Collaborating on Content for American History Teachers

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Effective collaboration is essential to successful implementation of Teaching American History (TAH) programs. Program leaders and partners need to collaborate well in order to effectively address problems, improve the program during implementation, and ensure that the program runs smoothly. Participants benefit from collaboration because it provides them an opportunity to learn from one another, and not just from the project leaders. Teachers, administrators, history education specialists, and historians bring different perspectives to the task of improving the teaching and learning of history in middle and high school classrooms. The experience of the Chicago History Project (CHP), shows that effective collaboration among all of these groups can contribute to programs that meet participants' needs.

The Challenges and Rewards of Collaboration

The TAH grant program of the U.S. Department of Education funded the Chicago History Project (CHP) in 2002. The project involved several organizational partners, including the Newberry Library, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Chicago Historical Society (now Chicago History Museum), the Chicago Metro History Education Center, and the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. CHP leadership designed a project with components that allowed partners and participants to work together, provide feedback, and alter the program to ensure that it met the needs of its participants and the goals of the grant.

The emphasis on collaboration helped develop communities of inquiry that strengthened teachers' pedagogical content knowledge.

CHP aimed at addressing several problems in history education, including the lack of teacher preparation in the discipline of history. It also attempted to foster professional relationships among teachers by creating a program that linked 7th- through 12th-grade teachers with university history professors, history education specialists, museums, and libraries.

CHP evolved over time based on participant feedback and increasingly provided teachers with programs, partnerships, and resources that increased the depth of historical content in their American history courses. The emphasis on collaboration helped develop communities of inquiry that strengthened teachers' pedagogical content knowledge.

Evolving Goals and Design

The initial design of CHP put history content at the center with the belief that the translation of the content to the classroom would be done largely by the teachers. Program leaders viewed historians as the experts in historical content and the teachers as experts in pedagogy with history education specialists having a foot in both arenas, but CHP also included an emphasis on collaboration that was responsive to teachers' needs and strengthened teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. As a result, feedback from participants led to a more collaborative approach in planning and implementing program activities that improved the integration of content and method.

Teachers . . . noted specific benefits of collaborating with colleagues from their school and other schools.

At the outset, CHP mixed middle and high school teachers together in teams to articulate the American history curriculum. The logistical challenges of coordinating cross-grade level partnerships of paired schools led CHP staff to base Cohorts 2 and 3 on school-based teams rather than pairing schools. This change allowed flexibility in cross-grade relationships and allowed teachers and schools with particular interests to work together. It successfully addressed the logistical problem without sacrificing the emphasis on increasing teacher collaboration.

The most significant change made based on teacher input was the redesign of the summer institute. Whereas Cohort 1 met as a single group for many sessions, Cohorts 2 and 3 were each divided into two seminar groups that met daily, meaning each group now had a consistent facilitator who could help them make connections between seminars and assist in building from one conversation to the next. In this context, the facilitator provided a consistent and constant resource in discussion, and the redesign of the summer institute allowed for small groups with more focused facilitation.

Working intensively with colleagues provided "a richer sense of professional collaboration among fellow CPS teachers."

Teachers also noted specific benefits of collaborating with colleagues from their school and other schools. One teacher described it as providing "a richer sense of professional collaboration among fellow CPS teachers," while another saw the school partnerships as a way to ensure that materials from CHP would be integrated into the curriculum.

Benefits for All

CHP provided collaboration across organizations and between teachers and historians and history education specialists. The partner organizations found participation in the Chicago History Project to be beneficial in a variety of ways. They appreciated the opportunity to interact with a group of dedicated teachers over a sustained period of time. The partner organizations forged closer relationships with many participants and saw significant crossover of CHP teachers participating in other professional development programs. Partners also noted that the long-term nature of CHP provided them with time to refine and tailor their offerings and materials to best suit the needs of CHP participants.

The commitment to a rich content-based program and the collaborative structure of the professional development project were instrumental in leveraging these changes. The response to teacher feedback and the commitment to provide teachers deep engagements with historical content made the project at once responsive and challenging.

Amy Trenkle on National History Day—It's More than Just a Day…and It's More than Just History

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National History Day logo
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My students have been participating in National History Day since my first year teaching in the public schools—more than a decade ago. Since that first year, I have grown tremendously as a teacher and as a teacher who is guiding students through the National History Day process. There's a lot I could write about National History Day. I truly think it's one of the best programs for asking students to research and then synthesize their research through a project. It allows for choice, higher-order thinking skills, and diversity in the way the project is presented.

It’s that project presentation format I want to focus on. At first, and for quite a number of years, my students participated in the exhibit category because it was my strength as a teacher, but for the last three years or so, the number of students participating in the website and documentary categories has really grown. I have continued to learn and stretch my boundaries as a teacher as well.

For those of you new to National History Day I highly suggest checking their site out online at nhd.org. In a nutshell, however, here is the program: Students choose their own topic that fits within the annual theme (this year’s theme is "Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, and Consequences"), they choose to work individually or in groups of up to five students (with the exception of the research paper), and they choose one of five categories to present their project in: research paper, documentary, performance, exhibit, or website.

The website and documentary categories are particularly wonderful for integrating social studies content and using technology to display the students’ hard work and knowledge. Here are some highlights and sticking points that I’ve found while having students work with the website and documentary categories.

Pros of Website:

  • Students can pull a myriad of images, sounds, videos, and other primary sources directly from the Internet and put them on their website. This encourages students to incorporate 21st-century skills, specifically technology skills, while asking them to analyze and evaluate sources they have chosen, placing them in historical context. As with any of the venues for NHD, this also calls on historical thinking skills and meeting research standards for English Language Arts.
  • It's free—as long as students have access to a computer and the Internet they can complete a website!
  • It can be taken with students easily from home, to school, to aftercare.
  • The website category is now streamlined through nhd.weebly.com. The beauty of this is that students who are just beginning may choose to use the drag-and-drop features of the website. Those who are more advanced may write their own HTML code to alter the site and create their own unique website.

Cons of Website:

  • It's easy for students to ONLY use web sources for their project. Getting students to scan sources or construct their own videos and edit them can easily be overlooked if the teacher and parents are not vigilant.
  • Students spend a lot of time with nuances of design like font and font size, sometimes to the detriment of the HISTORY of the project.

Pros of Documentary:

  • Again, this type of project encourages students to incorporate 21st-century skills, specifically technology skills, while asking them to analyze and evaluate the sources they have chosen, placing them in historical context.
  • Documentaries are very impressive when they are finished and done well.
  • It can be very easy to map out the story, write a script, and then find the primary sources to "tell" that story.

Cons of Documentary:

  • Students need to come to the project with at least a basic working knowledge of iMovie or Moviemaker.
  • Students have to be prepared to spend a lot of time on the making and editing of the movie—it doesn’t have as much to do with the history of the topic, but rather presentation. This also becomes a tempting choice for the student who would rather not do as much historical work.

I think it's important to remember that it's about balance. As a teacher, I have seen students spend an inordinate amount of time on the creation of their website or documentary only to neglect the history. I've also seen students do a dynamic job of researching their topic, only to not present it in the best format because they don't allow enough time or have the background knowledge to create their presentation in the format they chose. It's very important to have a pulse of the students' strengths and time constraints when choosing the format for the project. One of the neat things is that NHD allows students to experiment with the presentation format and is a great way to highlight the integration of social studies and technology!

With planning and communication you and your students will have a great time learning history through National History Day!

For more information

Take a few minutes in our Tech for Teachers section—learn about NHD's website-making tool of choice, Weebly, and documentary-creation tools like Digital Storyteller.

Check out a second-place-winning website, our blog entry on NHD 2010, or read an article on NHD's history.

And what exactly are 21st-century skills? Six experts give their views in our Roundtable.

Teaching and Learning History in the Digital Age (AHA 2011)

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American Historical Association conference Boston 2011
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The degree of difficulty educators face when dealing with new technologies varies, but the sensation of feeling like a “newbie” when it comes to technology can often create tech-wariness among teachers. Educators should not feel this way.

Teachinghistory.org's presentation at the 2011 American Historical Association (AHA) conference, entitled “Teaching and Learning History in the Digital Age,” offered attendees exposure to free and easy-to-use tools that can work for teachers, regardless of their technological abilities. The main message of this presentation? Start small and be willing to face unexpected hiccups along the way.

Starting Out with Digital Tools

One educator, nearing retirement, was curious about digital tools as I shared with her the topic of my presentation while walking to another conference event. She was initially interested in attending my presentation but found that the whole topic of digital tools was too complex for her.

Start with what feels comfortable.

Besides, where would she even begin searching for new media tools? She found herself regretting her earlier decision to skip panels on digital tools. It seemed that her own dilemma—where to start looking for digital tools—is not unique. The goal of the presentation was to help educators like her gain exposure to technology that is easily available. My advice to her was the same as I provided the audience: Start with what feels comfortable.

Some educators might enjoy exploring complex tools, “going under the hood,” and learning new skills. Other educators might want a ready-made tool, like Wordpress, to help build a course website. The open-source nature of platforms and browsers like Wordpress, Firefox, Zotero, and Omeka allow daring educators to invent the new plug-ins that can radically transform educational tools. For the less adventurous educators, these platforms allow them to take advantage of the work of others.

So . . . What Can Educators Do on the Web?

The presentation at AHA was, in part, inspired by a recent series of articles by Robert Townsend in AHA's Perspectives on History (Oct., Nov., Dec.). In his findings, which surveyed over 4,000 two- and four-year college faculty, Townsend noted that educators are increasingly embracing digital tools. Nearly 70% of respondents characterized themselves as “active users”—a number that might surprise many. Upon closer inspection, however, active digital users are mostly younger (no surprise here), and the most popular tools are not what many digitally-savvy educators would necessarily consider cutting-edge: digital cameras, scanners, search engines, word processors, and online archive searches. Tools that have the potential to change how we “do” history—text mining, social media, GIS/mapping, and data visualizations—received few responses in AHA's survey.

My immediate reaction to Townsend's articles? Is that it? On the one hand, I found it rather underwhelming to see what passes as “digital history” in the second decade of the 21st century. On the other hand, a utopian view of this subject is probably not well-served considering the budgetary and curricular constraints teachers face; lasting change rarely develops out of radical, or revolutionary, change. A more measured approach would be to acknowledge that significant uses of technology in the history classroom will gradually occur through funding for technology training, or, more likely, through collaborative exchanging of ideas among staff.

Key Areas in Digital Tool Use

The presentation at AHA, then, was structured to address three or four key areas teachers address in their planning stages. As always, these tools are helpful, but only when applied with thoughtful consideration towards teaching and research (several good reads recently posted on Edwired deal with the perils and possibilities of web tools).

Digital Tools for Presentations

  • Google Maps is a good instrument for examining memorials, battlefields, and other historical sites, while also allowing users to create new and interesting links between locations.
  • Google Earth allows users to create placemarks, polygon shapes, paths, and images on Google's database of satellite images. This is ideal for creating original maps or recreating routes on military campaigns, plotting the Underground Railroad, or analyzing the Great Migration patterns of African Americans to see if new relationships emerge.
  • ManyEyes users can upload data and choose visualization preferences that might reveal new information about the past.
  • Hypercities uses historical overlays on geographic maps to show change over time
  • Prezi is a structural and/or non-structural approach to presentations where you can type text, embed media files, graphically organize items, and highlight the importance of elements—relative to other ones on the infinite canvas platform—based on size and colors. The presentation at the AHA conference used a Prezi.

Digital Tools for Communication

  • Facebook and Ning allow users to create networks from scratch to imagine what social networks among Bostonian revolutionaries or suffragettes in the early 20th century might talk about. Multiple other free options exist.
  • Twitter lets users publish 140-character updates. What would Abe Lincoln’s Twitter feed look like? What about soldiers on the Pacific front in World War II? John Quincy Adams is already on Twitter!
  • Skype can help bring scholars and institutions together, establishing relationships with sister cities, schools overseas, and other individuals and organizations.
  • Blogs can become a standard classroom management program (if scholars are not tied to BlackBoard), serve as a professional portfolio, or can help historians re-imagine the possibilities for what scholarship on the web looks like.
  • Zotero, in a nutshell, functions like digital flashcards and a note-saving device by adding research items from a database (WorldCat works well), allowing users to create notes for each entry, and providing tagging, sharing, and publication functions. Zotero is a helpful tool for collaborative projects and archiving research sources over time.

Digital Tools for Production

  • Anthologize puts together an original book or compilation from blogs and other sites across the web.
  • Wiki allows users to develop wiki pages for class projects (upload maps, images, and other files) or research project items.
  • Wordle graphically produces a word cloud based on text-mining activities, which often reveals interesting insights otherwise difficult to see in large chunks of text.
  • YouTube and Vimeo are hosting platforms for any original video production.
  • Picasa and Flickr have potential as forums for hosting photo collections (privately or publicly), helping educators and students find visual sources, annotate information, understand copyright laws, and connect images to historical events that are not visible at first (good places to search for images largely in the public domain include the Creative Commons search engine, Library of Congress, National Archives, NY Public Library Digital Collection, and the Smithsonian).
  • iMovie and MovieMaker put users in the driver's seat in using images, text, music, and voiceovers—simple elements of a digital storytelling project—to create original documentaries or short films.
  • Animoto is a simple tool that uses images, uploaded with music and text, to create small videos.

Digital Tools for Miscellaneous Tasks

  • Mindmeister, FreeMind, and OmniGraffle create graphic organizers for study or for lesson/unit plans, and many of them can be placed online for collaborative work.
  • Gaming has untapped potential as a teaching tool; see: Mission US, Do I Have a Right?, BBC History Games, and Playinghistory.org (a good collection of games).
  • Diigo provides a way to annotate the web (highlighting and Post-it notes). It can be added to your browser toolbar and, as long as you are logged in, notes will always appear as you re-visit the page.

With such a long list, but one that barely touches the surface of what scholars can do with new media, it is easy to see that free and open-access tools are readily found online. The problem, however, is that many educators feel the same way as our curious veteran educator at AHA. The question “Where can I find these tools?” is still a bit too commonplace these days. As a result, teachers are often hesitant to seek out new technology—not necessarily due to a lack of will, but rather because many simply don't know what (or where) to search.

This presentation aimed at closing that gap in a small way.

Bibliography

Townsend, Robert B. "Assimilation of New Media into History Teaching: Some Snapshots from the Edge." Perspectives on History (Dec. 2010).

Townsend, Robert B. "How Is New Media Reshaping the Work of Historians?" Perspectives on History (Nov. 2010).

Townsend, Robert B. "A Profile of the History Profession, 2010." Perspectives on History (Oct. 2010).

For more information

Ready to explore the digital tools mentioned above—and more? Check out our Digital Classroom section.

Web Resources for Controversial Issues

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Digital Illus, A Simpleton Tries to Understand the Health Care Debate, 25 Oct 20
Question

Are there good websites that deal with current events and issues such as debates and give solid foundations of what the problem is?

Answer

In a word: Yes!

The difficulty lies in finding the best of the many websites attempting to do just that.

I will focus my answer on the best free websites for high school teachers and students. Each of these sites has concise background information on each issue and presents a thorough explanation of the opposing positions.

There are also many outstanding resources that require a fee or subscription. Among the best pay sites are CQ Researcher and Opposing Viewpoints; check with your media specialist to see if your school or community library subscribes to these.

Which site works best for you depends on what type of issue you are learning about.

For current public policy issues, like health care reform and immigration policy, the best three sites are below. For a quick look at how each site presents the health care debate, click here: ProCon.org; National Discussion and Debate Series; Debatepedia.

  1. ProCon.org: an independent non-profit founded by Steven C. Markoff “to provide resources for critical thinking and to educate without bias.”

    2. Strengths:

    • Best student-oriented background information on each issue, including videos, political cartoons, and infographics
    • 40 current controversial issues
    • Each issue contains a “core question” and multiple sub-questions that address constitutional, policy, and ethical issues
    • Extensive list of pro and con arguments for each question, excerpted from major newspapers, and experts’ and political leaders’ words
    • Credibility of each source is rated with 1-5 stars based on procon.org’s “theoretical expertise ranking”
    • Lesson plan ideas

    Weaknesses:

    • No hyperlinks to original sources
    • Some issues are not related to public policy or the Constitution
  2. National Discussion and Debate Series: video, text, and links from debates at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs. This program was created “to encourage a vigorous, well-informed discussion on the national stage about the major issues of our time.”

    3. Strengths:

    • Centered around video footage of a live debate among well-known experts in a formal setting
    • .pdf transcripts of each debate
    • Excellent examples of civil discourse and debate techniques
    • High-level academic "white paper" backgrounders and "jump to" background videos from PBS Newshour

    Weaknesses:

    • Content is designed for high-level readers with some background knowledge of the issue; background information may be inaccessible to struggling readers
    • Only 13 current controversial public policy issues
    • Updated annually, does not include very recent developments
  3. Debatepedia: “the Wikipedia of debates…an encyclopedia of pro and con arguments and quotes. A project of the International Debate Education Association (IDEA), "Debatepedia utilizes . . .wiki technology . . . to engage you and other editors in centralizing arguments and quotes found in editorials, op-eds, books, and around the web into comprehensive pro/con articles.”

Strengths:

  • Unlimited number of issues
  • Constantly updated by users
  • Students can add content

Weaknesses:

  • Like Wikipedia, content is added by users—not professional editors—so quality and credibility can be questionable
  • Many issues lack depth
  • Background information is minimal for many issues

For very recent events that have not yet been clearly defined as a policy or constitutional issue, like the January 8, 2011 shootings in Tucson, AZ, the best site is PBS NewsHour Extra. This site includes background readings, video clips from PBS NewsHour, lesson plans, and daily updates.

For more information

Other sites for teaching about current controversial issues:

Teaching With the News: Created by the CHOICES program at Brown University. Frequently updated with free lesson plans, video clips, and multiple perspectives on current global issues and foreign policy controversies.

TeachableMoment.org: Created by the Morningstar Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. Updated with a new topic from the news each week. Less balanced than the three sites above, it relies primarily on the New York Times for content.

Today’s Best Political Cartoons: Updated daily, archived by topic, and searchable. Political cartoons are an engaging tool for students to probe current issues and controversies.

DoSomething.org: Focused on inspiring young people to volunteer to take action to solve problems in their communities. Good background on many problems, but with a focus on volunteerism more than policy discussion.

Upcoming Deadlines for Professional Development

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Photo, Deadline, Mar. 31, 2009, Moonrhino, Flickr
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Deadlines are approaching for several national professional development programs!

On Feb. 1 (NOTE: deadline extended to Feb. 15th!), the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History stops accepting applications for its summer seminars for teachers. The week-long seminars take place at colleges and universities nationwide, and teach classroom strategies focused on using primary sources effectively. Apply for any of 40 seminars on a range of topics, including Native American history, the Civil War in global context, the 20th-century women's rights movements, and the role of the Supreme Court in American history. Participants will receive a $400 reimbursement.

On Mar. 1, the National Endowment for the Humanities stops accepting applications for its Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for School Teachers and Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers. The 20 one-week workshops take place at or near significant cultural or historical sites and explore strategies for teaching with place and primary sources. Topics range from "Crafting Freedom: Black Artisans, Entrepreneurs, and Abolitionists in the Antebellum Upper South" to "The Richest Hills: Mining in the Far West, 1865–1920," and participants receive a $1,200 stipend. The seminars and institutes last from two to six weeks, with 13 focusing on U.S. history, including, among other topics, teaching American history through song, Appalachian history and culture, jazz and Motown, and Upper Mississippi River Valley archaeology. Participants receive stipends ranging from $2,100 to $4,500.

February 11 is the deadline for applications to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Teacher Fellowship program. Each year, 15 secondary-level educators from across the country are chosen to serve as museum representatives, engaging in outreach activities to encourage quality teaching on the Holocaust. Participants attend a five-day all-expenses-paid summer institute in DC.

For more information

Not sure where to look for professional development opportunities? Our previous blog post, Finding Professional Development, offers some suggestions.

And remember that nominations for Gilder Lehrman's History Teacher of the Year Award also cut off on Feb. 1!

Finding Professional Development

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Photo, Social Studies Teachers, September 3, 2009, Virtual Learning Center
Photo, Social Studies Teachers, September 3, 2009, Virtual Learning Center
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Is professional development on your schedule for next summer? It may seem early to start planning, but many summer programs will soon (or have already) opened their applications. And professional development opportunities aren't limited to the summer! Organizations offer workshops, seminars, and other chances to network, expand your teaching repertoire, and earn professional credits throughout the year.

Where Should I Look?

Where might you look for these opportunities? You don't have to look far afield—museums, historic sites, national parks, and historical societies in your area may offer professional development. Search a museum's website for its "Education" or "Teachers" section, and take a look. Does it offer programs for educators?

Large museums often provide a schedule of open houses (check for these in the fall), workshops, and pre-field trip orientations just for educators (see the Chicago History Museum Educator Programs page or the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum online catalogue of professional development opportunities.

Not finding anything? Maybe you have a presidential library and museum nearby, providing educators with workshops on using archival resources. Or a local university that offers professional development courses for teachers (such as the Learn NC program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

Professional development opportunities may also spring up in unexpected places, in response to events and celebrations. Abraham Lincoln's Bicentennial in 2009 prompted Lincoln-related workshops, conferences, seminars, and other training opportunities nationwide.

What Should I Know?

Once you've found something that interests you, make sure to check all of the specifics. You may be guaranteed a spot just by applying, or you may have to compete to participate. Enrollment may be limited to teachers in a certain area or those who teach specific grades. Some opportunities are free, some give out stipends, some cost, and others charge but offer scholarships.

Will you earn professional development credits for attending? How many? Could you earn graduate credit? (Or even a full master's degree? Check out the James Madison Fellowship Foundation designed specifically for teachers).

Examples of Professional Development

The following organizations provide professional development on a regular basis:

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History — weeklong summer seminars for teachers, yearly, hosted by universities across the U.S. Attendees receive a stipend. Applications for summer 2011 are now open!

National Endowment for the Humanities — Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers, and Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for School Teachers, both yearly. Summer Seminars and Institutes range from 2–6 weeks, and do not all focus on U.S. history topics. History and Culture Workshops last one week and focus on specific U.S. history landmark sites. Both provide a stipend.

Facing History and Ourselves — workshops and in-person and online seminars throughout the year. Focuses on human rights and social action topics, including the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. Some workshops are free; other programs charge fees.

Colonial Williamsburg — week-long institutes for elementary, middle/high, and high teachers, yearly, at Colonial Williamsburg. Charges fees.

National Archives and Records Administrations — "Primarily Teaching" workshops, yearly, introducing techniques for using archive resources and teaching with documents. Small fee for materials.

Smithsonian American Art Museum — annual Clarice Smith National Teacher Institute, for teams of middle or high school teachers, with priority given to those teaching social studies and English/language arts. Participants learn how to use art and 21st-century skills to make interdisciplinary connections with their subjects. $200 registration fee; $500 scholarships available.

Federal Judicial Center and American Bar Association — yearly week-long Federal Trials and Great Debates in U.S. History institute for secondary U.S. history and government teachers. Provides reimbursement for travel, lodging, and meal expenses.

The Memorial Library and Holocaust Educators Network — 12-day summer seminar for middle through high teachers, on teaching the Holocaust and social justice issues. $1,000 stipend.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — yearly teacher fellowship for 7–12-grade teachers, including a five-day teacher institute. Expenses paid for institute attendence.

National Humanities Center — hour-and-a-half long online seminars, including tie-ins with PBS American Experience documentaries. Charges fees.

C-SPAN — two-day conference for 6th–12th-grade social studies educators or media/technology specialists, on integrating C-SPAN's resources into the classroom. Also offers a four-week Teacher Fellowship program. Expenses paid.

Dirksen Center — Congress in the Classroom, a four-day workshop for middle- or high-school teachers, on both pedagogical strategies and content for teaching about Congress. Charges registration fee; other expenses paid.

Joe Jelen's Ads as Primary Sources: The Ad Council's Historic Campaigns

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Photo, Smokey Bear Fire Prevention sign along State Highway 70, Jul. 1960, NARA
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The Ad Council has been producing public service announcements attempting to affect change in society and serve the public interest for nearly 70 years. The campaigns take the form of print, radio, and television advertisements. They have run the spectrum of societal issues, from "Rosie the Riveter" and the campaign to place women in war jobs to contemporary ads related to predatory lending. The Ad Council has brought us memorable characters like Smokey Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, and Vince and Larry (the two crash test dummies who convinced us to wear seat belts). But what do these public advertising campaigns say about America? How can we use these ad campaigns to better understand U.S. history?

Through analyzing the ads we can isolate time periods in history and understand what were believed to be the most pressing societal issues of the time. These campaigns tried to decrease behaviors that were believed to lead to social problems or promote behaviors that would lead to a better society. Thus, in seeking to understand the advertisements, we can help students uncover the contemporaneous sociology of the ad campaign.

Where to Start

You can begin by exploring the Ad Council's Historic Campaigns that highlight some of the more notable campaigns in the last 70 years. Each campaign is complete with background information and some have links to PSA videos associated with the campaign. An even more complete retrospective of past advertising campaigns is maintained by the Advertising Educational Foundation and can be accessed here.

How can we use these ad campaigns to better understand U.S. history?

I have found the site particularly useful in helping students understand more recent history. For instance, few would disagree that, socially, the 1980s were rocked by the AIDS epidemic. The site highlights PSAs to prevent the spread of AIDS, which represent a dramatic shift in societal norms with the public call for condom use. The ads on crime prevention featuring McGruff the Crime Dog also help illuminate the 1980s. These ads coincide with America's "war on drugs" and emphasis on law and order during the 1980s. 1970s culture was epitomized by environmental awareness featuring Ad Council PSAs showing Native Americans distraught to find their territory littered. These ads and more can be found in the Historic Campaigns section.

Using Ads in the Classroom

Teaching with advertisements as primary sources is beneficial in two ways. One, students are exposed to yet another example of primary sources that come with their own unique set of historical questions. Two, by learning how to unpack the intent of advertisements on people of the past, students are more apt to be able to recognize advertising manipulation in the present. The Ad Council dedicates a page of resources for educators that includes useful links and frequently asked questions. These pages also identify current advertising campaigns, which might be useful for students to identify some of the important topics of today compared to the important issues they find in earlier decades.

Before having students analyze advertisements as primary sources, it is important to model for students how advertisements should be read. Students should also be made aware of the strengths and limitations of using advertisements to understand the past. An excellent overview of these strengths and weaknesses can be found on page 11 of this guide to primary sources, from the Smithsonian's History Explorer, along with questions to guide students in analyzing advertisements.

By learning how to unpack the intent of advertisements on people of the past, students are more apt to be able to recognize advertising manipulation in the present.

A natural fit to teaching U.S. history through public service announcements would be to have students create their own PSAs. Students could be given a list of pertinent social issues to a particular time period or could be asked to research important topics on their own. Students could write a script and use a pocket camcorder to record their PSA. Editing could be done using iMovie, Windows MovieMaker, or any number of free online video editing tools. The purpose of the assignment is to help students understand the changing nature of social issues in the United States.

Another idea is to have students research the effectiveness of given historic campaigns. The Ad Council maintains a database of reports and figures related to the success of various PSAs. This is a condensed version highlighting the impact of the Ad Council's more famous campaigns. The purpose here is to help students see how effective advertising not only convinces people to buy products, but also can convince people to change behavior for the common good.

Selling Social Issues

The Ad Council works to address the most significant social issues of the day. With that purpose, the Ad Council offers a unique look into making sense of our social past by revealing important issues of the time. Advertisements offer students an opportunity to interpret an overlooked type of primary source of the past and establish connections to the present.

For more information

Looking for more guidelines on using ads in the classroom? Historian Daniel Pope helps you make sense of advertisements, and historian Roger Horowitz analyzes historical documents behind 1950s potato chip advertising campaigns. This syllabus from a university history course also walks you through the steps of analyzing an ad.

Search our Website Reviews using the keyword "advertisement" for reviews of more than 200 websites featuring archived advertisements.

Iowa: 8th-Grade Standards

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(Note: By the completion of eighth grade, Iowa students are expected to master the following standards.)

Subject: Behavioral Sciences

Behavioral sciences include, but are not limited to, the areas of sociology, anthropology and psychology. In addressing these disciplines the actions and reactions of humans are studied through observational and experimental methods.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the changing nature of society.

    • Understand that a large society may be made up of many groups, and these groups may contain many different subcultures.
    • Understand various institutions influence people.
    • Understand various institutions influence elements of culture.
    • Understand that technology is important in spreading the ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society.
    • Understand the role of institutions in furthering both continuity and change.
    • Understand the means by which individuals, groups, and institutions may contribute to social continuity and change within a community.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how personality and socialization impact the individual.

    • Understand the ways family, gender, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic factors and institutional affiliations contribute to personal identity.
    • Understand the influence of perception, attitudes, values, and beliefs on personal identity.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the influences on individual and group behavior and group decision making.

    • Understand that various factors affect decisions that individuals make.
    • Understand role, status, and social class affect interactions of individuals and social groups.
    • Understand that each culture has distinctive patterns of behavior that are usually practiced by most of the people who grow up in it.
    • Understand that standards used to judge behaviors vary for different settings and societal groups.
    • Understand that technology is important in spreading ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society and among different societies.
    • Understand that the media may influence the behavior and decision-making of individuals and groups.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the process of how humans develop, learn, adapt to their environment, and internalize their culture.

    • Understand that all behavior is affected by both inheritance and experience
    • Understand values, language, beliefs, and behaviors contribute to the transmission of culture.
    • Understand that language and tools enable human beings to learn complicated and varied things from others.
    • Understand that technology is important in spreading the ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand current social issues to determine how the individual is able to formulate opinions and respond to those issues.

    • Understand that personal values influence the types of conclusions people make.
    • Understand the concepts of bias, prejudice, stereotyping, power, role, status, justice.
    • Understand group and institutional influences on people, events, and elements of culture.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how to evaluate social research and information.

    • Understand that human behavior is studied using scientific methods.
    • Understand basic distinctions between information that is based on fact and information that is based on opinion.

Subject: Economics

Economics addresses the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The concept of scarcity is understood to mean that available resources are insufficient to satisfy the wants and needs of everyone. Economics is therefore founded upon the alternative use of available resources and the study of choices.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of scarcity and economic trade-offs and how economic conditions impact people's lives.

    • Understand the cost and benefits of economic trade-offs and how scarcity of resources affects costs and benefits.
    • Understand economic trade-offs at different levels (personal, business, local government).
    • Understand the short term and long term impact of economic trade-offs on society.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the functions of economic institutions.

    • Understand the services that are available at banks and credit unions.
    • Understand the process of interests and payments for goods.
    • Understand the role banks play among savers, borrowers, and investors.
    • Understand the types of specialized economic institutions found in market economies (corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, labor unions, banks, and nonprofit organizations).

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how governments throughout the world influence economic behavior.

    • Understand goods and services that the government provides.
    • Understand the government's purpose in preventing monopolies.
    • Understand how taxes are used at the local, state, and national levels.
    • Understand revenues and expenditures in the federal budget.
    • Understand the concepts of balanced budget, budget deficit, budget surplus, and national debt.
    • Understand the role of the Federal Reserve on the economy.
    • Understand the process of filing personal tax returns.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand factors that create patterns of interdependence in the world economy.

    • Understand the impact of imported and exported goods and services in the local community.
    • Understand the concepts of free trade and trade barriers.
    • Understand trade barriers imposed by the United States from a historical perspective and the impact of those actions.
    • Understand the interdependence of America and other regions of the world in terms of imports and exports.
    • Understand balance of trade and trade deficits and their impact on the price of goods.
    • Understand that the increased interdependence of the world market causes economic conditions in one country to affect others.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the impact of advancing technologies on the global economy.

    • Understand the evolution of technology over time.
    • Understand the role of technologies that interlock the global economy.
    • Understand the role of investment and government support in advancing technologies.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how universal economic concepts present themselves in various types of economies throughout the world.

    • Understand the different types of economies and universal economic concepts (supply and demand, production, consumption, labor, capital, etc.) and their influence on each other.
    • Understand how the laws of supply and demand affect price and consumers' responses to prices.
    • Understand how the change of price for one good or service can affect the price for other goods and services.
    • Understand causes of inflation, deflation, and recessions and who gains or loses from them.
    • Understand the relation between gross domestic products and standards of living among countries.
    • Understand unemployment.
    • Understand the role of profit in motivating entrepreneurs in starting new businesses.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the function of common financial instruments.

    • Understand checking accounts.
    • Understand that bank accounts, loans and other services vary from one bank to another.

Subject: Geography

Geography is the study of the interaction between people and their environments. Geography therefore looks at the world through the concepts of location, place, human-environmental interaction, movement, and region.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the use of geographic tools to locate and analyze information about people, places, and environments.

    • Understand the characteristics and purposes of geographic tools and representations of the earth such as maps, globes, graphs, charts, models, grid systems, aerial and other photographs, GIS, satellite-produced images and databases.
    • Understand mental maps of locales, regions and the world.
    • Understand geographic relationships such as population density and spatial distribution patterns.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how geographic and human characteristics create culture and define regions.

    • Understand human and physical characteristics of place.
    • Understand the concept of region.
    • Understand the physical environment affects life in different regions.
    • Understand communities reflect the cultural backgrounds of their inhabitants.
    • Understand patterns of cultural diffusion.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how human factors and the distribution of resources affect the development of society and the movement of populations.

    • Understand physical and cultural patterns and their interactions, such as land use, settlement patterns, cultural transmission of customs and ideas, and ecosystem changes.
    • Understand world patterns of resource distribution and utilization.
    • Understand the role of technology in resource acquisition and use, and its impact on the environment.
    • Understand the development and widespread use of alternative energy sources have an impact on societies.
    • Understand physical and human geographic factors have influenced major historic events and movements.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how physical processes and human actions modify the environment and how the environment affects humans.

    • Understand human systems develop in response to conditions in the physical environment.
    • Understand major processes that shape patterns in the physical environment.
    • Understand the environmental consequences of both the unintended and intended outcomes of major technological changes in human history.
    • Understand technology influences the human capacity to modify the physical environment.
    • Understand the environmental consequences of people changing the physical environment.
    • Understand ecosystems in terms of their characteristics and ability to withstand stress caused by physical events.

Subject: History

History is the study and analysis of the past. Built upon a foundation of historical knowledge, history seeks to analyze the past in order to describe the relationship between historical facts, concepts, and generalizations. History draws upon cause and effect relationships within multiple social narratives to help explain complex human interactions. Understanding the past provides context for the present and implications for the future.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand historical patterns, periods of time and the relationships among these elements.

    • Understand concepts such as chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity.
    • Understand historical periods and patterns of change within and across cultures, such as the rise of civilizations, the development of transportation systems, the growth and breakdown of colonial systems, and others.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how and why people create, maintain or change systems of power, authority, and governance.

    • Understand political events that shaped the development of governments.
    • Understand patterns of nationalism, state-building, religious and social reform.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of culture and cultural diffusion on the development and maintenance of societies.

    • Understand ways groups, societies, and cultures have met human needs and concerns in the past.
    • Understand how information and experiences from the past may be interpreted by people from diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference.
    • Understand language, literature, the arts, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors have contributed to the development and transmission of culture.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of individuals and groups within a society as promoters of change or the status quo.

    • Understand that specific individuals and the values those individuals held had an impact on history.
    • Understand significant events and people, including women and minorities, in the major eras of history.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the effect of economic needs and wants on individual and group decisions.

    • Understand economic concepts that help explain historical and current developments and issues in local, national, or global contexts.
    • Understand reform, revolution, and social change in the world economy.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the effects of geographic factors on historical events.

    • Understand that historical events have been influenced by, and have influenced, physical and human geographic factors in local, regional, national, and global settings.
    • Understand the forces of cooperation and conflict that shaped the divisions of Earth's surface.
    • Understand geography is used to interpret the past.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of innovation on the development and interaction of societies.

    • Understand technology has influenced the course of history through revolutions in agriculture, manufacturing, sanitation, medicine, warfare, transportation, information processing, and communication.
    • Understand the impact of new inventions and technological developments in various regions of the world.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand cause and effect relationships and other historical thinking skills in order to interpret events and issues.

    • Understand processes such as using a variety of sources, providing, validating, and weighing evidence for claims, checking credibility of sources, and searching for causality.
    • Understand relationships between and among significant events.
    • Understand facts and concepts drawn from history, along with methods of historical inquiry, to inform decision-making about and action-taking on public issues.
    • Understand how and why events may be interpreted differently depending upon the perspectives of participants, witnesses, reporters, and historians.

Subject: Political Science/Civic Literacy

Political science is the study of power and authority through the examination of political processes, governmental institutions, and human behavior in a civil society. In this context the study of civics is understood to include the form and function of government. Civic literacy encompasses civics but also addresses the individual’s social and political participation.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the rights and responsibilities of each citizen and demonstrate the value of lifelong civic action.

    • Understand rights, roles and status of the individual in relation to the general welfare.
    • Understand issues regarding personal, political, and economic rights.
    • Understand what is meant by the "scope and limits" of a right.
    • Understand participation in civic and political life can help bring about the attainment of individual and public goals.
    • Understand the functions of political leadership and why leadership is a vital necessity in a democracy.
    • Understand the importance of voluntarism as a characteristic of American society.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how the government established by the Constitution embodies the principles of democracy and republicanism.

    • Understand the essential ideas of American government that are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other documents.
    • Understand the concepts of constitutional government as fundamental principles of American democracy.
    • Understand the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited governments.
    • Understand the basic concepts of a federal system of government.
    • Understand values such as individual rights, the common good, self government, justice, equality, diversity, openness and free inquiry, truth, patriotism are fundamental to American public life.
    • Understand the type of citizenry needed to establish and maintain constitutional government.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the purpose and function of each of the three branches of government established by the Constitution.

    • Understand the primary responsibilities of each branch of government in a system of shared powers (legislative, executive, judicial) and ways in which each branch shares the powers and functions of the other branches.
    • Understand how the legislative, executive, and judicial branches use checks and balances.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the similarities and differences among the complex levels of local, state and national government.

    • Understand the relationship between state and local governments and the national government.
    • Understand the powers and responsibilities of local, state and national governments.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand strategies for effective political action that impacts local, state and national governance.

    • Understand the concept of civic responsibility.
    • Understand the importance of political leadership, public service, and a knowledgeable citizenry in American democracy.
    • Understand the concept of political leadership in the student’s own school, community, state, and the nation.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how laws are established at the local, state and national levels.

    • Understand the concept of public policy.
    • Understand the sources, purposes, and functions of law, and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and the common good.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how various political systems throughout the world define the rights and responsibilities of the individual.

    • Understand constitutions protect individual rights and promote the common good.
    • Understand the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited governments.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of the United States in current world affairs.

    • Understand conditions, actions and motivations that contribute to conflict and cooperation within and among nations.
    • Understand current foreign policy issues and the means the United States is using to deal with them.

Virginia's Eighth Grade Standards

Article Body

Strand / Topic: World History and Geography to 1500 A.D.

  • WHI.1 Standard / Strand:

    The student will improve skills in historical research and geographical analysis by

      • WHI.1a) Indicator/Standard: Identifying, analyzing, and interpreting primary and secondary sources to make generalizations about events and life in world history to 1500 A.D.;
      • WHI.1b) Indicator/Standard: Using maps, globes, artifacts, and pictures to analyze the physical and cultural landscapes of the world and interpret the past to 1500 A.D.;
      • WHI.1c) Indicator/Standard: Identifying major geographic features important to the study of world history to 1500 A.D.;
      • WHI.1d) Indicator/Standard: Identifying and comparing political boundaries with the location of civilizations, empires, and kingdoms from 4000 B.C. to 1500 A.D.;
      • WHI.1e) Indicator/Standard: Analyzing trends in human migration and cultural interaction from prehistory to 1500 A.D.

    • Standard / Strand: Era I—Human Origins and Early Civilizations, Prehistory to 1000 B.C.

    • WHI.2 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of early development of humankind from the Paleolithic Era to the agricultural revolution by

        • WHI.2a) Indicator: Explaining the impact of geographic environment on hunter-gatherer societies;
        • WHI.2b) Indicator: Listing characteristics of hunter-gatherer societies, including their use of tools and fire;
        • WHI.2c) Indicator: Describing technological and social advancements that gave rise to stable communities;
        • WHI.2d) Indicator: Explaining how archaeological discoveries are changing present-day knowledge of early peoples.

    • WHI.3 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of ancient river valley civilizations, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus River Valley, and China and the civilizations of the Hebrews, Phoe

        • WHI.3a) Indicator: Locating these civilizations in time and place;
        • WHI.3b) Indicator: Describing the development of social, political, and economic patterns, including slavery;
        • WHI.3c) Indicator: Explaining the development of religious traditions;
        • WHI.3d) Indicator: Describing the origins, beliefs, traditions, customs, and spread of Judaism;
        • WHI.3e) Indicator: Explaining the development of language and writing.

    • WHI.4 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of the civilizations of Persia, India, and China in terms of chronology, geography, social structures, government, economy, rel

        • WHI.4a) Indicator: Describing Persia, with emphasis on the development of an imperial bureaucracy;
        • WHI.4b) Indicator: Describing India, with emphasis on the Aryan migrations and the caste system;
        • WHI.4c) Indicator: Describing the origins, beliefs, traditions, customs, and spread of Hinduism;
        • WHI.4d) Indicator: Describing the origins, beliefs, traditions, customs, and spread of Buddhism;
        • WHI.4e) Indicator: Describing China, with emphasis on the development of an empire and the construction of the Great Wall;
        • WHI.4f) Indicator: Describing the impact of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.

    • WHI.5 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of ancient Greece in terms of its impact on Western civilization by

        • WHI.5a) Indicator: Assessing the influence of geography on Greek economic, social, and political development, including the impact of Greek commerce and colonies;
        • WHI.5b) Indicator: Describing Greek mythology and religion;
        • WHI.5c) Indicator: Identifying the social structure and role of slavery, explaining the significance of citizenship and the development of democracy, and comparing the city-states of Athens and Sparta;
        • WHI.5d) Indicator: Evaluating the significance of the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars;
        • WHI.5e) Indicator: Characterizing life in Athens during the Golden Age of Pericles;
        • WHI.5f) Indicator: Citing contributions in drama, poetry, history, sculpture, architecture, science, mathematics, and philosophy, with emphasis on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle;
        • WHI.5g) Indicator: Explaining the conquest of Greece by Macedonia and the spread of Hellenistic culture by Alexander the Great.

    • WHI.6 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of ancient Rome from about 700 B.C. to 500 A.D. in terms of its impact on Western civilization by

        • WHI.6a) Indicator: Assessing the influence of geography on Roman economic, social, and political development;
        • WHI.6b) Indicator: Describing Roman mythology and religion;
        • WHI.6c) Indicator: Explaining the social structure and role of slavery, significance of citizenship, and the development of democratic features in the government of the Roman Republic;
        • WHI.6d) Indicator: Sequencing events leading to Roman military domination of the Mediterranean basin and Western Europe and the spread of Roman culture in these areas;
        • WHI.6e) Indicator: Assessing the impact of military conquests on the army, economy, and social structure of Rome;
        • WHI.6f) Indicator: Assessing the roles of Julius and Augustus Caesar in the collapse of the Republic and the rise of imperial monarchs;
        • WHI.6g) Indicator: Explaining the economic, social, and political impact of the Pax Romana;
        • WHI.6h) Indicator: Describing the origin, beliefs, traditions, customs, and spread of Christianity;
        • WHI.6i) Indicator: Explaining the development and significance of the Church in the late Roman Empire;
        • WHI.6j) Indicator: Listing contributions in art and architecture, technology and science, medicine, literature and history, language, religious institutions, and law;
        • WHI.6k) Indicator: Citing the reasons for the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire.

    • WHI.7 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of the Byzantine Empire and Russia from about 300 to 1000 A.D. by

        • WHI.7a) Indicator: Explaining the establishment of Constantinople as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire;
        • WHI.7b) Indicator: Identifying Justinian and his contributions, including the codification of Roman law, and describing the expansion of the Byzantine Empire and economy;
        • WHI.7c) Indicator: Characterizing Byzantine art and architecture and the preservation of Greek and Roman traditions;
        • WHI.7d) Indicator: Explaining disputes that led to the split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church;
        • WHI.7e) Indicator: Assessing the impact of Byzantine influence and trade on Russia and Eastern Europe.

    • WHI.8 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of Islamic civilization from about 600 to 1000 A.D. by

        • WHI.8a) Indicator: Describing the origin, beliefs, traditions, customs, and spread of Islam;
        • WHI.8b) Indicator: Assessing the influence of geography on Islamic economic, social, and political development, including the impact of conquest and trade;
        • WHI.8c) Indicator: Identifying historical turning points that affected the spread and influence of Islamic civilization, with emphasis on the Sunni-Shi'a division and the Battle of Tours;
        • WHI.8d) Indicator: Citing cultural and scientific contributions and achievements of Islamic civilization.

    • WHI.9 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of Western Europe during the Middle Ages from about 500 to 1000 A.D. in terms of its impact on Western civilization by

        • WHI.9a) Indicator: Sequencing events related to the spread and influence of Christianity and the Catholic Church throughout Europe;
        • WHI.9b) Indicator: Explaining the structure of feudal society and its economic, social, and political effects;
        • WHI.9c) Indicator: Explaining the rise of Frankish kings, the Age of Charlemagne, and the revival of the idea of the Roman Empire;
        • WHI.9d) Indicator: Sequencing events related to the invasions, settlements, and influence of migratory groups, including Angles, Saxons, Magyars, and Vikings.

    • WHI.10 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of civilizations and empires of the Eastern Hemisphere and their interactions through regional trade patterns by

        • WHI.10a) Indicator: Locating major trade routes;
        • WHI.10b) Indicator: Identifying technological advances and transfers, networks of economic interdependence, and cultural interactions;
        • WHI.10c) Indicator: Describing Japan, with emphasis on the impact of Shinto and Buddhist traditions and the influence of Chinese culture;
        • WHI.10d) Indicator: Describing east African kingdoms of Axum and Zimbabwe and west African civilizations of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai in terms of geography, society, economy, and religion.

    • WHI.11 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of major civilizations of the Western Hemisphere, including the Mayan, Aztec, and Incan, by

        • WHI.11a) Indicator: Describing geographic relationship, with emphasis on patterns of development in terms of climate and physical features;
        • WHI.11b) Indicator: Describing cultural patterns and political and economic structures.

    • WHI.12 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of social, economic, and political changes and cultural achievements in the late medieval period by

        • WHI.12a) Indicator: Describing the emergence of nation-states (England, France, Spain, and Russia) and distinctive political developments in each;
        • WHI.12b) Indicator: Explaining conflicts among Eurasian powers, including the Crusades, the Mongol conquests, and the fall of Constantinople;
        • WHI.12c) Indicator: Identifying patterns of crisis and recovery related to the Black Death;
        • WHI.12d) Indicator: Explaining the preservation and transfer to Western Europe of Greek, Roman, and Arabic philosophy, medicine, and science.

    • WHI.13 Indicator/Standard:

      The student will demonstrate knowledge of developments leading to the Renaissance in Europe in terms of its impact on Western civilization by

        • WHI.13a) Indicator: Identifying the economic foundations of the Renaissance;
        • WHI.13b) Indicator: Sequencing events related to the rise of Italian city-states and their political development, including Machiavelli's theory of governing as described in The Prince;
        • WHI.13c) Indicator: Citing artistic, literary, and philosophical creativity, as contrasted with the medieval period, including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Petrarch;
        • WHI.13d) Indicator: Comparing the Italian and the Northern Renaissance, and citing the contributions of writers.

Wyoming's Eighth Grade Standards

Article Body

  • WY.1. Content Standard: Citizenship/Government/Democracy

    Students demonstrate how structures of power, authority, and governance have developed historically and continue to evolve.

    • 1.1. Benchmark:

      Students identify the rights, duties, and responsibilities of a U.S. citizen.

    • 1.2. Benchmark:

      Students understand the historical perspective and issues involved in the development of the U.S. Constitution.

    • 1.3. Benchmark:

      Students recognize the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other amendments and are able to identify those principles in real-life scenarios.

  • WY.2. Content Standard: Culture/Cultural Diversity

    Students demonstrate an understanding of different cultures and how these cultures have contributed and continue to contribute to the world in which they live.

    • 2.1. Benchmark:

      Students explain how family systems, religion, language, literature, and the arts contribute to the development of cultures.

    • 2.2. Benchmark:

      Students describe cultural diversity and the interdependence of cultures.

  • WY.3. Content Standard: Production, Distribution, and Consumption

    Students demonstrate an understanding of economic principles and concepts and describe the influence of economic factors on societies.

    • 3.1. Benchmark:

      Students communicate how economic considerations influence personal, local, state, national, and international decision-making.

    • 3.2. Benchmark:

      Students describe the systems of exchange of past and present.

    • 3.3. Benchmark:

      Students recognize basic concepts of economic systems.

  • WY.4. Content Standard: Time, Continuity and Change

    Students demonstrate an understanding of the people, events, problems, ideas, and cultures that were significant in the history of our community, state, nation and world.

    • 4.1. Benchmark:

      Students identify people, events, problems, conflicts, and ideas and explain their historical significance.

    • 4.2. Benchmark:

      Students discuss current events to better understand the world in which they live.

    • 4.3. Benchmark:

      Students analyze the impact of historical events and people on present conditions, situations, or circumstances.

  • WY.5. Content Standard: People, Places, and Environments

    Students demonstrate an understanding of interrelationships among people, places, and environments.

    • 5.1. Benchmark:

      Students use charts, maps, and graphs to answer questions dealing with people, places, events, or environments.

    • 5.2. Benchmark:

      Students apply the themes of geography to topics being studied.

    • 5.3. Benchmark:

      Students demonstrate an ability to organize and process spatial information; i.e., You Are Here maps of various areas.

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