Hands-On History Kits

On the topic of Early American History, I just received a Mac Grant for teaching with hands-on materials in Social Studies. I am using it to purchase two of the Colonial Williamsburg Hands-On History Kits. I also incorporated into the grant enough money to put together a couple of artifact kits of my own. Last year, someone mentioned kits that can be rented and returned which are similar to the artifact kits from Colonial Williamsburg. If anyone has that information, I would be interested in checking those out. A colleague in another district spent a week at the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute last summer and described it as the pinnacle of his career. Does anyone have contacts with that organization? Lastly, I found an interesting site which promotes teaching with Historic Places. I have looked at some of these lessons and they are cool: http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/preserve_america.HTM

American Experience on PBS

The programs on American Experience, a PBS series, the last two weeks have been a great additional resource for teaching concepts about the Great Depression and the New Deal. The content of the programs would be most appropriate for junior high and high school students, but they are good primary resources of information because they use actual film footage. Last week's program was about the building of the Hoover Dam in the early 1930s. Last night was about the Dust Bowl. Since both of these events occurred at the same time as the Great Depression, they would be a good source of additional information in the classroom. Think TV has loaned me DVDs of programs in the past. Simply call the Think TV office (937-220-1707) and request a specific title. The staff is very teacher friendly!

More Sources for Early American History

A good place to start for primary sources from the 18th century, including maps, documents, and portraits, is Archiving Early America . Also check out The Avalon Project, which has transcripts of legal documents – cool stuff, though (Colonial charters, treaties, Sedition Act). Colonial Williamsburg is a good source for items or everyday life such as clothing, recipes, and tools. Or, browse the many letters, diary entries and military records of George Washington from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress that are available through American Memory. While consisting mainly of secondary material, Common-Place, an online scholarly journal, does have primary sources within most articles.

Categorizing Information

Last class we did a hands on primary source activity in which we had to categorize information. I happened upon a good strategy at a conference several years ago, and there is a similar one in the History Fair theme book this year. The one I have used is called PEGS (Political, Economic, Geographic, and Social). It takes a bit of front-loading, but once the students know the categories they are good to go.

Introduce: Define words (Political, Economic, Geographic and Social), and create web examples of things we might "sort" into that category on the white board. Use these student created examples to make posters to put up in the room to help them remember the categories.

Analyze: Give groups of students a number of newspaper headlines with which they must sort into each category. For example, they must read the heading "The Lion King heads to Columbus for a two month run" Then decide where to sort it. If they choose "Social" they must justify their choice. I usually choose a few that are arguable to be sorted into different categories to encourage discussion within the group as they consider and justify their choices.

Practice: I really liked this activity to compare cultures. Create a graphic organizer or foldable for student use. Have them gather and sort the information on your groups (ex-Maya and Inca).

Extend:You can further extend the lesson, by asking students to use the information to create Venn diagrams and/or write a compare and contrast essay etc.

Sidenote--
1. It was really cool to hear my 8th graders discussing the political, economic, geographic and social aspects of various societies.
2. It went over well with the judges at History Fair in some of the projects where it was applicable!

See you for the field trip!
C. Smart

Excellent way to tie Language Arts to Great Depression

I find my students often gain a deeper understanding of historical events by reading historical fiction books related to the topic we are studying.   My students always enjoy the book Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.  This book is set during the Great Depression.  It has many great examples of historical events during this time period.  The reading level is 5.0, but the book could easily be read by older students.  

Another useful lesson

Today, I had my students use the vocabulary strategy that we learned at our last class meeting. It was super! When they had to compose a sentence that defined the word and tie it in to the primary source the meaning of the work really sunk in. A lot of them came up with sentences and then were really surprised when the sentence did not meet the requirements. I have the best of the best hanging up on the wall until our next vocabulary quiz. That is the great thing about our "Back to History " class, the activities are easy to use and practical. They also give the students an opportunity to be creative.

On another note, I was so intrigued by the WPA art that I went around Marysville and found some examples of WPA murals in our own community. I will bring the pictures to our next class. I tried to add them to the blog page but I am Blog challenged.

Have a great day!
Amanda Goodwin

Primary Source Website

I have really enjoyed the different primary source activities that have been shared thus far. One small problem I was having is that the activities presented have all used multiple, yet diverse primary sources all related to the same event or topic. As a teacher of earlier American history, it sometimes becomes difficult to find several primary sources that are all related to the same topic. During my search, I came across a website that I think could be useful to many Social Studies teachers (or LA teachers) for finding primary sources. I hope that it is as helpful to others as it was to me!

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

Book suggestion for Trials

The book that mimics the The Crucible is called Salem Witch (My Side of the Story) by Patricia Hermes. It tells the story from both Elizabeth's and George's point of view. The bool level is 4.5 if you use Accelerated Reader. ISBN 0-7534-5991-4. Hope this helps!

History Fair Connection

First, I'd like to say that I really enjoyed our first class! At this point I am a tad behind, but I am excited to kick off this year's History Fair activities. I am always looking for strategies to help students organize their research. As we did our primary source activity on the mining crisis, I was inspired. I am going to use the theories (history from below, great man, economic, political etc.) to help students organize and research their topic. Students need a variety of primary and secondary resources, as well as differing viewpoints to create widespread and balanced research. I realize each school of thought has its own detailed intricacies, but I think I can provide a short explanation for each one that my 7th graders will understand. Bottom line, I think this activity will help them sort their massive (and often overwhelming) amounts of information!

Historiography

I used the Hocking Valley Mine Strike primary source activity that we did in our orientation class for my enrichment class. The kids had some difficulty understanding the definitions for all the different historical perspectives but once they understood their assigned point of view they did a great job. Some of the artwork on the posters was amazing. Being 8th graders they had no background knowledge of the union movement or the violence that usually resulted from strikes. We discussed how the mine owners actually used the company stores and company housing to keep their workers under control. I also brought in a picture of my grandfather who was a coal miner in West Virginia in the 1930s. They were really shocked that companies were able to get away with some of the things they did, especially the attacks on strikers.
Thanks for a great activity.
Amanda