Nominate an Elementary Teacher to Be Named Montana History Teacher of the Year

Do you know an elementary history teacher who brings history alive for his or her students?  The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History and the Montana Council for History and Civic Education are seeking nominations for the Montana History Teacher of the Year.  The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History in New York City and the HISTORY Channel sponsors this award.  The Montana winner will receive a $1,000 check, and they will become finalists in the National History Teacher of the Year award (Montana nominees have placed in the top three.).  In addition, their school library will receive a collection of history books and educational materials! 

Gilder Lehrman is looking for nominations from principals, administrators, or parents.  Below are the qualifications and procedures for this year’s award.   

Qualifications: The nominee must meet the following criteria:

• 3 years’ teaching experience
• Full time elementary teacher, (K-6) during the 2014-2015 school year.  Middle and high school teachers may be nominated in the next cycle (2015-2016)
• Teaches thoughtful and creative United States history. (This may include state and local history, and American history may be taught as an individual subject or through social studies, reading, language arts, and other subjects.)
• Effectively uses primary sources to engage students in American history.

Procedure:

To nominate a teacher, you merely submit the following:

1. Visit www.gilderlehrman.org/nhtoy and nominate a teacher, which will include providing contact information for you your and your nominee as well as a very brief statement about why your nominee should be honored. Deadline for nomination is February 1, 2015.  That’s all you have to do.
2. Once you submit your nominations, your nominee will be asked to submit supporting materials via an online submission form by March 16, 2015.  A committee of  Montana educators will receive their materials and select a winner by May 11, 2015.
3. If you have questions, visit www.gilderlehrman.org/nhtoy or e-mail your state coordinator: James Bruggeman at james.bruggeman@mchce.net. Please do not send nominations to me! Your nominations and your nominee’s submission must be done on line at the Gilder-Lehman website. 

P.S. Just after I post this, I’m heading over to the Capitol to celebrate the  25^th Annual Montana Statehood Centennial Bell Award Winner, Montana City middle school teacher  Moffie Funk. Moffie is being recognized for teaching Montana history—both the creativity and enthusiasm she shows for the subject in her own classroom and the work she did as a teacher-advisor on the Montana Historical Society’s textbook, Montana: Stories of the Land. For that project, Moffie created the worksheets, tests, end-of-chapter material, and answer keys that are used by teachers across the state. It’s great stuff. If you haven’t already, I urge you to check it out for yourself on the Montana: Stories of the Land Companion Website. And congratulations Moffie!

50th Anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Today's the actual anniversary of the Nov. 3 vote that passed women's suffrage in Montana. (You can find out how  your county voted here.)

 I've been very focused this last year on the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage (see posts here, here, and here.) But there are other incredibly significant anniversaries in 2014, among them the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

"Teaching with the Library of Congress" has had some good blog posts about primary source documents on the American Memory Project to help teach the Civil Rights Act, including "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Title VII: The Freedom to Work" and "The Civil Rights Act of 1964: Making Our Nation Whole." TPS Barat Primary Source Nexus provides information on interviews collected as part of the Library of Congress's Civil Rights oral history project in this "Collection Spotlight." In addition, the Library of Congress has created a database of civil rights oral history collections in libraries, museums, universities, and historical societies in 49 states and the District of Columbia--including Montana.

The Library of Congress focuses primarily on national topics and resources--but these issues certainly affected Montana as well. Did you know, for example, that many Great Falls restaurants didn't serve African Americans patrons? Or that in Billings, Hispanic children were at one time not allowed to participate in the annual Easter egg hunt or go to bowling alleys? Montana Indians, of course, also faced much prejudice--including being denied their right to vote. Passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act helped begin to change these discriminatory practices--as did local organizing on the part of African Americans, Indians, Hispanics, and their allies.

Finding resources to teach the Montana civil rights story is difficult. Chapter 5 of Montana Mosaic (in every public middle and high school library and on YouTube) includes a short discussion of Mexican Americans in the Yellowstone Valley, including their experience with discrimination. (You can find the teacher's guide for this video here.) Montana Legacy: Essays on History, People, and Place (Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2002) has articles on Indian voting rights and Mexican Americans in the Yellowstone Valley. The Montana Historical Society's Montana History Revealed blog has an article on the 1964 Civil Rights Act at Fifty: Senator Lee Metcalf and the Fight for Equality (as well as interesting articles on Metcalf's role in passing War on Poverty legislation.) In addition, photo archivist Matthew Peek (who authored the Montana History Revealed articles and has cataloged the Society's Lee Metcalf collection) has a written longer essay, including extensive bibliographic references, on Metcalf's role in the Civil Rights Act (as well as the Economic Opportunity Act and the Wilderness Act, which also turned fifty in 2014.)

 There's an interesting post on the Women's History Matters website about the Montana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs' attempt to get civil rights legislation through the Montana legislature in the 1950s. (Interestingly, prejudice against Hispanics and Indians were a greater barrier to passing comprehensive civil rights legislation than prejudice against African Americans.) That website also features an article on Salish voting rights activist Lucille Otter. 

But, really, this is a history that still needs to be written. Maybe your students can help--by investigating the topic locally through interviews and preserving that information for future generations. Find more about student oral history projects here.

IEFA Resources

I'm particularly proud of our Indian Education for All resources--and because of where they reside on our website, I'm not sure everyone's aware of them, so I thought I'd provide a quick overview here.

"Picturing the Past: Understanding Cultural Change and Continuity among Montana's Indians through Historic Photographs" is a two-day learning activity designed to complement Chapter 11 of the Montana: Stories of the Land textbook. Recommended for use in grades seven through twelve, the activity challenges students to examine historical photographs while considering issues of cultural change and continuity over time.

The Art of Storytelling: Plains Indian Perspectives (K-12). These materials are designed to provide you and your students with an exciting way to incorporate Indian Education for All into your art curriculum. The material includes grade-appropriate lesson plans which are aligned with the Essential Understandings and the Montana Art Content Standards; three PowerPoint presentations, one focused on winter counts and two about ledger art (one of which is designed for grades K-6 and the other for grades 7-12); and additional material that explores winter counts and biographical art.

"Native American Trade Routes and the Barter Economy" includes two learning activities intended designed to complement Chapter 2 of the Montana: Stories of the Land textbook. Designed for use in grades seven through nine, Activity One, "Resources and Routes," focuses primarily on mapping pre-contact trade routes, with a special emphasis on Montana. Activity Two, "Trading Times," asks students to simulate the process through which various products from different regional tribes were bartered and disseminated to gain a better understanding of pre-contact barter economy and how it compares with the modern-day cash economy.

"Mining Sacred Ground: Environment, Culture, and Economic Development on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation" is a learning activity designed to familiarize students with an important and contentious issue now facing Montana's native peoples: whether or not to develop their reservation's coal and coal-bed methane resources. Recommended for use in grades seven through twelve, this activity challenges students to better appreciate the complexities of promoting resource-based economic development when such action conflicts with traditional cultural values.

"When Worlds Collide: The Salish People Encounter the Lewis and Clark Expedition" is a flexible one- to four-day learning activity designed to complement Chapter 4 of the Montana: Stories of the Land textbook. Recommended for use in grades seven through nine, the activity challenges students to grapple with historical evidence and to better recognize the complexity of native-white encounters.

"Blood on the Marias: Understanding Different Points of View Related to the Baker Massacre of 1870" is a flexible one- to three-day learning activity designed to complement Chapter 7 of the Montana: Stories of the Land textbook. Recommended for use in grades seven through twelve, the activity challenges students to grapple with historical evidence and to better recognize the complexity of native-white encounters. In considering a variety of historic documents, students will have an opportunity to raise questions and draw meaningful conclusions about a historically significant event: the Baker (also known as Marias) Massacre.

A Beautiful Tradition: Ingenuity and Adaptation in a Century of Plateau Women's Art (Designed for 4th-12th) These materials are designed to provide you and your students with an exciting way to study this colorful art form while incorporating Indian Education for All in your classroom. There are three grade-appropriate versions of this curriculum: fourth/fifth grade, middle school, and high school. These interdisciplinary units include grade appropriate lesson plans, aligned with the Essential Understandings; PowerPoint presentations; worksheets; and other material that explores this remarkable art form.

"Hearing Native Voices: Analyzing Differing Tribal Perspectives in the Oratory of Sitting Bull and Plenty Coups" is a flexible one- to three-day activity designed to complement Chapter 7 of the Montana: Stories of the Land textbook. Recommended for use in grades seven through twelve, the activity focuses on excerpts from a number of speeches and addresses given by two well-known leaders of native peoples closely associated with the story of Montana's past: Sitting Bull, of the Hunkpapa Sioux, and Plenty Coups, of the Crow. This lesson seeks to challenge students' preconceived stereotypes of American Indians as one-dimensional, inflexible caricatures who were merely acted upon by outside forces. In comparing and contrasting brief excerpts of these leaders' speeches, students will come to appreciate that great diversity existed among individual American Indian leaders and the ways they responded to changing circumstances during the late nineteenth century.

"Montana's Landless Indians and the Assimilation Era of Federal Indian Policy: A Case of Contradiction" is a week-long primary-source based unit designed to introduce students to the history of the landless Métis, Cree, and Chippewa Indians in Montana between 1889 and 1916, while giving them an opportunity to do their own guided analysis of historical and primary source materials. In this Common Core-aligned unit, students will wrestle with issues of perspective, power, ideology, and prejudice and will closely examine the role Montana newspapers played in shaping public opinion toward the tribes’ attempts to maintain economic independence and gain a land base and political recognition.

p.s. Just as I was writing this post, I saw a notice from Humanities Montana, which sponsors the fabulous free-to-you Speakers in the School program. Among the speakers that they will send to your school are Darnell and Smokey Rides At The Door, Blackfeet traditionalists, historians, educators. The way it works: You contact Darnell and Smokey directly and set up an agreeable time and (406) 338-2607 or dratd@3rivers.net

Then you complete an online application.

Here's a description of their program: Two South Peigan elders and traditionalists share the history of the South Peigan from their genesis stories through to their contemporary way of life. Audiences learn about the South Peigan origination stories, spirituality, language, songs, relationship to the cosmos, family dynamics, and role of arts and sciences in Indian life. These topics are melded together to give a greater appreciation of the Ampskapii Pukuni of Montana. The presentation captures a worldview expressed in modern context and explores where tradition meets technology, from "smoke signals to satellites."

Other Humanities Montana Speaker in theSchools IEFA and Montana history programs can be found here. 

What do elections and wildflowers have in common? Check out this new lesson plan to find out.

Looking for a nonpartisan way to teach your fourth through seventh graders about campaigns and elections? One that also has them developing research skills with a science focus and exploring primary sources in the form of historic newspapers? Check out the latest addition to our lesson plans: Montana’s State Flower: A Lesson in Civic Engagement.

This seven-period, Common Core-aligned unit asks students to recreate (and investigate) the 1894 Floral Emblem campaign organized by Bozeman suffragist Mary Long Alderson. Alderson organized the campaign on the advice of Susan B. Anthony, who believed that such non-controversial "practice" campaigns could teach women the political skills they needed to win the right to vote.

This lesson is designed to introduce your students to electoral politics, just as the original floral emblem campaign introduced women to the political process,

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Using historic photographs to complement the study of literature

I've talked to several teachers who've had success integrating historic photographs in their students' study of historical fiction.

Jason's Gold (the story of a journey to the Klondike gold rush) is based in part on the authors' research in the Hegg Photograph Collection. So it's no surprise that Hegg's photos make perfect illustration for the novel. A teacher (I'd give credit, but I'm drawing a blank on the name) told me that she had her students visit the Hegg photo database after they'd finished the novel to choose a picture (or three) to illustrate different chapters. She asked them to choose a quote to demonstrate what passage they were illustrating and to write a paragraph about the historical image.

Jill Van Alstyne of Helena High had her sophomore honors students visit the Montana Historical Society Research Center as part of their study of Fools Crow. They had several tasks (see here), but one of them was to find a historic photograph that illustrated a way that non-Indian immigration to Montana changed the world that Montana Indians knew. The actual assignment, called "My Home Montana" is copied below:

My Home Montana

Different people throughout time have called Montana “home.” For example, the Pikuni band of Blackfeet in the 1800s made their home in northern Montana, and their lives in connection to the land are described by James Welch in his historical novel Fools Crow.
How did white immigration into Montana change the world that natives knew? Find one photograph that illustrates an aspect of this transformation. Answer the following:

• Who took the photo (if known)?
• When and where was it taken (if known)?
• For what purpose do you think this photo was taken? (advertising, family history, documentation, etc.)
• How does the photo illustrate this transformation? (Write one paragraph)
• Staple your paragraph to the photocopy of the photo you chose and turn it in for 35 points.

Have you had success using historic photographs to enrich your study of literature? Let me know what's worked in your classroom, and I'll share out.

For more ideas for teaching with photographs, see here.

Two Great PowerPoint-based Lesson Plans

Last year we revamped our website. I tried to be conscientious about updating all the links that broke as a result, but last week, while preparing for the MEA-MFT educator conference, I realized that the links to download the PowerPoints haven't been working. We've fixed these now and I highly recommend both lessons for fourth grade and up.

"Picturing the Past: Understanding Cultural Change and Continuity among Montana's Indians through Historic Photographs" is a two-day learning activity designed to complement Chapter 11 of the Montana: Stories of the Land textbook. The activity challenges students to examine historical photographs while considering issues of cultural change and continuity over time.

The Montana Historical Society created the lesson plan "Railroads Transform Montana" to complement Chapter 9 of the Montana: Stories of the Land textbook. The lesson -- which includes a PowerPoint presentation -- emphasizes the how trains affected the social, economic, and physical landscape of Montana.

We do our best to keep our links up to date, but I need your help. If you ever come across a broken link in material the Montana Historical Society has produced, please let me know. 

IEFA sessions at MEA-MFT

Jennifer Stadum at the Indian Education Division of OPI created this handy list of all the IEFA related sessions she could find at MEA-MFT. Thanks, Jennifer!

MEA-MFT: IEFA Related Sessions Cheat Sheet

THURSDAY IEFA RELATED SESSIONS

K-12 MCCS for Mathematics with IEFA – Justine Jam

08:00 AM - 08:50 AM      SHS206

This workshop is to provide “processes and proficiencies”, which includes problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, representation, and connections. Integrating IEFA within a culturally relevant context allows students to investigate mathematical reasoning and apply the concepts to solve problems in everyday life, society and the workplace.

Montana Indian Poetry-Themes and Strategies – Dorothea Susag

* (Offered once Thursday and once Friday)

09:00 AM - 09:50 AM      MCAD05

Using Birthright—Born to Poetry: Montana Indian Poetry, participants will practice reading/writing strategies that meet MCCS while they make connections between lessons/texts/units they teach and poems in this collection. Each will receive a copy of the collection.

Analyzing Historic Images to Meet MCCS (7-12) – Deb Mitchell

10:00 AM - 11:50 AM      SHS246

Deb Mitchell, Program Specialist at the Montana Historical Society will demonstrate analysis of historic images through Visual Thinking Strategies along with the importance of learning to source images, and aligning to meet MCCS for grades 7-12.

The Round House: A Book Trailer – Anna Baldwin

11:00 AM - 11:50 AM      MCAD05

Arlee HS students’ collaborative project, a digital book trailer for Erdrich's The Round House, will showcase their critical thinking about the plot and characters and demonstrate how digital literacy can simultaneously address the Common Core standards and Indian Education for All.

Saving Lives with IEFA – Mike Jetty

12:00 PM - 12:50 PM       SHS244

Saving lives with IEFA. Affecting more lives than all other preventable deaths, tobacco use is the single greatest cause of preventable death, annually killing 1,400 Montanans. The tobacco industry spends $27,000,000 marketing in Montana yearly. Use IEFA content to show students how culture, media, technology, and tobacco marketing influence choices.

Native People of the North - Donna Love

01:00 PM - 01:50 PM       SHS502

From time immemorial Native Alaskans have lived a subsistence lifestyle getting everything they needed from nature. Explore the main groups of the Far North and how they lived before "first contact" (with Europeans), including food, shelter, clothing and where they lived.

Information Transfer the Key to Human Development – Tim Ryan

02:00 PM - 02:50 PM       Auditorium

Human Development is based on effective transfer of knowledge and information. From our ancestors beginnings on this earth we have been passing down the knowledge to keep ourselves safe, comfortable and prosperous. Will we be able to continue in light of future doom? TEK or Traditional Ecological Knowledge maybe the answer.

THURSDAY IEFA RELATED SESSIONS – CONTINUED PM

Indian Sports Mascots and Critical Literacy – Mike Jetty

02:00 PM - 02:50 PM       SHS244

 “What’s the big deal with Indian mascots, why don’t they just get over it?” This session will examine the hegemonic forces that helped shape the current social environment that allows for ongoing stereotypical portrayals of American Indians. The workshop will provide resources and strategies for teaching contemporary American Indian issues.

Native Games of the North - Donna Love

02:00 PM - 02:50 PM       SHS502

From time immemorial, Alaskan Natives have lived a subsistence lifestyle gathering everything they needed from nature. They developed games of strength, endurance, balance, and agility to stay fit through the long winter months. Join author Donna Love to learn about these unique games.

Mentoring, Achievement & American Indian Students - Glenda McCarthy

02:00 PM - 02:50 PM       MCAD13

We will present information about successful programs at Senior High to better engage and support American Indian student achievement, including a teacher-student mentoring program, targeted tutoring and celebrating culture throughout the school.

Contemporary American Indian Issues – Terry Kendrick

03:00 PM - 03:50 PM       MCAD13

This session will address ways to incorporate current issues in Indian Country and tribal sovereignty into the classroom.

Reading a Treaty--Loss and Survival – Dorothea Susag

04:00 PM - 04:50 PM       MCHB01

Using DVD clips, Montana Indian poems, and portions of “Agreement [regarding the Fort Belknap Reservation] made Jan. 21, 1887” participants will use reading/writing strategies to understand perspective and the ways underlying meaning of treaties impacted Montana’s Indian People and how those people have survived.

FRIDAY IEFA RELATED SESSIONS

Indian Music: Even More Than Drums & Flutes - Scott Prinzing

08:00 AM - 09:50 AM      MCHB01

While drums and flutes are still important in American Indian culture, Native musicians have made significant contributions to virtually every major genre of music, including jazz, pop, rock, country western and hip-hop. Recent video profiles of Montana Indian musicians produced by Scott Prinzing for OPI will be featured.

Crossing Boundaries: IEFA Visual Arts K-12 Lesson – Teresa Heil

08:00 AM - 09:50 AM      SHS186

View the newly created IEFA visual arts model lesson and explore selected components from the learning plan. Discuss how it meets MT Standards for the Arts, IEFA Essential Understandings and also cites MCCS for ELA. Gain access to new resources which encourage students to gain knowledge about MT Indian tribes.

Montana Indian Poetry-Themes and Strategies – Dorothea Susag

11:00 AM - 11:50 AM      MCAD05

Using Birthright—Born to Poetry: Montana Indian Poetry, participants will practice reading/writing strategies that meet MCCS while they make connections between lessons/texts/units they teach and poems in this collection. Each will receive a copy of the collection.

Reaching Native students, Teaching Native Content – Molly Joyce

11:00 AM - 11:50 AM      MCAD17

How can we provide students with authentic literary voices that resonate with their own lives? What are the challenges? In this workshop, we will share ways to overcome censorship issues, particularly with American Indian texts, and we will share online resources and strategies for engaging students that address the MCCS. We will uncover how the integration of IEFA can lead to deep understandings of text.

Wanji Oyate Education Cohort Speaks Out - Jioanna Carjuzaa

11:00 AM - 11:50 AM      MCAD11

Wanji Oyate Education Cohort provides academic, personal, career, and financial support and guidance to American Indian pre-service teachers at MSU. In this session Wanji Oyate members share the barriers and successes they face as well as their experiences with Indian Education for All on their journey to joining the teaching corps.

Fort Peck PlaceNames: Integration and MCCS – Jennifer Stadum

11:00 AM - 12:50 PM       SHS243

Using the Fort Peck PlaceNames Curriculum participants will experience culturally relevant instructional practices to teach about the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation. They will gain strategies to integrate the Common Core ELA standards and use primary documents that are significant to the tribes.

Class 7 Native Language Teacher's Best Practices - Terry Brockie

03:00 PM - 03:50 PM       MCAD13

This sectional is an opportunity for Class 7 Native Language Teachers to present & share methodology of what they are doing in their respective classrooms and develop a working network or possible association of Class 7 teachers statewide. Teacher are encouraged to bring examples of their work.

Check out all the great Montana Writing Project Offerings, too!

The NWP keynote speaker is SONDRA PERL!!! Treat yourself to this amazing teacher/author’s presentation on Thursday, October 16, 10:00-11:50 at MCHB06.

10/17 –Thursday (MWP and IEFA Integration)

Heather Bruce – Writing and IEFA: 9:00-10:50 MCHB11

Casey Olsen – Stillwater Co. IEFA Driving Tour: 3:00-3:50 MCHB06

Casey Olsen – Framework for Teaching Argument: 4:00-4:50 MCHB06