November Commemorations

I think every day should be Veteran's Day and Mother's Day, and every month should be Native American Heritage Month, or Women's History Month, or Black History Month. That's the excuse I use when I let a special commemoration slip by--which is often. But Tom Rea at WyoHistory.org is more on top of it. (I bet if he's married he never forgets his wedding anniversary! Unlike me.) 

Native American Heritage Month

Tom wrote a good post for Native American Heritage Month (November) highlighting the Indigenous People in Wyoming and the West, created by the Wyoming State Historical Society after its legislature passed its version of IEFA in 2017. Tom explains:  

With the help of scholars, tribal elders and educators on the Wind River Reservation we began adding to our content about American Indians, and educators on the reservation helped us develop classroom toolkits of Wyoming history. 

The articles on tribal history—currently there are 22 of them—can be viewed by clicking on the “Indigenous People in Wyoming and the West” tab at the top of every page. The toolkits can be viewed by clicking on the “Education” tab. There you will find links to lesson plans for students and teachers—digital toolkits of Wyoming History, we call them. 

State lines are, relatively speaking, recent political conventions imposed on an ancient landscape. We don't think of the Western Shoshones and the Nez Perce as Montana tribes because they don't have reservations here, but historically they hunted and harvested and traded in Montana (as well as Idaho). And of course the Crows, Cheyennes, and Lakotas all have deep connection to Wyoming. 

All this to say: Check out some of the resources on Indigenous People in Wyoming and the West to find lesson plans and learn about topics ranging from The Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark to Father DeSmet's map and the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty. 

Veteran's Day

And while we are commemorating special days, I wanted to point out a lesson that is not only my all-time Veteran's Day related lesson but one of my favorite lessons of all time: Reader’s Theater: Letters Home from Montanans at War. I've written at length about Letters Home before, so I'll just say, if you teach English, history, or theater to grades 8-12, you should do yourself a favor and make time for this lesson, which asks students to read, interpret, and perform letters written by soldiers who served in conflicts from the Civil War to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

P.S. Don't forget our November 10 PD from 4:00-5:00 p.m.: Hooks! Attend to learn and share strategies for hooking students' interest and to earn one OPI Renewal Unit. 

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

  

 

 

More on the Bear River Massacre

 Last week I shared some IEFA related links, including one about the 1863 Bear River Massacre, during which an estimated 350 Shoshones--including many women and children--were slaughtered and about 24 U.S. troops died near Preston, Idaho.  I expressed surprised that I had never heard of this event, which was more deadly than Sand Creek or Wounded Knee.

Eureka teacher Jennifer Hall responded to the post: 

"I had not heard of the Bear River Massacre either until I attended an NEH summer workshop in Utah a couple years ago. We spent one full day listening to a speaker and then traveling to the battle site on a field trip. It was an amazing experience! 

Our speaker was Darren B. Parry, Chairman of Boa Ogoi project and tribal elder.  Darren told us the story of the massacre as he was told through oral history. He loves speaking to classrooms about his people and the massacre. He's willing to Skype or help in any way. Darren also has several You Tube videos as well. He can be contacted through that website."

 

 

IEFA PD

 Looking to improve your understanding of IEFA? The Western Montana Professional Learning Collaborative offers a great array of self-paced online courses, Current Events in Indian Country, Art and Literature IEFA Integration (K-5), Plants in Montana Native Cultures, and American Indian Sovereignty. You can find information about these and other courses as well as cost and links to register on the WMPLC website. 

Cool Stuff on the Internet (IEFA Edition)

When I see things that interest me--and that I think might interest you--I save the links until I have a "post's worth"--however many that is. Here are a few things I've seen relating to Indian Education for All that I thought were worth sharing. 

• I had never heard of the 1861 Bear River Massacre until I read this Washington Post article: Bear River Massacre killed 350 Northwestern Shoshone Indians, worst in U.S. history.
• The curriculum resources from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition look really good. Have you used them?
• The Smithsonian published this article on "A Spectacular Collection of Native American Quilts."
• This article from the Pew Charitable Trust provided food for thought: "Growing Number of Cities Weigh Tribal Land Acknowledgements."  

 

Have you read anything that's worth sharing? Send it along or post it in the Teaching Montana History Facebook Group.

 And speaking of sharing, teachers are going to be sharing their favorite strategies to engage students at our November 10 Professional Development: Hooks! (online from 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.) Last year’s session on hooks was the overwhelming crowd favorite, so we thought we’d do it again. Bring your best strategies for engaging students to share and/or come to learn what has worked in your colleagues’ classrooms. Register here before November 9 to receive a link to the Zoom meeting.

 

Bell Ringers

I'm sure many of you are way ahead of me in appreciating and using material from Matt Miller's Ditch that Textbook, like this Yelp Review template (for reviewing a place as a historical character), or one of these 20 ideas for exit tickets, which include

• The class sketchnote: At the end of class, ask students to draw, doodle, diagram, etc. a part of the lesson they remembered on the whiteboard/chalkboard at the front of class. Seeing everyone’s responses in one place is a fun visual experience. Plus, when you see lots of similar responses — or a lack of certain responses! — it can show you what stuck and what didn’t.
• The sticky note mosaic: Grab a few pads of sticky notes of different colors. Tell students what each color stands for: something that know for sure, something they’re still unclear on, something they need to tell the teacher, etc. Stick the sticky notes on the board randomly or in groups as they leave. The colors will help you sort them quickly.

A lot of Matt Miller's ideas sound really great (if you have a favorite, let me know). I was particularly taken with Caption This, the very first item on his list of "20 digital bell ringer activities to kickstart class." 

Per the Ditch that Textbook, the activity works because it forces students to make inferences and think about perspective. It's also fun!  

I was so taken with it that I made a few for Montana history--including one for Lewis and Clark, two for the fur trade, one for gold mining, one for the Tenth Cavalry, one for homesteading, and one for logging.

These were easy to do using Ditch That Textbook's template--and if you don't want to have your students working online, you can simply print out the slides. Feel free to use the ones I created--and if you create any others around a Montana history theme, send them to me and I'll add them to this shared folder so everyone can access them.

 

Use sources to gather evidence to develop and refine claims (SS.K12.4) and communicate conclusions (SS.K12.5) with this clever assignment

Carrie Sorensen who teaches Montana history to middle school students in Fortine designed a really ingenious way for her students to communicate their understanding of the forces set loose during the War of the Copper kings and the fight for money, ideology, and power at the turn of the century. She asked her students to pick a character (The Company, a miner, a rancher, a populist, William Clark, Marcus Daly, Augustus Heinze, or William Hogan), decide whether their character was a hero or a villain, and create a comic book telling their story using their class notes and information they gleaned from the Montana: Stories of the Land textbook. Here's a copy of her instructions.  

I love this assignment not only for its creativity, but because creating comic books forces students to summarize and synthesize--both important skills to learn. 

Some time back, Jennifer Graham of Philipsburg told me that she had her students show what they knew through a War of the Copper Kings twitter fight, another great possibility for studying this combative era! 

Do you have a great strategy or lesson that you'd like to share? Feel free to email me and/or join our November 10 online PD from 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. on "Hooks!" during which we'll ask folks share their best strategies for engaging students. Find a link to register here: https://mhs.mt.gov/education/OnlineProDevelop. 

 

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

  

Footlockers Are Back!

The Society's Footlocker program offers thematic "traveling trunks" focused on a wide variety of topics, from archaeology to World War II. Each footlocker is filled with reproductions of clothing, tools, everyday objects, maps, photographs, documents. In addition, each footlocker user guide includes historical narratives for educators and students, lesson plans (many of which do not require material from the footlockers), and Amazing Montanan biographies. We've also just finished aligning all of the lesson plans included in the user guides to the new Montana social studies standards.   

We make footlockers available to Montana educators for two weeks at a time at no charge. However, schools are responsible for the cost of shipping the footlocker to the next venue via United Parcel Service (UPS) or the United States Postal Service (USPS). Can't afford shipping (or the footlocker you want is already reserved for the time you want it)? Many of the lessons in the User Guides can be completed without ordering the footlocker, and our newer footlockers have the two-dimensional artifacts (photos, posters, etc.) available as PowerPoints that you can download.  

• Learn more about the program and how to order a footlocker here. 
• Find a list of titles and links to the user guides and standards alignment here. 

 And speaking of standards alignment--tomorrow is the last day to register for our October 13 online professional development: Diving into the New Social Studies Standards.  We'll be meeting from 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.. Attendees will receive one OPI renewal unit. Register here.