The American Revolution Online

Looking for some sites to enrich your teaching of the American Revolution or celebration of Independence Day? Walter McKenzie at Education World highlights 5 top sites for teaching students about the Revolution. And just in time for the Fourth of July!

The first site McKenzie highlights is The Federalist Papers. All 85 essays are at the website. These essays are often used to help us understand what the Founders meant when they created the Constitution. The site has a great search engine that lets you hunt for exact phrases or words.

The Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention is sponsored by the Library of Congress. Here, students can see the primary documents of the Congress and Convention. It is listed as great for secondary school and even college-level research but it can also be useful in middle school or with gifted students in social studies.

America Rock has all those great Schoolhouse Rock songs that some of us remember seeing on Saturday mornings. Some of the Schoolhouse Rock songs related to the Revolution included at the site are "No More Kings," "Fireworks," "The Shot Heard Round the World," and "The Preamble." McKenzie says adults might find them "silly" but I bet they are too catchy and useful to dismiss. I know that I remember a lot of Schoolhouse Rock almost 30 years later.

Liberty! The American Revolution is a companion website for the PBS special about the American Revolution. It has a lot of great resources for the classroom, including the game The Road to Revolution. This game uses interactive quizzes and fictionalized news articles to engage and teach students.

Independence Day on the Net is a "comprehensive celebration of the history, legends, and traditions of this most American of holidays." The site has music, fireworks, and tons of information on the origins of the Fourth of July and the customs surrounding that day. This site seems suited more for elementary school or the beginning of middle school but can be fun anytime. It's a great idea for your own kids sitting at home who may want to get revved up for this year's holiday.

Little Known Facts about the American Revolutionary War is also a fascinating site with answers that are off the beaten path, like the fact that women fought in the Continental Army and there were actually two Boston Tea Parties. This collection of little-known facts will appeal to kids and adults alike. The host of the site is the state of Delaware.

Happy Fourth of July 2008!

SOURCE: "The American Revolution" 06/03/08
photo courtesy of babasteve, used under this Creative Commons license

Great Sites for American History

Hazel Jobe at Education World wrote about some of the best sites in their archives for American history. These sites are reliable stopping points for enriching American history or any related social studies lesson or curriculum.

Of several sites, Jobe chooses the top five then lists other useful sites. The top five:

• Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids is produced by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office. It has resources for learning about the workings of government for students, parents and teachers.

• History Detectives is a companion site for a PBS series of the same name. Here, students can access interactive features and activities that help them learn about investigating historical mysteries. The site also has lesson plans for middle and high school.

• History Wired is a virtual tour of selections from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

• The Underground Railroad is a site produced by National Geographic Online that uses multimedia and interactive features to explore the stories and history of the Underground Railroad.

• Teaching with Historic Places has lesson plans and other resources for teaching American history. The focus is on properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places. There are also professional development opportunities for teachers.

Links in the article send you to Education World site reviews from the archive that address content, organization of the website, and aesthetics along with a review that highlights main and especially notable features.

At the end of the article, Jobe lists other sites from the archive worth mentioning, such as the National Constitution Center; American Notes: Travel in America, 1750-1920; and History and Politics Out Loud, an archive of "politically significant audio materials for scholars, teachers, and students." The article was last updated in 2005 so watch out for broken or moved links.

SOURCE: "Sites to See: American History" 05/25/05
photo courtesy of Weaselmcfee, used under this Creative Commons license

Multimodal American History from SAAM

There are lots of great STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) resources online and off but they shouldn't overshadow the flexibility and enrichment online content offers to other subjects like social studies, art, language and music. One site that blends American history, art, geography, ecology and multicultural studies comes from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM): Campfire Stories with George Catlin: An Encounter of Two Cultures.

The site was developed by an advisory board made of teachers who selected topics that met national curriculum standards for middle and high school. George Catlin specialized in portraits of American Indians and collected numerous artifacts on his trips West. Those artifacts were chosen as the center of the project for their ability to "enrich the study of U.S. history, geography, and environmental conservation, as well as leadership and character development." There are four core themes:

• Ancestral Lands – Indian Removal from Ancestral Lands
• Catlin's Quest – Choices and Consequences
• Chiefs and Leaders – Leadership Qualities
• Western Landscape – Ecology Systems
  

Each theme contains art works, a timeline, maps and the wonderful "campfire stories," interviews with experts and writers like Peter Matthiessen, Wilma Mankiller, Richard Murray, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Wes Jackson and William Least Heat-Moon. These videos entice by making history what it really is--a series of told stories. And our students love to be told stories no matter how old they are.

There are lots of resources for teachers and the site is meant to be flexible. Teachers can just access campfire stories or other materials, search for lesson plans, or look for lessons tied to specific national standards. For example, At Home on the Prairie, a lesson that examines the Western landscape, meets National Science Education Standards in Life Science for grades 5-8 and 9-12. Lessons can be found for history, geography, art, and English language arts standards.

Transcripts of the interviews are available. To see the campfire stories, you'll need the Flash and Quicktime plugins. The home page also recommends using the Firefox browser. Campfire Stories with George Catlin won three different wards in 2003 and is a great way to bring American history alive for middle schoolers.

SOURCE: "Campfire Stories with George Catlin: Welcome Educators!" 2008
photo courtesy of Judy Breck, used under this Creative Commons license

Eric Langhorst: Podcasting American History from Liberty

Eric Langhorst teaches 8th grade American history at South Valley Junior High School in Liberty, Missouri. For years, he has used digital content to enhance the learning experiences of his students. In Cara Bafile's profile in Education World, Langhorst discusses the creation of his very successful and popular StudyCasts:

"I began recording an audio review to help my students prepare for upcoming unit tests. With my portable MP3 player, I record an overview of the important material. I then transfer the audio, which lasts about 20 minutes, to my computer, and then upload the MP3 file to our classroom Web site. Students then are able to listen to the study review at home on their computers or download it to their personal MP3 players; they can review for the test anywhere."

Langhorst says he knew it was successful the night an error appeared in the link for the podcasts and he received multiple emails from parents and students asking for it to be fixed so students could review for the unit test. Students without access to the Internet, iTunes or an mp3 player can check out CDs of StudyCasts so no one is left behind.

In addition to StudyCasts, Langhorst produces "Speaking of History," a regular podcast that allows him to bring in varied sources to discuss history: interviews with experts and museum personnel, dramatic readings, and other audio enhancements. Langhorst's podcasts are heard around the world and are available at iTunes or at Langhorst's blog, Speaking of History.

Check out the blog for details on his latest pilot project: Microsoft has donated enough Zune mp3 players for each student in Langhurst's third period 8th grade American History class. Langhorst, in the post "Podcast #132: The Student Zune Pilot Project at South Valley Jr. High," expresses great excitement about this pilot which will allow him to "'beam' content -- in the form of audio or pictures -- to their players before they leave for the day." On their own time, students can listen to or view audio content, videos and even slide shows of relevant images to make lessons more palpable and interactive. Listen to the podcast for details on the specifics of the pilot program and details on how Langhorst will incorporate the Zune into the classroom. He will also explain how he will measure outcomes of the pilot.

Is it any surprise that Langhorst also teaches a graduate course called "Technology for the Classroom"? Or that he serves as the current 2007/2008 Missouri Teacher of the Year?

SOURCE: ""Speaking of History" Through Podcasts, Starring: Eric Langhorst" 09/08/06

photo courtesy of Wesley Fryer, used under this Creative Commons license