The Middleton Area Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Middletown, Wisconsin. To this end, the society operates a museum. The Middletown area was originally inhabited by Algonquin and Ho-Chunk, prior to the arrival of fur traders.
The museum offers guided tours and docent availability.
The five-episode PBS series We Shall Remain begins tonight. Check local listings for broadcast times of this American Experience documentary.
Teaching Guides and Lesson Plans are now available on the rich, interactive, and immersive series website. Teaching Guides are defined by episode, and each includes discussion questions, student activities, additional resources, and lists of relevant themes corresponding to those developed by the National Council for the Social Studies Curriculum Standards and common state social studies standards.
But don't stop there. Explore supplementary video resources including discussions of language, sovereignty, and enterprise included under the Native Now section.
Elsewhere, on PBS Teachers, guest author, educator Eric Langhorst discusses the program and tackles the question, How do you teach Native American history and culture in the context of an American history class?
According to BackStory, "In its early years, the U.S. wasn't so much "United" as "States." Over time, the federal government has become more powerful, but states have continued to assert their independence on everything from gun control to medical marijuana. This presentation asks: If we're all Americans, why do states still matter? Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell describes how his state has left the feds in the dust when it comes to climate change policy. Historian Eric Foner discusses the successes and failures of the 14th Amendment, created to protect us from the states. And a long-haul trucker explains why she'd like to do away with states altogether."
I am interested in locating a list of U.S. history fiction and nonfiction books that are appropriate for use with my U.S. history students, grades nine and 11.
Some of the best and most easily available sources for lists of appropriate books for 9th and 11th graders come from school districts and teachers who have compiled them and shared them on the internet.
An excellent example of this can be found at Oxnard Unified High School District. This annotated list includes both fiction and nonfiction titles related to high school U.S. history. Another example of this type of list has been posted by a classroom teacher. This list highlights nonfiction titles on a range of U.S. history topics but also includes a brief list of recommended historical fiction.
Libraries are another obvious choice for booklists. Library Booklists is a clearinghouse of public libraries across the nation, providing links to lists of books put together by librarians on diverse topics. You can search for nonfiction as well as historical fiction lists, and it differentiates between young adult and children's literature.
The American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has annotated lists of suggestions for teen readers. Many, but not all, of their nonfiction history titles relate to U.S. history. They also have excellent annotated lists of fiction, but they do not differentiate historical fiction from general works.
Another approach to finding books would be to use a search engine to generate a personalized list on a particular topic. The reading measurement company Lexile has an online feature that can be used to search for book titles. To use Lexile, go to Find a Book, then follow the prompts to enter information about your students (for average 9th-11th grade readers the Lexile range would be 8801165), and then you enter your search terms. The California Department of Education also has a reading list generator. These sites can be tricky, and you may want to try a variety of searches as often a search will bring up too few results or so many that it is hard to tell what might be worthwhile.
Finally, there are many excellent high school booklists on specific topics that might be of interest to you. Check out the lists for Black History Month, (extensive and divided by grade level, but not annotated), and Lincoln and the Civil War which offers an annotated list on the topic for young adults.
Kudos to you for bringing books into your curriculum! And happy reading.
From the Bowery Boys website:
"For millions of Americans, Ellis Island is the symbol of introduction, the immigrant depot that processed their ancestors and offered an opening into a new American life. But for some, it would truly be an 'Island of Tears,' a place where they would be excluded from that life. How did an island with such humble beginnings—'Little Oyster Island,' barely a sliver of land in the New York harbor—become so crucial? Who is the 'Ellis' of Ellis Island? And how did it survive decades of neglect to become one of New York's most famous tourist attractions?"
From the BackStory website:
"With the unemployment rate at a 25-year high, BackStory is exploring the phenomenon of joblessness throughout American history. How has the changing nature of employment shaped the experience of not having a job? Have the moral connotations of work evolved? What has it meant for American workers that there are always new immigrants—or poor migrants—who are willing to work for less?
Over the course of the hour, the History Guys speak with historian Alex Keyssar, take calls from BackStory listeners, and hear an imagined testimonial from an itinerant worker in the 'New Northwest' at the turn of the 20th century."
The BackStory site also has a Further Reading page for more information on this topic.
Ed Ayers, Peter Onuf, and Brian Balogh discuss the evolution of the concept of motherhood in U.S. history.
Migration, both forced and voluntary, remains a prominent theme in African American history. This website is built around the history of 13 African American migration experiences: the transatlantic slave trade (1450s1867), runaway journeys (1630s1865), the domestic slave trade (1760s1865), colonization and emigration (17831910s), Haitian Immigration (17911809), Western migration (1840s1970), and Northern migration (1840s1890).
Twentieth-century migrations include the Great Migration (19161930), the Second Great Migration (19401970), Caribbean immigration (1900present), the return South migration (1970present), Haitian immigration in the 20th century (1970present), and African immigration (1970present). More than 16,500 pages of texts, 8,300 illustrations, and 67 maps are included. An interactive timeline places migration in the context of U.S. history and the history of the African Diaspora.
Nearly 1,400 documents address aspects of life in the South from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The database features 10 major projects.
The First Century of the First State University presents materials on the beginnings of the University of North Carolina. Oral Histories of the American South offers 500 oral history interviews on the civil rights, environmental, industrial, and political history of the South. First-Person Narratives of the American South, 18601920 offers 140 diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives. North American Slave Narratives furnishes about 250 texts.
The Library of Southern Literature makes available 51 titles in Southern literature. The Church in the Southern Black Community, Beginnings to 1920 traces the role of the church as a central institution in African American life in the South. The Southern Homefront, 18611865 documents non-military aspects of Southern life. The North Carolina Experience, Beginnings to 1940 provides close to 600 histories, descriptive accounts, institutional reports, works of fiction, images, oral histories, and songs.
North Carolinians and the Great War offers 170 documents on the effects of World War I and its legacy. Finally, True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students at the University of North Carolina analyzes 121 documents written by students. All projects are accompanied by essays from the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
Historian Linda Gordon looks at family values during the 1960s, comparing and contrasting the institution of the family and perception of problems in family in the 1960s with such institutions and perceptions both past and present.
The provided site links directly to the Real Media audio file, as it is not associated with a visual webpage.