Saturday Seminar: American Colonies
This session features a talk from Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor and lessons created and demonstrated by three teachers.
This session features a talk from Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor and lessons created and demonstrated by three teachers.
This is the second of a three-part conference designed to advocate for increased and improved history instruction, K12. It will include lectures or presentations; analysis of a real or hypothetical teaching situation; review of student work; group discussion or group work; in-depth reading on a specific topic; preparation of a paper, report, or research project; and leadership development
This conference provides a variety of activities particularly targeted to middle and high school world history teachers and U.S. history teachers interested in adding a global perspective to their classes or looking for ways to integrate U.S. and world history. Particularly appealing will be grade-specific (grade 6, 7, and 10) roundtables at which mentor teachers and history scholars will engage in discussion about the "big picture" in specific historical periods—what the "global narrative" is at those times, and what are the most provocative and interesting questions researchers are exploring. A U.S./World roundtable will focus on ways to bring studies of the U.S. and the world together. Other panels and keynote addresses will get into specific topics of interest and/or provide key background to understand the "new" world history that is emerging in academic research.
Sonia Nazario will discuss her book Enrique’s Journey, based on her Pulitzer Prize-winning series from the Los Angeles Times. This true story of a Honduran boy's dangerous odyssey to rejoin his mother in the U.S. has the potential to reshape our conversations about immigration.
NPR's Weekend Edition host and author Scott Simon will share insights and stories from his reporting on immigration in the U.S. and abroad. Along with student artists from the photography exhibit "The Way We See It: L.A. Teens on Immigration," Simon will help attendees consider what it means to "become American" in the 21th century.
Founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund and bestselling author Marian Wright Edelman examines how to make the nation and world safe and fair for all children. She will also offer insights from her new book The Sea is So Wide and My Boat is So Small.
Divided We Fall is the first feature-length independent documentary about hate violence in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Filmmaker Valarie Kaur documented stories in the Sikh, Muslim, and Arab American communities. Over the next five years, Kaur's journey unfolded into a larger exploration of "who counts as American." In 2005, Sharat Raju and his film crew joined Valarie as she retraced her steps across the country, revisiting her original interviewees and other scholars, lawyers, and legislators about race, religion, and security in post-9/11 America. The screening is free and open to the public. It will include a showing of the film and comments by Dr. Jaideep Singh, co-founder of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Assistant Professor in Department of Ethnic Studies, CSUEB, and Ranjit Singh Sabharwal Chair in Sikh and Punjabi Studies and by Neha Singh, Western Region Director of the Sikh Coalition, Fremont. A question-answer period with panelists will end the program
In every generation, Americans have asked, "Who may live among us?" and "What does it mean to be an American?" The way we have addressed these questions throughout history is central to understanding of the nation's past and can guide people in the choices they make today as individuals and as a nation committed to democracy. Participants will tour "Becoming American: Teenagers and Immigration" and receive resources to explore this exhibition and its companion exhibition created by Facing History students, "The Way We See It: L.A. Teens on Immigration."
Using Facing History's principal resource book, Holocaust and Human Behavior, as well as video, primary sources, and presentations by survivors and leading scholars of the Holocaust, participants will experience a rigorous encounter with this powerful history. During the Seminar, a wide range of innovative teaching strategies are used to help teachers confront the Holocaust. At the conclusion of the Seminar, participants leave with a thorough grounding on how to incorporate these teaching tools into their classrooms in ways that will help students connect the history of the Holocaust to the ethical choices they face today. Participants at this Seminar follow Facing History's scope and sequence. The Seminar begins with an exploration of questions of identity in our lives today and then moves to questions of group membership in history. These early sessions lay the foundation for an intensive examination of the steps that led to the Holocaust and the eventual mass murder of millions of Jews and other victims. The Seminar then ask participants to think about questions of judgment and memory, considering who bears responsibility for crimes against humanity and how to confront or memorialize the past. The Seminar concludes by challenging participants to reflect on questions about what it means to participate responsibly in a civil society. Following this Seminar, participants receive complete access to Facing History's Educator Resources, including downloadable unit plans, lessons, and online conversations. In addition, participants are invited to borrow videos, dvds, and books from Facing History's lending library. Finally, each participant is assigned a Facing History Program Associate, who is available to provide ongoing support services.
Powerful and Authentic Social Studies (PASS) is a professional development program that trains social studies teachers in curriculum design, assessment, and instruction in a standards-based environment. This institute will provide participants with the materials and expertise necessary to lead their own PASS training workshops in their schools and school districts.