Freedom and Slavery in the Atlantic World, 1500-1800

Description

Between c. 1500 and c. 1800, the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean saw the creation, destruction, and recreation of communities as a result of the movement of peoples, commodities, institutions, social practices, and cultural values. This seminar will explore the pan-Atlantic webs of association linking people, objects, and beliefs across and within the region. The best Atlantic history is interactive and crosses borders. The hope is that the seminar will enlarge participants' horizons by placing the standard early North American story in a larger framework.

Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Phone number
646-366-9666
Target Audience
Middle and high school
Start Date
Cost
Free; $400 stipend granted
Course Credit
Pittsburg State University (PSU) is pleased to offer graduate credit to workshop participants at a tuition fee of $199 per credit hour. Participants can receive three graduate credit hours for the duration of the week.
Duration
One week
End Date

Mercantilism

Description

This iCue Mini-Documentary describes mercantilism, an economic system which rested on the exchange of raw goods from North America with manufactured goods from England. The practice eventually enraged the colonists, who saw it as England's effort to assert its control over the colonies.

This feature is no longer available.

Pocahontas and the Children Exchange

Description

This iCue Mini-Documentary describes an arrangement at Jamestown settlement in Virginia, in which both the English and Indians exchanged young children, including Pocahontas, in order to learn more about each other's culture and language. This arrangement fathered a cultural exchange between the two groups.

This feature is no longer available.

Northern Neck Cultural Landscape Symposium

Description

This annual residential seminar takes on a different theme each year. The chosen theme will complement the basic concept of the symposium, which is to learn about the cultural landscapes of the Northern Neck. The symposium will feature lectures, site visits, and tours.

Contact name
McFarland, Ken
Sponsoring Organization
Stratford Hall
Phone number
804-493-8038
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Duration
Three days
End Date

The American Skyscraper: Transforming Chicago and the Nation

Description

No details provided.

Contact name
Linsner, Jean
Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Chicago Architecture Foundation
Phone number
312-922-3432
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
Free; $750 stipend
Contact Title
Project Director
Duration
Six days
End Date

The American Skyscraper: Transforming Chicago and the Nation

Description

No details provided.

Contact name
Linsner, Jean
Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Chicago Architecture Foundation
Phone number
312-922-3432
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
Free; $750 stipend
Contact Title
Project Director
Duration
One week
End Date

Establishing Connections: Teaching the Progressive Era

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Question

What teaching strategy would you suggest for covering the Progressive era? I would like something to engage both my students and myself.

Answer
Essential Questions Are Key

I always start my planning with what I want students to know and be able to do at the end of the unit. Once I have identified my objectives, then I create an essential question that is worded to get students excited about the unit based on what they already know about themselves and the world and how this new information might enrich those understandings. A few books to help understand why and how to write essential questions are Teaching History with Big Ideas (1) and What’s the Big Idea? (2).

Essential Question Ideas:

Essential questions should have multiple answers and provide some connection to students’ lives right away without any background knowledge. They should promote passionate debate that grows richer as more information is learned. In other words, these questions help engage students while simultaneously challenging them. Some examples include:

    • Is the history of America one of progress or regress?
    • What role, if any, does the federal government have in ensuring the safety and well being of its citizens? (from Twitter user teacherromeyn)
    • How do societies respond to economic change? (from Twitter user 7askretting7)

Once you've developed your essential questions, build your lesson plans around them. My students have found both of the following example activities engaging, and they can lead to a more in-depth investigation of the Progressive movement.

Idea #1: Progressive Awards

Description:

Your class has been chosen to serve as the awards committee for the “Progressive Awards.” The final product is an awards show and live Twitter reflection to highlight the people—past and present—who have best championed the ideas of the Progressive movement. Knowledge objectives: Students will . . .

  • Describe the main people, events, and ideas of the Progressive Era; and
  • Identify the living legacy of the Progressive movement today.

Skill objectives: Students will . . .

  • Evaluate the various people based on the awards criteria identified by teacher or by class;
  • Defend a position using evidence and historical context; and
  • Reflect on learning process.

Background information (context): You will . . .

  • Present an in-class lecture or flipped class video; and
  • Guide students through text or supplemental reading about the time period.

Preparation for awards show (research and writing):

You will . . .

  • Define the award criteria beforehand or as a class (see handout for examples).
  • Have each student research four people (two past and two present) for a specific category and serve as their advocate at the selection committee meeting. Research can be assigned as homework or spend one class day in the computer lab. Students can consult books and websites. Pre-selecting useful resources may be necessary depending on your students’ experiences and abilities with research).
  • Conduct a selection committee meeting where students present their three-minute speeches to small groups based on specific award (i.e., Social Justice Award, Government Transparency Award, Muckraker Award, etc.). Another idea is to have students record their three-minute arguments and the teacher can post them for viewing as a homework assignment.
  • Select four finalists.

Awards show (product and reflection):

This will be . . . A final review of the information along with a way to summarize the basic categories of each award.

Roles for students:

    • Master of Ceremonies (“emcee”);
    • Finalists (two past and two present), who reread their three minute presentations (or replay the videos they made);
    • Voters, who vote via Poll Everywhere or another voting tool; and
    • Live tweeters using backchannel hashtag.

Follow-up:

You can . . . Present the complexities within each movement in the Progressive era. For example, you could discuss the racism within the women’s movement or the anti-immigrant position within the prohibition movement. I like to get students to think one way for a whole day and then confront them with information that challenges what they’ve previously learned. Spending one follow-up day on the contradictions within a particular movement creates the constructive discomfort that leads to real learning for students.

Idea #2: Progressive University

Description:

Your class must create a “Progressive University.” Students use their knowledge of the Progressive era to choose the departments at the university, the classes within these departments (along with the outline of a syllabus with readings), and the professors who will teach each class. One example might be the Department of Social Justice with classes on Labor Rights, Women’s Rights, and Racial Equality taught by Samuel Gompers, Carrie Chapman Catt, and W.E.B. DuBois respectively (see handout). Knowledge objectives: Students will . . . Describe the main people, events, and ideas of the Progressive era. Skill objectives: Students will . . . Organize information into categories and assess importance of people and ideas. Background information (context): You will . . .

  • Provide in-class lecture or flipped-class video; and
  • Offer text or supplemental reading about the time period.

Classwork:

Students will . . .

  • Decide on departments by assessing which causes were considered most important at the time;
  • Decide on the courses by breaking down the larger causes into smaller pieces;
  • Decide on the professors by selecting the most important actors for a cause; and
  • Select which course to highlight for the course outline and readings, and seek out contemporary readings (readings from the time) that would support the course topics.

Possible products:

Students will . . .

  • Create a screencast of their university, course outlines, and readings, explaining their choices;
  • Film a television advertisement for their university; or
  • Write an essay on the essential question that guides the project, drawing on what they've learned in their research.
Footnotes
1 Grant, S.G. and Jill M. Gradwell, ed. Teaching History with Big Ideas: Cases of Ambitious Teachers. Lanham, MD: R&L Education, 2010. 2 Burke, Jim. What's the Big Idea?: Question-Driven Units to Motivate Reading, Writing, and Thinking. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2010.

Civilian Public Service Story

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Annotation

The Civilian Public Service Story answers the question, "Did individuals conscripted for World War II who were strongly opposed to killing have to fight?" The answer, something rarely discussed, is no. In the words of the site's introductory page, "Civilian Public Service (CPS) was a program developed at the onset of WWII which provided those whose conscience forbade them to kill, the opportunity to do work of national importance under civilian direction rather than go to war. Nearly 12,000 men made this choice, and many women voluntarily joined the cause. They fought forest fires, worked in mental institutions, planted trees, did dairy testing and served as subjects for medical experiments in more than 150 camps scattered throughout the United States."

The section "The Story Begins" consists of a brief summary of the history of conscientious objection in the U.S., beginning with colonial times. You can also find an annotated bibliography, listing approximately 18 works. Note that these works, and this site in its entirety, are intended for adult users. However, this does not preclude the information from being useful for K–12 history education.

"The People" consists of a few statistics on the World War II CPS population as well as a database of the men and women of the CPS, reproduced with permission from the Center of Conscience and War. These records, searchable and alphabetized by last name, may include year of birth, community, religious denomination, CPS entrance and exit dates, spouse, camps and units, higher education, and pre- and post-CPS occupation. These records may be of the most use in a classroom setting, as they could spark local history or oral history projects. "The Camps" provides a similar feature. Consider looking into CPS camps that were in your area using the map application on the site.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

Article Body

According to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's website, the organization "promotes the preservation, enhancement, and sustainable use of our nation's diverse historic resources, and advises the President and the Congress on national historic preservation policy."

At first glance, educators may not find much on the website itself to utilize in their classrooms or professional development. That said, the organization does promote youth involvement in historic preservation, describing programs and initiatives on its "Youth & Historic Preservation" page. Primary among these is the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse website, which may prove useful if you are looking for ways to study history in cooperation with the greater community.

The service-learning site includes a large database of lesson plans which, conveniently, are searchable by grade level and general subject matter. "Oral history" and "Historic preservation" are the offered topics most likely to be of use in a history classroom.

Other areas of potential interest include a list of current funding opportunities and a full-text link to the guidebook High Quality Instruction That Transforms: A Guide to Implementing Quality Academic Service-Learning.

Puerto Rico Encyclopedia/Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico

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Annotation

Visitors to this site will find more than 1,000 images and dozens of videos about the history and culture of Puerto Rico. The work of dozens of scholars and contributors, the Puerto Rico Encyclopedia reflects the diverse nature of the island: a U.S. territory, a key location for trade in the Caribbean, a Spanish-speaking entity with its own distinct culture, and a part of a larger Atlantic world. Funded by an endowment from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fundación Angel Ramos, the site is a key product from the Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades. It provides users with all content in both English and Spanish. Educators will find the site easy to navigate and conveniently categorized by themes; within each topic, appropriate subtopics provide an in-depth examination of Puerto Rican culture and history. Of particular interest to U.S. History teachers are the images and information found under History and Archeology. Here, teachers and students can explore a chronological narrative of the island's history and role at specific moments in U.S. and Atlantic history. Other sections worth exploring are Archeology (for its focus on Native American culture), Puerto Rican Diaspora (for its look at Puerto Ricans in the U.S.), and Government (for a detailed history on Puerto Rico's unique status as a free and associated US territory). Educators in other social science courses will also find valuable information related to music, population, health, education, and local government. In all, 15 sections and 71 subsections provide a thorough examination of Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico Encyclopedia's bilingual presentation also makes it a good site for integrating Hispanic culture into the U.S. History curriculum, as well as helping to bridge curriculum for English Language Learners (ELLs) in the classroom.