"Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Primary Source Questions" Online Course

 Only last week, I said farewell for the summer--but then the folks at the Right Question Institute emailed me about this free opportunity that is too good not to share. I've been advocating teaching students how to ask questions for a long time now--and am thrilled that developing questions is one of the skills included in our new state social studies standards (SS.K12.1).  

The Right Question Institute can help you help your students master this essential skill. And they are doing it with primary sources! And it's free! And, if you email me a copy of your certificate at the end of the course, I'll be happy to issue a certificate for 12 OPI Renewal Units. 

Here's the Right Question's promo and link to registration:   

When studying primary sources, questions can act as both a magnifying glass and a telescope: They help us to see more clearly what is in front of us and then inspire us to look beyond. Learning how to ask questions is an essential skill that can transform the way students approach primary source learning. Join us for “Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Primary Source Questions”: a new, free online course developed in collaboration with, and made possible by, the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program.  

This self-paced, four-week online course demonstrates how to combine the Question Formulation Technique with the primary source artifacts and teacher resources available at the Library of Congress to design and implement more effective, student-centered, inquiry-based primary source learning. Participants walk away with a peer reviewed lesson plan, a new community of educators, and pathways to extend their learning. The course opens week to week and requires approximately 12-16 hours of work total, or three to four hours of work per week. 

• Dates (self-paced): July 7 – August 4, 2021
• Registration deadline: June 30, 2021
• Learn more. 
• Register here. 

P.S. We still haven't awarded that final prize to the forty-eighth person to take the survey. Maybe it has your name on it! 

See you next fall, if not before

Teaching Montana History is going on hiatus for summer break--unless something time sensitive comes along that is so good I can't bear not to share it. 

If you are changing schools, please re-subscribe using your new address! We'd hate to lose touch. 

If your travels bring you to Helena this summer, please stop in and say "hello." And of course, don't hesitate to contact me if I can help you as you prepare for your classes next fall: mkohl@mt.gov. 

Do know that there's still time to complete our annual survey and to share your favorite lesson. (Need more incentive? The prize for the forty-eighth person to complete the survey is still waiting to be claimed.)  

Whether through the survey, an email, or if your vacation takes you through Helena, I look forward to hearing from you. 

P.S. Missing the Teaching Montana History already? Browse back posts. Use the labels on the right-hand side to browse general areas (IEFA) or the search bar to search by keywords (primary sources). And if you have time this summer, consider taking some online professional development to learn more about Montana history and teaching resources while earning OPI Renewal Units. 

Funding for a Museum-Educator Partnership Project

The Museums Association of Montana in partnership with the Library of Congress will be providing grants to 12 Museum/Educator partnerships for place-based projects that link Montana primary sources, Montana places, the Montana classic A River Runs through It, by Norman Maclean, and the new memoir Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River, by Norman Maclean’s son John.

To participate, you must apply with a local museum. Twelve museum-educator pairs will be offered $750 stipends, and each team will have the authority to spend those funds in a method they deem most suitable for their project.

See below for more details.

PRIORITIES/PROJECT GOALS

• Connect the new piece of acclaimed literature Home Waters (and a well-known familial companion A River Runs through It) with primary sources that can be analyzed and studied by students or community members to provide them with a deeper understanding of the books.
• Support research into, and an understanding of, the books Home Waters and A River Runs through It and how they play a role in understanding key places, in Montana and elsewhere.
• Provide explicit Library of Congress training for participants (teachers and museum staff) about searching the deeper collections of the Library of Congress (as well as other archives) and how resources in the collections can expand an understanding of places that appear in literature and history and provide connections to state and national standards in multiple disciplines.
• Provide educators and local museum partners with an opportunity to connect, partner in an inquiry process, and develop a plan for how to use local museum primary and secondary sources in concert/partnership with schools to embed the study of place and heritage in the classroom. This project allows for an avenue not only to foster partnerships using primary sources and literature, but to build sustained relationships for ongoing collaboration.
• Share the mission of the project through virtual communication and presentations with a wider audience including the American Association of State and Local History, the National Council for Social Studies, National Council of Teachers of English, and other educational entities as well as the learning cohorts in participating school districts and curriculum specialists in the state of Montana.

CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION

1. All museums must be 501c3 Non-profit organizations in good standing.
2. All participant teams must be made up of one non-profit museum and a K-12 educator.
3. All participants must be willing and able to attend all six Web Meetings.
4. All participants must commit to completing a measurable project utilizing the skills and resources identified through the Home Waters Project.

AWARDS SCHEDULE

Applications will be reviewed and prioritized by a selection committee. Selections will be made and approved partnerships notified by August 1, 2021.

APPLICATION will be available by contacting Deb Mitchell, Executive Director, Museums Association of Montana, 406-444-4789 or dmitchell@mt.gov

Application Deadline: July 15, 2021

Earlier submission is recommended.

EVERYBODY loves historic newspapers

Digitized Newspapers

I am always excited when my coworker Natasha Hollenbach tells me that she's completed uploading new newspapers to Montana Newspapers or Chronicling America. The newest additions to Montana Newspapers bring the total of free digitized pages available to over 1.15 million!

New titles/available date ranges include:

• Belt Valley Times from 1964 to 1977.
• The River Press (Fort Benton) up through 2010.
• The Poplar Shopper from 1970 to 2001 (the full run) 
• The Char-Koosta News from 1985 to 2014
• And 656 pages of 5 newspapers from Castle (all that remain): The Castle Mining Reporter, The Castle News, Castle Reporter, Castle Tribune, and The Whole Truth.

Click here for a map of all the newspapers digitized by the Montana Historical Society. Click here to access them. And click here for ideas on how to use the digitized newspapers with students.

End of Year Survey

Don't forget to complete the year-end survey. You might win a prize. You will certainly enjoy that good feeling of helping out your fellow teachers by providing feedback to make Teaching Montana History better and especially by sharing a favorite resource/go-to lesson. 

 

Join us in Butte next fall for the 48th Annual Montana History Conference.

Save the Date! The Montana Historical Society is planning an in-person conference (wahoo) and we're putting together an amazing program. Plan on joining us for the 48th Annual Montana History Conference, "A Blast from the Past! Mining Montana History." The conference will be held at the Copper King Convention Center in Butte, September 23-25, 2021. Renewal units will be available for both the Thursday educator workshop and all conference sessions. (Check here beginning July 1 for more details.) We hope you’ll consider attending!

As in past years, we will be offering travel scholarships for both teachers and college students. 

About the scholarships: Funded by the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, the scholarships will consist of full conference registration plus a $275 travel/expense reimbursement. All teachers and students in Montana’s colleges and universities are eligible to apply (residents of Butte and vicinity are eligible for the conference registration scholarship but not the travel reimbursement). 

Teacher recipients must attend the entire conference, including Thursday’s Educators Workshop and the Saturday sessions. Student recipients must commit to attending all day Friday and Saturday, including a Saturday tour. 

Preference will be given to

• Teachers and students from Montana’s tribal colleges;
• Teachers from Montana’s on-reservation schools;
• Teachers and students from Montana’s community colleges and four-year universities;
• Teachers from Montana’s small, rural, under-served communities.

Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. September 8, 2021. Awards will be announced on Friday, September 10, 2021. Applying for a scholarship is quick and easy. Apply online. 

P.S. What resources do you use that you think other teachers might benefit from? What's your go-to, no-fail, Montana history or IEFA lesson? Let me know by completing our annual, end-of-the-year survey, and I'll share it with your fellow teachers next fall. Bonus: We're offering prizes to the eighteenth, twenty-eighth, thirty-eighth, and forty-eighth person to complete the survey.

 

  

Edpuzzle for Self-Paced, Video-Based Lessons plus MORE Bozeman Trail

Frenchtown teacher Allen McCarty started a trend by sharing information about a PBS video on the Bozeman Trail. Then, Red Lodge teacher Steve Morris wrote in, sharing the unit he created around the video. And then I received this handy tip from Belgrade high school teacher Deb McLaughlin: 

If someone wants to use the film on the Bozeman Trail they should check out the app Edpuzzle.com It is a wonderful teaching tool, and you can edit films. You can do about 5 films for free then the school has to buy a subscription, but well worth it with online and in-class situations.  

I quickly browsed the Edpuzzle website, and it looks like a really useful tool: you can see if students watch the videos and add your own voice narration and questions. The website also promotes Edpuzzle's compliance with FERPA, COPPA, and GDPR laws (though of course you'll need to get your tech folks' approval if your school district doesn't already have an agreement.)  

Thanks, Deb, for sending the link for this resource! Do you have one to share? Email it to me, and I'll share it out. Also, please complete our annual year-end survey, where I hope you'll share a no-fail lesson or favorite Montana history or IEFA resource. Need more incentive? I'm offering a prize to the eighteenth, twenty-eighth, thirty-eighth, and forty-eighth person to complete the survey.

Bozeman Trail 

After sharing Steve's resources, I also received a note from Nikki Vradenberg at MontanaPBS saying that they worked on the Bozeman Trail documentary as well AND, more importantly, they have created a collection on PBS Learning Media with 1.5 to 8 minute clips from the film (plus support material/lesson plans) to make it easier to teach. (Clicking on a clip will take you to a page with both the video and links to the support material for that excerpt.) 

Teaching the Bozeman Trail

Last Tuesday, I wrote about a video recommended by Frenchtown teacher Allen McCarty: The Bozeman Trail: A Rush to Montana's Gold, which is available at WyomingPBS and on YouTube.

Red Lodge teacher Steve Morris responded right away: "I just completed the Gold and Silver Boom segment of our 8th Grade History here at Roosevelt Middle School. The PBS video regarding the Bozeman trail was my central resource and received a lot of student engagement as we explored Montana's approach to Statehood. Via Google Drive, I’ll share the Hyperdocs I developed around the video so you can see just how fun it was for our Rams!" And then he gave me permission to share his material: "Share away, happy to contribute to our community of practice from which I and the students I serve most certainly benefit. SlidesMania.com is my go-to resource for Google Slide Templates, the PBS video presented a plethora of teaching opportunities, and I really enjoyed putting it all together." So, with no further ado, here are Steve's slides: 

Montana's Gold and Silver Boom HyperDoc I

Montana's Gold and Silver Boom HyperDoc II

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