This course will meet online with both synchronous and asynchronous sessions.
Registration Fee: $975 (includes 3 graduate credits from Castleton University); $500 without graduate credit
Dates & Times:
- July 12, 14, 19, 21: Zoom sessions: 4:00 – 5:45 p.m.
- July 22: August 6 Asynchronous discussions and office hour appointments
- August 4: Critical friends work-in-progress session
- August 15: Final Project Due
The course is offered by the Flow of History in collaboration with the Hood Museum of Art. It is a methods course especially for U.S. History teachers in grades 5 – 12. Teachers will work with primary sources and both historic and contemporary art to recenter the curriculum, elevating underrepresented cultures and voices, prompting courageous conversations, and developing skills for analyzing and interpreting art with students. Participants will develop a final project creating or reworking a unit using art and primary sources to highlight multiple histories
This course will be delivered in a mixed format of in-person Zoom sessions, independent work, and individual mentoring through scheduled office hours.
Course Goals:
- To learn and practice visual literacy strategies with art and primary sources
- To learn how to use art and primary sources to spark inquiry
- To learn how to use art and primary sources to prompt courageous conversations
Course Objectives:
- Consider how to re-center the history curriculum, elevating underrepresented voices
- Consider how to help students become engaged citizens, empathetic leaders, and agents of change.
Required Readings/Texts:
- Titus Kaphar: Can Art Amend History?
- Elisa Schoenberger, What does it mean to decolonize the museum?
- Melody Walker Brook, Weaving a Thread through Seven Generations
- A Closer Look: The Jolly Washerwoman
- Analyzing Primary Sources
- Mali Obomsawin, This Land is Whose Land?
- The Historical Harm of Blackface: How to talk with young people
- When Black Lives Mattered: Why Teach Reconstruction
Course Schedule:
July 12: Overview of Using Primary Sources and Art to Amplify Voices
- Zoom Session: 4:00 – 5:45 p.m.
- Historical Era/Theme: The Founding Fathers and Slavery
- How can we help students wrestle with the value tensions of freedom vs equality?
Readings:
- Titus Kaphar: Can Art Amend History?
July 14: Strategies for Reading Primary Sources and Engaging with Works of Art
- Zoom Session: 4:00 – 5:45 p.m.
- Historical Era/Theme: New England Colonial Settlement
Readings:
- Melody Walker Brook, Weaving a Thread through Seven Generations
- A Closer Look: The Jolly Washerwoman
- Analyzing Primary Sources
July 19: All Art Was Contemporary Once
- Zoom Session: 4:00 – 5:45 p.m.
- Historical Era/Theme: Westward Expansion
- What is the long-term impact of “manifest destiny” on Indigenous Peoples today?
- What is the nature of progress?
Readings:
July 21: Creating Counter-Narratives
- Zoom Session: 4:00 – 5:45 p.m.
- Historical Era/Theme: Reconstruction
- What is the long-term impact of stereotypes and racism on America today?
- How do we elevate counter-narratives for students?
Readings:
- The Historical Harm of Blackface: How to talk with young people
- When Black Lives Mattered: Why Teach Reconstruction
July 22 – August 6: Independent Project Time: Course instructors will be available during office hours to assist in finding sources and considering the skills students will need to analyze them.
August 4: Work-in-Progress Session
Zoom Session: 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. (If we have a big group there may be a choice of dates/times.)
Participants present work-in-progress with structured feedback
August 15: Projects Due
Assignments:
- Actively participates in all in-person sessions (20%)
- Completes all asynchronous work between in-person sessions (40%)
- Final Project Due August 15, 2021 (40%)
Projects:
Final Project Instructions:
Participants develop a final project that uses a combination of primary sources and art to elevate underrepresented voices and make more connections to the present day.
The project should include the compelling questions, at least one primary source and one work of art (preferably from the Hood) that connect, and the supportive materials students will need to successfully complete a summative assessment. These might take the form of specific visual thinking strategies, discussion protocols, or graphic organizers.