Claire, sounds like some wonderful ideas,  want to share more details?  You
know how we teachers are we'll beg, borrow or steal!

Dawn Jaeger
----- Original Message -----
From: "Claire M. Griffin" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2000 3:55 PM
Subject: American Memory in the Classroom


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Memory Fellows <[log in to unmask]>
> Poster:       "Claire M. Griffin" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:      American Memory in the Classroom
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> I wanted to share some ways that the American Memory Collection has been a
> part of my classes thusfar this year.  I look forward to hearing how
others
> are incorporating its wonderful resources.
>
> 1.)  Daily Document:  I've resolved to begin each US History class with
some
> sort of a primary source as a "bell-ringer" or "mood-creator" or whatever
> you want to call it.  So far, I've managed to meet my goal each day with
> most of the documents provided by the AmMem Collection (although I did
start
> the Civil War unit by sharing the diary of my husband's
great-grandfather.)
>
> 2.) Parents' Night:  When the students received their books on the first
day
> of class, I also gave them a LOC or NARA bookmark (thank you, LOC!)  On
last
> Thursday's Back to School night, I gave the leftovers to the parents.
>
> 3.) Workshop:  I gave a little workshop to my colleagues at school last
week
> and asked them to let me know if any of the professional organizations to
> which they belong might be interested in a similar presentation.  (Yes, I
> wrote this up on our Leadership Page, and I encourage all of you to write
up
> your dissemination activities.  Seeing what others had done helped me to
> plan my session.)
>
> 4.)  Classes:  I've used the collection in class in the following ways:
>         Reconstruction Role-Playing:  I used photos from the Daguerrotype
> and Civil War collections to "jazz up" the role descriptions for this
> activity
>         Western Expansion:  It took only about 1 hr. to found 1-2 pg.
> primary sources (mostly from the American West and Federal Writers'
Project)
> which offer insights into the Western experience.  I found documents by
> farmers, cattlemen, miners, Native Americans, Hispanics, and a buffalo
> hunter for the railroad.  We'll be using these in class next week to help
us
> answer the questions:  Whose West?   Whose Frontier?
>        Farmers and Populists:  I am designing a lesson (which will have to
> be finished by Tuesday!) using the photographs and documents from either
the
> Northern Great Plains collection and/or Rural Life in the US page (from
the
> Learning Page.)  I anticipate that this will be a two day lesson in which
> students do some research on these pages and then present their results to
> the class.
>
> I've got to get back to actually working on these lessons, so a hui hou
> (until next time.)