For elementary teachers, time is one of our most precious resources –we just don't have enough of it during the school day to cover effectively all requirements the state and federal governments mandate.
-Leska Foster
Three veteran, award-winning educators shared their wisdom and experience using Teaching with Historic Places lessons in the following articles. These resources lay out the challenges teachers face and explain the solutions and benefits Teaching with Historic Places lessons offer in (and out of) the classroom. They also provide detailed guidance for using the lesson plans and ideas for how to make the most of these lessons to support educators' curriculum needs.
Teacher #1: Leska Foster
5th Grade Teacher at Holz Elementary School, Charleston, West Virginia
(by Leska Foster)
In 21st century classrooms across the United States, teachers are grappling with the best way to meet both student needs and federal/ state requirements. As a self-contained elementary teacher (one who teaches academic subjects to the same class) I find using Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plans to be an exciting, intriguing, efficient, and effective way to have students dig deeper into history while meeting these needs.
While this approach may seem narrow-minded at first glance, using TwHP lessons actually allows the elementary teacher three great opportunities:
1. Helping students make connections to the larger historical era under instruction;
2. Helping teachers dip their feet (or fingers or toes) into the sometimes murky depths of using historical documents as teaching tools, which will then help students to become thoughtful and detailed readers, thinkers, and writers; and
3. Allowing self-contained teachers the possibility for integration into most if not all subjects across the curriculum during the school day.
The TwHP lesson plan that I will be using as a reference is The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation. According to West Virginia Content Standards and Objectives (CSOs), fourth grade students study the early explorers to the end of the American Revolution, as well as West Virginia History;fifth grade students pick up from the end of the American Revolution through to the current time.
For elementary teachers, time is one of our most precious resources –we just don't have enough of it during the school day to cover effectively all requirements the state and federal governments mandate. Using the TwHP lesson plan format, I'll demonstrate how I've broken down the lessons for use in my classroom. I don't use an entire TwHP lesson plan –I pick and choose both what works best for my students at any given time and also what helps ensure that we meetstate and federal standards.
The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation
Getting Started: Inquiry Question
1. If you have access to a Smartboard / Touchboard, showing just the picture as an introduction is one of my favorite ways to start a new unit. Elementary students love to discuss all types of topics and for those auditory learners in your classroom, this is one way to meet their needs.
2. Brain-storm the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of the picture –Who might have lived there?; What did they do for a living?; When in time do you think this was built?; Where in the United States was this built?; Why were the buildings constructed that way?; and How are these buildings important to us today?
3. Use Photo Analysis Worksheet as an additional resource or in place of Activity #1. The photos could also be used as a homework assignment or as an in-class group assignment.
Setting the Stage
1. This page gives a refresher on the beginnings of American History. I typically use this page for information that I share with students.
2. The last paragraph on this page is good for creating a timeline for elementary students to see how events overlapped. Timelines are a critical part of our state testing.
Locating the Site
I typically use a Smartboard to present the maps or an overhead projector if a Smartboard is unavailable.
1. Map 1 - Fifth grade students in WV are required to be able to identify and label the 50 states. Having the students identify the states shown on the map is a good review.
2. Map 1 - Use the questions to further student knowledge. Can be completed in pairs or small groups.
3. Map 2 –Break the students into four or eight groups. Assign one of the four trails to each group. Using Google Maps, have the students enter the cities into Google Maps in order to determine the mileage total. Once they have the mileage total, they can use the larger version of Map 2 to create a map scale based on their math level.
4. Map 2 –Same as Step 2 for Map 1.
Determining the Facts- Reading 1, Reading 2, Reading 3
With these three readings, I break the class into three separate groups and do a jigsaw activity with them. When determining the groupings for these readings, you might want to make certain that you have a mixture of student abilities in each group so that your struggling readers don't become frustrated with the assignment. This can be a time-consuming activity if you don't use a timer. You can also give the readings out ahead of time for the students to pre-read.
1. Break the class into three smaller groups.
2. Have each group read their assigned pages and discuss their questions.
3. Each group is to make a presentation to the rest of the class instructing them on the important facts that they have read. I typically require each member of the group to present some piece of information so that all students will have an opportunity to do public speaking. You can use this activity as a formative assessment of the lesson content.
4. The first-person statements / accounts in all three readings can be used as a Language Arts lesson. Discuss sentence structure and vocabulary based on these parts.
Visual Evidence – Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4
1. Photos 1-4 - I usually discuss these images in the whole group, helping my elementary students pay attention to the details found in each one. Use the Photo Analysis sheet if necessary.
Putting it All Together
There are five student activities available to the teacher in this lesson.
1. Activities 1 and 2 could be merged together if you chose to do so. Activity 1 asks the students to compare and contrast the pros and cons of merging the Cherokee culture into the white culture. This activity could be combined with Activity 2 which asks the students to consider the two men, John Ross and Major Ridge, and as members of the Cherokee National Council vote on whether or not to approve the Treaty of Echota.
2. Activity 2 is the one that I choose to use with my students because it is best suited for their academic developmental level.
3. Activity 3 asks the students to review the primary source materials included in this lesson (the readings, maps, and photos) and make a list of these sources. Once the list has been compiled, each group of students is asked to choose four pieces of evidence (sources) and answer the questions included about each source.
4. Activity 4 asks the students to research the tribes and treaties that were in their area during the European settlement. Once the information has been gathered, then the students are asked to answer questions pertaining to their local tribes. An oral presentation concludes this activity.
5. The final activity with this lesson involves the students being split into four groups and assigned one of the four remaining Indian tribes who were relocated. The students are asked to compare and contrast their relocation experience with the Cherokee tribe as well as an update on the tribe in the 21st century. An oral presentation is the culmination of this activity as well.
Supplementary Resources
There are 11 on-line sites that can be set up for the students to use independently at home or in class. If your school has a website (our school system has a countywide one) you can post the links to your web page or ask your school webmaster to paste them there for you. This will allow the students easy access to those websites.
Conclusion
The TwHP lessons are invaluable teaching tools for history. As an elementary teacher, I use them in a variety of ways: from teaching students map skills—such as scale, longitude, latitude, and area—to Reading / Language arts skills.According to research completed for the Common Core Standards adopted by 42 states, Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands, there is a lack of complex texts for K-12 students to read and assimilate with minimal scaffolding. By using the TwHP Lessons with elementary students, the classroom teacher is beginning the process of immersing their students into the complex reading texts that they need in order to "ensure that all students are college and career ready in literacy no later than the end of high school."* Remember, have fun with these lessons and with your students while using the TwHP lessons to meet state and national standards.
pg. 3;accessed June 7, 2011.
The following is a case study by Leska Foster, 5th Grade Teacher at Holz Elementary School, Charleston, West Virginia, in using the Skagway: Gateway to the Klondike lesson plan.
One such method is the incorporation of Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plans. By focusing on just one of the many TwHP lesson plans available to teachers, this case study will present some ideas for classroom teachers to incorporate TwHP lessons into their curriculum. In this lesson, Skagway: Gateway to the Klondike, students learn how the Klondike Gold Rush fits into the broader context of gold rushes in American History, and also investigate how buildings help tell the stories of a community’s past.
In the school system where I teach, our classrooms are being fitted with Smartboards. If you do not have access to a Smartboard or a computer and data projector, using transparencies and an overhead projector will work as well.
TIP: Since I have had a Smartboard in class, I download to a portable drive anything that I want to project onscreen. Living where we do, sometimes our internet connection goes down and then we’re stuck. If I’ve downloaded the TwHP lesson to my drive, not only am I spared worrying about the internet, but I also find that the lesson comes up faster onscreen. With our software, you can pull up all of the screens that you will need for that day’s lesson and then minimize them at the bottom of your Smartboard screen. Then when you’re ready to show that screen, all you need to do is to tap the icon and enlarge it to full size. That will help the lesson move more smoothly and you’ll be less frustrated.
STEPS
Step 1: Getting Started
One of the first activities included in the Skagway lesson is a primary source photo of a street in Skagway, Alaska, in 1897. This photo is the lesson’s Getting Started image. I use the introductory photos from this section of the TwHP lessons to spark a discussion among my students. I first ask them to make a list of what they see in the picture, looking for as many details as possible. Once they have completed that task, either independently or with a partner, then as a class we discuss the elements that they have found.
Step 2: Setting the Stage
Once we have looked at the first photo and temporarily finished our discussion, we then move on to the next part of the lesson. The beauty of the TwHP lessons is that you, as the classroom teacher, can chose which parts of the lesson you want to incorporate into your classroom. Not all parts of the lesson have to be used – find what works for you and your teaching style and then go from there. Setting the Stage is the next section and I usually reserve it for myself. It has valuable background information that I will share with the students as we work our way through the lesson.
Step 3: Locating the Site
One aspect of the TwHP lessons that I’m particularly fond of is the number of graphic sources that are included in each lesson. The Skagway lesson starts off with two maps, which for elementary students is a treat. After we have discussed the introductory paragraph, we then move to Map 1: Routes from Seattle to the Klondike gold fields and Map 2: Chilkoot and White Pass Trails. I typically download the maps by themselves to eliminate the distraction of the words on the page. I use TwHP’s map questions from a “teacher” copy of the lessons that I’ve printed out and keep at hand while I’m teaching. For those students who have a difficult time reading, having just the maps on the screen makes it easier for them to understand the lesson.
For Map 1, we discuss first what continent this is on (don’t laugh – some elementary students are just now figuring out where they are!), then the countries that they can see on the map, and finally any other details that may strike their fancy. Once we’ve spent 3-5 minutes discussing the generalities, we move to the questions that accompany the map. This helps to develop the background that the students need to have in their minds as we begin the readings.
For Map 2, I explain that this is a close-up view of the first map. If possible, I bring up Google Earth and show them what the area looks like currently. Once they see the two maps and begin to superimpose one on top of the other in their minds, they begin to make connections as to the geography and lay of the land. Again, I use the “teacher” copy I printed off ahead of time for discussion questions.
Step 4: Determining the Facts
There are three readings available with this lesson. Since I’m teaching fifth grade students, I will choose which of the three readings that I feel will meet my teaching needs. Typically Reading 1 is the one that I go with most often as it usually includes a great deal of background information.
TIP: There are several ways in which to use these readings. There are two ways in which I typically use these, although you can incorporate them in the way that best fits your teaching style and your students’ needs. The first way I use the readings is to give the children a copy and have them read it for homework the night before we use it in class. One of my classroom requirements is 15-20 minutes of silent reading five nights a week. On the days that I hand these out, this becomes their reading assignment for that night. The next day the children are expected to return their copy of the reading to school and then as a class, we discuss what they read and how it ties in with the pictures and maps that we have already discussed.
The second way I use these readings is to pass them out in class and spend one class period (usually about 30 minutes) reading and discussing them together as a class. My decision about how to use the readings depends on the group of children that I have each year. Some years I have more auditory learners than visual learners and they need to cover the material in class. Other years, it’s the other way around. Feel free to experiment and see what works best for you. Use the parts of the lesson that best fit your needs. Don’t worry about not using something from one of the TwHP lessons.
Reading 2 in the Skagway lesson includes some good information as well, so we follow the same process again as Reading 1, although we may reverse what we did from the day before. If I sent home the first reading, then we’ll read this one in class and vice-versa. As always, I keep a copy of the entire lesson with me and use it as my teacher’s guide during this entire process.
Reading 3 can be used as a formative assessment if you need one or you can assign it for a homework assignment. Sometimes I can cover all three readings, but not often. I usually am able to get to one, maybe two, of the readings, but very rarely am I able to get to all of them. One of the nice things about the TwHP lessons is that they include primary source documents. On our spring state testing, our students have to look at a number of primary sources and then answer questions using those sources. Practicing with the TwHP lessons helps to prepare them for those questions on our test.
TIP: During the readings, you’ll be able to cover a variety of Reading / Language Art (RLA) skills. You can review sentence structure, vocabulary and word structure, main idea and supporting details, and even graphic organizers to compare and contrast ideas found in the readings. Feel free to experiment and see what you can discover!
Step 5: Visual Evidence
After the readings section is the Visual Evidence section. Here you will find several documents that you can use in a variety of ways. Again, only rarely will I use all of the graphic sources found in this section; instead, I’ll pick out just the ones that I need to meet my West Virginia Content Standards and Objectives (CSOs) and now the Common Core Standards.
Photo 1 is an overview of Skagway and would be a good general discussion opener. This can be a wrap-up to the classroom discussion from earlier in the week. Again, I download just the picture and store it on my drive for easy access in the classroom. The resolution of the single photo is also at a higher level which will allow more details to show up onscreen.
Photo 2 is the same one that was used to start the lesson—that is, in the Getting Started Section. Again, depending on the class, I sometimes have gone back and reviewed it, but typically do not.
Drawing 1 is one that I would spend more time on to show the progression of the house as it went through the various stages of growth. Creating a timeline of Skagway’s growth to go along with the growth of the house can be interesting for the students to see.
Photo 3 ties in well with Drawing 1 as it shows from ground level what the house looked like at the end of the final additions.
I would use Photos 4, 5, and 6 if time allows. Elementary teachers have a great deal of content to cover in a year’s time and even though we might like to spend more time on a given topic, time constraints won’t allow us that luxury. These photos can be used as a formative assessment at the end of the lesson or just as additional information for the students. You can project these on a screen and have a brief class discussion about each of them if you choose. Being the creative creatures that we are, teachers can find even more ways to use these photos than those I have suggested.
Step 6: Putting It All Together
The last two sections are probably some of my most favorite out of all of the various parts of the TwHP lessons. Putting It All Together and Skagway: Gateway to the Klondike – Supplementary Resources are full of ideas for student projects. If you are looking for student project ideas, any of these lessons will have these suggestions at the end of each lesson.
Under the Putting It All Together section, there usually two or more project ideas for students. I have discovered that across the TwHP lessons, the first project usually is more grade-level appropriate for my upper-elementary students than the rest. Those are the ones that I turn to first and then if I need something more challenging for my students, I’ll look at the rest of the choices to see what might be best.
The Supplementary Resources page(s) is another resource TwHP provides that I enjoy sharing with my students. At our school, we are fortunate to have both a true computer lab and also a mobile lab stocked with laptops. The sources found on this last page have some good additional websites to send your students to for more information. If your school has a website, and especially if you have a page on the school’s website, loading some of these sites on it for your students to access during your lab time, at home, or in class is a nice change for the children. These sites are also good for end-of-the-day, waiting-on-the-buses time to enrich and expand their knowledge.
Conclusion
These are just a few ideas on how I’ve incorporated TwHP lessons in my classroom. Feel free to experiment with just one lesson and see how that goes. Then from there, move on to another one and build your teaching library with some excellent teaching resources. The children will thank you!
Teacher #2: James Percoco
History Teacher at West Springfield High School, Springfield, Virginia
by James A. Percoco
A Passion for Teaching
“A teacher,” wrote historian and journalist Henry Adams, “can affect eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” How was I to know years ago, as I was pondering my future as a high school history teacher, that Adams, his quote, and the subsequent enigmatic sculpture that adorns his and his wife’s grave in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Cemetery would somehow coalesce to help make me the teacher I have become? Those who sink their hearts and souls into teaching young people about our collective past no doubt will encounter similar epiphanies along the way. In doing so, they will affect the lives of the students that sit before them. It is, I believe, a great part of the process; it’s that great mysterious DNA that committed teachers understand in relationship with their students.
Bringing Historic Places into the Classroom
To be candid, had I not become a history teacher, I most likely would have found myself among the ranks of the many National Park Service rangers I have had the pleasure to work with during the last three decades. If you will permit me to wear my want-to-be ranger hat for a moment, I’d like to share with you how I have discovered that teachers of American history can cross over into the world of the cultural and historic resources of the National Park Service while still remaining enclosed by the cinderblock walls of their school. If you—like many in these fiscally tight times—can’t take your students to visit historic sites, you have at your fingertips on the computer keyboard the ability to bring sites to your students right there in your classroom.
For more than twenty years the National Park Service has, through its Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) program provided for virtual field trips through the more than 135 lesson plans it has published. Written by teachers, National Park Service education specialists, and others, these lesson plans cover a wide range of themes that comprise the American narrative. The lessons meet national standards that are requisite for good history education, civic education, and service learning. They are pedagogically sound, reflecting best practices.
Visiting a Site or Not
Let’s return to Henry Adams. I mentioned an enigmatic sculpture that sits over his grave. That memorial, best known as the Adams Memorial, is one of the handiworks and masterpieces of America’s greatest sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Saint-Gaudens’ home is a jewel unit of the National Park Service: Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire. In Cornish you can visit the sculptor’s home and workshop, where you can see duplicate casts of a number of Saint-Gaudens’ works, including the Adams Memorial.
If you are a teacher in Kansas and you want to introduce your students to the relationship between art and history, then you can go to the TwHP lesson plan, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site: Home of a Gilded Age Icon. Here you will find an image of the Adams Memorial and an excerpt from Henry Adams, which he wrote in his Pulitzer Prize winning autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, about his first encounter with the memorial after it was installed. The lesson plan provides teachers with sufficient historical background material to place the information in its proper context. The lesson submerges students in the story of Adams and his wife, Marian—nicknamed “Clover” and who committed suicide in 1885—and in the work of Saint-Gaudens that came to reflect Adams struggle with his wife’s sudden death. Students then wrestle with a series of critical thinking questions that link the physical sculpture to what Adams wrote in his autobiography. At the same time students consider the work of art as art and make essential judgments about Saint-Gaudens’ interpretation.
For many people the Adams Memorial has become the personification of Grief. The fact that “Grief” became the name often attributed to the shrouded bronze figure rankled Adams, which he makes abundantly clear in the excerpts students read. Because of my proximity to Washington, D.C., I am able to dispatch my students to see “the real McCoy.” I ask my 11th and 12th grade students, as they visit the memorial with the background knowledge they have gained from the lesson plan, to consider their lives, and more specifically their futures, when they confront the work of Saint-Gaudens. You can do the same with your students by using the image of the Adams Memorial provided in the lesson.
Relating the Past to the Present
One of the tricks in my teacher tool bag is to always get my students to consider the relationship between the past and the present. One effective way I’ve found to help students understand that the American narrative is ever ongoing and will never be complete is to have them look at similar stories from our past that are separated by time and space but connected by raw emotion and the “stuff” of history.
A TwHP lesson that does this well is “From Canterbury to Little Rock.” In this lesson students examine two school-related racial stories and compare 1830s events in Canterbury, Connecticut, with 1957 events in Little Rock, Arkansas. Students are forced to consider attitudes about race in both the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as encounter an American myth that racism is a purely southern phenomenon. Both stories are laced with race hatred, ways in which race relations have shaped American history, and how often that particular battleground has materialized in school settings.
As in the case of the Saint-Gaudens lesson plan, this TwHP lesson provides the necessary background and historical context to understand the dynamics that were at work in both episodes of race and education. This lesson challenges students to wrestle with their own attitudes about race as well and poses the question: how much work do we have left to do to insure equality in the United States? Many other lessons in the TwHP repertoire prompt the same type of questions and concerns by exploring the problems and promise of living in a diverse society.
Conclusion
“You can do anything you please,” Augustus Saint-Gaudens often told his studio assistants and students. “It is the way a thing is done that makes a difference,” he concluded. So it is true for making the teaching and learning of history. Don’t be afraid to jump into the fray.
by James Percoco
Implementing the R.E.E.L. Process:
The following case study explains how film can be used to teach visual literacy and source analysis. Comparing different interpretations about historic events also can challenge misconceptions about the past. James Percoco describes how he uses TwHP lesson plans to help students analyze three films about the Civil War.
Introduction
For better or for worse, history and film are forever wed. History has just got too many stories that filmmakers want to get their hands on and turn into celluloid or cinema magic. Many of these history films can help teach an increasingly important skill for today’s students: visual literacy.
Films can challenge students to look beyond what is on the screen and also offer them terrific opportunities to learn history while getting them to question assumptions. In addition to movies made in Tinseltown, the emergence of high quality documentaries, often voiced by big ticket stars whose voices everyone recognizes, lends a kind of authority to history on film. But it is important to remember that films, like books, have “authors” and present the creator’s interpretation of facts. Students need to apply critical thinking skills not only to films containing the ubiquitous teaser, “Based on a true story,” but also to those produced by History (formerly the History Channel), Discovery, and PBS.
The Civil War on Film
Perhaps more than any other single event, the American Civil War captures our imagination. Let’s take a peek at how you can utilize clips from different films of this particular genre and tie them to historic sites where “real” as opposed to “reel” history took place. In the Teaching with Historic Places program, there are more than twenty lesson plans that explore the legacy of the Civil War. I am going to focus on three of these and how I incorporate my “R.E.E.L.” process into teaching them. That process involves Retelling history, Evidence collecting from primary sources, Evidence collecting from films, and Learning critical examination of evidence and interpretation. The three lessons I will focus on are First Manassas: An End to Innocence; Choices and Commitments: The Soldiers at Gettysburg; and Andersonville: Prisoner of War Camp.
First Manassas: Ken Burns Goes To War
In September, 1990, a national buzz was generated by Ken Burn’s masterpiece, The Civil War. Burns’ series brought the Civil War to life in a way that had not been done before. I remember discussing “Episode One: The Cause” with my colleagues the day after it aired. Everyone agreed that the last four minutes of the film encapsulated much of what men on both sides of the battle lines must have felt in July 1861. Through his artistry, including music and stirring images, Ken Burns turned a little known major from Rhode Island into a household name -- Sullivan Ballou. “The Cause” movingly ends with narrator, historian David McCullough, saying, “Sullivan Ballou died a week later at the battle of Bull Run.” The Sullivan Ballou Letter brought tears to viewers’ eyes with its and Burns’ expressions of pathos.
I use the Ballou letter in my classroom. You can find the letter in the Determining the Facts section of the TwHP lesson plan First Manassas: An End to Innocence. Provide students a copy and then play the related clip from The Civil War. For years I simply used this document, along with the compelling film piece, to animate the reasons that some men used to justify a war to preserve the Union. It was a pretty cut-and-dried lesson, followed by students recording in their journals their reactions to the letter. Then several years ago I discovered that Sullivan never mailed the letter! His wife, Sarah, to whom he had written the letter, received it years later when an official delivered a trunk with Sullivan’s belongings. Personally I felt hoodwinked! How dare my emotions be trifled with! Then I realized I had a golden opportunity to use this letter in a much more complex way with my students—as a lesson in historiography.Implementing the R.E.E.L. Process:
R: Retelling History: Introductory Discussion
First we hold a general discussion about why film works with young people as opposed to a textbook. “What are its advantages over textual material,” I inquire. Students respond that a film contains music, images, sound, and voices that bring history to life – they can “feel” it they tell me.
E: Evidence Collecting from the Primary Source (TwHP lesson Plan)
Next I provide students with a copy of the letter. One of the great things about using TwHP lesson plans is that there is great cross-pollination and depth in combining a variety of history resources. The easy access to this kind of primary source material can help you meaningfully extend your particular take on your own classroom lessons. For the Ballou letter, you can have the students read the letter individually in silence, ask for a volunteer to read it out loud, or have the class read it aloud together. But what I like to do is have students read along as they listen to the narration from the Burns film.
E: Evidence Collecting from the Film
Once students have the letter in front of them, I turn on the film and we listen to the narration. In the background, strains of a fiddle play the series haunting theme, “Ashokan Farewell.” The whole process takes about four minutes.
Then we hold a discussion and I prompt students to tell me how they felt. Most students say that the letter is really sweet, poignant, and sad. It’s heartfelt. I nod my head in animated agreement with their sentiments. I next ask them how they think Sarah felt. Again responses generally focus on her loss, but also the pride with which she must have had about how and why Sullivan died.
L: Learning to Critically Examine Historic Retellings (by Comparing the Evidence)
Then it is my turn to drop the bombshell by telling them that Sullivan never sent the letter. Cries of righteous indignation resonate in my classroom. Students tell me that they feel cheated.
Now our discussion turns to the “uses” of history. I ask students to talk about whether they think it was fair for Burns to use the letter as he did. Some are quick to point out that it did not matter that the letter was not sent because Burns was trying to capture the attitudes of men who went off to war. Yet other students see it as a form of abusing history to manipulate people’s emotions. Students are pretty savvy in matters like these. In querying them about film, I ask them what it is that drives a film’s emotional punch. They are quick to point out that use of music, the narrator’s tone of voice, and specific imagery in layers of photography all combine to manipulate their feelings. If you follow that up by asking students if they think that it is fair or appropriate to use these techniques in a history film, you will receive a wide range of answers, which reflect the debate on this topic that also takes place in public history and academic circles.
This kind of discussion is crucial to generating serious critical thinking skills. There is no right or wrong answer here. It is simply the mystery of interpretation and the ways in which today’s media allow those interpretations to be shaped. For some students, Ken Burns committed an egregious wrong. Others see it as cinematic genius.
A lesson constructed like this permits teachers to cover necessary information on the Civil War as addressed by state and national standards, while at the same time taking the same material and information and moving them to a higher intellectual level—the place where we want all students to be.
Teachers might want to consider playing around with the name of this TwHP lesson, “First Manassas: An End to Innocence.” In some ways, using this portion of the lesson plan, in this particular way, ends student innocence in looking at history as an open and shut case.
Gettysburg: Sacred Ground/Sacred Story
No Civil War battlefield in America evokes more passion or conjures up more images than Gettysburg National Military Park. In fact, much of our national memory derives from the three days of battle fought there in July 1863, and also from the idea of “a new birth of freedom,” which took root on November 19, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. The TwHP lesson plan Choices and Commitments: The Soldiers at Gettysburg examines the motivations of men from north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line within the context of Civil War America, providing a glimpse into their respective psyches. One way you can enliven this lesson plan is to utilize different clips from the motion picture Gettysburg, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Killer Angels. Michael Shaara’s book and the subsequent film are about more than just physical combat; they are, in part, about the emotions and justifications for waging war for a cause. The several excerpts provided in this lesson plan do the same thing, but using visual imagery from the film heightens student learning.
Implementing the R.E.E.L. Process:
R: Retelling History: Introductory Discussion
Because the battle of Gettysburg is included in the National History Standards Grades 5—12, it makes sense to create a classroom extension activity. With the R.E.E.L. approach, you can “show” and not just “tell” students what happened, while also getting them to see beyond a time, place, and date into a complex intellectual minefield. Use the same introductory approach as discussed in the Manassas lesson, but be certain to clarify with your students the differences between a documentary film like that of Ken Burns and a Hollywood interpretation of the Civil War. While the same general rules apply to the approach here, you are dealing with a different kind of character portrayal.
E: Evidence Collecting from the Primary Source (TwHP lesson Plan)
Have students first read “Three Days of Carnage” from the Determining the Facts section of the TwHP lesson plan. Have the students answer the question prompts. These questions help students see into the minds of real people from the past, while allowing them to form their own original thoughts about these individuals’ reasoning and feelings without the addition of music, photography, and narration. It is a cleaner, less externally-invasive, approach.
E: Evidence Collecting from the Film
There are many different clips from the film you can use to support the material provided in the readings for this lesson’s Determining the Facts section. There are three clips I think particularly work well. The first clip is where Union Captain Thomas Chamberlain engages in a conversation with some captured Confederates over why they are fighting. Characters here flesh out their respective positions. The second scene is a conversation between Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (older brother of Thomas Chamberlain) and Sergeant Buster Kilrain about race and its place in 1863 American life. The third scene is a lengthy conversation between Confederate General Lewis Armistead and British observer Arthur Freemantle, which takes place moments before the Confederates launch Pickett’s Charge on Day Three of the battle.
There also are several scenes of combat in the film that you can use to juxtapose with “Three Days of Carnage,” particularly the 20th Maine’s defense of Little Round Top and the climactic Pickett’s Charge. If you want to take it even further, you can show yet another film clip on the 20th Maine’s stand on Little Round Top, this one from the Ken Burns series (Episode 5: Universe of Battle). In the latter clip, Burns chose to use the reminiscences of Private Theodore Gerrish of the 20th Maine to tell the story. So once again, narration overlaid with graphics, music, and sound effects produces a particular kind of historical immediacy. The problem with this clip, however, is that, even though Gerrish was a soldier in the 20th Maine, he was convalescing in a hospital in Philadelphia on July 2, 1863. Once again this raises serious questions with which students must wrestle.
L: Learning to Critically Examine Historic Retellings (by Comparing the Evidence)
After students have read documents in the TwHP lesson, followed by watching the film clips, you can query them as to how much the primary material they read matches what filmmaker Ronald Maxwell captured in his motion picture interpretation. Does the historical record provided by the primary sources validate what students saw on screen? In other words, how accurate is the film to real history?
This takes us back to the primary documents in the TwHP “Perspectives” reading, since they were all written or compiled long after the war. How do we know what is accurate? Script writers created the characters’ dialogue in Gettysburg. Burns chose to use the words of someone who for all intents and purposes appears to have been part of the drama on Little Round Top, but in fact was not. Even the eyewitness accounts may have been skewed by the passage of time. These are the complexities and ambiguities, even with primary sources, with which any good historian must grapple when analyzing the past and then developing a historical interpretation, whether in writing or on screen. Students are quick to point out that Hollywood films have a particular goal in mind—making money is the bottom line—that shapes how a film is created. So not only did soldiers have choices and commitments about their actions, but so do historians, filmmakers, and even the participants themselves, about how to portray those actions.
Andersonville: A Human Hellhole
There is a whole different side to Civil War military history besides warfare itself: Prisoner of War (POW) Camps. In these standards-driven times, teachers often overlook this topic, but it is no less important or compelling than the battles. What happened to prisoners confined behind the stockades during the Civil War tells us something about just how uncivil was our Civil War. Nowhere is this harrowing story told more completely than at Andersonville National Historic Site in a remote corner of southern Georgia.
If you can’t visit the site, then the Teaching with Historic Places lesson plan Andersonville: Prisoner of War Camp can bring this horror to your classroom. This is another instance when using a Hollywood film—in this case, Andersonville—will do the job. This lesson plan and this film match up quite nicely and work really well as a team.
Implementing the R.E.E.L. Process:
R: Retelling History: Introductory Discussion All the readings and images provided in this lesson plan provides students with a way to see how accurate a history film can really be when it’s done properly. It matters not in which order you use the readings, the maps, and the images from the Andersonville lesson plan. But, I do think here you use the film first and then deal with the components of the lesson plan. So this switches the evidence “E”s in my R.E.E.L. process, which can work just as well. There are many compelling photographs of men who survived these camps as literally “living skeletons.” Using photographs like these as prompts, images of which can be found on the internet, go a long way in jump starting such a lesson. I also like to prep my students for this lesson using the image in the Inquiry Question. Combining these images hooks students into the story visually.
E: Evidence Collecting from the Film
I suggest that you show any number of clips from the film, Andersonville, including the prison riot with the Raiders, the scene where Camp Commander Henry Wirz tries to justify to investigators why the camp and the inmates are in such deplorable condition, and the final overview beauty shot of the actual National Cemetery, which dramatically shows the 13,000 headstones. Give some thought about how you would like to match film clips with maps, readings, photos, or other portions of the Andersonville lesson plan. It works best if you have students read the corresponding section of the lesson after each clip. The beauty shot of the National Cemetery makes for good visual closure.
E: Evidence Collecting from the Primary Source (TwHP lesson Plan)
After watching the film clips, we then read the two readings provided in the lesson. The images and readings in this lesson match perfectly with the clips that I show. While the vast majority of students have some working knowledge of the Civil War period, that same number will be unfamiliar with this arena of the war. In proceeding as I have described, you will help set up your students to wrestle intellectually with the power and emotion of primary source still images, motion picture sequences, and narrative constructions of the Andersonville story. Get your students to consider whether or not these sources are in some way all biased or truthful. Is it possible that depending on how one “uses” the material a particular slant can take shape. Let the students decide.
L: Learning to Critically Examine Historic Retellings (by Comparing the Evidence)
Then let your students become critics of the film based on what they have read and seen from the lesson plan. Prompt your students to consider what director John Frankenheimer got right and why. He had access to the same historical material the students had, so what makes the difference with this film? Is it the story, the people, or both? Is it easier to capture historically on film something with a different kind of chaos as opposed to the chaos of a battlefield?
Beyond R.E.E.L. – Hands-on History
A Different Kind of putting it All Together:
“Putting It All Together” activities provide both inspiration and room for teachers to invent new projects of their own that are more fitting to the specifics of their class: in this case, one related to film. It also gives students a chance to see their teacher working like a historian does and this kind of role modeling is important for all concerned with good history education.Tell your students that they have been contracted to make a Civil War film. Have them research a moment from the war and draw up a story board, as filmmakers do for their films, about their event. As students work this through ask them to consider what issues they might have in trying to put their story on camera; what constraints might they encounter that they never expected to experience. Provide students a 3 x 5 index card and ask them to complete the following two sentences based on what they have just learned: (a) “ I would rather learn about historical events and people from the past by from text or film (pick one) because….”; (b) “The most accurate way to capture history – in text or on film (pick one) is because… .” Another way for you to frame this is to ask students whether they would rather write a research paper or make a film and why. Which do they think would convey a more accurate sense of history and why?
On-Site Learning
It has been my good fortune to bring students on field trips to the three sites discussed in this article. If you opt to bring students to places, these lesson plans provide good pre-trip preparation. Spending a day at a site where history happened brings a kind of immediacy to your students. It also helps them diffuse the “romance” of history. Because we live in a time and space different than the present of people who came before us there is a tendency in our present to look at the past through a filter that blinds us to reality. After reading excerpts and evidence of the past, as one can do with TwHP lessons, students are more easily able to drop those blinders and face what really happened.
My preference is to do actual readings of participants at site specific locations. For example, our last stop in Gettysburg is the site in the National Cemetery, where Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address. There is a marvelous reminiscence from George Gitt, who was fifteen years old in 1863. He managed to hide under the speakers platform before the dedication of the ceremony began and “literally stood at the feet of [his] hero,” listening to Lincoln deliver his immortal words. What better way to conclude a trip to Gettysburg than by getting students to hear the words of a peer; someone who behaves at times just like they do, bringing a different kind of humanity to a tale that is so large in our national consciousness.
Lest you think that my approach has always been perfect, it has not. When I take my students to Gettysburg we always go to the Trostle Farm, scene of some horrific fighting on Day Two. It was here that flamboyant Union General Dan Sickles lost his leg to a cannon ball. Numerous textual and film accounts claim that Sickles was carried from the field, “coolly smoking a cigar.” For years I retold that story with relish – it works. But recent research has revealed that this story was the fabrication of someone’s vivid imagination, which has been passed down and embellished over time. With history there is always a learning curve to which both students and their teachers must attend.
Conclusion
What is crucial in all of these approaches is that you have a plethora of resources grounded in terra firma – a place. Combined, they work not only as sources of information, but also to form a special kind of reality check. You can't beat this co-mingling of context and place. In fact, if anything, skillful application of such a method is not only a best practice, but also takes context to a whole new level. Context is what most people need perhaps more than anything else to acquire the truths of history. The genius of TwHP is flexibility. Not only can you use the R.E.E.L. process as outlined here, but you can adapt them in other creative ways, which teachers across the country are already implementing in their classrooms. This then provides for R.E.A.L. learning: history education that is Relevant, Engaging, Authentic, and Lifelong.
by James A. Percoco
The following is a case study in the ways students can engage with history in their communities. James Percoco explains how his students explored history and its uses through field studies and internships.
Introduction
One of the things I hear most often from teachers when I am presenting at a workshop is that the work I have done to incorporate historic sites into the curriculum has been easy for me to accomplish because I live right on the doorstep of the nation’s capital and in a region dotted with historic sites that cover the Colonial Period through the present. I full well understand and appreciate that argument, but I encourage teachers to explore the history in their own backyard and to incorporate their local tales within the bigger picture of American history. For many years I have been employing a technique I call the IFT – Individualized Field Trips. Here I make my students go out into the world and explore. These teenage historians are doing what I call Applied History.
Monumental Leadership
One project that works very well for my students could easily apply anywhere in the United States. This is my Monumental Leadership project. Leadership lessons have increasingly taken root in American schools. These leadership lessons are tied closely to civic education, an education that prompts young people to consider seriously their role in the democratic process. American public sculpture has always found a place in American life and culture, not only reflecting the individual or event commemorated, but also providing a window to the time in which the monument was erected.
For example, prior to his death in 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt expressed a wish that if the American people wanted to raise a memorial to him, he would want simply a small block of stone placed on a little patch of grass outside the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the National Archives and Records Administration building. All he wanted on the stone was his name and the dates of his life. After he died he received his wish. This begs the question: why then, in 1997, was a seven-acre National Memorial to Roosevelt dedicated on the Mall in Washington, D.C.? A clue appears in the words of President Warren G. Harding at the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, when he said, “This memorial, matchless as it is, is more for us and future generations than it is for Abraham Lincoln.”
Who Deserves a Monument?
The Monumental Leadership project is inquiry based and combines student reading of Washington’s Leadership Lessons by James C. Rees, President of George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, with visits to physical monuments in Washington, D.C. Pairs of my students set off together, each pair assigned a public sculpture of one of the lesser known figures of American history whose bronze or stone images populate the nation’s capital. The memorials to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Roosevelt are not on the list. Instead, students encounter people like John Ericson, John Barry, or Mary McLeod Bethune.
Using Rees’ book as a spring board, students have to create a PowerPoint presentation on the life and accomplishments of their assigned figures, explaining why each person deserves a monument in the nation’s capital by describing how this individual’s life embodies the principles of leadership modeled by George Washington. My students love this project! It is very hands-on and provides real world learning, while at the same time honoring timeless American values.
Local Monuments
Many communities large and small across the nation have a monumental landscape. These silent sentinels are community reminders of what our forefathers and mothers have left us. Archives of local historical societies and public libraries often contain primary sources related to these monuments, their creation, and dedications. I know this first hand because much of the primary material I used for writing my book Summers with Lincoln: Looking for the Man in the Monuments came from just such institutions. I encourage you to reach out to your local historical sites, museums, archives, and libraries and work with the staffs there to build similar lessons for your students.
Local Internships and Service Learning
With senior capstone projects becoming increasingly popular in schools, students can also complete service learning and leadership activities by working at the type of repositories, sites, or archives I mention above. For more than two decades I have been teaching a senior elective course that I designed and call Applied History. After a fall semester steeped in rigorous examination of themes and topics in history, including several field trips, these students spend their second semester not with me in a classroom, but working as interns at local historic sites, museums, and other historical organizations in the Washington, D.C., area.
These include, among others, the National Park Service units Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site; Manassas National Battle Field Park; Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site; and Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial.
At these sites students encounter the world of public history working as collections managers, providing costumed interpretation, performing curatorial work, and developing learning programs for young children. What I am most proud of is that, over the years, 36 of my students have turned their internships into positions as National Park Service rangers.
Conclusion
This type of direct involvement in both investigating history and exploring students’ own communities and interests is the best of all kinds of education. Students give back to the community while at the same time learning valuable history. Only the classroom is different – it’s the world.
Teacher #3: Paul LaRue
History Teacher at Washington High School, Washington Court House, Ohio
In three parts, Larue uses the TwHP Lesson, "The Rockets' Red Glare": Francis Scott Key and the Bombardment of Fort McHenry, to illustrate how he implements Teaching with Historic Places in his classroom. He goes over ways these lessons can help teachers meet curriculum challenges and limited classroom time.
by Paul LaRue
The Reality: Today’s classroom demands that teachers focus on state content standard and testing, as well as time management. In the past, taking three weeks to teach the Underground Railroad (which might be of particular interest to the instructor or community) may have been possible, but current time restraints make it difficult. Many states have divided the U. S. history curriculum content into separate components. In Ohio, it is broken up so that colonization through 1876 is taught in eighth grade and 1877 through the present is taught in high school. Also there is a major emphasis on global education in U.S. History. With the added strain of genuine assessment and classroom management, teaching social studies can seem daunting.
The Challenge: Considering the aforesaid reality, the challenge is to fulfill the state requirements, while continuing to engage the learner. The Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lessons offer a unique way to expand learning past the textbook while still following the content standards. With the limited amount of time in the classroom, knowing how to use the tool efficiently is crucial.
The Solution: Do not let time constraints stop you from utilizing helpful sections from the TwHP series of lesson plans to help support your classroom activities. The TwHP lesson plans are a fantastic resource, but let me tell you a secret: I have never used an entire lesson in my own classroom. Coming from an author of two TwHP lesson plans, this might sound strange, but the issue is time management. I may have one class period to introduce, teach, and discuss a topic. Large units of in-depth material may contain valuable information, but time limitations make it impossible for me to cover a whole unit, therefore, making them unusable unless I can pick and choose pieces to incorporate into the classroom.
Here are a few ways to implement TwHP lessons into the classroom. I’ll utilize the TwHP Lesson, "The Rockets' Red Glare": Francis Scott Key and the Bombardment of Fort McHenry, to illustrate my solution. My suggestions are organized according to the standard TwHP lesson plan format.
I. Sections of the TwHP Lesson Plan
A. Getting Started: Inquiry Question
- Great brain teaser at start of lesson or class period
- Photo with an accompanying question
- Makes a nice 5-10 minute intro
- Getting Started Example
B. Setting the Stage and Determining the Facts
- Both parts are 1-2 page readings
- Great for reading samples
- Can be discussed (class or small groups)
- Use accompanying questions
- Student can be asked to do short written response
- I’m always looking for good short non-fiction reading samples
- Setting the Stage Example
C. Locating the Site
- Map skills are always in need of practice
- Use the map with questions provided
- Add mileage scale for practice calculating distances
- Take map data and create bar or pie graphs and charts
- Map skills are critical on state testing.
- Locating the Site Example
D. Visual Evidence and Determining the Facts
- Both sections are wonderful samples of primary documents
- Have students examine Determining the Facts (the readings) or Visual Evidence
- Discuss or have students write about differences between this information
- Students can write short responses describing aspects of primary documents
- Determining the Facts Example
- Visual Evidence Example
E. Putting it All Together: Activities
- This sections has several structured activities designed to follow the lesson
- Activities can be used free standing
- Putting it All Together Example
F. Supplementary Resources:
- Nice selection of on-line and other quality resources
- Supplementary Resources Example
II.Times to Use the Lesson Plans
A. All lessons are organized by theme, state, and time period.
B. Can be helpful to bolster a lesson that needs extra emphasized (ex. Industrialization)
C. Theme based lessons (great around Holidays) Example:African American history. Lesson activities reinforce these themes.
D. Friday: after a quiz or end of a unit (for something interesting and different)
Conclusion: The TwHP Lessons provide a valuable resource. Understanding the component value of the TwHP Lessons is vital to using them successfully. If time is an issue the lessons can be broken up into separate units and used just as effectively as a whole lesson. Less can truly be more in today’s fast paced classroom.
by Paul LaRue
Case Study #1: Use of Primary Documents and Critical Thinking Skills
Content standards for high school teachers in the state of Ohio begin with 1877. You might think that this would make the "The Rockets' Red Glare": Francis Scott Key and the Bombardment of Fort McHenry lesson unusable for me. But I would utilize this lesson to help me teach the use of primary documents and critical thinking skills, which do fall under my twelfth grade U.S. History Standards.
STEPS:
- Ask students if they ever thought about the meaning of the words of the first stanza of the “Star Spangled Banner.” Do they think about what Francis Scott Key really saw? Can his recollections be verified by anyone else?
- Then provide students with "Determining the Facts Reading 3," an 1814 broadside with the words to Key’s song.
- Also provide "Determining the Facts Reading 1" (specifically the last full paragraph of the passage). Because the entire account would likely take longer than one class period to read, it could be used as a homework assignment.
- Then have students read and compare Key’s first stanza and Armistead’s final paragraph. Tell them to discuss the following:
- The aspect of the attack Colonel Armistead focuses on.
- Who Francis Scott Key and Col. Armistead were and what their roles and perspectives were of the battle.
- Do the two accounts verify each other?
- What does Armistead say about the flag?
These questions and the ones you and your students will generate can easily fill a class period. Conclude by having the students complete a short Reflective Writing. This lesson could easily fill a class period or be expanded.
by Paul LaRue
Case Study # 2: Outside the Traditional History Lesson
If the class you are instructing is not a generic history class, you can still use the Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson for other subjects, such as citizenship, that are also used to prepare students for state proficiency tests. These classes can get extremely “dry” and repetitive; incorporating the TwHP lessons can help. For example, here is an example using the "The Rockets' Red Glare": Francis Scott Key and the Bombardment of Fort McHenry lesson.
STEPS:
- First provide students with Visual Evidence Photo 3.
- Ask the students to stand up and spread them around the room to reflect the original 30 ft. by 42ft. flag. This should help students get a sense of perspective on the immense size of the flag. Compare this to the traditional size of the American flag. Then, mention that Francis Scott Key was approximately eight miles away from the flag during the battle.
- Have the students take their seats and study Photo #3. Ask them what accounts for the flag’s condition today. Have a discussion about issues involving deterioration of textiles over time, using examples of curtains or table cloths that are exposed to the sun. Also talk about the fact that the flag is not only very worn, but also much smaller than it was originally because so many people snipped off “souvenirs” from the flag during the 19th century.
- This leads into a discussion of preservation. Mention that the Smithsonian spent more than $18 million dollars to “restore” the original flag (meaning that they stabilized its condition, but they did not put back missing material). Ask the students what their school could do with $18 million and why it is important that our nation preserves this iconic symbol.
- Ask students to write one paragraph about the following prompt: Which surprises you more about the Star Spangled Banner, its actual size or the amount of money spent to restore the flag? What will you remember about our national symbol and why?
Last updated: July 7, 2021