The History Institute, 10/17, Hands-on Activities I

Hands-on Activity I,
The History Institute, University of Massachusetts / Amherst


Getting started . . .

While you explore the following resources, think about how you might integrate them into your classroom.

How might you combine the ideas presented with existing lessons?

What additional background, materials, or direction would you need to present to students to enable them to learn from these materials?

Which sections of the overall site would be most effective when used in the classroom?

What would be the most effective way of presenting these materials and ideas to students? An overhead projection presentation? Students working in groups in a lab setting?

Select one of the following for exploration (30 minutes):

Using local history to probe questions of race, justice, and equality: Who Killed William Robinson? Race, Justice, and the Settling of the Land (http://web.uvic.ca/history-robinson/)
Can you hear the voices? Primary sources and the power of contextualization History Matters (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/)
Using local history to explore questions of family life over time: At Home in the Heartland (http://www-exhibits.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/welcome.htm)
Using local resource collections to explore the nature of war: The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the Civil War (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/contents.html)



Bringing it all together . . .

In assessing any new technological resources for integration in the classroom, there are a series of key issues that should be addressed:

How could I use this resource in my classroom?
What can this technological resource add to my classroom that I cannot already provide?
How will using this resource change the pedagogical dynamic in my classroom?
How can I measure the effectiveness of using this resource in my classroom?

Please take a few minutes to think about how you would answer these questions for the resources you have explored.