If Pictures Could Talk, If Walls Could Whisper: Revolutionary Practices that Engage Students in History

1. If Pictures Could Talk, If Walls Could Whisper: Revolutionary Practices that Engage Students in History Delise H. Sanders Ed.S Madison Creek Goodlettsville, Tennessee

2. Are they breathing? It doesn’t matter what you know, if the students you teach are not motivated to learn…

3. Brain of a Female Adolescent

4. Susan Roberts K-12 Literacy Specialist Jefferson County Schools

5. Engaging students in active learning creates.. • Connections to their world • Opportunities for conversation • Learning through self discovery • Questions about content • Mental images – Visualization • Synthesis of information (adapted from Keene & Zimmerman, 1997)

6. My Primary Document Examples for my Students……

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8. What is the connection??? Bagley, A.Y. B. Nov. 27, 1825 D. April 25, 1922 Co D 38 Ala Infantry CSA Bagley, M.J. "Mother" B. Dec. 31, 1835 D. March 29, 1896 Bagley, Lucy B. B June 1, 1872 D. Oct. 12, 1895 Bagley, Alice V. B. Aug 20, 1878 D. Jan. 20, 1974 Bagley, Elizabeth Jane Harper B. March 2, 1870 D. April 15, 1914 Harper, William Mathew B. Nov. 24, 1862 D. April 17, 1937 Mount Olive Cemetery Old Highway 5 Thomasville, Alabama Clarke County http://usgenweb.org/

9. Andrew’s Chapel (UMC) was built in 1860 at McIntosh Bluff, Alabama. The land for the building was given by Mr. and Mrs. Rush---my Dad’s great-grandfather’s sister. These ancestors with several others are all buried behind the church. This is my Dad and my grandson, Brycen.

10. Do you have any primary documents or “artifacts”??? • Birth Certificate • Cemetery Records • Family Bibles or Documents • Old Report Cards • Baby Pictures • Certificates or Awards • Team Pictures • Baby Clothes • Favorite stuffed animal

11. Learning Opportununity….. • Materials: Masking tape, standard size of heavy paper, brown shoe polish, binding • Procedure for making book covers. • Cover two pieces of heavy paper with small pieces of making tape. • “Polish” over the tape with shoe polish. • Students will bring copies of their primary source documents. These will be bound using the covers. • Recent pictures of the students can be included.

13. Teaching Local History • Volunteer Docent Programs • Creating scripts for historic places that do not have docent programs. • Mapping Local History (Make a map of local historic sites. • As a class, in small groups or with partners, research a local site and write a class book. • Search for the oldest structure in a town or city. • Locating and researching local area historical markers

14. Community Activities that Teach History

15. Places—Why are they significant? Download images of tombstones, historical buildings or historical markers. Connect them with content. Students can create: • Illustrations • Dramatizations • Newspaper Articles • Fictional Stories • Letters

16. Sumner County, Tennessee

17. Hunter’s News Story Gallatin, Tennessee-August 13, 1862 The good people of Gallatin were shaken by a very large explosion yesterday as John Morgan and his Raiders blew up the Big South Railroad Tunnel just north of the city of Gallatin. A locomotive was sacrificed and crashed into large timbers. The timbers are now blocking the tunnel and the major supply route for the Union Army. It is rumored that Southern sympathizers also aided in the plot and are being treated as heroes in this small Union occupied city northeast of Nashville. There is no word yet as to how the Union Army will get their supplies.

18. Dear Mom and Dad, Have you ever visited the Cold Springs School? It is in Portland, Tennessee and was built in 1857 near Mitchellville. During the Civil War, it was used as training camp and infirmary for Confederate soldiers. After the war, it was used as a church and a school. In 1975, it was moved to a public park and restored. We could go and take a tour one Sunday this summer between 1 and 4. I think it would be interesting to see the exhibits inside that tell about Portland’s history. Love, Brady Postcards from the Past

20. How could this type of instruction be differentiated to meet the needs of all learners? Could it be used as a formative assessment?

21. Literature: Making Connections—Raising Achievement • Teach comprehension strategies using nonfiction text • Develop background knowledge and vocabulary • Provide as much instructional-level material as possible differentiating for all learners • Raise the level of achievement on content specific assessments

22. How do we develop Informational Literacy? • Have a variety of non-fiction texts that illustrate your content. • Build background before you teach. • Picture books work well with older students because of time constraints. • There are always students in higher grades who need the support less challenging text. • Put the puzzle together—A story-Primary document—then the content.

24. Introduce a Primary Document Connect literature and content text with the primary document. These work best when differentiating instruction: • Diaries • Photographs • Letters • Newspaper Articles Essential Question: What are the connections???

25. Stories that are true… www.gqg59.dial.pipex.com/box_brown.jpg

26. Henry Box Brown, b. 1816 Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself. Manchester: Printed by Lee and Glynn, 1851.

27. Author Doreen Rappaport’s Words: In 1965, I went to Mc Comb, Mississippi, to teach at a freedom school. The experience changed my life. I met "extraordinary ordinary"people — black Americans who had been deprived of rights that I took for granted, and who were threatened with death every day. Their courage inspired me. They were heroic. I knew there had to be many more "unknown heroes," people who helped change history. I set out to recover and write about this "lost" history. That was more than seventeen years ago. http://www.doreenrappaport.com/about.html

28. http://www.robertsmalls.com/about_exhibition.html

29. 863 - Smalls assumes command of The Planter1867 – Helps found the first public school in South Carolina1875 - 1886 - Served in the 44th, 45th, 47th, 48th, and 49th Congresses1889 – 1911 – Served as U.S. Collector of Customs in Beaufort, S.C.

30. Related Information for Robert Smalls http://www.teachingushistory.org/ documents/SmallsLetter.htm http://www.civilwar.org/historyclassroom/Gifted_and_talented/Smalls%20Bio.pdf http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/teachers/readings1.html Reader’s Theatre

31. Making it real…. Myra Zarnowski suggests the following activity that can be used as an opening activity introducing a new theme or as an assessment. Then (The Unfamiliar) • In those days….. • No one knew…. • Back then…. • At that time… • By today’s standards.. • There was no such thing as.. • There was no understanding of.. • _______ has been completely transformed because…

32. The result… In those days the Civil War was raging. No one had any idea a slave would be bold enough a take a Confederate Ship. Back then, many people thought that a slave could not learn to do something as difficult as navigate a ship. But, Robert Smalls showed them. With his wife, children and a few others, he waited until all the soldiers went to a big party. Then he and his “crew” sailed out of the Charleston Harbor. Robert Smalls was transformed from a slave to a soldier. by Bailey Grace

33. It started on a bus—but not the one you are thinking about. This bus ride was in 1949!! Great primary source documents and factual information that could be used for research. All of Russell Freedman’s books are historically accurate and cover a wide variety of topics. Rosa Parks and the rest of the story??

34. On The Bus Big, ugly glaring eyes look at me. It roars past with a spewing black laugh. And I walk. Rain drips down my dress, my feet bleed, The big gaping hole beckons me in. And I walk. If I am lucky, there might be a ride. But, how much will it cost? And I walk. The lady yells if I am late. The children scream for their breakfast. And I walk A year passes, hot summer, cold winter, a fall hurricane. Some give in, I never did. I walked and walked and proved I was good enough To sit where I wanted to sit. On the bus. By Jane-Ashe

35. Big decisions made history. Only the brave participated. Years of oppression came before it. Cops were everywhere. Outside, there were men in white sheets. Tears rolled down dark faces. Time for all the hate to end.

36. What’s New???

37. Historical Context…… 50 Miles Gees Bend 5 Miles Camden

38. Learner Engagement… • Beautiful, flowing verse • Content Vocabulary • Teaches great lessons using historical context • Themes of hope, courage, self-worth, determination, community, heritage, citizenship, responsibility • Making connections—listening http://www.archives.state.al.us/teacher/recon/recon1.html http://www.tinwoodmedia.com/PDFDownloads/WHITNEY-gb-es-ed-resource.pdf

39. Class Quilts… Quilt topics: • Heritage and Culture • Civil Rights Timeline • Class Story • Timeline using an Alphabet format • Research people, events and places that are part of the narrative poems • Literary devices—illustrate this style of writing by creating verse using other events

41. Jean Fritz’s books have been a mainstay in classrooms for years. After reading the books, students work in teams to come up with similar titles so main events or significant characters from the content. Examples: How much is a stamp, Ben Franklin? Can you keep us warm, Mr. Franklin?

42. Another Plan…. Try this to revolutionize the way you review for an assessment. Write the names of people or events on note cards. Using the format from the Jean Fritz book titles, have students create new titles using factual information presented in the content. Examples: Which land is your land, General Lee? How did you get so wet, Molly Pitcher? What give you the right, Carrie Chapman Catt? Can you fly a plane, Bessie Coleman? What floats your boat, Mr. Fulton? Is something burning, General Sherman? Let’s make a deal, Mr. Jefferson?

43. Difficult Areas—Thoughtful Text

44. Hanna’s Suitcase by Karen LeveineDaniel’s Story by Carol MatasFour Perfect Pebbles by Lila Perl and Marion Blumenthal Lazan Erika’s Story by Ruth Vander Zee

45. Misconceptions…….. • There is no documented evidence that slaves used quilts as maps to escape to freedom. • The Underground Railway did not exist in the south. • Few slaves escaped from the deep south. Most who escaped lived in border states. • Other information can be found out…. http://teacher.scholastic.com/ACTIVITIES/bhistory/underground_railroad/myths.htm

46. Make Careful Choices.. Tombigbee

47. What is true and what is just a “good story?” • The original song was published in 1928. • The author, H.B. Parks, claimed that an Underground Railroad operative, known as Peg Leg Joe, moved from plantation to plantation just north of the Mobile, Alabama area working as a journeyman laborer. • This work was a front for Joe's true task: teaching slaves the Drinking Gourd song and marking an escape route. • Lee Hays, a founder of the Almanac Singers and The Weavers, published an arrangement of the song in 1947. This arrangement changed the lyrics from black vernacular speech to standard English, and added a chorus and the signature line, "For the old man is awaiting for to carry you to freedom" (which seems quite overt rather than coded.) It is this version that is used today in popular books. • In other words, it is not possible that escaping slaves sang "For the old man is awaiting for to carry you to freedom", since that line was written 80 years after the end of the Civil War.

48. Making Sense of History By Myra Zarnowski Other Ideas from the Experts…

49. Books by Janet Allen