| What
is Teaching American History?
Part master class in history, part pedagogical workshop,
and part collaborative planning opportunity, ASHP's Teaching American
History programs allow teachers to step back from their daily
schedules to consider broad historical questions, share teaching
practices, and create and refine materials and activities for
classroom use.
Working with scholars and history
educators, participants explore such topics as "Was the Constitution
a democratic document?" and "'Local people' in the national
history of the civil rights movement" while also delving
into primary documents and objects that make these abstract questions
come alive. Partner organizations including the Brooklyn
Museum, Brooklyn
Historical Society, Paley Center
for Media, and Queens
College CUNY Division of Education help participants to consider
how to develop effective and varied pedagogical strategies for
teaching U.S. history. |
|
What
Will Participants Do?
These Teaching American History programs ask participants
to be both learners and teachers, with the goal of improving the
intellectual and pedagogical quality of history teaching in New
York City’s public schools.
During the school year, participants are released from school
for day-long Retreats led by guest historians and ASHP staff.
In addition to discussing historical ideas and primary source
documents, teachers work with ASHP staff and colleagues to assess
what makes an effective history lesson and use those insights
to create better lessons. Teachers receive primary document, book,
and video resources. Prior to each retreat, participants are expected
to read an article relating to the day’s historical themes.
Additional retreats and summer institutes provide opportunities
for teachers to create, share, test, and revise classroom materials.
At the completion of the three-year program, finished classroom
materials will be collected to create a resource packet for distribution
and for posting on a specially created website.
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