offered by

The Westfield Public Schools in collaboration with Westfield State College, working with the Public School Districts of Chicopee, Gateway Regional, Hampshire Regional, Southwick-Tolland and Palmer, and

in partnership with the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield, Massachusetts

October 1, 2006 to September 30, 2007

© Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education

American Promises:

Teaching American History

About the Program

American Promises is a high quality, effective professional development program in traditional American history.  Content is organized around the fundamental themes expressed in America’s founding documents.   This program is aligned with the Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks.  Major components are day-long seminars, after school workshops, student programs, and the American Centuries web site.

The school districts of Westfield, Chicopee, Palmer, Southwick-Tolland, Hampshire Regional and Gateway Regional

 are dedicated to providing high quality professional development in order to improve student learning.

The Center for Teacher Education and Research at Westfield State College

 provides professional development opportunities to educators in Western Massachusetts including summer institutes, online professional development, and onsite courses and workshops.

The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association promotes an understanding of national and regional history through its museum, library and education programs.

The United States Department of Education ensures equal access to education and promotes educational excellence throughout the nation.

Teaching American History Program

Contacts:

Program Director:  Priscilla Miller, CENTER, Westfield State College, 577 Western Ave. Westfield, MA 01086, 413-572-8065 pmiller@wsc.ma.edu, Fax: 413-572-8187

TAH Program Coordinator: Kathy Wicks, CENTER, Westfield State College, 577 Western Ave. Westfield, MA 01086, 413-572-8150, kwicks@wsc.ma.edu, Fax: 413-572-8187

PVMA, 10 Memorial St., Deerfield, MA 01342 413-774-7476 ext. 28 for borrowing books & traveling history kits, and general information; Lynne Manring @ 413-772-0845 for History-to-Go reservations, Fax: 413-774-2654

For general information, please visit the CENTER Web site:  http://www.wsc.ma.edu/center/

The Westfield Public Schools in collaboration with Westfield State College, working with the Public School Districts of Chicopee, Gateway Regional, Hampshire Regional, Southwick-Tolland and Palmer, and

in partnership with the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association,  , Deerfield, Massachusetts

Invite local educators to join

American Promises:

A Teaching American History Program

For K-12 Educators

Teaching American History is a national program to increase teacher knowledge of American History to enable students to become better informed and more involved citizens. Each year, American Promises examines significant issues, episodes and people from the colonial period into the twentieth century in the context of the ideals contained in our Nation’s founding documents: 1) The Promises of the American Revolution: Colonies to Nation; 2) Testing the Promises: The Civil War, Industrialization, and Immigration; and 3) Claiming the Promises: Two World Wars, More Immigration, A New Deal and Civil Rights.  Professional development includes seminars with nationally recognized scholars of American History, meetings with individual teachers, workshops, as well as living history presentations and an immersion weekend.  An advisory board guides this federally funded, content-rich program of professional development.

Benefits for Students

• Living history presentations in the classroom

• Fun and challenging experiences learning about American History
• Local history connected to American History

• Engaging, local primary resources – letters, newspapers, photographs and artifacts
• Student-centered, inquiry-based learning activities that build critical thinking skills
• Alignment with  Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks

• Family pass for Memorial Hall and Indian House Children’s Museum
•  

Benefits for Teachers and Librarians

• Free, high quality training experiences; work with professors and museum professionals
• Professional development points and academic credits available
• Assistance in developing history and interdisciplinary curricula
• A Teachers’ Center for American History (multimedia lending library, traveling history kits, workshops)
• Content-focused use of technology, featuring the premier American Centuries website (www.americancenturies.mass.edu)
• Honoraria and free classroom materials

There are a limited number of slots for teachers.  If you are interested in learning more, please contact your District representative:                                   

Westfield – Steve Hagen        572-6550                                                             Hampshire Regional – Tony Ryan         527-7200

Chicopee – Denise Ruszala    594-3458                                             Southwick-Tolland – Allison LeClair   569-5951 x181                                                                                                          Gateway Regional – Peter Curro    685-1204                         Palmer – Neil Metcalf    283-2651

If you do not have a District representative, please contact Kathy Wicks, Coordinator, Teaching American History, at 413-572-8150 or at kwicks@wsc.ma.edu

Funded entirely by a $999,650.00 grant from the U.S. Department of Education

REQUIREMENTS AND BENEFITS FOR PARTICIPANTS

in American Promises

Join us and improve teaching and learning in American History.  The participant requirements below are for year two (October 1, 2006 – September 30, 2007) of this three-year Teaching American History project.

Three levels of participation are offered.

1)      Attend 8 seminars–An Immersion Weekend in October, one in January, one in April, and four in July (see seminar schedule).   Please note: The expectation is that full participants will attend all eight seminars. In extenuating circumstances, full participants may choose to substitute workshops for up to two seminars (3 two-hour workshops = 1 full-day seminar)

The seminars open with morning presentations by scholars. Break-out sessions follow (one in the morning and two after lunch)   They include work with museum staff on primary sources related to the day’s theme, small group discussion with professors, and strategies for classroom integration.

2) Attend 6 after school workshops, one of which will be an introductory exploration

     of the American Centuries website.  www.americancenturies.mass.edu

3) Develop a plan of 8 - 10 hours of professional development from the following choices:

v     Work with Historians-in-Residence in your classroom – this could include demonstrating strategies for teaching with artifacts or primary documents, co-teaching, or work in reviewing classroom material to find areas where local resources can be integrated.  It may be a ‘one-time’ event or a many day project or unit.

v     Attend content-specific workshops at Westfield State College.

v     Work with project staff to find historic documents from PVMA and other local historical societies to support your teaching (either new or existing units).

v     Receive content-related technology training on use of websites, especially the American Centuries website, www.americancenturies.mass.edu.

v     Arrange training or provide support to other educators.

4) Have one History-to-Go activity in your classroom.

      *Participants without their own classroom may share a History-to-Go with a teacher in their school.

5) Create written documentation of learning:

             A short classroom activity (1-2 45 minute classroom periods) based on primary sources, which may include objects and documents featured in Memorial Hall Museum’s digital collection (www.americancenturies.mass.edu).   After review by staff, participants may be invited to post their activity in the “Classroom Activities” section of the American Centuries Website.

6) Be available as a resource for your colleagues to access Teaching American History Resources; inform and promote use of Teaching American History resources in your school.

7) Actively participate in evaluation of the project.

1) Attend a minimum of 4 seminars - In extenuating circumstances, half participants may choose to substitute workshops for one seminar (3 two-hour workshops = 1 full day seminar)

2) Attend a minimum of 3 after school workshops, one of which will be an introductory exploration of the American Centuries website.  www.americancenturies.mass.edu

3) Five hours of additional training to be decided and scheduled by participant (as described in #3 under full participation).

4.)History-to-Go activity in your classroom - (as described in #4 under full participation)

5) Written Documentation of learning - a short classroom activity based on objects and documents featured in Memorial Hall Museum’s digital collection (as described in #5 under full participation)

6) Actively participate in evaluation of the project.

Partial (quarter) participation is designed around developing specific content area.

1) Attend a minimum of 1 seminar (see seminar schedule).

2) Attend a minimum of 3 after school workshops, one of which will be an introductory exploration of the American Centuries website.  www.americancenturies.mass.edu

3) Have one History-to-Go activity in your classroom.

4) Written documentation of learning - a short classroom activity based on objects and documents featured in Memorial Hall Museum’s digital collection (as described in #5 under full participation)

5) Actively participate in evaluation of the project.

****************************************************

Benefits for Participants

v     Free in-class living history presentations (History-to-Go).

v     Free teacher materials.

v     Deerfield Teachers’ Center resources (multimedia lending library, traveling history kits, workshops).

v     Free professional development and academic study.

v     Professional development points (pdps).

v     For full participants, three graduate credits are available from Westfield State College.

v     Curriculum development support.

v     Free Memorial Hall Museum passes for students, teachers, and their families.

v     Honoraria

American Promises

SEMINAR SCHEDULE                

October 2006 - July 2007

Four seminars in winter/spring and four in the summer will move us through the Westfield Teaching American History program’s second year of study on the theme of American Promises over three centuries. All seminars will be held at Westfield State College, with the exception of the Immersion Weekend in Deerfield, October 20 & 21. Seminars run from 8:30 am – 3:30 pm.   A morning lecture is followed by 3 breakout sessions, including opportunity for dialogue with the scholar and workshops that use primary sources to further explore the day’s theme, led by staff from the Deerfield Teachers’ Center.

Seminar # 1:   Friday, October 20, 2006   

            “Indians and Europeans in Colonial New England and New France”

Presenting Scholar: Alice Nash, University of Massachusetts

Seminar # 2:   Saturday, October 21, 2006  

            “Indians and the United States from the Revolution to the Present”

Presenting Scholar: Colin Calloway, Dartmouth College

Seminar #3:    Thursday, January 11, 2007 (Snow date: January 18, 2007)

            “Shays’s Rebellion: The American Revolution’s Final Battle”

Presenting Scholar: Prof. Leonard Richards, University of Massachusetts

Seminar #4:    Thursday, April 26, 2007

            “Religion in America: The Second Great Awakening”

Presenting Scholar: Robert Cox, University of Massachusetts

Seminar # 5:   Tuesday, July 17, 2007

            “In the Shadow of the Dam: the Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874”

Presenting Scholar: Elizabeth Sharpe

Seminar # 6:   Wednesday, July 18, 2007

“Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America”

Presenting Scholar: James Green, University of Massachusetts Boston

Seminar # 7:   Thursday, July 19, 2007

            “The Harlem Renaissance”

Presenting Scholar: Prof. Jeffrey Ferguson, Amherst College

Seminar #8:    Friday, July 20, 2007

“For All These Rights:  Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America’s Public-Private Welfare State”

Presenting Scholar: Prof. Jennifer Klein, Yale University

Tentative Dates for Workshops and Seminars

October 2006 – August 2007

October 2006

November 2006

December 2006

January 2007

February 2007

March 2007

April 2007

May 2007

July 2007

August 2007

SAMPLE—SAMPLE—SAMPLE—SAMPLE—SAMPLE--

American Promises – Teaching American History

Workshops for Teachers

All workshops are held at Westfield State College, unless otherwise noted.  Workshops run from 3:30-5:30 p.m.  Please call the CENTER to register, or for more information 413-572-8150.

Digital Deerfield: An Introduction to Using PVMA's Websites in the Classroom

Let us take you on a brief tour of PVMA's acclaimed websites: American Centuries: View from New England (www.americancenturies.mass.edu ) and Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704 (www.1704.deerfield.history.museum). Take some time for your own tour of the sites, and join us for a discussion of how teachers can use sites in their classrooms. Learn to use the "magic lens" for close up views of photographs and transcriptions of historic documents; zoom in and out of maps, up and down, right and left; create your own chronology of artifacts and documents; and dress and undress a character in historic garb. Grades K-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for History and Social Science; English Language Arts; Mathematics; Science and Technology

Choosing Sides 

What were First Nations’ people’s concerns about the Revolutionary War?  What governed their decisions about whose side to fight on or whether to remain neutral? Participants will review materials from various viewpoints and debate different perspectives. Grades 3-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for English Language Arts; History and Social Science

Local History in Federal Records

Learn how to create "snapshots" of towns in New England using records of the 19th and 20th centuries located at the National Archives in Waltham. Find a list of businesses, their products, and how much they were worth by using Civil War era tax assessment files. Search Federal court proceedings to learn more about people and businesses in your town. Learn how to use Civil Case Files (including patent infringement cases), Criminal Case Files, and Admiralty Case Files (including Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War Prize Cases). Search Census records to find out who was living in your town—even in your house, their occupations, their immigration status, if they owned their home, and if the men served in the military. This workshop will be led by a member of the National Archives located in Waltham, Mass.  Grades 5-12     

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for History and Social Science; English Language Arts

A Midwife’s Tale: the Life of Martha Ballard, based on her Diary, 1785-1812 – Part One of two Book Discussions 

From her arrival in Hallowell, Maine in 1778, until her death in 1812, Martha Ballard helped to deliver over 814 babies.  The historian, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, used Martha’s diary to research not only Martha’s work as a midwife, but to reconstitute the community in which she lived.  Join us as we discuss Ulrich’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning book, as well as the highly acclaimed, two-part PBS series and the award-winning website (www.dohistory.org) it inspired. Grades 8-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for English Language Arts; History and Social Science

Pathways to Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Boston Vigilance Committee – guest speaker, Louise Minks 

Drama, deception, courage, danger, collaboration—just some of the words that reflect the personal stories of the activists running the Underground Railroad.  Historian Louise Minks leads you through this interactive workshop that lets participants assume identities from a gripping account book from the Boston Vigilance Committee, active from 1850 to the outbreak of the Civil War.  Discover and discuss who you were, what your role was, and the conditions of the time period. While the activities are based in Eastern Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts is strongly involved.  The actions of the Boston committee illustrate the pattern of the Underground Railroad throughout the east before the Civil War. Original materials for classroom use, appropriate for adaptation for grades 5-12, will be used. Grades 5-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for History and Social Science

People of the Book: An Introduction to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity in Early America – Part One:  Judaism,-  Guest speaker, Rabbi Sternberg, Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center

Rabbi Sternberg will lead a dialogue about the history of Judaism, and provide an introduction to the resources of the Hatikvah Center in Springfield. This not-for-profit organization is dedicated to teaching tolerance and to educating the community about the history and lessons of the Holocaust with the intent to combat prejudice, hate, and racism in today’s society. This is part one of a three-part workshop series. Participants are encouraged to sign up for all three sessions in the series. Grades K-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for History and Social Science

People of the Book: An Introduction to Judaism,

Islam, and Christianity in Early America – Part Two: Islam- guest speaker, Rasul Seifullah, imam of the Al-Baqi Islamic Center of Springfield

Part two in the three part series will focus on an introduction to Islam, its history, basic beliefs and practices, and common roots with Judaism and Christianity. Grades K-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for History and Social Science       

People of the Book: An Introduction to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity in Early America – Part Three: Christianity and the View from New England- guest speaker, Timothy Neumann, Director of PVMA

The political and cultural tension among the three major monotheistic religions is not new.  Through the centuries, holy wars, crusades and inquisitions have been waged against/amongst them all. We forget that as Christian (Protestant) Europeans were pushing the Native Americans out of what is now Franklin County in the 1680’s, the Moslem Turks were at the gates of Vienna.  These three religions share a deep allegiance to what Christians call the “Old Testament”; all three revere an ancient nomad called Abraham. This workshop will revisit some common roots of these three religions from the viewpoint of Early America. Grades K-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for History and Social Science

Western Massachusetts in the American Revolution

What impact did the American Revolution have on area towns?  Primary sources can help us discover connections between local life and national events. Grades K-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for  History and Social Science; English Language Arts

Western Massachusetts and the Great Depression

This “compare/contrast” workshop will set an examination of the western Massachusetts experience of the depression in the 1930s against the backdrop of the “dustbowl dreams” of the west, and the literature of John Steinbeck, photographs of Dorothea Lange, and songs of Woody Guthrie.  We will search the National Archives and Records Administration and other digital archives for Works Progress Administration (WPA) photographs of Western Massachusetts towns.  Grades 8-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for  History and Social Science; English Language Arts

Why Didn’t Santa Claus Come to Early New England?

This workshop explores the celebration (and non-celebration) of Christmas in New England from the Colonial period to the early 20^th century.

Grades K-12

Addresses Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for  History and Social Science; English Language Arts; Arts

American Promises: 

Teaching American History

For K-12 educators

A program for local educators presented by the

Westfield Public Schools in collaboration with Westfield State College, working with the Public School Districts of Chicopee, Gateway Regional, Hampshire Regional, Southwick-Tolland and Palmer, and

in partnership with the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association,  Deerfield, Massachusetts

Funded by the U. S. Department of Education

APPLICATION FORM 2006-2007

First Priority given to returning participants whose applications are received no later than August  1, 2006.  New applicants must apply by August 15, 2006, priority given to participating district applications.

Name_____________________________________________________________________________School District______________________________________________________________________

School_____________________________________________________________________________

School Address_____________________________________________________________________

Subject Area (if applicable)________________________________Grade level___________________

Home Address _____________________________________________________________________

Home Phone_____________________ Email_____________________________________________

I would like to be a participant in the American Promises Program 2006-07 at the:

_______Full Participation level

_______Half Participation level

_______Partial Participation level

I have read and agree to the ‘Requirements and Benefits for Participants’ in American Promises:  Teaching American History.”

_________________________________________                          _________________________

Signature                                                                                              Date

If you have questions contact your District representative:

Westfield – Steve Hagen        572-6550                                                             Hampshire Regional – Tony Ryan         527-7200

Chicopee – Denise Ruszala    594-3458                                             Southwick-Tolland – Allison LeClair   569-5951 x181                                                                                                           Gateway Regional – Peter Curro    685-1204

Palmer – Neil Metcalf    283-2651

Please mail or fax to:  Kathy Wicks , The CENTER, 577 Western Avenue, Westfield, MA  01342. 

Fax  (413) 572-8187