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Teaching American History Partnerships
Constitutional Rights Foundation is
currently working with three Teaching American History partnerships:
Montebello Unified School District
Los Angeles Unified School District
Lawndale Unified School District
Montebello
Unified School District
Montebello Unified School District (MUSD), in partnership with
Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF), received a three-year grant to
design and implement Teaching American History: An Urban Schools Model.
This program provides intensive professional development and curriculum
materials to fifth-, eighth-, and eleventh-grade teachers in the
district.
The Montebello partnership involves resources from four Los
Angeles-area museums, libraries, and schools:
The Huntington Library
Southwest
Museum
CRF is in its second year of providing intensive professional development
and curriculum materials to Montebello U.S. History teachers. According
to the Year One Teaching American History
evaluation, 100 percent of Teaching American History teachers said that
they have gained new methods of teaching American History. Ninety percent
said they have gained new knowledge about history themselves through their
participation in CRF professional development events.
Throughout the program year, MUSD teachers participate in professional
development events at the four partner sites where they interact with
scholars,
archivists, and curators and learn about resources available to them as
history professionals and educators. CRF works closely with the museums
and scholars to design and deliver interesting, standards-based
sessions.
MUSD teachers then plan and demonstrate lessons about the
topics presented at the professional development events. Lessons
can be applied immediately in their classrooms.
In addition, CRF staff design and deliver workshops and teacher study
groups held at MUSD sites to provide further opportunities for teachers
to work
in cross-grade teams to focus on specific topics and provide time for
discussion and planning.
Teaching American History: An Urban Schools Model provides teachers with
opportunities to:
- Explore available resources from local academic and
historical institutions.
- Interact with history professionals through Scholar
Seminars.
- Engage in their own study of American history.
- Explore innovative methods and curriculum materials to
support classroom instruction.
- Interact with teachers from different grade levels to
analyze and improve American history instruction.
- Incorporate special events and programs, e.g. History Day, in
their courses of study.
- Explore evaluation and reflection strategies to gauge the
success of instructional practices.
- Take advantage of follow-up and on-site technical
assistance opportunities, including team-teaching with CRF staff and
MUSD colleagues.
- Take a leadership role in staff development and mentoring
activities to sustain and institutionalize Teaching American History in
MUSD.
Teaching American History: An Urban Schools Model
Year One Evaluation
Los Angeles Unified School District
Working with Project Director Ruben Zepeda of the Los
Angeles American History Institute, CRF is developing Project
History,
new curriculum materials designed to support Teaching American History
partnerships.
This innovative curriculum is designed to provide teachers and students
with opportunities to integrate the methods of History Day into the
existing 8th Grade U.S. History Course using low-resource,
non-competitive strategies. Project History is designed
to support:
- California and National History-Social Science content
standards.
- Institute for Learning pedagogy.
- Interactive classroom methodology.
- Rigorous tasks and assessments.
Project History lessons feature readings, focused
discussion questions, and product-based activities that help students
delve more deeply into the reading and develop critical-thinking
skills.
Lawndale Unified School District
CRF is providing annual intensive summer institutes
for K-8 teachers under Lawndale’s Teaching American History project,
“Liberty Under the Law.” Using its extensive experience as leader in
the field of
Law-Related Education, CRF is working with scholars from local
universities, The Huntington
Library, and
the Los Angeles Central Library
to design and deliver sessions designed to engage teachers in looking
at
American history through the lense of law and civics. We are excited to
be
working with the American
Originals: Treasures from the National Archives exhibit this year.
CRF provided Lawndale teachers with two Professional
Development Events during the school year:
- Teams of 5th and 8th Grade teachers from Lawndale attended
CRF’s National LRE Professional Development Institute in Santa Monica
with
cross-grade teams from * states.
- Teachers explored the theme of Citizenship in a
Representative Democracy through discussion and lesson
demonstrations, and plan cross-age learning activities to enhance U.S.
History instruction in their classroooms.
CRF’s Director of Program and Materials Development, Marshall
Croddy, provides Lawndale teachers with methods to introduce
Law-Related Education concepts and methods as a way to engage in the
study of American History.
Lawndale Teaching American History
2003 Summer Institute Highlights
- Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, University of Southern
California, provides a seminar to 100 teachers from Lawndale and
Montebello Unified
at Occidental College. Teachers have the opportunity to interact
with
each other and participate in hands-on activities they can take back to
their
classrooms.
- Professor Dan Howe, Oxford University, provides a
seminar on The Constitution at the Huntington Library
- Library staff provides an overview of upcoming American
Originals exhibit at Los Angeles Central Library
- Professor Ken Wagner, Cal State Los Angeles, provides
a seminar on suffrage throughout American History
- Ian Whitcomb, Musician and historian, provides a
performance-based seminar on integrating American music into the
elementary and middle school history courses
- Professor Raul Villa, Occidental College, provides a
seminar on Borderlands Thesis vs. Frontier Theory using the Los Angeles
experience.
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