The Digital Broadside
News You Can Use
English Language Learners
Anyway, I like to make my sessions as practical as possible. So if the ELL student interests you in any way, please take this quick survey to help me address real issues and concerns you have.
Hallowed Grounds
One cannot tell the story of America without preserving and reflecting on the places where African Americans have made history. The Kingsley Plantation, DuSable’s home site, the numerous stops along the Underground Railroad, Seneca Village, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church and Frederick Douglass’ home — to name just a few — are sites that keep alive the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in our consciousness.
In Richmond, here are just some of the places you can visit that would be considered Hallowed Ground:
A Better Way to Teach History
"The case method goes beyond historical skills and factual content; it aims to hone decision-making skills. Each case is a concentrated story about a specific episode in history. Students are asked what they would have decided had they been, say, an advocate arguing for compulsory public education in 1851, or Theodore Roosevelt deciding whether to intervene in a dispute between labor and industry in 1901. It’s not until after they have fully discussed the case that the historical outcome is revealed to them. (Class participation, even though it is mandatory, is enthusiastic: “We can have 40 hands in the air at any given moment,” Moss tells me.)"
African American Smithsonian Musuem
Coming this fall to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. is the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“To understand America, you’ve gotta understand the African American experience,” the museum’s founding director Lonnie Bunch told WCBS 880’s Jane Tillman Irving. “Traditionally, when one views African-American culture, they view it as ancillary, as secondary, as outside of the mainstream.”
Opens September 24, 2016!
Election Politics
Here are some resources that can help:
Summer School Options
If you have students who need these classes, and may succeed in an online environment, please consider this option for them.
Student Growth Measures for MP2
General Assembly
The first is HB 516 which deals with sexually explicit content in the classroom. It's passing the GA very easily, but right now, we're not sure what the impact would be. Does it mean not showing certain artwork, or is that ok? We just don't know these answers.
The other, and more far reaching, is SB336. Nicknamed the "high school redesign bill", this would remove the requirement for standard and advanced diplomas as well as standard and verified credits. It would require the Virginia Board of Education to establish a "Profile of a Graduate" which includes goals related to critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication (this is something that Board is already doing). The redesign would emphasize core skills and academics in the early years of high school and provide alternate pathways to graduation in the later years. The new requirements would affect students beginning with Fall 2018 ninth graders.
The concern with SB336 is the lack of Social Studies mentioned as a core class in the research for this bill, done by the Innovation Committee. A group created around a year ago.
Teacher|Student Opportunities
American Civil War Museum
What opportunities and challenges awaited newly freed African Americans in the days following the Civil War? Where did poor and infirm veterans find a place of shelter and a sense of community? How did the U.S. Army impact the course of Reconstruction? Are the issues with which we are dealing today a direct result of decisions made during this era? These questions and many more will be explored during the 2016 Teachers Institute as we look at not only the political intricacies of this critical period but also the human side of the story.
Through lectures, tours, and discussions, participants will acquire information that will enable them to go beyond the textbook. Teachers will receive a notebook of specially designed curriculum resources, utilizing copies of primary source documents that will make a hands-on approach to history possible. Additionally, the Institute’s collaborative environment will encourage teachers to learn from each other as they discuss what works for them in their classrooms. Finally, attendees will receive a certificate of completion for 32 hours, which can be used toward recertification points in most school systems.
Click here for more information.
Registration ends April 15.
Roots of Liberty Student Essay Contest
Roots of Liberty is an organization that tries to make the Federalist Papers understandable to students. They also have a student essay contest with the question, "To what extent, if any, is the federal government restricted by the powers enumerated under Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States in the regulation of ONE of the following: voting rights, marijuana, or the environment?"
Sounds perfect for We The People students.
Deadline is April 15, 2016
What Every American Should Know
But what do you think?
The Power of Place: Land and Peoples in Appalachia
The James Age Film Project and the University of North Carolina Asheville welcome your interest in our two-week NEH 2016 Summer Institute, The Power of Place: Land and Peoples in Appalachia. If you are a K-12 educator, we invite you to consider joining the institute, from July 10 to July 22, at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, North Carolina.
Our two week institute will use environmental history to examine the role of landscape in the shaping of culture and history, with the Southern Appalachians as a powerful case study. Using the experience of Appalachia, we will see how environmental history presents new questions to interrogate past events, encourages an interdisciplinary approach to the study of place, and presents an excellent opportunity for team teaching in the classroom. deadline is March 1, 2016.
Demon Times: Temperance, Immigration and Progressivism in an American City
The influential Temperance organization the Anti-Saloon League was based in Westerville, a Columbus suburb. The Anti-Saloon League's influence and methodology was scientific and unapologetic in its approach, aiming directly at alcohol, Catholics, and immigrants. Columbus was home to a large German immigrant population, with an attendant brewing industry. The juxtaposition of these two elements makes for a unique landmark allowing us to consider the collision between immigrants and advocates of temperance in the Progressive era. July 10-15 and July 24-29, 2016.
Check it out here: Application Deadline: March 1, 2016.
World War One @ the Virginia Historical Society
How has our understanding of the war changed in the last century? How do historians view the legacies of the war today? How can teachers make the most of primary sources from
the era, particularly local sources in Virginia?
March 1, 2016
FREE
12pm to 4pm
To register online, please visit their page.
Teaching World War One: 100 Years Later is the first program in the Virginia Historical
partnership with the University of Richmond’s Department of History.
Instructional Ideas
Telling History Through Graphics
Here is the Civil War in 5 Seconds:
Here are some options on how you could assign a project like this to your students:
1. Show your students a graphic like this and ask them to describe it in a paragraph. Have them describe each image in the graphic, explain what the image likely means, and then connect the images into a narrative. (It should look something like the paragraph I wrote above.) Each student response should have a title summarizing the graphic's main idea.
2. Show your students this graphic, but use it as an exemplar. Then ask them to create their own graphic relevant to the unit you're currently studying. For my students, because we're discussing Progressive Reform, I could ask them to make a graphic that shows how Progressive Era writers influenced reform on the state and local level, and how that reform ultimately influenced the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and then Woodrow Wilson.
3. On the day your student-created graphics were turned in, shuffle them and hand them out to your students. Ask them to write a paragraph that explains the classmates' graphic.
Exploring History, Volume III
The topics include: American and World History units (in chronological order) Finding Egyptian Needles in Western Haystacks by Heidi Kershner, Pompeii by Caleb Wilson, Samurai: Sources of Warrior Identity in Medieval Japan by Ben Heebner, The Declaration of Independence by David Deis, Reconstruction in Political Cartoons by EmmaLee Kuhlmann, Regulation Through the Years by Chenoa Musillo Olson and Sarah Wieking, Battle of the Somme by John Hunt, The Lynching of Leo Frank by Jeff Smith, The Waco Horror by Alekz Wray, The Harlem Renaissance by Monica Portugal, A Date of Infamy by Mollie Carter, Anti-Vietnam War Imagery by Felicia Teba, Examining the Ongoing Evolution of American Government by Eric Cole.
Do You Like Simulations?
Trivia and Other Balderdash
Trivia 2015 - 2016: Teachers- 9 and Me- 8
Last week:
No winners last week:
- He was a uniting Junker. (Otto Bismark)
- It's a pejorative word for making someone buy their own dinner. (Dutch)
- Teddy's first love and first lady (Edith Roosevelt)
- Bob Marley's right hand man (Peter Tosh)
- Superman's worst movie girlfriend (Margot Kidder)
All these words/people are connected to Anne Frank. Otto was her dad, they were Dutch, Edith is her mom, Peter was her boyfriend, and Margot was her sister.
This week: "Connections". For this, you need to answer each of the following questions, and then figure out what they ultimately have in common. The answers aren't what is in common.... you have to take one more step.
- HG Wells described these in his 1903 book, the Land Ironclads
- A type of "progressive" law used to protect customers from business
- A smart, fictional dog that loves history
- The Stars and Stripes forever is an example of this
- An Indian ally of the British in 1812
What do they all have in common?
Contact Information
Email: mjhasley@henrico.k12.va.us
Website: blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/mjhasley
Location: 3820 Nine Mile Road, Richmond, VA, United States
Phone: 804 652-3752
Twitter: @MikeHasley