The Progressive Era: A Group Effort

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Political Cartoon, Untitled [Progressive Fallacies], March 18, 1912, NARA
Question

I am a student teacher and I will be teaching the Progressive Era. I was wondering if there might be any ideas out there for a group class activity on this unit?

Answer

Looking through the NHEC website is always a good place to start when you’re searching for teaching materials. Our Lesson Plan Reviews section, for instance (listed under Teaching Resources), includes dozens of entries, including one on the Progressive Era by Bringing History Home. These lesson plans have already been vetted by our staff according to an evaluation rubric that is posted at the bottom of each review. Use our Lesson Plan Gateway to do a keyword search for lesson plans on the web. But do be a savvy consumer; while we have vetted the websites, we have not reviewed the individual plans.

Each lesson includes classroom activities, as well as primary sources from the Library’s American Memory collection.

Another useful approach when searching for lesson plans is to look in digital archives. The Library of Congress, for instance, has lesson plans for various grade levels, organized by historical theme. Among the several lessons on the Progressive Era are lessons on child labor and women’s suffrage. Each lesson includes classroom activities, as well as primary sources from the Library’s American Memory collection. The National Archives, similarly, has a whole host of lesson plans, including one on the Progressive Era that uses political cartoons to understand the period. The lesson includes historical background, teaching activities, and resources from the National Archives.

There are also a number of excellent websites, designed with teachers in mind, that pair lesson plans with digitized primary sources. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, for instance, is always a good place to look for teaching ideas. They have four lessons on the Progressive Era—one for high school teachers, two for middle school teachers, and one for elementary school teachers&#8212that include background information, suggested activities, and links to relevant materials. Digital History, a project hosted by the University of Houston, is another good resource for lesson plans. Their lesson plan on the Progressive Era includes historical background, links to primary documents, timelines, and teaching activities.

You might also search for lessons about the political activism of women when considering what to teach about the Progressive Era.

Finally, you might also look to other, more specialized sources for lesson plans. When focusing on the Progressive Era, for instance, you might look for a lesson on working conditions. A quick search turns up a PBS Frontline lesson that centers on Upton Sinclair’s seminal work The Jungle, and includes links to chapters of the book. You might also search for lessons about the political activism of women when considering what to teach about the Progressive Era. Women and Social Movements in the United States, hosted by the Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender, is a great resource for teaching materials. They have a number of specific lesson plans, many of which examine Progressive Era reforms, like one on New York suffragists and electoral politics from 1919-1926.

Most of these lesson plans include some degree of group work. When they don’t, you can always make the adjustment yourself. When a plan calls for students to read primary sources, for instance, you might have them work in teams to conduct a group analysis.

Finally, as you go through these various websites looking for a lesson plan that you like, you might want to bookmark them in your web browser. All of them are worth returning to at some point.

John Adams: Great or Not?

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Engraving, Presidents of the United States. . . , Thomas Gimbrede, NYPL
Question

Was John Adams considered to have been a great president? How have historians assessed greatness in presidents?

Answer

A number of presidential historians have come to a consensus regarding the qualities that so-called great presidents have exhibited. For example, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. distinguishes great presidents as those who "possess, or are possessed by, a vision of an ideal America." Another historian, Robert Dallek, similarly states "every effective president had a vision or even a series of visions about where he wished to lead the country." In addition to possessing a vision for the nation, great presidents have succeeded in establishing what Schlesinger describes as "a deep psychic connection with the needs, anxieties, dreams of people." They have achieved this bond using education and persuasion to convince Americans to consent to their own vision of the nation's future. Dallek correspondingly writes that effective presidents have needed to found their policies "on a shared national perception of what served the country's well-being." James MacGregor Burns likewise links leadership to the creation of a "collective purpose" measured "by the satisfaction of human needs and expectations."

In addition to vision, Schlesinger observes that while moments of crisis have presented presidents with "opportunities for bold and imaginative action," even without such crises, "forceful and persuasive presidents—Jefferson, Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan—are able to impose their own priorities on the country." Dallek adds pragmatism and credibility as essential qualities of the most effective presidents.

The Traditional Assessment
Much of the lingering criticism of Adams can be traced to his re-election campaign of 1800. . .

Using the above mentioned criteria, John Adams has not traditionally been viewed as one of the great presidents of the United States. Much of the lingering criticism of Adams can be traced to his re-election campaign of 1800, which he lost to Thomas Jefferson, becoming the nation's first one-term president. During the campaign, he was criticized by both the Republicans, who supported Jefferson, and his own party, the Federalists. Popular historian David McCullough has described the campaign, which resulted in Thomas Jefferson's ascendancy to the presidency, as "a contest of personal vilification surpassing any presidential election in American history." During the 1800 campaign, Adams was called a monarchist, a warmonger, and an indecisive leader during wartime. He was tarred as a vain eccentric with an "ungovernable temper." He was attacked for his conservative outlook and for his tendency to act irresponsibly and capriciously without consulting his cabinet and advisors. His enemies spread rumors that he was insane, and like Jefferson, he was branded as a libertine.

Adams was also blamed both for actions he took during his term in office and for a supposed turn in political philosophy to favor aristocracy and monarchy over republicanism and democracy due to his opposition to the French Revolution. During the subsequent "quasi-war" with France, Adams's signing into law the Alien and Sedition Acts, which he did not initiate, became a liability that tarnished his reputation. His call for new taxes and the creation of a standing army alienated many at the time. With Jefferson's victory characterized as the "Revolution of 1800," Adams's association with the extinguished Federalist party has been proof for many that he was on the wrong side of history.

Recent Redemption

However, recent biographies have sought to reconsider Adams and his legacy. One biographer, John Patrick Diggins, believes that the assessment of Adams "as something of a loser" stems from a misunderstanding of the legacies of both Adams and Jefferson. Another, C. Bradley Thompson, contends that Adams was consistent in his political thought and did not adopt anti-republican views as his enemies had charged. In addition, John Ferling emphasizes Adams's decision to send a peace mission to France despite opposition within his administration and party—an action that many believe cost him the 1800 election—as not only "a courageous deed, an act of statesmanship that saved countless lives," but as an act that "spared the new nation unimaginable dangers—dangers to the survival of its republican experiment as well as to the very existence of the Union." These authors and others assert that Adams's success at preserving the nation's liberty despite his failings as a political leader point to his enduring legacy. However, some of the lingering criticism stems from Adams himself, writing, "I am not, never was, & never shall be a great man."

Bibliography

Burns, James MacGregor. Leadership. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.

Dallek, Robert. "Splendid Misery." Review of The American Presidency: An Intellectual History, by Forrest McDonald. Reviews in American History 22 (December 1994): 561-66.

Diggins, John Patrick. John Adams. New York: Times Books, 2003.

Ferling, John. John Adams: A Life. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992.

Knott, Stephen. "Review Essay: The Legacy of John Adams." Review of John Adams, by David McCullough, and John Adams and the Founding of the Republic, edited by Richard Alan Ryerson. Presidential Studies Quarterly 32 (June 2002): 428-31.

McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. "Editor’s Note." In Diggins, John Patrick. John Adams. New York: Times Books, 2003, xvii-xx.

Thompson, C. Bradley. John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1998.

Manzanar: Desert Diamonds Behind Barbed Wire

Description

According to the Apple Learning Interchange site, "The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the National Park Service present a sobering visit to the Manzanar War Relocation Center. This National Historic Site provides a compelling classroom to relive the experience of Japanese Americans held captive during World War II, as well as the plight of countless nationalities who face discrimination and intolerance still today. This is a tale of the indomitable Issei and Nisei generations. Watchers can learn through the emotional memories of survivors, and the invincible cheers of detainees at baseball games that still echo across the desert valley.

Civil War Poster!

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Note: Thank you for your interest in our posters. We no longer have the Civil War poster in stock, but you may print a copy or visit the interactive online version.

What can a quilt, a map, some photographs, a haversack, and a receipt tell you about the past? Thanks to Teachinghistory.org’s new FREE poster, “How Do You Piece Together the History of the Civil War?,” these objects can teach a lot about the Civil War and about how historians piece together the past.

Click image to enlarge

This 24 x 36 inch poster features an engaging collage of primary sources and related questions that get students thinking about how we know what we know about the past, especially in relation to our country’s most devastating conflict, the Civil War. The question, “How can geography impact a battle?,” accompanies a map of Gettysburg while a slave receipt prompts students to think about the laws, economics, and people involved in the institution of slavery.

As a special bonus for teachers, Teachinghistory.org has created an interactive version of this poster with links to teaching materials and websites related to the Civil War. Topics include children’s voices during the Civil War, African American perspectives, women’s roles, Civil War era music, and emancipation, as well as military history and life on the battlefield.

This poster and online resources illustrate that it takes many sources and perspectives to develop a rich understanding of the Civil War in all of its complexity.

What Do Students Learn from Historical Feature Films?

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A screen capture from "How to Use Classroom Films (1963)". Prelinger Archives
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Historical feature films are a popular tool history teachers use to engage their students. But what is it that students actually learn from the films they watch? Peter Seixas, a historian and professor of education at the University of British Columbia, showed that while students often empathize with the past they see on the screen, they also approach film history uncritically. Sometimes they even interpret a film's presentation of history to be as it actually happened. In a landmark article, Seixas described the difficulty students have in analyzing films for historical accuracy.

Contemporary Films vs. Old Films
Seixas showed ten students Dances with Wolves (1990), directed by and starring Kevin Costner, and John Ford's The Searchers (1956), starring John Wayne. Students watched and summarized segments from each film. After showing each film, students answered questions about the film's historical accuracy.

Students found Dances with Wolves to be more accurate than The Searchers for two main reasons—reasons that have more to do with film technique and contemporary beliefs than historical accuracy. Dances with Wolves used modern techniques and promoted a contemporary interpretation of the past. Students noted that the use of blood in violent scenes and the quality of the acting made this film more believable than the older John Wayne film.

Students criticized The Searchers for poor acting, and outdated cinematography (e.g., old folky music). Students also found Dances with Wolves to be more believable because they shared the film's critique of America's treatment of Native Americans. On the other hand, The Searchers' negative representation of women and Native Americans caused many students to question its historical accuracy.

Contemporary Films and Old Films
Seixas argued that students' acceptance of Dances with Wolves as historically accurate reflects a larger problem with showing films in history class. Students are often so engaged by such films that they fail to question the films' historical merits. They blindly accept such films as accurate mirrors of the past. However, Seixas found that The Searchers' blatant misrepresentation of the past prompted students to question the historical accuracy of Dances with Wolves. After viewing both films students still found Dances with Wolves to be more accurate than The Searchers—yet now they at least questioned Dances with Wolves, saying they needed more information to determine its truthfulness.

Historical Films and The Classroom
The visual imagery and powerful audio of film can engage students in ways that lectures and textbooks cannot. However, what makes these films engaging—their use of cutting-edge techniques and their contemporary perspective on the past—often results in students passively accepting these stories as historical truth. So how then can films be used to promote a more critical stance?

Seixas' research suggests that one place to begin is for history students to learn to question how the past is presented in this media. To do this, teachers can have students compare an older film on the same topic with a more contemporary film. This juxtaposition helps students see that no film is a direct mirror to the past.

In the Classroom
  • Use older films in the beginning of the year as a touchstone experience for critiquing a film's accuracy and realism.
  • Provide students with the vocabulary, concepts and approaches needed to discuss both the cinematic conventions as well as the historical accuracy of the film. One important concept for students to learn is that the time period in which a film is created influences the way it depicts an historical event.
  • Use historical documents in conjunction with a film to provide students with information to help them determine the historical accuracy of the film.
Sample Application

Initially students accepted Dances with Wolves uncritically as historical truth. One student stated that Dances with Wolves taught her "things I didn't know before . . . things about the culture."

After seeing The Searchers, students questioned the accuracy of Dances with Wolves. Students also recognized the need for more information to determine the truthfulness of Dances with Wolves.

Student: I can't really say, well, if I had to say which one is more accurate I'd probably say Dances with Wolves but I'd probably just say that because it's more modern.
Researcher: When you saw Dances with Wolves originally . . . did the question ever occur to you how accurate it is?
Student: No, because it was just a show that I was watching and I was so wrapped up in feeling and crying that I didn't stop . . . to wonder if this is right. In The Searchers, it's a lot easier.

For more information

Mark C. Carnes ed., The Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies, (New York, NY: Holt,1996).

Natalie Davis, Slaves on Screen: Film and Historical Vision, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000).

Bibliography

Peter Seixas, "Confronting the Moral Frames of Popular Film: Young People Respond to Historical Revisionism," American Journal of Education, 102, no. 3 (May, 1994):261–85.

Games Require Active, Skilled Teaching

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Games are everywhere. Digital games have a long history of research and development in education. Yet despite this, there's still much confusion amongst the generation population, and even teachers. Are games good? Safe? A waste of time?

It's not hard to understand why there is still confusion. The field of games is vast—and therefore, confusing. Some games are aimed at skill-and-drill, some at learning specific facts, and others have been designed for deep learning—creating rich environments with dynamics that confront a student's conceptions and require complex decisions and collaboration with peers. Even some commercial games, not specifically designed for learning, fall into this last category. With such a complex landscape, it can be tricky for a teacher to know if and how to leverage games for learning, let alone which ones.

Research

Well-designed digital games for learning provide learners with experiences that are built on principles confirmed by research in the learning sciences. The research in the field of educational games has shown that at the very least, well-designed games have the ability to dramatically increase engagement and motivation in students, as well as more critical skills like strategic thinking, problem-solving, and planning social skills such as communication and collaboration, and even personal skills such as initiative and persistence.

What does this really look like in the classroom? The MIT Education Arcade gives a nice overview of games in education, with examples and strategies for how teachers can begin using them (Editor's note: The author cowrote a white paper for the Arcade.). Their first vignette describes Ross, a middle school teacher who used the games Civilization and Diplomacy (commercial, off-the-shelf games) to explore the political causes of World War I. At a school that is not very big on technology, Ross found numerous benefits in using the game versus more traditional instructional methods, including teaching students skills in negotiation, how to problem-solve collaboratively, and how to be mindful of actions and impacts on others (systems thinking). Ultimately, Ross described the most beneficial aspect being that the game framed the context and content, providing a rich scenario with which the students could engage.

Ross found numerous benefits in using the game [. . . ] including teaching students skills in negotiation, how to problem-solve collaboratively, and how to be mindful of actions and impacts on others (systems thinking).

What's even more incredible is how Ross has described the advancement of his students' moral development through these learning experiences, as they forced students to negotiate and understand others' perspectives in order to achieve a mutually agreeable goal.

What this highlights is that games are often more than just a 1:1 exchange between the computer and the student. For many games, it's the dynamic created by the context of the game and the social interactions amongst learners and the teacher that are critical not only to the gaming experience, but more importantly, the learning experience.

While some argue that games can create learning experiences that bypass the teacher—and indeed, some games are designed for that—in general, games are not meant to replace or remove the teacher from the learning experience. In fact, the example of Ross and many others like it underscores the opposite—that games create scenarios in the classroom where the stakes are raised and the learning is deeper, thereby requiring highly skilled and engaged teachers facilitating the process.

This makes games used for learning history and the social sciences anything but fluff.

In reality, these games are some of the most robust learning vehicles, as they afford the opportunity to confront and tease out the complex historical and societal dynamics of our world. . .

In reality, these games are some of the most robust learning vehicles, as they afford the opportunity to confront and tease out the complex historical and societal dynamics of our world, unlike many other disciplines, which can be parsed and truncated into short, discrete topics and smaller learning games.

Certainly, in general games can do many things that benefit learners, it's their intersection with history that is particularly unique (1):

  • they allow students to explore four dimensions (both space and time) of worlds they would otherwise never get the chance to experience;
  • they engage students' identities rather than asking them to gradually acquire facts and knowledge;
  • they provide pathways into marginalized societies, creating a safe space to explore issues of race, power, and class; and
  • they create historical simulations where students can create models and run cycles of inquiry with past events.
Limitations

These opportunities make games in education worth paying attention to, but it's also worth noting their limitations as learning tools. For one, they are oversimplified, since a digital game can't represent reality absolutely. While simplification isn't inherently bad, as it lets you weed out the noise and focus on critical variables, it's important to help your students understand these limitations.

Secondly, students may grasp symbols and elements in the game but not always be able to transfer those symbols back to their real-world referents. Supplementing gameplay with other resources such as videos, primary documents, and case studies can assist with this.

In short, games matter in history education. Play is not a one-way flow of information—the player's actions matter. That play allows learners to embody the rhetorics, arguments, and actions of the past in code, so that they may be unpacked in the present.

Which game(s) are right for you and your students? A variety of good learning games are available for students of various ages, across the disciplines—many of them researched and developed by leading universities and institutions. Some more advanced commercial games that have been used in education include Civilization III, Rise of Nations, Pirates!, Gettysburg, Patrician, Age of Empires, 1602 AD, and Europa Universalis.

So while navigating the landscape of games to choose those that fit the needs of your students can feel like a game in and of itself, it's certainly not all fluff. If you want to see the effects of games in learning with your students, all you have to do is start playing.

1 For more information on this, see Kurt Squire's work.

Teaser

Games create scenarios in the classroom where the stakes are raised and the learning is deeper, thereby requiring highly skilled and engaged teachers facilitating the process.

Jennifer Orr on Making Technology Work for Primary Students: Part Two

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Photo, DAY 41/365: Recording In Progress, Feb. 10, 2010, dcosand, Flickr
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In a recent post I argued the importance of both history and technology in primary grades. I also made the case that both are significant challenges for teachers of young children for a variety of reasons. However, I’m a firm believer that we can do anything we think is important.

Technological Hardware in the 1st-grade Classroom

Moving to first grade from upper elementary grades meant that I had to think carefully about the technology I used. Some technology carried over quite nicely. I have an interactive whiteboard in my classroom. When we explored timelines we used it to look at one year in a variety of ways and to show timelines from a wonderful, but very small, book. While we record most of our thinking on chart paper we can hang up around the room to reread and refer back to, the interactive whiteboard allows children to manipulate items and ideas. We’ve also used ours to sort images into categories or chronological order.

A large part of the social studies curriculum in the early grades is based around helping students understand their community and their role in it.

Another use of technology I continue with in first grade is movie making. Sometimes we use still pictures and sometimes we take video. One example with still pictures is a movie about our responsibilities for school. A large part of the social studies curriculum in the early grades is based around helping students understand their community and their role in it. At our school we have a Home-School Compact for Learning. In order to better understand the students’ responsibilities we created a video with still pictures and with video. I have slowly collected a few digital cameras and a few Flip video cameras. I carry one of each around with me at all times so that I can quickly capture anything that catches my attention during the school day. Other cameras are on lanyards for students to wear around their neck when using them.

And What About Software?

First graders in Virginia also learn about the difference between past and present. It is great fun to look at pictures of the past (especially schools, transportation, and daily life) and then send small groups of first graders off with a camera to capture images to contrast with the past. We can then put those into Windows Movie Maker or Photo Story to create a video explaining past and present.

The structure is set for brief writing, which is comforting to young children.

As the year is progressing and my students are gaining literacy skills, I’m introducing them to Wallwisher. This free site allows me to create a wall with a question or topic and my students can add Post-It like items with their thoughts. As they are working around the classroom exploring a topic they can head to our interactive whiteboard to add their thinking. I can also place the wall on our class blog for students to come back to or to add more thoughts. The structure is set for brief writing, which is comforting to young children. It is a great way for us to record our learning and return to it later.

These different options for technology use offer opportunities for presenting information, processing learning, and sharing our thinking. In my next post I’ll explore my favorite, free, online tool in detail.

For more information

Read part one of Jennifer Orr's look at technology in early elementary classrooms, and then see what she has to say on other tricky topics in primary-level teaching in her entries on teaching Thanksgiving and Columbus Day.

For an introduction to Web 2.0 tools like those Orr mentions, browse our Tech for Teachers section. Learn about whiteboards, document cameras, digital storytelling software, and other tools.

Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History

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Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History

The Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project offers teaching resources and guidance for conducting document-centered inquiry in middle and high school classrooms. This wealth of resources includes vast archives of documents, (for example Montreal is Burning) and several guides for teaching students to think critically about history. Materials are available in both French and English.

World Digital Library

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A Guide for the Perplexed on the Drawing of the Circle of Projection

The World Digital Library, a collaborative project of the Library of Congress, UNESCO, and other partners, is a collection of primary documents from around the world. Particularly useful for working with ELL students, the site has a drop-down language menu, which allows teachers to translate the site’s accompanying materials into a number of languages including Spanish and Chinese.

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