Hello Back to History!

It was so nice to tag along on the field trip with all of you last week. As Mary and Kristina told you I am the new project curator from Ohio Historical Society for the Back to History program. I will be leading the primary source activities and attending the field trips and seminars with all of you. Here is my contact information should you have any questions:

Molly Uline-Olmstead, 614.297.2617, muline-olmstead@ohiohistory.org

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web is a search engine sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. The website allows you to search online exhibitions by libraries, historical societies, and other museums by topic and keyword. These exhibitions include digital scans of primary sources in addition to secondary interpretive discussion of the materials.

Maine's Historical society has a website very similar to Ohio Memory called the Maine Memory Network. There is a wide variety of materials including documents, photographs, objects, and prints. In addition the site has a few interpreted exhibitions.

Finally, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has an extensive collection of documents. The site, which is part of the New York Historical society, is organized really well.

Have great holidays and I will see you on January 16th.

Check Out The Exhibit Virtual First Ohioans

In the Fall 2009 edition of The Pocket Watch newsletter from Kristina, she wrote about an exhibit called The First Ohioans. This virtual exhibit contains lots of great information and primary sources regarding the prehistoric Indians of Ohio. The content is perfect for fourth grade curriculum. My students have really enjoyed looking at the artifacts and watching the short videos. I think this exhibit has made it easy to show my students the artifacts which have helped us learn about how these prehistoric Indians lived. It features information on the Paleo, Archaic, Adena, Hopewell, Fort Ancient cultures and more. I would especially encourage you to check it out if you teach 4th grade.

6 Hat Discussions

6 Hat Discussions

Anyone who was in last years session of Back to History may remember the teacher who talked about using the 6 Hat method to higher level questioning in social studies content. I have recently used this method with my third grade inclusion class, and it worked really well. There are 6 hats. Each hat has different levels of higher level questioning the students can answer on a specific non-fiction text. I have all the masters and explanations for this method if anyone who was not in last years group would like a copy. It is a great resource that can be used at any grade level.

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.