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Curriculum Projects, Readings, and Resources

Curriculum Project              

How will you share your experience in Lexington and Concord with your students? How can you immerse them in the same environment without leaving your classroom?

Participants will work in teams of 2 or 3 to develop a lesson plan that addresses at least one of the framing questions posed for the week. (Participants would work with colleagues who are teaching similar grade levels.) Each lesson plan will integrate documents, landscapes, and artifacts from visited historic sites and repositories in order to highlight the complementary nature of the resources under study. In addition to creating a lesson plan, participants will work together throughout the week to create a digital archive of photographs representing pertinent landscapes and artifacts.

Materials:

1) At least one document from the Coming of the American Revolution website (funding courtesy of the NEH) http://www.masshist.org.revolution

2) At least one feature of the landscape (could be a natural feature of the landscape, a historic structure, a monument, etc.)

3) At least one artifact

Locating Materials:

Documents are already available though the Massachusetts Historical Society's Coming of the American Revolution site:  http://www.masshist.org/revolution.

Landscapes can be found throughout your tours of Lexington, Concord, and Boston.

Artifacts can be found in any of the institutions or historic sites you visit.

Creating a Digital Archive:

Participants (including project staff) will create their own virtual archive of images (both still and moving) of landscapes and artifacts visited during the workshop. These images will be posted on the workshop website (hosted by the MHS but managed through Flickr), and participants will then have access to this entire visual archive when creating their lessons and when they return to the classroom.

  • Participants with digital cameras will take still and moving images of the landscape and artifacts throughout the course of the workshop. Participants should photograph anything that captures their imagination!
  • Project staff will assist participants with loading these images to the workshop page at Flickr.
  • Participants will be responsible for creating captions for each image they load to Flickr. Descriptions should include basic information (location, date, and photographer), but could also include questions or thoughts about the image.

Creating Your Lesson Plan:

Each group of 2 -3 participants will:

1) Select at least one framing question from those provided for the workshop.

2) Select (at least) one document, one landscape feature, and one artifact to use as evidence in answering the framing question.

3) Generate 3-5 main ideas that students will need to understand in order to answer the framing question. (Think of these as your traditional content objectives.)

4) Create an overall student assessment that requires students to use all of the included documents, and landscapes, and artifacts.

Each individual within the group will:

1) Select one of the documents, landscapes or artifacts used in the lesson.

2) Create a brief historical introduction to your selected item (no more than 150 words).

3) Generate 4-5 critical thinking questions for your selected item.

Workflow and Due Dates:

Kathleen and teacher-facilitator Duncan Wood will meet with participants on Monday afternoon to introduce project requirements and expectations. Duncan will be available to meet with participants and their groups throughout the week to help them make connections between the various resources being presented. He will also work with them to ensure that their selected documents, landscapes, and artifacts are well-integrated into their proposed classroom activities.

Participants will present drafts of their projects to the entire group on the last day on the workshop (Friday afternoon). Final, typed projects (including links to all relevant documents and images) will be due two weeks from the completion of the workshop. Completed lesson plans, including contributions from both participant teams and individual participants, will be available on the workshop website. Hosted by the MHS, this website will be free and accessible to all.

Readings 

 Bibliography

Alcott, Louisa May. "Women's Part in the Concord [Centennial] Celebration," in Madeleine B. Stern, ed. Louisa May Alcott: Signature for Reform. Boston: Northeastern Univrsity Press, 2002. 

Berkin, Carol. Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence. New York: Vintage, 2006.

Bushman, Richard. "Massachusetts Farmers and the Revolution," in Richard L. Jellison, ed., Society, Freedom, and Conscience: The American Revolution in Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York.New York: W. W. Norton, 1976.

*Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.

Donahue, Brian. The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004, pages 155-220. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Concord Hymn" Aand "Nature" (Introduction).

Fuhrer, Mary. "From Sources to Stories: Reconstructing Revolutionary Lexington in the Classroom." The History Teacher

Gross, Robert. The Minutemen and Their World. New York: Farrar, Staus, & Giroux, 2001. (25th Anniversary Edition)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Mosses from an Old Manse. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1883. http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/mosses.html. (Required Chapters: “The Old Manse” and ""The Celestial Rail-road."")

Linenthal, Edward T. Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993, pp. 9-51.

Massachusetts Historical Society. Selections from The Coming of the American Revolution, 1764-1776.  Digitized documents from the Society's collections to be used online before, during, and after the workshop.Originals will be available for viewing at the MHS.

Mires, Charlene. The American Revolution Handbook. NPS, 2008.

National Park Service. Honored Places: The National Park Service Teacher's Guide to the American Revolution. NPS, 2007.

National Park Service. Hour by Hour: Chronology of Incidents Relating to the 19th of April, 1775 The Opening Day of the War of the American Revolution. NPS, 1958.

Thoreau, Henry David. Selections from Walden: "Resistance to Civil Government," and "Slavery in Massachusetts". Available online at: The Thoreau Reader. (http://thoreau.eserver.org/)

*Wood, Gordon S. The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History. New York: Penguin Press, 2008.

*Suggestions for further reading; not required.

Daily Schedule of Readings (tentative)

Monday

Gross, The Minutemen and Their World.

Tuesday

Primary Sources from the Coming of the American Revolution, www.masshist.org/revolution.

Wednesday

Mires, The American Revolution Handbook. 

National Park Service. Honored Places. [Lesson one]

National Park Service. Hour by Hour.

Thursday

Berkin, Revolutionary Mothers.

Bushman, Massachusetts Farmers and the Revolution

Donahue, The Great Meadow, 155-220.

Fuhrer, "From Sources to Stories"

Friday

Alcott, "Woman's Part in the Concord [Centennial] Celebration"

Emerson, "Concord Hymn" and "Nature."

Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse

Linenthal, Sacred Ground, 9-51.

Thoreau, "Resistance to Civil Government," and "Slavery in Massachusetts".

Additional Resources

Minuteman National Historical Park: http://www.nps.gov/mima/index.htm

Concord Museum:http://www.concordmuseum.org/

The Old Manse: http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/old-manse.html

The Coming of the American Revolution (Massachusetts Historical Society): http://www.masshist.org/revolution/

 

 

 

 

 

Nation Endowment for the Humanities