The Midwest Center for Teaching with Primary Sources
Projects funded through the Midwest Center for Teaching with Primary Sources expand our knowledge about the teaching and learning with primary sources. The Center appreciates the work of those involved in subcontracts that provide professional development or conduct research throughout the Midwest. The following projects have been funded by the Center during our first year.
Teaching About the United States and World War Two Through Primary Sources and the American Memory Project
This Type I project challenged pre-service teachers in the history instruction program in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to think in new ways about the meaningful integration of primary sources evidence into history instruction. Students planned a unit of study using primary sources from the American Memory Collections. The units ranged from home front topics such as rationing and the labor of women to Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American internment, the Women's Army Corps, the war in the Philippines, and wartime propaganda. The Principal Investigator looks forward to following these students during their student teaching experience to see if they integrate the use of primary sources into their instruction.
Engaging the Minds of Young Historians: Connecting National History Day and the Library of Congress
This Type II project builds on the strong relationship between National History Day and the Library of Congress to engage young historians in historical research through the interpretation of primary sources. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will partner with the Washburn Academy to conduct a professional development workshop for teachers and media specialists during the summer of 2008. Teachers will develop a primary source lesson plan and integrate that lesson into their instruction during the 2008-09 school year. It is hopeful that the results of this effort will be reflected in the quality of National History Day projects presented at the regional and state competitions held in the spring of 2009.
Enhancing the Deliberation Process Using Primary Sources
This Type II project was awarded to Indiana University's Center for the Study of Global Change and includes the following co-sponsoring organizations: Indiana University-Center on Congress, Geography Educators' Network of Indiana, and the Brown University Choices for the 21st Century program of the Watson Institute for International Studies. One of the goals of this Type II project is to apply the skills of integrating the digital primary sources from the Library of Congress to the deliberation process as defined by the Integrating International and Civic Education Project (see, IICE, www.indiana.edu/~global/iice/). The IICE deliberation process focuses on a multifaceted topic and invites students to analyze that topic from diverse local, national, and international perspectives. Another goal of this project is to broaden the use of the Library of Congress digital primary sources by Indiana teachers in general, particularly with regard to international topics. This project will utilize a train-the-trainer model to impact more than 125 teachers throughout the state of Indiana.
Primarily Teaching
This Type II award went to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association to conduct a professional development workshop during the summer of 2008. This project will provide a varied program of lectures, demonstrations, analysis of documents, independent research, and group work that introduces teachers to the holding and organization of the Library of Congress as well as the Hoover Presidential Library. Participants will learn how to do research in historical records, create classroom materials from records, and present documents in ways that sharpen students' skills and enthusiasm for history, social studies, and the humanities. Each participant will create a lesson plan that will be shared online
Michigan Council for History Education and Wayne Regional Education Service Agency Teaching with Primary Sources Workshop
This Type II award is a joint effort by the Michigan Council for History Education and the Wayne Regional Education Service Agency to provide professional development for social studies educators and media specialists during a four-day summer institute during the summer of 2008. The goals for this institute are to fully acquaint participants with the Library of Congress web site so that they can create lesson plans to facilitate the newly-adopted Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations for grades 5, 8, and Senior High School. These lesson plans will be disseminate on several web sites and will be highlighted during a number of presentations at state-wide conferences.