Building a Class on Native American History

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Photo, "2005 Powwow," Kristine Brumley, Smithsonian Institution, Flickr Commons
Question

I would like to develop an elective for teaching Native American history. I am looking for a class on teaching Native American history. If you could let me know of any classes, books, or other ancillary materials I would appreciate it very much.

Answer

The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC offers a variety of resources about American Indian history including workshops for teachers.

For resources you can use with students, see our response to a teacher who asked about classroom resources for teaching a Native American history course.

We also recommend contacting local tribes and organizations directly to see what resources they recommend that you use to learn about their history. Below are some organizations you might consider:

We also recommend contacting local tribes and organizations directly to see what resources they recommend that you use to learn about their history.

In Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center provides a wealth of resources. They offer professional development to teachers as well. The center also offers workshops on how to evaluate books and other materials about Native Americans and have several educational programs for students based on the Connecticut Curriculum framework. The center designs workshops based on teacher interest as well. The Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center provides a recommended reading list and a research library.

If you will be in Minnesota for the summer you may want to check out the American Indian Policy Center in St. Paul and The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. These organizations offer resources, and can most likely direct you to additional educational resources.

You can search the NHEC site for relevant local museums, websites, and professional development opportunities. If you have not done so already, remember to also check the course offerings at your local colleges.

Jennifer Orr on Teaching Thanksgiving Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/17/2010 - 13:55
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Photo, Handy Plaid Turkey, October 30, 2010, patti haskins, Flickr
Article Body
The Challenge of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a complicated holiday. As seen in most elementary schools, one would never guess that, however. Small children parade up and down the hallways in feather headdresses and construction paper hats with buckles. They trace their hands to make turkeys and color pictures of the Mayflower. The story we teach them is straightforward as well. Unfortunately, it's inaccurate. Very little of what we do in elementary schools regarding Thanksgiving is accurate.

We give credit to Pilgrims in New England with celebrating the first Thanksgiving in 1621. However, there were documented celebrations of thanksgiving in many other areas prior to this and likely many for which we have no documentation. Pilgrim children did not wear hats with buckles on them and Native Americans in New England did not wear feather headdresses. I don't think our elementary school children would be the only ones surprised by these facts.

Resources for Tackling the Challenge

There is no other holiday with which I struggle as much as I do with Thanksgiving. As a day to give thanks, to recognize all that we have, it is a day I love to share with students. When it comes to the actual history of Thanksgiving, it is much tougher. Attempting to help young children understand the realities of the interactions between settlers and Native Americans is a monumental task. It is also a task I don't believe to be developmentally appropriate for early elementary school students.

There are many wonderful places to look for useful information for planning lessons throughout the elementary years. Plimoth Plantation has several good resources. An interactive You are the Historian takes students through myths and facts, daily life for Pilgrims and Native Americans, and the lead-up to 1621. There are also several interesting articles about Thanksgiving. However, Berkeley Plantation on the James River in Virginia also claims to have celebrated the first official Thanksgiving.

For primary source resources, the Library of Congress has a collection that includes letters and proclamations about Thanksgiving, photographs of Thanksgiving celebrations, and paintings depicting artists' interpretations of the Plimoth Thanksgiving. For the history of Thanksgiving as a holiday the Smithsonian has a brief, well-written article.

As for my 1st graders, this year we'll be reading Eve Bunting's How Many Days to America? A Thanksgiving Story. This book tells the story of a young family hurriedly leaving a Caribbean nation, facing many challenges in an attempt to reach America. It's a beautiful tale of giving thanks. We'll share our reasons to be thankful and celebrate them.

All Hands on Deck

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Oil on canvas, 1884, USS Constitution. . . , Davidson, USS Constitution Museum
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The USS Constitution Museum developed All Hands on Deck as a means of introducing K–12 educational elements across subjects (math, art, and more) using the history of one of the United States' most renowned military vessels, the USS Constitution.

The website itself is somewhat disorganized. However, there are a plethora of lesson plans embedded within it for students of any grade level.

The available lessons are divided into five sections—preview activities (to determine pre-existing knowledge), the building of early U.S. military frigates, the War of 1812 and the Barbary Wars, 1800s life aboard a warship, and the lasting legacy of the USS Constitution. These sections have subsections, within which you can find individual lessons intended for grades K–4, 5–8, and 9–12. Alternatively, visiting "How to Use This Online Curriculum" includes a linked list of states. Clicking on any of the available states—IL, MD, WA, SC, TN, MO, TX, NM, CO, MT, and VA—offers a list of the activities available on the website which correlate with state standards. The individual subsections also include recommended field trip sites, films, books, games, music, and more; as well as anecdotes, literature, and other "grab bag" additional items of interest.

The Image Gallery offers a smattering of paintings, illustrations, and photographs of the vessel and its officers. The gallery also contains a single newspaper recruitment ad dating to 1798.

Educators who would prefer a tangible copy of the curriculum can send an electronic request.

Alternatively, you may want to brush up on your USS Constitution history yourself. In that case, the website offers a 19-minute video in which a young girl meets a variety of figures aboard the ship—a captain's wife, a powder monkey, and an African American sailor among them.

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Vitamins in Chocolate Cake: Why Use Historical Fiction in the Classroom?

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Photography, Child Reading with Teddy Bear, 18 December 2010, Jennifer Durfey, F
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One of the great pleasures of my job as a writer for American Girl is getting letters from my young readers. Over the years, I’ve had tens of thousands of letters, every one as unique, sweet, earnest, and quirky as its writer. Very often, my correspondent asks me, “Why do you write about people who lived long ago?” And I write back, “Because I love thinking about what your life or my life would have been like if we had lived in another time, don’t you?” But that answer tells only one reason why I write historical fiction, and why I think it is a good idea to use historical fiction to teach history. There are other reasons, too.

First, I think historical fiction can make history matter—make it irresistible—to young readers. And it is important to make history matter, because reading about the past not only gives children factual information—sort of a mental timeline, for example, so that they know that the Revolutionary War happened before the Civil War—but learning about the past also allows, encourages, and teaches a child to identify with other voices, views, cultures, and times, which is a good life skill. Reading about the past teaches empathy and compassion. It helps a child see the similarities that lie just underneath our differences.

What we’re trying to do through historical fiction is to help our students realize they are what history is.

Ah, but how do we capture the children’s interest? How do we pique their curiosity? How do we engage their imaginations? Well, that’s the magic of historical fiction. And that magic is a second reason why I write historical fiction, and why I think it is good to use it in the classroom. I believe that good historical fiction exercises a child’s imagination through a vicarious experience. It leads children to use themselves and their own lives as comparisons to the characters that lived long ago and often, far away, to reflect on their own experience, to ask their families questions. It awakens awareness, perks up perception, sparks conversations. Reading historical fiction can lead a child to ask, ”What’s my voice? What’s my view? Which side should I be on? Is there a right side?“ So really, what we’re trying to do through historical fiction is to help our students realize they are what history is. What they do matters. They had better pay attention. What we’re trying to do is to sort of tickle a moral intelligence, a mindfulness, a sense of responsibility, into being.

Historical fiction helps us fire up our students and readers because it uses emotion to make the facts matter.

Helping children to be empathetic to others and more aware of themselves are two good and worthy reasons to use historical fiction, but to me, there’s a third reason that’s most important of all. I think the best word to describe it is delight. Teachers and writers want to inspire enthusiasm. We want to say to children, “Oh, look! Isn’t that cool? Can you believe how wacky and wild and fascinating the world is? The universe is abundant and it’s all out there waiting for you.” Historical fiction helps us fire up our students and readers because it uses emotion to make the facts matter. It uses emotion to teach gentle life lessons, and to form a ribbon of connection between the child in the classroom and the characters in the story.

Good historical fiction is funny, challenging, amusing, absorbing, scary, sad, and full of—here’s that word again—delight. Historical fiction is inspired by the child and inspires the child in return. It celebrates the child. It respects the child. Good historical fiction meets readers where they are right now, engaged with school, family, and friends, feeling the drives for love and friendship, and feeling the conflict between being a member of society and yet defining one’s self as a unique and independent being. It grows out of the child’s nature, which is energetic, curious, merry, passionate, exuberant, and earnest. So you might say that my readers themselves are another reason why I write historical fiction. And your students are the reason why historical fiction is a sturdy and effective vehicle for teaching history and a gift—a very good gift—to use in the classroom.

For more information

Say you're already using historical fiction in the classroom—what about asking your students to write some of their own? High school teacher Ron Gorr has some ideas. Just as students should read historical fiction along with primary and secondary sources, so should students write it drawing on primary and secondary sources. Ask students how they think their fiction (and the fiction they read) reflects the writer as well as her or his historical research. What in the story shows modern ways of thinking? What might people living at the time the stories are set in think if they read them?

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture

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Government worker helps Cuban refugees who have immigrated to Arkansas
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This website functions as an easy-to-maneuver and reader-friendly website for gathering information about Arkansas and its impact on American history. Entries are divided into two categories: text and media. Both include subdivisions based on alphabetical listings or gallery images (respectively) in addition to category, type, time period, race and ethnicity, and gender. The Media section offers numerous photos, maps, documents, and video and audio resources. Entries include suggested readings, related links, and media galleries, when applicable.

Some of the more useful features of the site includes a calendar describing events in Arkansas’s history on each day, as well as a photo of the day from the Arkansas gallery. An overview entry provides general information about the state for those beginning to conduct research about Arkansas, and a breadcrumb trail at the top of each page helps readers retrace their steps while visiting the site—a feature users will find very helpful.

Educators will also find more than 100 lesson plans marked by The Butler Center—when planning for topics such as the Civil War, Korean War, and who’s who in Arkansas history. Lesson plans are in PDF format.

Teachers and students will enjoy exploring how the Razorback State played a key role in U.S. history. Teachers will also find the lesson plans from the Butler Center a useful resource for classroom instruction.

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Sifting for Sources

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Photography, History lesson, 25 Jan 2007, Mabel I. Sez, Flickr CC
Question

I am introducing second graders to primary and secondary resources. Where can I find videos and activities on that level?

Answer

It’s exciting that you are engaging your second graders in historical source analysis! I encourage you not to worry too much about making distinctions between types of sources at this age, as teaching critical reading of all texts is the most important goal. The primary versus secondary issue might be distracting. For lessons and resources to engage your second graders in historical analysis, you may wish to start on the Bringing History Home (BHH) website. BHH lesson plans engage children in history as interpretive and evidence-based. The lessons center on five skills for doing history:

  1. Reading accounts for historical context (BHH uses a great deal of historical fiction).
  2. Analyzing original sources.
  3. Constructing timelines.
  4. Mapping historic events and trends.
  5. Synthesizing to create historic accounts.

The BHH 2nd-grade unit topics are U.S. immigration and environmental history. Each of the classroom-tested units focuses on engaging students in analyzing and synthesizing multiple accounts and has a variety of activities for introducing historical concepts, events, and perspectives. The project website provides free lesson plans and public domain primary sources. The only purchases necessary to implement the curriculum are the trade books used in the lessons. These may be purchased from online bookstores.

Where to go?

If you are eager to search for primary and secondary sources, but unsure how to find them—or simply require inspiration in order to utilize sources once you locate them—try visiting some of the following sites.

  • On the General Resources view of the BHH site, you will find source analysis guides, as well as book lists and links to websites where you can enhance your own knowledge of the unit topics.
  • The BHH Selected History Website view includes links to collections of sources in various formats, such as audio files, games, artifacts, etc.
  • Photos and other visual images are typically the most accessible original sources for young children to analyze. The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog is easy to search and often yields a treasure trove of resources.
  • The Kids.gov database links to history teaching resources provided by various U.S. government agencies, such as the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institute.

Teachinghistory.org is also a treasure trove for resources:

  • See this set of resources about primary and secondary sources.
  • Visit this post to learn about what constitutes a primary source, as well as this one on secondary sources.
  • Learn effective methods to analyze and annotate primary and secondary sources by clicking here.

Before you decide to use any online resource, I encourage you to scrutinize it carefully for perspective and integrity. Catherine Denial, Assistant Professor of History at Knox College in Galesburg, IL, wrote a brief guide for analyzing websites. For your purposes, sometimes you will find a site that does not meet criteria for integrity but it will include links to sites that do. It’s fine to take advantage of this scenario.

Using common sense and careful analysis as you prowl the web, you will find excellent resources to engage your second graders in history.

Crafting Digital Stories

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Photography, Children on Computers, 26 Sept 2006, Homer Township Public Library
Question

I teach early elementary school, and my students are learning about the differences between past and present. Is there a tool that would allow them to share their learning (mostly using images) online with others?

Answer

With the explosion of Web 2.0 resources there is no shortage of tools for carrying out the types of activities you describe. It is not my place to endorse particular resources but I can comment with confidence from personal experience using a few of these tools and having great fun in the process. I tend to teach older students so you may want to check these resources out before exposing your students to them. On the other hand, when I do work with younger students it is usually in one-day workshop sessions and there is never much doubt by the end of the day who understands the software better! I think it is the lack of fear, which younger students seem to have in experimenting with technology. Anyway, some suggestions:

Wallwisher
I know you suggested that you would mostly be working with images but Wallwisher is great if you want to post up words. It is an electronic pin board and you literally write notes and pin them on. I had some 13-years-olds assess some software for me and they posted their views—good points and bad points—here and here.

VoiceThread
As a resource for sharing thoughts about an image or a movie clip VoiceThread is pretty hard to beat. It was designed specifically for educational purposes and ideas and thoughts can be shared in real time or left as posts. It has been extensively researched and trialled, so there is a good deal of supporting literature available to help you develop the way you use it. Here are some examples of history-themed VoiceThreads.

Historypin
Historypin is great for establishing a local connection to history. It is very similar to Google Earth’s pin features. You upload an image, pin it to a location, and then complete a commentary box.

Xtranormal
This may seem a little crazy but it is such fun! Essentially students script animated films for selections of characters. I have used it with students of all ages. Younger students create short films in which they play different characters and either explain particular events or share their confusion over an issue. I have found Xtranormal a very effective tool to get older students collaborating outside the classroom, principally preparing for tests—essentially they present an answer to a test question and then their peers comment on that answer. Movies can be posted on YouTube.

Stripgenerator
This is a tool similar to Xtranormal, but it uses still images. It is very simple to use and allows students to take a range of characters and tell a story with them.

Prezi
Prezi is already being used by a lot of teachers as an alternative to PowerPoint. I won't try to explain Prezi here. A quick look at the sample projects which have been created will be far more articulate, eloquent, and absorbing!

For more information

Learn more about VoiceThread, Prezi, Wallwisher, and other digital tools in Tech for Teachers.

Watch 1st-grade teacher Jennifer Orr and her students put VoiceThread to work in Beyond the Chalkboard. Orr shares her thoughts on the project in our blog.

Web Poster Wizard

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Poster, Example, Web Poster Wizard
What is it?

What is It?

This tool should win prizes for user friendliness.

Web Poster Wizard allows educators to create a lesson, worksheet, or project and immediately to publish it online. With this tool, students can create posters or short reports in a poster format and add images and links to their pages. The teacher can post directions and resources. In effect, with Web Poster Wizard, you are creating websites for individual projects, for classes, or as communication venues.

Getting Started

Web Poster Wizard gives you access to online storage, step-by-step instructions, and basic project templates. Once you register and login (a simple process requiring only your email address and a password), site management tools enable you to set up your classes, to assign projects to students, provide materials and resources, and to manage content. The centralized login combines students and teachers in one account.

Read Web Poster Wizard Guidelines and Requirements first. As the Guidelines explain, all you need to get started is a plan. You then create your project pages, and each page can include a title, subtitle, image, text block (which permits 10,000 characters, or about 4 pages of text), and a navigation bar to related links. Step-by-step directions take you through setting up and editing your pages.

Examples

This 7th Grade Language Arts teacher uses Web Poster Wizard as a management tool.

Document Cameras

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Photo, Lumens Desktop Document Camera, June 19, 2007, AV-1, Flickr
What is it?

A document camera makes a great addition to a history classroom with a video projector or TV. A document camera captures anything under its lens and projects it on the screen. While this technology has been around for a few years, it has been a little slow to catch on for a variety of reasons.

Some teachers may be hesitant to embrace the document camera because they believe it to simply be a glorified overhead projector. The document camera beats the old overhead projector in many ways, the first being that the document camera does not require one to make transparencies. A teacher can project artifacts, photos, worksheets, and anything else that can fit under the camera lens. In addition, students are better able to see the image produced by a document camera as it is much brighter and clearer than the image produced by the overhead projector. Best of all, you no longer leave school covered in overhead marker!

Getting Started

The cost of the document camera may also make this teaching tool seem out of the reach of many teachers and districts in these lean budget years.

It is also possible to obtain grant money for document cameras from places like DonorsChoose.

While document cameras range in price from $200 to $2,000, this should not preclude one from having their own document camera. You can find a used document camera on eBay or a surplus property store for under $100. Another option is to make a document camera yourself using a webcam and available USB port. The only drawback to this setup is you have to be able to load software on your computer attached to the video projector in your classroom. A ready-made version of this runs about $69. It is also possible to obtain grant money for document cameras from places like DonorsChoose.

Once you have your document camera installation is straightforward. Some document cameras come with a freeze image button which is a great feature to capture a page in a book or map that might be difficult to hold in place. If the document camera does not have this feature, you can hook up the document camera directly to the video projector, which often has the ability to freeze an image. If your document camera is not one that hooks up to your computer via USB, you can also set up the document camera directly to your projector. This allows you to toggle between the image on your computer screen (assuming it too is attached to your video projector) and the image from your document camera. You can also connect most document cameras to a television using an S-video cable or component video cable. It should be noted, however, that the clarity is not as crisp when using the S-video cable or component video cable compared to using a VGA or DVI connection.

Examples

The document camera has vast instructional possibilities. I have used my document camera every day in my history classroom. One of the benefits of having a document camera in a history classroom is having the ability to analyze primary sources together as a class. I am able to zoom in on important components of a photograph or text and can invite students to the document camera to annotate pictures or text without bulky markers or transparencies. I am also able to share maps in books easily with students, in color. Students are able to share work they have created immediately with the class without having to scan an image or make a transparency of the document.

My favorite use of the document camera is allowing me to spotlight and share exemplar student work.

This means that jigsaw activities work very efficiently, with each group able to share what they have written on nothing larger than a worksheet. Collectively, classes have created essay outlines and timelines together. The document camera allows students to share storybooks they have created, projected large enough for the class to see. From a classroom management perspective, the document camera allows me to easily show students the worksheet we are working on or the question I want them to focus on. I am also able to place my stopwatch under the camera to show students how much longer they have to complete a task. Finally, my favorite use of the document camera is allowing me to spotlight and share exemplar student work. I am able to give specific praise to a well-written essay or project.

For more information

Interested in looking at specific cameras currently available? Read product reviews for document cameras in this article from Scholastic.

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