Worth a Second Look

I've been writing Teaching Montana History for a long time now (over ten years!) so I guess it shouldn't be surprising that I don't remember every idea I post about. But I always am surprised--and delighted--when I stumble on a good idea from past years that had completely slipped my mind. That happened recently when I was scrolling through the Teaching Montana History blog, looking for something else. Here are two strategies I think deserve to be remembered--and implemented!--both of which align to Common Core ELA standards while engaging students deeply in content.

 

Transforming Textbook Text into a Found Poem

Master teacher Jim Schulz turned me onto the brilliant idea of asking students to create found poems from short sections of their textbook or other complex text.  Why brilliant? Because it requires students to read and reread the complex informational text to discern and then summarize the main ideas. Jim says students will need a guiding question. Inspired by Jim, I created a a sample assignment for the section "The Dawes Act: Allotments Subdivide the Reservations," from Chapter 11 of Montana: Stories of the Land:

• Using the text (including sidebar quotations, posters, image captions, etc.), on pages 219-222 of Montana: Stories of the Land, create a found poem that answers the following question: What conclusions can you draw about the policy of allotment?

Looking for more ideas about how to integrate poetry into Montana history (or Montana history into a poetry unit)? Check out the original post.

Time Travel: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I'd also forgotten about the time travel assignment I found on history teacher Russell Tarr's fabulous site, Tarr's Toolbox. This is a classic RAFT* writing assignment, with a twist: "have students consider multiple viewpoints, first by selling the positives of a certain time or place in the brochure, and then, in a complaint letter about the vacation from hell, by highlighting all the problems." I thought, and still think, this would be a great assignment when studying the cattle frontier, to encourage students to analyze both the realities and romance of the Old West.

Do you have a favorite strategy--a slightly out-of-the-box way of engaging your students? Let me know and I'll share it out.

*RAFT stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. Here a more detailed explanation and a model RAFT writing assignment about Montana and WWI. 

P.S. Don't forget our upcoming online Professional Development (for which you will be able to earn one renewal unit). We'll gather via Zoom on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, to share our best ideas and resources for integrating Montana history into U.S. history. Sign up for the session here. And best wishes to all for a joyous and healthy 2021.

 

Santa Claus Didn't Come to the Gallatin Valley in 1864

It's easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget how cool history is. That's why, as we approach winter break, I want to share with you a few excerpts from a letter that eight-year-old Homer Thomas wrote on December 17, 1864, from the Gallatin Valley to his grandmother Isabella Thomas in Belleville, Illinois. Just for the sheer fun of it. 

Here's Homer describing Virginia City: 

It’s a very poor city—it is more than half as big as Belleville, and crowded with old ox wagons—You don’t see any nice horse teams & buggies like you see at home & most of the men are dressed in old dirty & ragged clothes; they do not look nice, like at home. I wish I was back to get some of your good things to eat, & so I could have some apples & cider—there is not any out here in this mountain country. Still I have had some nice antelope, deer and elk meet. I think elk is the best of all, and there is some big bears out here too, but we have not killed any, but some of the hunters kill them.

 And here he writes about their new home and his new friend:

We did not stay very long at Virginia City. Father took a notion to go down into the Gallatin Valley and take up a ranch. That is what we used to call a farm at home. So we come down and father bought a nice place, and we built a good log cabbin, & father put a floor in it, too. I tell you we got a good cabbin. There are not any of them got floors but ours and Mr. Thorp’s, and he just put his in today. He lives right close to us, about a quarter of a mile below. and has got a little boy about my size, and we have fun now with our sleds, pulling them through the snow—

And then there's Christmas: 

Well Grandmother it is pretty near Christmas time and I don’t expect to get many things this year, for it is not like home, because old Santa Claus do not come out here to give children things, because he thinks all the children too smart to come to this old place.

Well, I can do without any nice toys this year, but I want you to save me some nice things so I can have them when I come back home, I tell you Georgie has grown might fast, & is getting pretty big now. He can almost say everything. He says “I want to go GanMa’s & get some cake.” He don’t know anything about apples, or I bet he would want some of them, too. …

  And more about their cabin--and his desire to move back to Illinois:

We built our house out of cottonwood logs. Well, Granma they build houses funny out here, they put poles or kind of rails on the top, then mix mud & put over them, then they put about three or four inches of dry dirt upon that & it makes a mighty warm roof, that is the way they build houses out in this country. I tell you a person learns a good many things by coming out in this country. I expect this will be a great country some day, but I don’t care for that, just as soon as I can get enough gold, I bet you I am coming back, for I think I have learned enough of this country to last me, for a while anyhow…  

The letter is in the Montana Historical Society Archives SC837. If you want a PDF of it in its entirety, email me and I'll send the typescript. Happy solstice and Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. 

P.S. And for something completely different, check out these puppets singing Christmas carols in Pikuni (Blackfeet), courtesy of Browning Public Schools. 

 

Integrating History into Novel Studies

At our November professional development, we focused on integrating Montana history and English Language Arts. Attendees shared such great resources for novel studies, that I thought it was worth compiling and sharing them more widely.

First stop for cross-disciplinary ELA/history material has got to be OPI's Indian Education Division's website, particularly their ELA model lesson plans, which include units for such commonly taught middle school books as Code Talker - A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two, Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond and Birchbark House and high school titles like Killing Custer: The Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians and Wind from an Enemy Sky.

Middle School Teachers

Do you teach Hattie Big Sky?  Find relevant sources here.

High School Teachers

Click on the links for resources related to these novels: 

• Fools Crow, by James Welch: “Blood on the Marias: Understanding Different Points of View Related to the Baker Massacre of 1870
• Grapes of Wrath, by Jon Steinbeck: Letters from some of drought-stricken farmers to Montana governor John Erickson; Library of Congress: Farm Security Administration Depression-era photographs [loc.gov] (find photos from Montana, or your town, by using the search function); Hope in Hard Times: New Deal Photographs of Montana, 1936-1942, by Mary Murphy (This is the best thing written about Montana during the Great Depression. A PDF of Chapter 1 is available for free download); PowerPoint created with text and images from the Hope in Hard Times exhibit.
• Autobiography of Malcolm X: for a Montana connection, check out the Montana in the Green Book story map.
• There There: Montana Mosaic Chapter 6, Federal Indian Policy, is a nineteen-minute video that uses the history of the Juneau family to explore the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ relocation policy and the effects the relocation program had on American Indian identity. Here’s a link to the video and here’s a link to the user guide.

Other Useful Links

• Mary Johnson has published a blog [tpsteachersnetwork.org] on TPS Teachers Network on using primary sources in English class to complement fiction. It has examples and links! (You need to register to view it, but registration is free.) 
• The National Council for the Social Studies publishes a list each year of Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. You have to be a member to view the most recent list, but the backlists are available for free. Here’s the 2019 list [socialstudies.org].
• For more great ELA ideas and collaboration, join OPI's Secondary (5-12) ELA Teachers Online Sharing Community [docs.google.com], which meets the second and fourth Tuesday of every month from 3:45 p.m.-4:45 p.m. 
• Stay tuned for MHS's next professional development (for which you will be able to earn one renewal unit). We'll gather via Zoom on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, to share our best ideas and resources for integrating Montana history into U.S. history. Sign up for the session here.

 

 

Testers needed!

Longtime readers will know that we have slowly (too slowly!) been working to create a Montana history curriculum for upper elementary students.

The first unit, Montana Today: A Geographic Study, and the second unit, Montana's First Peoples, are available to download from our website. The third unit, Coming to Montana, is being tested by classroom teachers now and, when we publish it in January, will be much improved through their input! 

The fourth unit is called Montana in the Twentieth Century and will be ready to test in January. Like the other units, it is a mix of previously published lesson plans and entirely new material. Here's a quick look at the contents, with estimates of how long each part will take:

Part 1: Homesteading: The Lure of Free Land (3 class periods)

Description: Through reading and a series of activities, students will learn about the people who came to Montana to homestead and the importance of homesteading to Montana’s history. In Lesson 1, students will analyze and contextualize railroad advertisements promoting homesteading. In Lesson 2, students will illustrate a reminiscence written by an early Danish homesteader.

Part 2: Boarding Schools and Allotment (2 class periods)

Description: Through activities and interactive PowerPoints, students will learn about boarding schools (Lesson 1) and the policy of allotment (Lesson 2), while working on reading fluency.

Part 3: Immigration after 1920 (3-4 class periods)

Description: In Lesson 1, students will watch a PowerPoint and read informational text about Mexican, Hutterite, and Hmong Montanans before cementing their learning with a short notetaking assignment. In Lesson 2, students will conduct an interview with a family member or other important adult about immigration to Montana and then write a report based on their interview.

Part 4: The 1972 Constitution (1 class period)

Description: Students will learn about the 1972 Montana State Constitution by paraphrasing the preamble and through a PowerPoint presentation. They will then write a preamble for a class constitution.

Part 5: Biographical Poems Celebrating Amazing Montanans (2 class periods)

Description: Students will read short biographies about specific Montanans and use them to create biographical poems.

Are you interested in trying this unit out with your class and providing feedback?

I estimate that the entire unit should take 12-14 days (that's one thing we're testing to find out) but I'd be happy to test individual pieces as well.

Email me if you are interested, and I'll send you more information.

National History Day

 Every year I tell you to take the leap and try National History Day. And every year only a few of you listen. But this is the year! Why? Because National History Day projects, for which students conduct independent research on topics that they choose (and thus are inherently more interesting to them than topics you assign) and create projects in a format that plays to their strength is a perfect activity for distance and/or hybrid learning. (Of course, I think it's great for in-class learning as well). And doesn't hurt that there's a competition element involved for those who like that sort of thing.  

What Is National History Day?

NHD is an up-to "year-long academic program focused on historical research, interpretation and creative expression for 6th- to 12th-grade students. By participating in NHD, students become writers, filmmakers, web designers, playwrights and artists as they create unique contemporary expressions of history. The experience culminates in a series of contests at the local and affiliate levels and an annual national competition in the nation's capital in June." 

Each year, students create projects around a theme (this year's theme is Communication in History: Key to Understanding.) As a teacher you can limit student choices to the topic of your class (teach Montana history? Have them choose a Montana topic. Teach World History? Have them choose a world history topic...  

Students can choose one of five ways to present their research: through a website, paper, exhibit, performance, or documentary film. Projects can be either group projects or individual projects. (As a teacher you can limit this too, having all students creating individual websites for example).  

You Don't Need to Invent the Wheel

One of the great things about NHD is that it is a national program with national resources and a lot of teachers (over 30,000) have been doing it for a long time. NHD gathered resources to help you implement the program in your classroom, including a series of "Help! I'm a New NHD Teacher!" videos. There are also tons of resources for students, including samples of previous winning projects, so they know how high to aim (the answer is very. The quality of some of these projects is amazing.)  

NHD in Montana

This year two regional contests will be held virtually on March 6, 2021 (one for eastern Montana and one for western Montana), and the State contest will be held virtually March 27, 2021. (One of my favorite things about National History Day is that it encourages revision by giving students an opportunity to get feedback from a regional contest so they can improve their projects before competing at state (and if they win state, they can improve their projects based on feedback again before competing nationally.) Learn more at the Montana National History Day website. or by contacting state coordinator (and Conrad teacher) Michael Herdina at mtnhdcoordinator@gmail.com. 

Prizes

 The Montana Historical Society offers two prizes for NHD projects, the $500 Martha Plassmann Prize for an outstanding project using digitized newspapers and a $1,000 travel scholarship to the best Montana history project eligible to advance to the national contest (assuming a travel scholarship is necessary this year.) Learn more here. 

What Else Can I Say to Persuade You?

I'll end with three thoughts: 

First, National History Day is NOT just for gifted students. The program lends itself to differentiation and some of the greatest success stories are those of "average" or typically low-performing students.  

Second, your students can participate in the program WITHOUT competing. So you can assign this a classroom project, and then encourage the ones who really get into it to join the competition.

Finally, I'm here to help (as is Michael). If you have questions or want assistance, don't hesitate to contact us.  

 

Teaching Montana History is written by Martha Kohl, Outreach and Interpretation Historian at the Montana Historical Society.

Hexagonal Thinking

It was only going to take me a few minutes--but then I went down the rabbit hole, and what an adventure it was!

 It all started with a a post in the Teaching with Primary Sources Network, "Hexagonal Thinking Corroboration Tool." (You'll have to log in to read it, but if you aren't part of the network, consider joining--it is a great site for sharing strategies for teaching with primary sources and primary source sets--and it is free!)

That post led me to this article on Hexagonal Thinking on the Cult of Pedagogy, by Betsy Potash, explained in more detail how manipulating hexagons can help students explore connections between ideas, and demonstrate mastery of a topic.

Here's the basic idea:

1. Place ideas or topics on hexagon-shaped pieces of paper. (For example, drought, Great Depression, New Deal, Fort Peck Dam, 1930s, Indian Reorganization Act, unions...)
2. Then give those pieces of paper to students and ask them to place the hexagons so that they only touch related topics/ideas.
3. Then have students explain their thinking.

One of the great things about this is that there is more than one right way to connect any list of words, which makes it a great tool for constructing and demonstrating understanding. According to Potash, "When you give a small group of students a deck of hexagons and ask them to connect them however they choose, every group will come up with a different web for different reasons. Along the way they’ll hopefully question each other and dig deep into the concepts on the cards, arguing about which idea connects more to an important concept and which example deserves one of those precious six sides."

Anyway, Potash's post led me to a video on how to make digital hexagons. So I tried it, using vocabulary and concepts from Chapter 13 (Homesteading) of Montana: Stories of the Land.

The idea is that students cut and paste each term onto a hexagon. Then they drag the hexagons so that they only touch other hexagons that have related words or ideas.

And then, they drag the numbers to specific connections and on a separate sheet they explain those six connections.

Here are connections I made when I played with my word list, but I could have just as easily created a different set of connections. 

I was obsessed! So I watched another video called "Quick Hexagonal Thinking in Your Class," by Matthew Matera, who kindly posted this link to a blank template for paper hexagons in the video description. Mr. Matera cuts out the hexagons for his students (with words already in them) but I think you could just give students a word list and have them cut out their own (or use hexagonal shaped sticky notes.)

 
And because I couldn't stop, so I created another word list--this one from chapter 7 (Two Worlds Collide), that I also thought could make a good hexagon activity. 

Sovereign                                  Treaties                    Hellgate
reservations                               Fort Laramie           railroads
1851                                           Bozeman Trail        Lame Bull 
Northern Cheyenne Breakout    Red Cloud              1868
Manifest Destiny                        gold                       annuities  
Battle of the Little Bighorn        1855                       misunderstandings

In both the homesteading and treaty examples, I pretty much stuck to text in subheads and bolded vocabulary words to create the word lists. Creating the word lists this way took about five minutes each time.

What do you think? I'd love to hear from you! Did I waste my afternoon or is this a useful strategy? Do you already use it? Even better, do you already use it with Montana history? (And if you end up using the digital hexagon assignment I created with either the homesteading or the treaty period word lists, let me know how it goes and whether you think it is worth working up into a formal lesson plan.) 

P.S. Peter Pappas, the author of the the very first post I read, uses primary sources for his hexagon assignment. I wonder if you could use the primary sources from any of the Annotated Resource Sets? 

 

Teaching Montana History is written by Martha Kohl, Outreach and Interpretation Historian at the Montana Historical Society.

 

How has MHS impacted you and your classroom?

We are looking for stories about how the Montana Historical Society impacts communities across Montana, so I've created a brief survey. If you teach one of our lesson plans, use Montana: Stories of the Land or the footlockers, have implemented an idea you received one of our Professional Development offerings, or have appreciated the community we've tried to build with the Teaching Montana listserv, I hope you'll take a moment to tell us about it through this online survey. Your stories will help bring the statistics we collect to life and will be invaluable when we approach private foundations for funding or are asked to provide information to the Montana legislature.

Thank you!

P.S. Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year because COVID is keeping me at home and our celebration small (like just me and my spouse small.) But, here are past Thanksgiving posts,  with resources and ideas that extend beyond the holiday. (Quick tip: If you are ever looking for ideas linked to a specific holiday or around a specific topic, try the search bar on the right. It works like a charm.)  I'll close by saying that I am very thankful for all of Montana's hard-working educators who are doing their best to engage students even in these difficult times. Thanks for all you do. 

Teaching Students to Ask Good Questions

 I just watched an amazing, FREE webinar called Make It Virtual; Take It Anywhere: Adapting the QFT to New Environments. 

I had forgotten how powerful QFT (short for Question Formulation Technique) is. 

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, here's a quick summary of the process (taken from Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions): 

Step 1: Teachers design a Question Focus (provide something for students to ask questions about.)

Step 2: Students produce questions according to these four rules:

• ask as many questions as you can;
• do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any of the questions;
• write down every question exactly as it was stated;
• and change any statements into questions.

Step 3: Students improve their questions.

Step 4: Students prioritize their questions. (The teacher, with the lesson plan in mind, offers criteria or guidelines for the selection of priority questions.)

Step 5: Students and teachers decide on next steps.

Step 6: Students reflect on what they have learned. 

Sounds simple, right? That's because it is--but it is also very powerful. Students aren't typically taught how to ask questions, and many adults aren't very good at it either. And that's a problem--for democracy and for dealing with doctors or schools or really anyone in authority whose decision directly impacts one's life. 

Using QFT will make your students more engaged learners, which is enough for me. The Right Question Institute has even bigger goals, though. It "aims to make democracy work better by teaching a strategy that allows anyone, no matter their educational, income, or literacy level, to learn to ask better questions and participate more effectively in decisions that affect them."

This webinar was great because

• It gave a quick intro to QFT
• It asked participants to practice using the QFT to generate questions (I did It on a piece of paper even though there wasn't anyway to share), so we could see how powerful the technique was.
• It showed how two teachers used the technique with their students and examples of student work (my favorite project was from an elementary class that was studying the Hoover Dam. It would take very little work to transfer it to the Fort Peck Dam.) 
• It provided links to lots of additional resources.
• It offered a way to make distance learning more interactive.
• The tools they suggested will be useful for in-person/hybrid learning as well--especially if folks are socially distancing in the classroom because it allows/requires collaboration without breathing on each other. 
• Anything that can help students learn how to ask questions is good! (I'm always surprised by how hard they find it.)

Am I gushing like a fangirl? That's because I am. Check out this training and all of the materials on https://rightquestion.org/. 

P.S. Do you use QFT in your classroom? If so, I'd love to hear from you!

P.P.S. It's not too late to join us for our online discussion/PD "Integrating Montana History into English Language Arts," TODAY, November 17, from 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Register here and I'll send you a link. 

Go Interdisciplinary!

Witness to Wartime and Love Letters to the Collection

The Missoula Art Museum (MAM) is offering FREE online courses for middle and high school classes (and individuals.) The first is called "Museum as Megaphone: Witness to Wartime." Created in conjunction with the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, it is based on MAM's current exhibit Witness to Wartime: The Painted Diary of Takaguchi Fujii. The course is rooted in the history of World War II and the experiences of Japanese and Japanese Americans incarcerated in the United States.

 The second, called Love Letters to the Collection, focuses on artworks from MAM’s Contemporary American Indian Art Collection. The virtual course features in-depth biographies of artists, a history of the museum, artist statements, and more. Each piece on view has its own email address and participants are encouraged to write their own love letters as they virtually explore this exhibition. 

Both courses include an exhibition tour, learning resources, and a hands-on art-making activity and offer modules that can be completed as a class or individually. MAM is using a platform provided by Inspired Classroom. I looked them up on this database of companies that have contracts with Montana schools to protect student data and saw that Inspired Classroom has contracts with Bozeman and Hamilton Schools that your IT folks can use as a model. You can register for the course--and learn about other MAM Museum as Megaphone courses--here. 

Upcoming Professional Development

Don't forget! On November 17, from 4:00-5:00 p.m., we're hosting an online PD "Integrating Montana History into English Language Arts." One renewal credit will be available. Register (and provide feedback to help shape the session) here.

Interdisciplinary Resources from MHS

Want some plug-and-play interdisciplinary teaching resources? Check out MHS's Crossing Disciplines page, which features lesson plans that cross Montana history with math, visual art, theater, science, and ELA. 

 

 

Resources for Veterans Day

How are you recognizing Veterans Day? 

The National Museum of the American Indian is unveiling its National Native American Veterans Memorial on November 11 and will be opening its new exhibit, Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces (you may have to scroll down to find the link to the exhibit.) Several Montana educators, along with educators from out of state, are working hard on lesson plans to accompany the new exhibit. I've heard they will start publishing their work in January. I can't wait!

Meanwhile, check out NMAI's lesson plan, Native Words, Native Warriors (about code talkers), as well as the OPI Remote Learning-Lessons and Unit: American Indians in the Military – A Warrior Spirit, which focuses on WWII Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux code talkers.

The Indian Education Division of OPI also has two relevant literature units (classroom sets for each featured book can be borrowed from OPI). The first is Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond, which is a brilliant and teachable memoir by Joseph Medicine Crow, which includes a discussion of his WWII military service (which is where he completed the deeds needed to become a war chief). The second is Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two, by Joseph Bruchac. I haven't read this one, but I did get a thorough review of it from Bonner 6-8 grade ELA teacher McKenna Quinn. Here's what she said:

• I think the book was too difficult for my 7th grade readers. The military vocabulary and incorporation of the Navajo language made it an intimidating read for them and hard to access for my striving readers. In the future, I plan to teach this novel with 8th graders rather than 7th graders. 
• I found that keeping track of the various places and historical contexts was hard for students at points. 
• I did a code cracking activity with students (I believe I got it from the OPI unit plan for this novel) that was super successful. I felt like it helped students connect with the Navajo language more.  
• I taught this novel in November last year, and it was great being able to make connections to Veterans Day. Students (especially those from military families) could really connect with some of those lessons. 
• I showed the PBS documentary "The Warrior Tradition" alongside the novel - I think students enjoyed the documentary and it was a great opportunity to showcase contemporary Native voices and their perspectives on military service. I think it was eye opening to students. 
• It took us a LONG time to get through the book. In fact, we didn't finish it. The OPI unit plan I was using (while a really really great resource), almost felt like too much. I put pressure on myself to accomplish everything in the unit. Coupling that with the difficulty of the novel AND the fact that we had to read it ALL in class (I didn't have enough books for every kid to take home)  - it got to the point where I had to move on to my next unit.
• So, next time I teach this I plan on doing it with 8th graders AND requesting a set of books from OPI so that some of the reading can be done outside of class. All in all, I would DEFINITELY recommend this novel to teachers.

Another great Veterans Day resource is Reader's Theater: Letters Home from Montanans at War. This is one of my favorite lesson plans from our vast collection because it has proved to be so powerful for students, by not just helping them learn about history but to help them realize that ordinary people shape history--and that, to quote one of Helena High School theater teacher Rob Holter's students,  "people just like me can make a difference in this world!" You can read more about this lesson plan here. 

 

 
Teaching Montana History is written by Martha Kohl, Outreach and Interpretation Historian at the Montana Historical Society.

 

Teaching with Primary Sources and Integrating History and ELA

Integrating History and ELA

If you are interested in using history to illuminate literature, or literature to illuminate history, I hope you'll join us for our upcoming PD, "Integrating Montana History into English Language Arts," on November 17, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. One OPI Renewal unit will be available to attendees. And to help me prepare for the session, let me know: what novels do you teach that you'd like to relate to Montana history? 

This is the third in a series of online professional developments, which are designed to provide an opportunity for teachers to share their best ideas with one another.  

Teaching with Primary Sources

There was good conversation and useful material shared in the second of the series, "Primary Sources for Teaching Montana History," so much so that I thought I'd share some of my notes below.  

Two truths and a lie is a technique Red Lodge teacher Steven Morris (middle school social studies) sometimes uses as a bell ringer about whatever subject matter he's presenting. He presents two true statements and one lie and asks students to figure out which is which. Students love it, and we talked about how that could be used with primary sources. I immediately thought about how Phil Leonardi used to ask his students to fact check homesteading promotional brochures. (Although many of those brochures were created by the railroads, my favorite is actually the delusional booklet printed by the Ryegate Weekly Reporter, which boasted that the area's annual rainfall was 22 inches.)   

Missoula teacher Betty Bennett (high school English) uses conflicting newspaper accounts/editorials about the Marias Massacre from Montana newspapers and eastern newspapers to look at differences of reporting. You can find an excerpt of “Sheridan and the Indians,” Journal of the Anti-Slavery Society [from the New York Evening Post], March 19, 1870 (which thinks the massacre was an outrage) and an excerpt from H. N. McGuire, "The Happy Result of Col. Baker’s Piegan Campaign," The Pick and Plow (Bozeman, Montana), July 29, 1870, 2 (which supports Baker's actions) in our lesson plan "Blood on the Marias: Understanding Different Points of View Related to the Baker Massacre of 1870."

Billings elementary librarian Ruth Ferris taught us how to do a picture reveal using Google slides (with students asking yes or no questions in order to reveal a photograph). She also talked about using a dice game to have students answer questions about a source. (For example: if you roll 1, you have to write down when it was created.) You can find her instructions here.  

Everyone was very excited about Lewistown middle school teacher Noah Vallincourt's use of primary sources and role playing to teach about immigration and Ellis Island. (He assigns students characters and uses photos and other material to simulate coming arriving on Ellis Island, and trying to pass through the medical exam. 

Billings middle school librarian Kathi Hoyt shared several techniques. My favorite were playing "I Spy" in a complicated image and character annotation: 

• Find a historical photograph of a person or event and make a copy for each student
• Have students collect information about the person (or event)
• Have students annotate around and/or on the photograph to share the information they collected.

On the left is an example Kathi shared with us and uses as a model for students. It was created by Crow artist Wendy Red Star on a photo of Chief Plenty Coups in the Library of Congress Collection. (You can see and learn more of Red Star's work here.)    

I shared our new Annotated Resource Sets and narrated PowerPoints of primary sources, as well as resources available via the Montana Memory Project's Educational Resources page (did you know that in addition to online exhibits on Indian leaders and boarding schools, they also had PowerPoints of pictures from every Montana tribe)?

We all agreed that when it came to primary sources, it was important to curate the sources and that oftentimes less was more.

 If this were minutes from a turn-of-the-century woman's club meeting, I'd end with "delicious refreshments were served," but alas, it was a virtual gathering. Until we can actually meet again in person, I look forward to reconvening on Zoom on November 17. See you there?

P.S. Have you voted yet? If not, head to the polls. They are open until 8:00 p.m. Find your polling place here. 

Nerd out with me?

Usually my emails have a theme, but not this week--or rather, the theme is "cool stuff I want to share."

Ancient Earth Globe is an online, interactive map that you can use to find out what any area of the world might have looked like at a given point in prehistoric times! Type in a town name to find the names of fossils that have been found nearby. Then click on the name for more information about that particular type of dinosaur. (I typed in Ryegate, because why not?) and followed the trail to this page on the Tatenectes. 

 In summer 2020, Montana The Magazine of Western History put together a digital issue called "African Americans in Montana and the West." It complements our larger web-based Montana's African American Heritage Resources project, which among its many resources includes three lesson plans. Because Black history matters. 

The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula created an online exhibit "Montana Votes! Voting and Suffrage in Montana." H/T Dylan Huisken (Bonner Schools) 

Studying the fur trade? Check out this lesson plan, and especially these videos from the Fort Union Trading Post:

• Fort Union Trading Post Historical Overview (8:42) 
• Trading at Fort Union Trading Post (2:43)*
• Buffalo Robes at Fort Union Trading Post NHS (2:37)
• Fort Union's Hunters Shack (2:37)
• Music in the Fur Trade (6:10)

*This is The Trade House video mentioned in the lesson plan (but the link to it is broken in the lesson plan document). 

Responding to the post "Indian Education Resources, mostly for middle and high school classes," which mentioned an article that Wyohistory.org published on tribal hunting rights, editor Tom Rea pointed out that there is lots more Native history on their site, some of which are aimed at classrooms. He particularly pointed to page "Indigenous People in Wyoming and the West".

Have you come across any material worth sharing? Drop me a line!

More Great ideas from Colleagues

Last week I shared some teacher recommendations--of IEFA books they've used and loved and an adaptation to one of our lesson plans, Montana Place Names, A-Z, for online learning. I'm pleased to say that post inspired more teachers to write in and share lesson plans that have worked for them.

Tracing the Old North Trail

Jim Martin, from Missoula Public Schools, wrote: "In response to teaching Montana Place Names, A-Z, I use Highway maps to trace the Old North Trail. Our 6th grade curriculum is teaching ancient civilizations (not Americas) so I built Migration to the Americas into our lessons. I have built a Google Earth presentation and as we travel the Old North Trail we find locations along the way, starting at Carway, Alberta, then hitting places like First Peoples Buffalo Jump by Ulm, Tower Rock by Craig, Madison Buffalo Jump, Obsidian Cliffs in Yellowstone plus rivers and other natural features that would provide resources or obstacles. We then exit the state through the Madison valley. We also notice how some of our modern highways follow the same route that’s been traveled for 10,000 years.

"The Walter McClintock story of a Blackfeet family traveling the route, presumably to Mexico, is fascinating to the kids, who are amazed at how interconnected First Nations were." [Jim shares parts of chapter 33]. 

Homesteading Lesson Plan

April Wills, who teaches in Bainville, created an online unit for her fifth graders on homesteading:

1. We started with viewing the Museum of the Rockies Homesteading in Montana virtual field trip. [If the MOR material isn't available, you might want to show part of the 27-minute video Sun River Homestead.]
2. Students then had to read the three articles from Montanakids.com on Homesteading.
3. After they read those articles and took notes, they had to do a retelling for each article in Seesaw- Basic understandings: (3 things you learned, your opinion of the article, the main idea of each article and three details that from the text that support the main idea).
4. They created a "storyboard" where they picked any person that they wanted to pretend to be from this era of living and made 5 sketches of what life would have been like. (So if they were a railroad worker, banker, blacksmith etc.) The images they sketched should make the viewer know what their job/ life was like. They also had to come up with a description of the photo.

Finally they used the Ditch That Textbook: Google Template to create a Instagram style story- where they could either find photos & videos from various online resources, or make their own and create an Instagram spread of life in the Homesteading era of Montana. They were encouraged to use dates, specific vocabulary and to be creative with their comments for each photo. These turned out AMAZING!

I've linked the resources below. I am not sure if MOR will release the recording of their conversations from Monday but they were really good too! 

• They Settled in Montana: Introduction [montanakids.com]
  
• They Settled in Montana: The Homesteading Act [montanakids.com]
  
• They Settled in Montana: The Homesteaders [montanakids.com]
• Ditch That Textbook Instagram Stories Template  

More Book Suggestions

Pat Bauerle, Bozeman, wrote in to say that "There, There is a title worthy of reading with older grade levels (content). The situational stories of multiple characters as they focus on getting to a certain pow-wow is revealing."

In the Teaching Montana History Facebook group, Kathi Hoyt, Billings middle school librarian, shared this list, created by the Billings Public Library, of Indigenous People Inclusive Literature. Lots of great looking picture books and chapter books too!

 

Primary Sources and Montana History

Last summer, I asked a few Montana history teachers what would make their teaching life easier (especially if they were presenting some or all of their lessons virtually.) They requested two things: 

1. Easier access to primary sources (especially images) relating to the textbook chapters. We responded by creating Annotated Resource Sets. What's an Annotated Resource Set? It's just an easy way to organize links to images, videos, maps, documents, and other resources. For each resource we include a title and/or brief description, where the resource is from (collection information) the file format (jpg, pdf, etc.), the URL at which you can download the resource, and a thumbnail image of the resource.

We've created  Annotated Resource Sets for Montana: Stories of the Land chapters 6-13 and 15-18: gold rush, treaty period/Indian wars, cattle frontier, railroads, War of the Copper Kings/statehood, reservation period, timber, homesteading, Progressive Era, WWI, Great Depression. But, obviously, you can use the primary sources in the resource sets without using the textbook.

2. Primary sources read aloud, accompanied by relevant images. The teachers liked and assigned our Learning from Historical Document Units, which feature excerpts from letters, diaries and other primary sources relating to the Montana: Stories of the Land chapter theme. But they said that some students struggled to read them and lobbied for narrated PowerPoints/video clips in which the documents were read aloud, accompanied by relevant historic photos. 

In response, we put together six narrated PowerPoints, which are now available as a playlist on our YouTube channel. Included in this playlist are Emily Meredith's letter from Bannack, 1863, Cornelius Hedge's letter from Helena, 1865, Alma Coffin's reminiscence, describing traveling by stage in 1878, Albert Ronne's letter about setting up a ranch in 1892, and two contrasting letters about the IWW timber strike in 1917. For good measure, we recorded two other narrated PowerPoints, both of which focus on WWII objects as primary sources: a comic strip about Marine Private Minnie Spotted Wolf of the Blackfeet Reservation, and the chalk and wood message from the Smith Mine Disaster in Bearcreek.

Let me know if these turn out to be useful and if you want us to make more (either of the Annotated Resource Sets or the narrated PowerPoints)--and if so, for what topics/chapters/documents.  I'm happy to try to fit this in as I have time, if I know the material will actually be used.  

Want to talk more about teaching with primary sources? There's still time to sign up for tomorrow's online October 20, 4:00-5:00 p.m., online professional development, "Primary Sources for Teaching Montana History," where we'll share our best ideas for finding and incorporating primary sources into your Montana history class. 

 

 

Teaching Montana History is written by Martha Kohl, Outreach and Interpretation Historian at the Montana Historical Society.

Suggestions from Fellow Teachers

IEFA and ELA

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on the classroom sets of books that OPI's Indian Education division has available to borrow. At the end of the post, I asked for your recommendations. 

Marla Unruh, an elementary librarian in Helena, also wrote in: "I love the Birchbark House - the whole series. Unfortunately, in library I don't have enough time to teach a novel. If I were back in the English classroom, I wouldn't hesitate." [If you are planning on teacher Birchbark House, check out the OPI Model Teaching Unit for grades 5-8.] 

April Wills, an elementary teacher in Bainville, had recommendations for books that weren't on the OPI list of books you can borrow--but they sounded so interesting I thought I'd share: "Our school bought the book Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard [Seminole], and Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes, by Wab Kinew [Ojibwa]. I feel like they are both exceptional texts and allowed for great conversations." 

Dylan Huisken, Bonner Middle School, also wrote in: "Mike Jetty recommended Counting Coup to me and I use it to teach 8^th graders about postbellum indigenous life in Montana, focusing on themes like continuity and change and of course, the importance of indigenous voices when studying history (and not just focusing on deficit narratives of defeat and massacre).  It is such an accessible book with short chapters.  With advanced readers, it is a supplemental material that they can get through quickly, and for struggling readers, it is a book we can take a chapter at a time.  I highly recommend it. I know some teachers use Good Luck Cat, and our 4^th grade teacher turned literacy coach (she is AWESOME at teaching social studies) did Birchbark House with success. ... Last year our new English teacher did Code Talkers with 7^th graders and said it was a bit of a struggle."  

Dylan also forwarded me an email from the Bonner kindergarten teacher, Amy Paffhausen, with more details about how she teaches Good Luck Cat. On Day 1, she starts with a book walk and make predictions about the book. They also discuss words that rhyme with cat and the /at/ family. After they've read the story the look at their predictions and discuss if "Woogie" was a "good luck cat." Then she has students either illustrate one event from the story or having them draw/write about the beginning, middle, and end. On Day 2, she rereads the story, recall events, and then discuss Woogie's family and their own families. She focused on where Woogie lived, the members of his family, and the activities his family participated in, including powwows. They discuss powwows and watch a video of a powwow. Her students then wrote about a family tradition of their own. (Some years they write about a pet instead.) Finally, on Day 3, she they compare Good Luck Cat to another cat story (like Cat in the Hat) and talk about the difference between fantastic and more realistic stories. They also make a pinch pot cat! I'm including so much detail because Amy was nice enough to take the time to write it out, but also because I love this as an example of how to incorporate Indian Education for all in kindergarten.  

OPI has created a model teaching unit for Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond, by Joseph Medicine Crow, which is truly an excellent book. All the books Dylan mentioned are available to borrow from OPI as classroom sets.

 

Teaching Mapping Montana Online

Corvallis teacher Jenifer Powell is teaching online this year and so she's been adapting lesson plans for her the new format. I know that Mapping Montana, A-Z is one of our best-loved and most-used lesson plans, so I was delighted when she sent me links to the way she's adapted that lesson plan for online learning with a note that I can share her work. She commented, "there are definitely flaws, but I have given up being a perfectionist at this point." Good advice to all of us! And thanks, Jenifer, for this very useful material, which is sure to save your fellow teachers many hours of prep!

• Her presentation, Reading a Map, includes a series of short videos on, well--on how to read a map--but also an introduction to the assignment.
• She converted the worksheets that accompanied the lesson plan into Google Docs. 
• And she created a separate presentation on how to complete the worksheets. 

If you have converted other MHS assignments to make them more friendly for online teaching and are willing to share your work, send it along, or share it directly to the Teaching Montana History Facebook page. 

 

 

Teaching Montana History is written by Martha Kohl, Outreach and Interpretation Historian at the Montana Historical Society.

Indian Education Resources, mostly for middle and high school classes

Glenn Wiebe, my favorite social studies blogger, posted  resources for Indigenous People's Day (Columbus Day)--but since we don't confine the study of colonization and/or first peoples to one day a year, his links are ever-fresh.  

 

John Clayton wrote an article for Wyohistory.org (the Wyoming Historical Society's online encyclopedia) called "Who gets to hunt Wyoming's elk? Tribal Hunting Rights, U.S. Law and the Bannock 'War' of 1895." It provides the background for--and best explanation I've read of--the Herrera case, which was decided by the Supreme Court in 2019 and involved Crow hunters and their treaty rights to hunt in Wyoming. He followed it up with a short blog post, Racism and the Race Horse, which suggests questions for classes to wrestle with.

 

Thanks to Dylan Huisken, Bonner School, who shared the link on the Teaching Montana History Facebook Page, I engaged with the fascinating article/photo project called "Reservation Mathematics: Navigating Love in Native America," for which photojournalist Tailyr Irvine interviewed Indigenous residents in Missoula and on her Flathead Indian Reservation on the issue of blood quantum and how it affects their lives.  

 

In looking at primary sources to prepare for our October 20 discussion, I found a Digital Library of America Primary Source Set titled "Reservations, Resistance, and the Indian Reorganization Act, 1900-1940."  I was particularly interested in the five-minute film clip "Rebuilding Indian Country," which was created in 1933 by the Department of the Interior to explain the new Reorganization Act--even though the focus is on the Minnesota, rather than Montana. (Have you signed up to join the Oct. 20 discussion from 4-5? Renewal Credits available.)

 

And speaking of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, have you seen Vernon Finley's 7-minute interview about how it changed tribal leadership?  

 

I was happy to see these resources because it's hard to find material to teach about later federal Indian policy periods (per Essential Understanding #5). That's why I was also excited to discover The American Stranger, a 1958 NBC Kaleidoscope documentary on American Indians and the failure of federal Indian policy in the 1950s, available to watch on YouTube. 

 

Finally, if you teach grades 6-12, consider registering your classroom to attend the Big Sky Native Filmmaker Initiative's Film Club.

The Native Filmmaker Initiative Film Club is a virtual youth education outreach program that screens a curated selection of Indigenous-made documentary films in classrooms across the state of Montana. Following the screenings, filmmakers visit classrooms via Inspired Classroom's video conference technology for Q&A and discussion activities rooted in Montana's Indian Education for All Essential Understandings. Film Club discussions are led by the Big Sky Film Institute in collaboration with the Montana Office of Public Instruction’s Indian Education Specialist, Mike Jetty, as well as participating filmmakers to talk in-depth about the process of filmmaking. The next film in the series is "Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible," and will be shown on Thursday, November 19 at 1:00 p.m. 

 

Teaching Montana History is written by Martha Kohl, Outreach and Interpretation Historian at the Montana Historical Society.

October Is Archaeology Month

 

Webinar Series

The Yellowstone Gateway Museum is offering an eight-week online series on Montana's Native People: Perspectives on the Clovis Child. Each week, beginning Tuesday, October 13, at 1:30 p.m., a different webinar will explore the work of anthropologists, archaeologists, geneticists and other professionals who have helped us better understand the Anzick Site, where a the "Clovis child" was buried approximately 12,600 years ago. There will be an interactive online career discussion following each 30-45 minute presentation. The Yellowstone Gateway Museum will also be making the presentations available on YouTube.

 

A great resource to accompany these presentations (or to use independently) is Investigating the First Peoples: The Clovis Child Burial. 

 

Archaeology Day Resources from MHS

For years we've hosted an annual Archaeology Day for Helena-area fourth through sixth graders. That's not possible this year, so my colleague Deb Mitchell has pulled together resources you can use in your classroom (or online) to create your own archaeology day (or month) units.

 

On a Completely Different Note

I hope to see you virtually either at the MFPE Virtual Educators Conference, where I'll be giving the MCSS Keynote, "Who Is History," or at our upcoming October 20, 4:00-5:00 p.m., online professional development, "Primary Sources for Teaching Montana History." 

 

Upcoming Professional Development

Please mark your calendar--and register--for our October 20, professional development focused on Primary Sources for Teaching Montana History. I have some new resources I'm excited to tell you about, and look forward to answering questions you may have, but I'm most excited to learn learn through discussion about what's worked in the classroom. We'll meet from 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. on Zoom. I'll send registrants a link a few days before the meeting. The meeting will not be recorded. Register here.  

I'm also looking forward to attending the MFPE Annual Educator Conference online. I'll giving the Montana Council on Social Studies keynote this year on October 15 from 3:00-3:50. The topic I chose is "Who Is History?" I'm working to make this as interactive as I possibly can as we explore big questions (what brings history alive and why history matters) as well as specific resources to help students understand their connection to our common past. 

Looking over the MFPE program, I am most excited about two Indian Education for All sessions that Mike Jetty and his OPI colleagues are offering: "Teaching about Contemporary American Indian Issues," (10/16, 2:00-2:50 p.m.) and "Understanding and Utilizing the IEFA Foundational Documents (10/16, 9:00-9:50 a.m.) as well as the presentations on improving remote/online teaching. Find more and register at the MFPE Conference webpage. Hope to "see" you there!

 

Books, Books, Books

 Did you know? The Office of Public Instruction Indian Education Division has class sets of the following books available for borrowing for use in your classroom. OPI has lesson plans on its IEFA website to go with these titles, which you can reserve for up to three months, by e-mailing Joan Franke.

• As Long as the Rivers Flow by Larry Loyie
• Beaver Steals Fire by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
• The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
• Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
• Counting Coup by Joseph Medicine Crow
• Fools Crow by James Welch
• The Gift of the Bitterroot as told by Johnny Arlee and Antoine Sandoval
• The Good Luck Cat by Joy Harjo
• Jim Thorpe’s Bright Path by Joseph Bruchac
• Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith
• Killing Custer by James Welch and Paul Stekler
• The Little Duck Sikihpsis by Beth Cuthand
• The Moccasins by Earl Einarson
• Red Parka Mary by Peter Eyvindson
• Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell
• Two Old Women by Velma Wallis
• The War Shirt by Bently Spang
• Where Did You Get Your Moccasins? By Bernelda Wheeler
• Wind from an Enemy Sky by D’Arcy McNickle

As always, I'm eager to hear from you. If you've taught some of these titles, are there any you'd particularly recommend?

New Resource for Community Study

I'm excited to introduce Historic Montana, a new resource for community use and study--and also to ask for your help!

We need PICTURES from towns across Montana of historic places listed in the National Register and interpreted with a National Register sign. This would be a great project for a photography class, Montana history class, or school club. Learn more in this guest post, written by my colleague Christine Brown:

Did you know that Montana Historical Society historians have written more than 1,700 National Register of Historic Places signs? You can read the signs one by one as you travel across the state, or you can learn about and see pictures of all these historic properties in one place on the Historic Montana website and companion app.

 The website and app, originally launched in 2017 as ExploreBig, started out with about 250 properties, and over the last three years, MHS historians have added over one thousand more historical narratives, thousands of “then and now” photos, and numerous new historic district and themed tours. Historic Montana users will learn about architecture; social, economic, and cultural life; and significant events and movements in Montana and national history as they relate to a specific Montana place. With so much information and a variety of historic and contemporary photographs, Historic Montana is a valuable resource for teachers and students working on place-based Montana history projects.

 Populating the website and app with a variety of photos is an ongoing project. Teachers and students are invited to help make Historic Montana better by submitting contemporary (or historic) photographs of the properties in your community that have a National Register sign posted. Participants will have their historic property photos published (with credit!) on Historic Montana. Email christine.brown@mt.gov or call 406-444-1687 for details.

IEFA Professional Development from WMPLC

 Looking for PD? Check out the offerings of the Western Montana Professional Learning Cooperative, which offers a number of in-depth, self-paced Moodle courses, including the following: 

• Current Events in Indian Country: An inquiry-based approach​ [r20.rs6.net]
• American Indian Literature Book Club (K-8) [r20.rs6.net]
• American Indian Literature Book Club (9-12) [r20.rs6.net]
• American Indian Sovereignty [r20.rs6.net]
• Foundations of IEFA and Classroom Integration K-12 [r20.rs6.net]
• IEFA Special Topics Course 1 [r20.rs6.net]
• IEFA Special Topics Course 2 [r20.rs6.net]
• The Seven Essential Understandings Regarding Montana Indians [r20.rs6.net]
• The History of the Flathead Reservation [r20.rs6.net]
• The Boarding School Era [r20.rs6.net]
• The Dance House [r20.rs6.net]
• Native American Literature [r20.rs6.net]
• Montana Tribal Histories [r20.rs6.net]
• Early Childhood Literature for children ages 2-6 [r20.rs6.net]
• Plants in Montana Native Cultures [r20.rs6.net]

WMPLC charges for its courses and offers either renewal units or University of Montana semester credits.

Interested in testing some fourth-grade lessons?

 Late last February, I finished a draft of the third unit in our fourth grade curriculum. (The first unit, Montana Today: A Geographic Study, and the second unit, Montana's First Peoples, are available to download from our website.)

I reached out and lined up teachers to test the unit and then--well, you know what happened. So, I'm going to try again. If you teach fourth grade and are interested in testing one or more of these lessons, read on. 

Coming to Montana investigates some of the push-pull factors that brought people to the state: European settlement in the east that pushed tribes westward, the fur trade, Montana's mineral and timber wealth, and its rich grasslands.  (Still to come is a unit that will focus on homesteading, allotment, boarding schools, and twentieth-century immigration). 

Coming to Montana is broken into 7 parts:

• Part 1: Should I Stay or Should I Go? (1-2 days)
• Part 2: Montana's First Peoples (1-2 days)
• Part 3: The Next Big Pull Factor: Precious Metals (contains 4 separate lessons, 5-6 days to do all 4)
• Part 4: Ranching (contains two separate lessons, 4 days to do both)
• Part 5: Logging (2 days)
• Part 6: the Shrinking Reservation (1-2 days)
• Part 7: Wrap-up (1 day, but you need to have done at least a few of the other lessons for this)

It incorporates some previously published lesson plans:

• "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "No Smoking: A History Mystery," Lessons 3 and from the Coming to Montana: Immigrants from around the World footlocker
• Who Are the Métis?*
• a streamlined version of "The Rest of the Story" (from Montana's Charlie Russell)*
• "What Would You Bring?" Emigrant Families on Montana's Gold Rush Frontier*, and
• "Mining Muffin Reclamation" (from the Gold, Silver, and Coal Oh My! footlocker)

But it also has material created specifically for this unit, including

• a guided research project on life for cowboys on the ranching frontier using excerpts from Teddy Blue Abbott's reminiscence, We Pointed Them North and historical photographs from our collection*;
• An examination of census information to discover who lived in logging camps*; 
• a math-based lesson on the Indian land loss*; and
• a card-game lesson on cause and effect.

Are you interested in trying this unit out with your fourth-grade class and providing feedback? I'm should be able to have material to you by the end of February. The entire unit should take 15-20 days but I'd be happy to test individual pieces as well.

Email me if you are interested, and I'll send you more information.

*I think these can be adapted for distance learning--but some of the content is challenging so students may need more scaffolding than distance learning allows; you'll need to make that determination yourself.

P.S. My last email advertised Colin Calloway's talk, The Great Smallpox Pandemic of 1779-1784 but I forgot to include the time and date! It is today (Thursday, September 24) at 6:30 p.m. Hope you can join us.