Links Roundup

I have a file in my computer where I tuck away interesting links, intriguing strategies and other things worth sharing. Here are a few unrelated, but I hope, interesting tidbits.  

Teaching about Slavery

Runaway slave ads: In collaboration with the Hard History Project, Freedom on the Move "created a searchable database of fugitives from North American slavery...There are endless possibilities for using the database in your classroom." To make things easy for you, they "created four lessons you can use to bring the ads to life and introduce students to the brave people who resisted slavery by running away." 

Sherrie Galloway, a former Library of Congress Teacher in Residence, posted an intriguing lesson on the TPS Teaching Network that used a five-minute clip from Henry Gates' TV show, Finding Your Roots of Pharrell Williams reading excerpts from a narrative created from an interview conducted during the 1930s with his great, great aunt, who was born enslaved twelve years before the end of the Civil War. That of course led me down the YouTube Rabbit Hole, and I watched similar two to five minute clips with other African American celebrities--Queen Latifah, Nas--discovering information about their own ancestors, enslaved and free. What's powerful about these short clips (besides the fact that they are so short) is that they make slavery real and personal, not something that happened a long time ago to faceless, nameless people, but something that happened to the families of people who are living now. (To access the lesson, you have to join the TPS Teaching Network--but it's free!) 

RAFT Writing and Charlie Russell

I don't remember the name of the brilliant teacher who proposed this idea. My apologies. They sent it to me in response to one of the lesson plans we created for Montana's Charlie Russell. Our lesson is

• “The Rest of the Story” (grades 3–7) engages students in an analysis of several pieces of Russell art before asking them to choose one to use as inspiration to write a story.

"The Rest of the Story" asks students what's going on in the picture, say Bronc to Breakfast, what they think happened right before, and what they think happened right after. And then asks students to write a story. 

The teacher suggested a clever variation: "Students find Charlie Russell paintings very engaging, and they love to tell stories. Another way you could use this idea is to have the students choose to be one of the characters in the painting, and they write a letter home telling about their experience." 

It's Not Too Late...

We've got free workshops coming up across the state. Learn more and register here.  

If you are an elementary teacher, there's still time to apply to become a Teacher Leader in Montana History. 

There's also still time to nominate a great middle or high school teacher for the Centennial Bell Award (for excellence in teaching Montana history).  

Gilder-Lehrman is still recruiting nominations for National History Teacher of the Year. The award is open to anyone who teaches K-12 American history (including but not limited to state and local history.)