique may be to require students to play art detective as they solve when and where an artist lived and produced their work. It may also be useful for you and your students to brush up on some of the terminology with which to discuss visual art. This way, students are seeing another adult (aside from their art teacher) model an appreciation of art.

Detail, painting, The North-West Passage, 1874, Sir John Everett Millais, Tate Britain, Google Art ProjectAnother instructional idea that blends history with understanding art is to select a group of romantic paintings, a group of realist paintings, and a group of impressionist paintings and discuss the different styles of paintings and the emotions each elicits. For example, many romantic paintings glorify subjects and can stir feelings of nationalism, while realist paintings can capture the daily hardship and struggles individuals must endure. Teachers can discuss with students how different styles of paintings capture prevalent ideas and emotions of the artists’ societies.

Art is also a great way to teach students about culture. Students could use Google Art Project to put together a collection of art related to a specific culture. Paintings can also teach students about trade networks. Often, paintings feature items or styles not native to the artist’s home country. Thus explaining, for instance, how the porcelain cups, featured in a painting, found their way from China to Spain could be a good lesson for students.

Some of the museums in the Art Project have interesting lesson plans that can accompany works of art in the museum. Check out these lesson plans from the Smithsonian and lesson plans from the Museum of Modern Art.

While the current offerings of museums are limited in the Art Project, the possibilities of the site are exciting as art becomes democratized.

Certainly, nothing can compare to physically being in the museum, but Google Art Project is making the world a little smaller, allowing us to visit multiple museums from one site.

For more information

Joe Jelen introduces you to other useful tech and digital tools in his blog entries on document cameras and online timeline tools. He also models one technique for using whiteboards to explore visual primary sources in the video "Zoom-in Inquiry."

Teachinghistory.org's co-director Daisy Martin has some suggestions for teaching with the visual arts, with plenty of links to further arts-related resources. Also try browsing our Museums and Historic Sites database for art museums in your area!

Teaching American History Program Invites 2011 Applications

Date Published
Image
Detail, homepage, Ed.gov
Article Body

On Feb. 2, the Department of Education released the Teaching American History Grant Program Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011.

According to the Department, the Teaching American History program is

designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge and understanding of and appreciation for traditional U.S. history. Grant awards will assist LEAs [local educational agencies], in partnership with entities that have content expertise, to develop, document, evaluate, and disseminate innovative and cohesive models of professional development. By helping teachers to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of U.S. history as a separate subject matter within the core curriculum, these programs will improve instruction and raise student achievement.

The TAH program has reached out to U.S. history teachers across the nation since 2001, when it awarded its first 60 grants. Last year, 124 applicants received grants. Learn more about the program at ED.gov—browse the abstracts of previous award recipients, learn how to apply, and read FAQs on eligibility, project priorities, and other topics. If you're applying (or are already a grantee), you may benefit from the Department of Education's webinars on grant management. Sign up, or read transcripts for past webinars.

Curious to see what others have learned from participating in TAH Grant projects? We have a section dedicated to highlighting TAH! Project Spotlights look at projects that share the resources they've created online, and Lessons Learned lets you in on the experiences of educators, project directors, historians, evaluators, and others who have participated in TAH projects.