History Education News - Volume Four

ISSUE
SEP
teachinghistory.ORG
HISTORY EDUCATION NEWS
HISTORY CONTENT 3
BEST PRACTICES 6
TEACHING MATERIALS 8
ISSUES AND RESEARCH 10
TAH GRANTS 12
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 14
04 2009
featuring
Social Issues in the History Classroom
History Education News | teachinghistory.org
Cover image: Courtesy of The Journey Through Hallowed Ground
HISTORY EDUCATION
NEWS
National History Education Clearinghouse 4400 University Drive, MSN 1E7 Fairfax, VA 22030
Toll Free: 866.539.8381 info@teachinghistory.org | teachinghistory.org
STAFF
Sam Wineburg, Executive Producer and Senior Scholar Sharon Leon, Co-Director Daisy Martin, Co-Director Kelly Schrum, Co-Director
Teresa DeFlitch, Project Manager Lee Ann Ghajar, Project Manager Jane Heckley Kon, Project Coordinator Ammon Shepherd, Webmaster James McCartney, Lead Programmer Chris Preparato, Multimedia Developer Lara Marie Harmon, Research Associate John Buesher, Research Associate Brad Fogo, Research Assistant Jack Schneider, Research Assistant Eric Shed, Research Assistant Mark Smith, Research Assistant Robert Lucas, Research Assistant Jacob Douglass, Research Assistant Julie Bell, Summer Intern Alaina Harmon, Summer Intern Evan Heflin, Summer Intern
ABOUT
The National History Education Clearinghouse (NHEC) is created to help K-12 teachers access resources and materials to improve the teaching and learning of U.S. history. NHEC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement’s Teaching American History (TAH) program under contract number ED-07-CO-0088. It builds on and disseminates the valuable lessons learned by more than 900 TAH projects designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers’ knowledge and understanding of
traditional U.S. history. The content of this publication does not neces- sarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organiza- tions imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
© 2009 Center for History and New Media. Created by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and the Stanford University History Education Group, in partnership with the American Historical Association and the National History Center.
LEARNING FROM THE PAST
Teaching history as an active process of analysis instead of a timeline of textbook facts encourages students to sharpen their ability to examine dif- ferent types of evidence and critically analyze the world around them. This is particularly helpful when dealing with difficult social issues. Engag-
ing in discussions on colonization, Japanese American internment, the Civil Rights Movement, and other complex topics can shed light on contemporary social and political situations. In addition, research from various foundations and academic centers, such as the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
and the Center for Communication & Civic Engagement at the University of Washington, Seattle, shows that students feel empowered by this kind of activity and inspired to become involved in their communities, often sharing their opinions using new media technologies. Throughout this edition of History Education News you will find useful resources to help you engage your students in these types of important conversations.
The National History Education Clearinghouse has plenty of valuable resources to help you challenge your students in all areas of American histo- ry. Along with History Education News, the Clearinghouse at teachinghistory.org is a free resource. Visit today and let us know what you think!
History Content
Finding resources to help teach about difficult issues can be challenging, but at teachinghistory.org you can search for primary sources, online multimedia, and tips for integrating the material into your classroom teaching.
Libraries, museums, and historic sites have made thousands of primary sources available online, in addition to introduc- tory essays that will help you make sense of complexity and context.
“In the face of rising antisemitism and Holocaust denial, educating students about this history is increasingly urgent. As
the global leader in Holocaust education, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum works to ensure teachers have the training and resources they need to introduce their students to this important and complex history and show them how its lessons remain relevant to all citizens.”
—Peter Fredlake, Director, National Outreach for Teacher Initiatives, USHMM
NATIONAL CENTERS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM www.ushmm.org
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stimulates citizens to examine and confront hatred and to promote hu- man dignity. The extensive archives, pro- grams, educational outreach, and events are designed not only to teach history, but to promote thought about the continuing need for vigilance in preserving demo- cratic values and individual freedom. This website includes a section for teachers that features an online workshop about teaching the Holocaust. It also offers
six exemplary lessons for middle and high school educators with video, text, and handouts, as well as additional classroom and community educational resources. Student materials include a narrative introduction to the Holocaust with supplementary materials, exhibits, and activities. Educators will also find a wealth of multimedia resources, digitized documents, photographs, and interactive maps in Collections and Archives.
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Photo courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Issue 04 | September 2009
History Education News | teachinghistory.org
WEBSITE REVIEW
EVOLUTION OF THE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT, 1850–1920 memory.loc.gov/ammem/amrvhtml/conshome.html
These published works, manuscripts, and images, as well as a collection of motion picture footage, address the formation of the movement to conserve and protect America’s natural heri- tage. Materials include 62 books and pamphlets, 140 dederal statutes and congressional resolutions, 34 additional legislative documents, and excerpts from the Congressional Globe and the Congressional Record. An additional 360 presidential proclamations, 170 prints and photographs, two historic manuscripts, and two motion pictures are available. Materials include Alfred Bierstadt paintings, period travel litera- ture, a photographic record of Yosem- ite, and congressional acts regarding conservation and the establishment of national parks. An annotated chronology discusses events in the development of
the conservation movement with links to pertinent documents and images.
HISTORY IN MULTIMEDIA
Social movements do not occur in isolation. Learn about the fascinating connections between the women’s rights and the anti-slavery movements using Online History Lectures. Explore the featured items below and discover many other online audio and video lectures on history and history education from public historians, educators, authors, and uni- versity professors through a searchable database at teachinghistory.org.
ANTI-SLAVERY AND THE ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT lincoln.lib.niu.edu/Video/sklar5.ram
Kathryn Kish Sklar of SUNY–Bingham- ton outlines the lives of the Grimke sisters, Angelina and Sarah Grimke, focusing on their entrance into the Quaker religion and the radical aboli- tionist movement headed by William Lloyd Garrison. Sklar notes how the Grimkes’ public speaking in support of abolitionism broke away from common conventions limiting women’s public participation and behavior.
ABOLITIONISM AND WOMEN’S CHANGING PUBLIC ROLES lincoln.lib.niu.edu/Video/jeffrey4.ram
Julie Roy Jeffrey of Goucher College discusses women’s increasing involve- ment in politics in the antebellum U.S., focusing on their involvement in circulat- ing and supporting anti-slavery petitions and publications and arranging events to support abolitionism.
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American Hunting Scenes: “A Good Chance,” Currier & Ives, 1863, Prints and Photographs Division, The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 American Memory, Library of Congress: LC-USZC2-3482 DLC.
PERFECT FOR YOUNGER STUDENTS
THE MONTICELLO CLASSROOM
classroom.monticello.org
The Monticello Classroom was designed to meet the needs and preferences of students and teachers in grades 3 through 8. Among the features offered by the Monticello Classroom are a collection of brief, grade-appropriate reports and suggested classroom activities on topics related to Jefferson and Monticello; a large collection of images and media files offering primary source materials; a data- base of lesson plans; a “teacher toolbox” with which teachers can share resources; and an interactive section where students can build slideshows or design their own versions of Monticello.
HISTORY CONTENT IN YOUR BACKYARD
Museums and historic sites offer a great way for students to get involved in their
communities. Search the database of museums and historic sites at teachinghistory.org and reach out to museums in your community.
OF THE STUDENT, BY THE STUDENT,
FOR THE STUDENT
President Obama’s United We Serve Ini- tiative called on Americans to make com- munity service part of their daily lives. This past summer, The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership (JTHG), Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation unveiled a ground-breaking service-learning program in keeping with
“It’s critical for students to
be connected to stories
in their own backyard.”
—ANGELA STOKES, JOURNEY THROUGH HALLOWED GROUND
this initiative. Seventy students from Harpers Ferry Middle School launched their own historic research and preser- vation project, creating six mini-movies examining the October 6, 1859, John Brown raid on the Harpers Ferry arsenal.
The use of iPods, cell phones, and YouTube engaged the students, and the project promoted both leadership qualities, community involvement, col- laborative learning, and critical thinking skills. The resulting videos are now on view at the historic site and online to help students from around the globe connect to that history. For more information visit the Journey Through Hallowed Ground website at www.hallowedground.org and the Harpers Ferry Historic Park website at www.nps.gov/HAFE/.
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Photo courtesy of The Journey Through Hallowed Ground.
Issue 04 | September 2009
History Education News | teachinghistory.org
Best Practices
Teachinghistory.org helps you transform primary sources into thought-provoking activities and lessons that promote historical thinking and student participation.
Below is a step-by-step example of how you can use teachinghistory.org to
search for primary sources and discover the best ways to teach your students to read primary sources like a historian.
1. Search for primary sources using the History Content Gateway or the Website Reviews search tools in History Content.
WEBSITE REVIEW
CHILD LABOR IN AMERICA 1908-1912: PHOTOGRAPHS OF LEWIS W. HINE www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/
Furnishes 64 photographs taken by Lewis W. Hine (1874–1940) between 1908 and 1912. Images document American children working in mills, mines, streets, and factories, and as “newsies,” seafood workers, fruit pickers, and salesmen. The website also includes photographs of im- migrant families and children’s “pastimes and vices.” Original captions by Hine—one of the most influential photographers in American history—call attention to exploit- ative and unhealthy conditions for laboring children. A background essay introduces
Hine and the history of child labor in the United States. This is a valuable collection for studying documentary photography, urban history, labor history, and the social history of the Progressive era.
2. Browse Using Primary Sources in Best Practices for advice on teaching students how to critically examine the primary source.
USING PRIMARY SOURCES
MAKING SENSE OF DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/photos/
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but you need to know how to ana- lyze the picture to gain any understand- ing of it at all. Making Sense of Docu- mentary Photography provides a place for students and teachers to grapple with the
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Photo by Lewis Hine, courtesy of The History Place.
Photo by Lewis Hine, courtesy of The History Place.
A THINK ALOUD asks students to verbalize their thoughts out loud while reading or examining a primary source so students and teachers can see the active pro- cess of making sense of a source.
documentary images that often illustrate textbooks but are less commonly consid- ered as historical evidence in their own right. Written by James Curtis, this guide offers a brief history of documentary photography, examples of what questions to ask when examining a documentary photograph, and an annotated bibliog- raphy and list of online resources for documentary photography.
3. Browse Examples of Teaching in Best Practices for multimedia examples of best practices in action.
EXAMPLES OF TEACHING
READING AND THINKING ALOUD TO UNDERSTAND Strategic Literacy Initiative, WestEd
This U.S. history honors class shows students engaged in the process of reading primary source documents as a means of better understanding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. While the students in this video are in an honors classroom, the class is in an
ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse school in a high immigrant, rural community. This video provides examples of two promising practices: putting stu- dents in pairs to conduct “read aloud/think aloud” work, and providing students with strategic vocabulary for reading primary sources. Read more at teachinghistory.org.
TEACHING WITH TEXTBOOKS
QUESTIONING TEXTBOOK AUTHORITY
Do you teach your students to read docu- ments carefully and critically, but then watch in dismay as they fail to apply these skills while reading their textbooks? As a high school history teacher in Cleveland, OH, Robert Bain did. “The problem,”
he writes, “was greater than sharpening their tools for critical reading, but rather involved transformation in my students’
relationships to the books, to the historical content in the books, and to the authors who wrote them.” Bain hypothesized that the problem lay in the authority gap between his students and the textbook. History textbooks often take an omni- scient tone, smoothing over historical complexities and competing narratives. Bain developed a method to raise stu- dents’ sense of their own authority so they can read more critically. Read more at teachinghistory.org.
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NEW VIDEOS IN BEST PRACTICES!
National Park Service: Teaching with Historic Places
Teachers, teacher educators, and National Park Service staff talk about the importance of teaching with historic places. They model teaching strategies for helping students think criti- cally about and learn from local and national resources. Watch the video at teachinghistory.org.
Issue 04 | September 2009
History Education News | teachinghistory.org
Teaching Materials
Explore teachinghistory.org for ideas on how to teach a particular topic or for innovative ways to improve your lesson plans. Teaching Materials contains examples encompassing a range of time periods, topics, and grade levels that are ready for immediate classroom use.
LESSON PLAN REVIEW
Classroom teachers have reviewed and critiqued these lesson plans according to
the National History Education Clearing- house rubric (available at teachinghis- tory.org/teaching-materials/lesson-plan- reviews/19230).
CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS
edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=768
Students engage in a sophisticated ex- ploration of the African American experi- ence with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression.
The strength of this two- to four-day lesson is that it presents students with primary source documents representing multiple perspectives. These documents can help build students’ understand- ing of the issues surrounding African American employment in the CCC. The documents also provide an excellent platform for students to explore the sticky political and civil rights issues facing the Roosevelt administration as it attempted to hold together a precarious political co- alition that included both large numbers of African Americans and conservative Southern Democrats opposed to civil rights reforms.
The lesson is comprised of four activities. Each activity is well structured and provides detailed procedures for classroom teachers. Read the review at teachinghistory.org.
TEACHING GUIDES
These guides, written for K-12 history teachers, provide concise summaries that address ways to use particular teaching resources and methods or ad- dress specific instructional challenges.
STRUCTURED ACADEMIC CONTROVERSY
IN THE CLASSROOM
Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) is a discussion that moves students beyond “either/or” debates to a more nuanced historical synthesis. By the time students reach adolescence, many be- lieve that every issue comes neatly pack- aged in a pro/con format, and that the goal of classroom discussion, rather than to understand your opponent, is to defeat him or her. The SAC method provides an alternative to the “debate mindset” by
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shifting the goal from winning classroom discussions to understanding alterna- tive positions and formulating historical syntheses. The SAC’s structure demands that students listen to each other in new ways and guides them into a world of complex and controversial ideas.
USING HISTORY BOOK SETS TO
INVESTIGATE HISTORICAL AGENCY
History Book Sets (HBS) is a strategy that combines fiction and nonfiction texts to guide students in analyzing historical agency. Authors of historical fiction for children and adolescents often anchor their narratives in power- ful stories about individuals. Emphasis
on single actors, however, can frustrate students’ attempts to understand how collective and institutional agency af- fects opportunities to change various historical conditions. History Book Sets that focus on experiences of separation or segregation take advantage of the power of narratives of individual agency to motivate inquiry into how collective and institutional agency supported or constrained individuals’ power to act.
Read more at teachinghistory.org.
COMING SOON
BEYOND THE TEXTBOOK
Beyond the Textbook is a new feature designed to look at how textbooks cover specific topics, what historians have to say, and what perspectives we uncover when looking at related primary sources. Topics include slavery, industrialization, John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, and Louisiana Senator Huey Long’s criticism of the New Deal. Each Beyond the Text- book will investigate points of controversy
and inquiry questions, providing teach- ing materials and strategies for helping students read textbooks critically.
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ASK A HISTORIAN OR MASTER TEACHER
Are you facing a challenge in your classroom? Have a Question about U.S. history? Let our expert historians and master teachers help out. Visit teachinghistory.org and post your question today!
Huey Long, 1933-35, Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-111008
Issue 04 | September 2009
History Education News | teachinghistory.org
Issues & Research
Stay up to date with current issues and research that affect history education.
RESEARCH BRIEF
WHAT DO STUDENTS LEARN FROM
HISTORICAL FEATURE FILMS?
Historical feature films are a popular tool history teachers use to engage their students. But what is it that students actually learn from the films they watch? Peter Seixas, a historian and professor of education at the University of British Columbia, showed that while students often empathize with the past they see on the screen, they also approach film history uncritically. Sometimes they even
a film is created influences the way it depicts an historical event.
Use historical documents in conjunc- tion with a film to provide students with information to help them determine its historical accuracy.
Read more at teachinghistory.org.
interpret a film’s presentation of his- tory to be as it actually happened. In a landmark article, Seixas described the difficulty students have in analyzing films for historical accuracy.
Tips for Teaching with Historical Films
Use older films in the beginning of the year as a touchstone experience for cri- tiquing a film’s accuracy and realism.
Provide students with the vocabulary, concepts, and approaches needed to discuss both the cinematic conventions as well as the historical accuracy of the film. One important concept for students to learn is that the time period in which
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Movie theater. Southside, Chicago, Illinois, Lee Russell, 1941, Library of Congress: LC-USF34- 038553-D
Photo taken at Buckskin Joe Frontier Town and Railway, Cañon City, CO
explore
teachinghistory.ORG
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
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How can we make the site more useful to you? Please take a mo- ment and let us know what you think of the newsletter and the website at teachinghistory.org. Use the feedback form on the site, email comments to info@ teachinghistory.org, or call us at 1-866-539-8381. We appreciate your time and all that you do for history education!
NHEC ENEWSLETTER
Stay up to date with the NHEC enewsletter. Sign up at teachinghistory.org and receive monthly emails that detail great resources and best practices for the teaching and learning of American history. In the past, we have fea- tured special topics, such as Asian- American Heritage Month and the
WEEKLY HISTORY QUIZ IS BACK!
With the new school year, the NHEC weekly history quiz returns to teachinghistory.org with new topics to test your knowledge. Quiz categories include labor un- rest, lady daredevils, and dancing etiquette. You can even prepare for “Talk Like a Pirate Day” with a
Supreme Court nomination.
quiz on Oyster Pirates.
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Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Issue 04 | September 2009
History Education News | teachinghistory.org
TAH Grants
Explore resources related to Teaching American History (TAH) grants to learn from current and past projects and to plan for future grant applications.
NEW TAH GRANTS AWARDED!
In July, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that 123 school districts in thirty-eight states have been awarded $116 million in new grants to help schools improve the teaching of American history. “These grants give school districts an ideal op- portunity to partner with other organi-
zations that possess content expertise to embark on a journey to enhance American history education and student academic achievement,” Duncan said. We are always interested in hearing about TAH projects nationwide. Let us know about your project by emailing info@teachinghistory.org.
LESSONS LEARNED
VIDEO: MAKING CONNECTIONS:
USING WHAT’S TAUGHT
In this video, Mark Tebeau, associate professor of history at Cleveland State University, discusses the importance of working with material in a TAH project from more than one angle. As examples,
he looks at grant projects in which teach- ers are taught how to use and analyze oral histories and then sent out to collect oral histories themselves, and at project speakers who build out from their lec- tures into practical engagement with the materials presented. Watch this video at teachinghistory.org.
BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY
THROUGH RELATIONSHIPS
“How much does your local Board of Education know about your TAH program? Have you ever invited them to attend one of your training sessions? What about central office personnel—have you ever involved them in your program? Hopefully, you are ahead of the game and have done these things already; but if not, let’s look at the possibilities.
“In 2002, a colleague asked me to co- write a TAH grant. I was intrigued, as my largest endeavor to date was $3,000. Our system did not have a grant writer nor did they have curriculum specialists, but the superintendent was willing to
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Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
allow us to embark upon this adventure. In the fall of 2002, we received word— our grant proposal was awarded. We were truly blessed!”
—Pamela Gothart, Alabama Read more at teachinghistory.org.
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
CIVIL WAR AND DIGITAL STORYTELLING
tah-civilwar.blogspot.com
To what extent can digital tools support history education and foster historical thinking skills? In Clark County, Nevada, Inside American History, an elementary school Teaching American History TAH grant, offers an example of the possibili- ties. The program utilized digital storytell- ing techniques to study the Civil War era and to focus on Abraham Lincoln. Christy Keeler, Ph.D, Clark County’s pedagogy scholar, explains the work of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers involved with the TAH grant: “Their assignment was to script a digital story using a R-A-F-T (Role-Audi- ence-Format-Topic) strategy, record it with
an iTalk attachment to their video iPods, and edit/embellish their stories using Au- dacity. Their topic had to relate to the Civil
War era and had to be suitable for use in an intermediate level classroom.” —Nevada
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NEWS
NEH Picturing America School Collaboration Projects
Picturing America is an initiative of We the People, an NEH program designed to encourage and enhance the teaching, study, and understanding of Ameri-
can history, culture, and democratic principles. American colleges, universi- ties, associations, libraries, museums, and other non-profit organizations are encouraged to design conferences that help educators who have already received the Picturing America images form connections with courses in the core curriculum. Awards are up to $75,000 and the deadline to apply is October 7, 2009. More information about the Picturing America program can be found at picturingamerica.neh. gov. Visit www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/ PASCP.html for application materials.
The Library of Congress has a New Teachers Page
For more than ten years, the Library has provided teachers with access to millions of digitized primary sources and the tools educators need to use them in the classroom. Recently, these tools moved to a new, easy-to-find center for teachers just one click away from the Library’s home page. Some of the new features include: TPS Direct, the Library’s new build-your-own professional development tool; a dedicated home page for primary source sets; using Primary Sources, a quick introduction to the authentic classroom use of primary sources; and, coming soon, a new search tool just for classroom materials. Visit the Teachers Page at loc.gov/teachers.
Issue 04 | September 2009
History Education News | teachinghistory.org
Professional Development
At teachinghistory.org you can search for events and professional organizations nationally and in your backyard.
CONFERENCES
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL
STUDIES ANNUAL CONFERENCE
November 13–15, 2009 www.socialstudies.org/conference
Join the National Council for the Social Studies and the Georgia Council for the Social Studies in Atlanta for the 89th NCSS Annual Conference. The confer- ence will address the key responsibility of social studies educators: preparing young citizens to make a better world.
The agenda includes more than 400 ses- sions, workshops, poster presentations, clinics, tours, speakers and panels, and social events. If you are unable to make it to Atlanta, there are also affiliated state, local, and regional conferences. These are listed on the NCSS website and at teachinghistory.org.
LATINO/A COMMUNITIES IN THE MIDWEST: 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION CONFERENCE
November 5, 2009, in East Lansing, Michigan Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University www.jsri.msu.edu/whatsnew/index.html
The more than 4.2 million Latino/as in the midwest comprise ten percent of the nation’s Latino/a population and six percent of the overall population in the region. Historically, Latino/as have laid railroad tracks, worked the agricultural fields, slaughter houses, and automo- bile factories, and provided domestic and service labor in the communities and cities of the midwest. Join scholars and educators to talk about current un- derstandings of Latino/a communities
related to such topics as immigration, demographics, and social justice.
PLAN AHEAD FOR 2010!
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION NATIONAL HISTORY EDUCATION CLEARINGHOUSE TEACHING WORKSHOP Saturday, January 10, 2010, in San Diego, CA
This free workshop will discuss best practices in teaching American history. Speakers include:
Christopher Hamner (George Mason University) on “Teaching the ‘New’ Military History: New Subjects, New Techniques”
George Sanchez (University of South- ern California) on “Teaching About Immigration to Immigrants, Children of Immigrants, and Non-Immigrants”
Thomas Adams (California State Director, Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division) on “History, Education, and Public Policy: California, 1998-2011”
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Emma Hipolito (UCLA) and Miguel Morales (Los Angeles Unified School District) on “Resources to Teach About Immigration from a West Coast Perspective.”
Stay tuned to teachinghistory.org for more information.
AWARDS
ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS
TACHAU TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARD
Deadline—December 1, 2009! www.oah.org/activities/awards/tachau/index.html
The Organization of American Histori- ans (OAH) sponsors an annual award to recognize the contributions made by pre-collegiate or classroom teachers to improve history education. The award, to be given for activities that enhance the intellectual development of other history teachers and/or students, memorializes the career of Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau, University of Louisville, for her path- breaking efforts to build bridges between university and pre-collegiate history
teachers. The award will be presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the OAH (April 7–10) in Washington, DC.
TOOLS FOR TEACHERS
Students are increasingly using digital tools to learn and share their knowledge and ideas. Explore tutorials and best practices for using these digital tools at teachinghistory.org.
WORDLE
www.wordle.net
The creators of Wordle define this free, open-source tool as a toy. Wordle is defi- nitely fun to play with, but it’s also a learn- ing tool for visualizing and analyzing text. And it’s adaptable to learning objectives for K–12. Plug a block of text, a URL, or even del.icio.us bookmarks into Wordle, and the program generates a word cloud—a graphic that amplifies font sizes of words based on how frequently they are used in the material you’ve provided.
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Professional Development Workshop, 2009
Issue 04 | September 2009
NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 1532 FAIRFAX, VA 22030
Center for History and New Media George Mason University 4400 University Drive, MSN 1E7 Fairfax, VA 22030
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