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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.)