3

CAPSTONE Original Research Paper

History Curriculums: A focus on Local History, Student Centered Activities, and Primary Documents

Public History Department: CCSU

Dr. Tully

By Luke A. Jajliardo

4 Educators throughout the world have unique theories regarding authentic methods of instruction. This paper will not argue the validity of one theory over the other, nor will it draft a unique way of looking at how information is learned. Instead it will refrain itself to the methodological approach to creating social studies lessons and picking appropriate educational material. This paper will also argue that the use of local history and primary documents is useful in making personal connections that help students become researchers of history. Student centered activities help students view state and national history through the lens of local people, historic places, and manuscripts that have been preserved by local historical institutions. Through group participation, class discussions, and document based questioning, teachers can help students create rich descriptions of the past that have relevance to present issues that face peoples nationally and globally. Using primary documents, art, literature, music and film education can challenge the traditional role of the teacher. Rather than being the omnipotent supplier of knowledge they are the facilitator of discussion and learning. Learning is a participatory activity that should engage students on a personal level that is culturally relevant. Using this educational paradigm, students can obtain the skills to become a responsible and informed citizen by connecting historical themes to issues that face present-day humanity. Authentic student centered learning starts with primary documents that allow the student to interpret both the meaning and content for themselves. Primary documents are not just speeches and published reports to the Senate; however, they can be pictures, movies, music, or any other part of material culture that a teacher wishes to use. Incorporating material culture into education allows students to connect with the past in conjunction with something they can relate. The most striking example of this is the new 9/11 museum that has preserved articles of clothing

5 and objects from the disaster. Like these objects, music and art can invoke an emotional reaction for students that make the past not only interesting, but also powerful. Museums use art and culture to interpret the past, and so should primary and secondary education. Social movements throughout the world have utilized art as a global voice. Since art has been used for this purpose, it makes sense that it would be used to teach students about movements throughout America and the world. Jacqueline Adames made a similar point in her article ,Art in Social Movements: Shantytown Womens Protest in Pinochets Chile. Adams argued that scholars have largely ignored social movements use of art to outline a movements objectives.1 Stuart Richmond expanded on Adams argument in the article Art, Imagination, and Teaching, in which he outlined the importance of understanding a work of art. The article also stated that [i]maginative perception is needed to configure a works often ambiguous cues and qualities. A viewers response to art is never simply a matter of decoding Responding to art from the past involves, in addition, overstepping inadequacies of evidence and temporal and cultural distances by imaginatively reconstructing past meanings.2 Images allow students to develop context to what they see in an image. Richmond describes this action as reacting to inadequacies of evidence, but in reality students use prior knowledge to gain an understanding of what they are seeing. The unique and personal connection that every person has with art is an example of arts power of cognition. This unique and personalized response to education is one of the ways in which students can learn from one another through inquiry and student based education.
1

Jacqueline Adams, "Art in Social Movements: Shantytown Women's Protest in Pinochet's Chile." Sociological Forum 17 no 1 (March 2002): 21-56. 2 Stuart Richmond, "Art, Imagination, and Teaching: Researching the High School Classroom," Canadian Journal of Education 18 no 4 (Autumn 1993): 368.

6 Many teachers use images and art in their social studies classroom because it involves the student on a personal level. Interpreting images and art allows the student to use their personal diverse knowledge to make both judgments and inferences. This theory of education reflects the popular teaching practice of transformative education. William Ayers describes transformative teaching as education that is dynamic, culturally relevant, and responsive to the destabilizing social conditions that undermine a critical democracy.3 Interpretation of imagery allows students that opportunity to practice critical thinking skills that will follow them throughout their lives. Understanding the difference between advertisements and propaganda is an essential skill for any responsible citizen. The use of imagery in the lives of Americans grows each day, and the ability to understand its hidden and perceived messages start in the social studies classroom. Art and history share a common denominator; they are intellectual-imaginative projects. Yi-Fu Tuan used this terminology to connect these disciplines in his article Realism and Fantasy in Art, History, and Geography. Tuan argued that art, history, and geography use the imagination to construct fantasy or reality, and that humans use images in their imagination to interpret facts.4 It makes sense that teachers would use art to teach history, and vice versa. Using Tuans thesis in practice helps students internalize and relate to historical material in conjunction with primary sources. For example, when I was student teaching in East Hartford, I used pictures of Human Rights violations from the Vietnam War. Students were able to use their imagination to build a reality around the picture that they viewed. Writing exercises also can be used to build this reality while testing for prior knowledge of a subject. One such writing exercise that I used asked the students to write what they see, do not see, and what it means in
3

William Ayers, Therese Quinn, and David Stovall, Handbook of Social Justice in Education, (New York, New York: Routledge, 2009). 4 Yi-Fu Tuan, Realism and Fantasy in Art, History, and Geography, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 80 no. 3 (September 1990): 435-446.

7 respect to Edie Adams picture of the execution of a North Vietnamese civilian in the street. Strong images such as this one allowed students to question their perceived reality of American allies during the war. Photography helps students to affectively travel back in time to a crucial moment and use prior knowledge and previous readings to create their own theories and question about the past, effectively making them researchers of history. Dipti Desai argued that a photograph is a single frame of history, a moment in time. Taking a photograph captures light from an instant and transfers it to paper for posterity. The Latin roots of the word photograph mean writing with light.5 In addition to Desais eloquent comparison between art and history, she also argued in her book, History as Art, Art as History: Contemporary Art and Social Studies Education, that many artists use the same skills as historians. Desai argued that many artists analyze and critique in a way that mirrors the methods of historical inquiry. In a sense, art can be an academic critique about the past, present, or future using images to convey the authors message. One such example of this is Graydon Parrishs painting The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy, September 11th, 2001. This painting uses two dramatic human figures to convey a message interpreted by the viewer about September 11. These two human figures force the observer to use their imagination to understand the painters critique of a tragic historical event. 6 Art and photographs of the past and present can be effectively used in initiations, lesson bodies, and as exit activities. Art and photographs effectively trigger the imagination and allow students to apply prior knowledge to an unknown subject. This allows the student to bring in his or her own knowledge of a subject into the classroom, and make a personal connection. Teachers
5

Dipti Desai, ET. All, History as Art, Art as History: Contemporary Art and Social Studies Education, (New York: Routledge, 2010), 63. 6 Dipti Desai, 51. ; Graydon Parrish, The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy, September 11th, 2001, 2006

8 have been using film to attempt to elicit the same emotional and personal connection to history for years. There are countless examples of teachers who have used film as a legitimate tool, but like many educational tools such as film in the classroom, there are also examples of educational tools that have been used poorly. I have first hand observed many teachers using films as the crutch for an easy lesson. Film should not be the lesson: it should enhance discussion and learning. Alan S. Marcus argued that movies could be both powerful and critical in his book, Teaching History with Film: Strategies for Secondary Social Studies. Movies should not be used to reinforce a point made by the teacher or a textbook, but rather a visual text that can be analyzed and discussed in a group setting. Marcus argues that because the vocabulary of film is audio-visual rather than print-based doesnt make movies less of a human statement of meaning with social, cultural, and political messages open to interpretation and interrogation.7 Using film in the way Marcus described is not only a good educational tool in the classroom, but it teaches the student the skill to question what they see around them. This skill of critical questioning allows the student to ask meaningful questions about everything, including the media. This skill will help the student transition into the role of a responsible citizen, making informed decisions in his or her community. The use of film, art, photography, and music allow students to bring their personal diverse cultures into the classroom. In many ways, there is no better way to achieve this multicultural education than by using music. Cameron White and Trenia Walker make this point in their book, Tuning in Essays on Popular Culture and Education. White and Walker use a transformative lens to argue that the use of music in the classroom gives people a voice who are
7

Alan S. Marcus, Teaching History with Film: Strategies forSecondary Social Studies (New York: Routledge, 2010).

9 not part of the dominate culture a voice. Furthermore it allows students who are not part of the dominate culture to connect with a topic or lesson. Connecting with students on a personal level helps students internalize and relate to material. White and Walker also argue that music is another text that offers social commentary and is a useful tool for discussion and analysis just like a newspaper. Walker pints out that many teachers have believe that social commentary in music ended after Vietnam. This fallacy obscures the fact that popular culture still has many criticisms of society that can be used as tools for both analysis and interpretation.8

Music is a useful way for educators to introduce the non-dominate culture into a classroom; however, it is also useful as a tool to introduce students unfamiliar culture. Bojan Buji argued that a history of a people such as the Bosnians is told though their music in his article, Navigating through the Past": Issues Facing and Historian of Music in Bosnia. In Bujis article, he argues that the history Bosnia has had great political, social, and economic unrest, and defined by Marxism and struggle. The history of Bosnian music reflects these stressors. Music is like many other non-traditional forms of history, it is a way of passing down the past to future generations.9 Music can help describe the emotion and history of places affected by atrocities such as genocide in Bosnia, which is hard for many American students to grasp.

Many students struggle to comprehend atrocities such as genocide, some also struggleunderstanding times of great fear and uncertainty such as the Cold War. For many students of history, the times of building bomb shelters and ducking under desks seem fantastic. Using music as the focus for understanding periods such as the Cold War may bring students closer to

Cameron White, and Trenia Walker, Tuning in : essays on popular culture and education (Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008). 9 Bojan Buji, ""Navigating through the Past": Issues Facing an Historian of Music in Bosnia," International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 37 no.1 (June, 2006): 69.

10 an understanding of the zeitgeist of that period. Stephen A. Crists article Jazz as Democracy, focuses on the composer and pianist Dave Brubecks 1958 tour of Europe and non-nonwestern nations to argue that American music and culture combated communism through its sale to nondemocratic nations. Having students listen to Brubecks music and discuss how foreign peoples viewed him in nations such as Pakistan and India may allow students to step outside their traditional method of thinking and gain empathy for a different time and people.10

One of the most interactive ways for students to learn about a different culture is to study the literature across time and space. The evolution of literature in different geographic locations in the United States alone can give students greater understanding of how people lived and thought. Many historians use literature and periodicals as historical evidence, but Alice Fahs has affectively used popular literature during the Civil War to compare and contrast the cultures of the North and the South.11 Her concentration on the literature produced during this time period does give her argument a very narrow field of view, however, it illustrates the power that it has as historical evidence. Literature can be used in the classroom as examples of social commentary that relate to local historic figures. Popular literature can give students a glimpse into the minds of people form a different time and place. Introducing students to different types of literature such as poetry and short stories also helps to promote literacy in the classroom.

The use of literature, music, art, and photography as tools for historical inquiry share a common pedagogical parent: interdisciplinary education. Using different disciplines as the context for historical analysis is useful because it allows a large variety of student learning types

10

Stephen A. Crist, "Jazz as Democracy? Dave Brubeck and Cold War Politics," The Journal of Musicology 26 no. 2 (spring 2009): 133-174. 11 Alice Fahs, The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North & South, 1861-1865 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001)

11 to be accessed in a single lesson. There is a large body of work dealing with the topic of interdisciplinary education; however, Joseph J. Kockelmans outlined the goals of this approach to education perfectly in his book, Interdisciplianarity and higher Education. Kockelmans argued that this approach to education is centered on three components. The first component is the integration of knowledge, which allows students to understand a topic through different lenses of analysis. Secondly, freedom of inquiry allows students to explore a topic beyond its conventional boarders. Finally, innovation allows educators and students to challenge assumptions made by previous intellectuals in order to gain greater incite into a topic or issue.12 Using primary documents that deal with aspects of a peoples culture invokes threes three components of interdisciplinary education, and expands the quality of a lesson.

The content that the student learns throughout the unit is very important, however, the way in which he or she accesses the knowledge is equally as important. Alan J. Singer makes this point in his book Social Studies for Secondary Schools, where he argues that document based inquiry is essential for social studies education because students form hypotheses about the document and its content. These skills of critical questioning in addition to class discussion help students become historians, not consumers of information supplied by an instructor. Singer acknowledges that this definition of education requires the educator to have a much larger knowledge base than that of a teacher who uses only the textbook provided by the school. Singers definition of an instructor requires him or her to have a firm grasp of the subject that they are teaching. Singer also points out that this style of teaching requires much more research and the accumulation of documents than traditional educational pedagogy. This fact may lie at the heart of why some teachers refuse to make document based inquiry the heart of their teaching
12

Joseph J. Kockelmans, Interdisciplianarity and higher Education, American Journal of Education 88 no. 3 (May, 1980): 224-225.

12 experience. Though it may be more work, Singer does argue that over time the resources for each lesson will grow each year.13

Document based education may be harder in the short-term because it requires a great deal of research each day, however, it does keep the educator in touch with cutting edge scholarship which is essential for education to evolve. Using documents that draw on innovative scholarship ensures that students can use new secondary monographs in conjunction with local and national documents. This approach also makes sure that the educator is continually being active as a historian. Many social studies educators choose to ignore the fact that they are both an educator and a historian. By using new research and documents in the classroom, it helps the instructor grow his or her knowledge of the past as well. Many educators believe that the utopist vision of the classroom resembles an ebb and flow of knowledge between the teacher and the students. Using document-based education is the best way for a teacher to access the prior knowledge of their students in order to interpret the past and tease out complex discussions about human existence.

Singer made a great argument regarding the use of document-based education, but failed to underscore the usefulness of local history. Document driven units have a greater impact on the student if some relate to local history. Malcom Seaborne made the connection between local history and social studies education in his book, Recent Education from Local Sources. Seaborne argues that most social studies curriculums are able to provide students with an accurate picture of national change over time. Seaborne argues that many curriculums fail to provide students

13

Alan J. Singer, Social Studies for Secondary Schools: Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach (New York, New York: Routledge, 1997).

13 with a picture of how a national trend affected, or failed to affect, local communities such as their own. Seaborne firmly states that there is a great value in local research such as committee reports, minutes of town meeting, and school logbooks, which are useful texts to examine how a local community reacted to events that are significant on both the national and state level.14 Seabornes acceptance of local history is surprising for the nineteen sixties. The professionalization of American history started in the last half of the 19th century, and local history has been considered armature since. According to Carol Kammens book The Pursuit of Local History: Readings on Theory and Practice, Kammen claims that it is because of armature historians that much has been collected and preserved with respect to local documents and materials in historical societies. Jon Hunner is an academic who argues that local history in the classroom is useful because it accesses three distinct resources, Living History, oral history, and heritage preservation.15 Incorporating local history in the classroom through documents and oral history allows education to become more dynamic and relevant. The incorporation of oral history in to local education is one of the starkest differences between Seaborne and Hunner. Oral history allows students to access one of the greatest and closest historical record, their neighbors. Interviews with local residents allow students to compare and contrast the excepted historical record with the imagined history that exists in the public sphere. This comparison allows students to access a greater diverse view that is consistent with multi-cultural education. Hunner argues that oral history democratizes the past. The written history of many towns, states, and nations reflect the views of the ruling elite, not the average citizen. Interviewing peoples with

14 15

Malcom Seaborne, Recent Education from Local Sources, (London: Northumberland Press limited, 1967). Jon Hunner, "Historic Environment Education: Using Nearby History in Classrooms and Museums." The Public Historian 33 no.1 (Winter 2011): 33-43.

14 diverse backgrounds allows students to record and preserve part of the past that has been left out of the traditional record. Oral history is an essential part of local history education because it preserves Memory. Historical memory can be defined many different ways, but Donald A. Ritchie offers a great definition in his book, Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide. Ritchie states that oral history collects memories and personal commentaries of historical significance though recorded interviews.16 The collection of oral histories as a class activity is a unique experience for students because it exposes them to the personal commentaries that people have built up throughout the years. Public memory at times may be contrary to the written record; however, it does not make their perception of the past any less valid. Personal experiences and emotion play a large role in creating a perception of the past. Using oral history in conjunction with a thematic unit will help students connect to their community, or with a community that they are not associated. Students that are able to practice oral history gain skills that most traditional historians do not have. Ritchie argued that good interviews take practice, and that an interviewer asks complex questions that draw on both peoples prior knowledge to create a clear picture of that person or event. Practicing good oral history requires the interviewer to challenge the interviewee at times when answers seem less than factual. 17 This skill is essential for students to have as they enter the workforce and prepare to be a citizen that votes and makes decisions in his or her community.

16 17

Donald A. Ritchie, Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide (New York: 2003, Oxford University Press), 1. Donald A. Ritchie, 25.

15 Oral history gives students the opportunity to learn about a historical perspective that does not exist in their history books. Often the history of minority groups are not reflected by that of the dominate class. Paula Hamilton argues that oral history can uncover unknown stories and produce evidence suppressed by dominate history. Hamilton gives the example of the climate of the 1960s when Langa citizens tried to protest at their local police headquarters. After some time, gunfire erupted in Sobukwe Square. Through there have been countless accounts written on this event, interviews with actual participants of the event can give students the advantage of obtaining details or accounts of the event that did not previously exist.18 Students may have a hard time locating local residents that have such dramatic experiences but they will find individuals that have unique stories and views of the past which will broaden the interviewers knowledge of the subject. Using local oral history projects puts students into an active role as both a historian and a preservationist. Preservation is a great tool to get students involved with local history and to engage the community. Hunners ideas about education are both engaging for the educator and the student, but the concept of time travel allows teachers to use local history in a dynamic way. Time travel is a, first-person interpretation in which both adult interpreters and students role-play living in a specific past time period. In this, everyone pretends to be in the past time period, and they know nothing about events and history subsequent to the year which they

18

Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, Oral History and Public Memories (Philadelphia: 2008, Temple University Press), 109.

16 recreate..Often, participants who relive the past also engage with issues in their own lives. 19 Time travel allows students to engage with the material of the past using a local lens, but also bring the issues of the past full circle into their own lives. This aspect of time travel makes it an extraordinary tool for educators because it allows students to connect the past with the present. Institutions in many states are well equipped and willing to supply teachers and educators with primary documents that relate to the thematic units that they are teaching. In Hartford alone, the Connecticut Historical Society has a great collection of documents, letters, diaries, and other manuscript materials that teachers can use as content for national periods of significance such as the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, and many others. Connecticut is not the only state that has historical societies that offer resources for teachers; New York has incorporated local history into their curriculums for many years. Though local history has been a focus in New York since the late 19th century, the future of the importance of funding such institutions has recently come under threat. In the year 2008, the New York abolished the office of State Historian and replaced it with the Chief Curator of the State Museum. Carol Kammen argues that historical societies that preserve and supply educators with manuscript materials are facing major financial problems as sited in the article, On the Doing of Local History in New York. In such historic times of economic turbulence, this does not seem to be much a surprise, but Kammen also points out that the state has let privatized many former state institutions. The privatizing of these organizations

19

Jon Hunner, "Historic Environment Education: Using Nearby History in Classrooms and Museums," The Public Historian 33 no.1 (Winter 2011): 33-43.

17 leaves local history open to free market influences that could jeopardize the continued preservation of local memory and documents.20 Students and teachers can access information and artifacts in local historical buildings and places. The national registry for historic places offers teachers and students a key word searchable database of local historic properties. Some historic places have been tuned into museums that offer an interpretation of the past, one such example is the Lowell Mills Park. Historic homes and places that now serve as museums offer teachers and students a unique opportunity to see local history interpreted by a professional historian. Places like the Lowell Mills are a great destination for fieldtrips and research. Students can apply content from previous lessons in the classroom to living examples of history in their own community. Research in this type of setting also is more authentic because students can touch, feel, and smell artifacts. Many historic homes and parks offer the option of bringing interpreters to schools. Old Sturbridge Village is one such museum that will have a costumed interpreter come to a school and bring artifacts and pictures of historic buildings to interpret historical themes such as Yankee ingenuity and 1830s rural life. Using local resources can be cost effective and worthwhile for teachers in and out of the classroom. Like any resources available for students, interpreting the significance of a historic building or place needs direction and training form their instructor. Teachers need to help students connect the objects in a historic home to the mission of that museum or historic institution. In the example of a student visiting the Lowell Mills Park, students may need

20

Carol Kammen, "On the Doing of Local History in New York." The Public Historian 33 no. 3(Summer 2011): 5869.

18 historical context before entering the building. It is essential for students to understand the political, social, and economic factors that can analyzed when examining an artifact. Jessica Foy Donnelly argues a similar point in her book, Interpreting Historic House Museums in which she stated that the curatorial section of the plan emphasizes objects, the interpretive section emphasizes the story-the historical narrative-that the museum wishes to present. Who were the people who lived here? What were their personalities and interests, their activities?21 The historical narrative is the most important part of using local historical homes and museums. The items in a house are only relevant to people if they tell a story about human history. The artifacts and documents that teachers use to interpret the past mean almost nothing if students cannot connect them to the larger historical picture, and how it matters today. Using both primary documents and historical homes to achieve this goal places a great deal of responsibility on the part of the educator to give students the tools achieve these goals. In the end, a much more authentic product of education is created compared to simply reading a textbook. Primary documents from local historical institutions allow students to connect with material in a way that is both personal and profound. Local history does present challenges to both the student and the teacher at times. Carol Kammen devotes an entire chapter to the problem of censorship at the local history level in his book, On Doing Local History. One of the most prevalent forms of censorship at the local level involves the historical societys choice of exhibit or research. Though the documents and artifacts in their collection may be terrific for telling the story about a controversial issue in the past, historical institutions may choose to shy away from topics that endanger funding from individuals who may feel threatened by a specific topic. Carol Kammen argued that many people feel that local history should be good for the

21

Jessica Foy Donnelly, Interpreting Historic House Museums (Oxford: Alta Mira Press, 2002), 138.

19 community, pessimistically expanding on Jessica Foys argument that museums interpret the historical narrative the way they wish.22 The concept of censorship at the local level of history is a problem that researchers may meet; however, issues such as these happen at the national and global levels of interpretation as well. Special interest groups affected the Smithsonian in 1994 when it attempted to launch a controversial display about the Enola Gay and the dropping of the atomic bomb. The critical approach that the Smithsonian took with respect to the bomb shocked veterans organizations and citizens alike. In the end, the controversy proved too much for the respected museum and canceled the exhibit in 1995.23 Instances like the Enola Gay exhibit reveal that the censorship of history can come at the national and local levels. It may be easier for local history institutions to cave when meeting negative feedback because it is unlikely that their decision will make the front-page of major newspapers, but such censorship is not just limited to the local level. The historical narrative in America is something that is very personal and contested by many different peoples. Issues like the Enola Gay will continue to occur because Americas national heritage is personal to citizens and students alike. This personal connection to Americas history is something that can hinder the evolution of historical thought, but can also invigorate students to research and challenge the excepted narrative of the past. Carol Kammen does address a very important issue with using local history to accomplish this goal, which students may look only at their own communities and see events as unique when they are not; they fail to see that some things are common to a region or nation. Indeed, many local
22 23

Carol Kammen, On Doing Local History (Oxford: Alta Mira Press, 1992) 61-63 Otto Mayr, The Enola Gay Fiasco: History, Politics, and the Museum, Technology and Culture 39 no. 3 (July 1998): 462-473.

20 historians fail to see whether materials about a community or about an event in a communitys past might not exist in a nearby archive. This causes some local historians to limit what is available to them by failing to think within a regional scope.24 Kammen continued to argue that the intention of the authors of diaries and letters was not to be used as documents but rather to be interpreted by a specific person. Historians at the local level primarily use these types of documents as evidence in arguments applied to larger groups of people. The critiques that Kammen offered regarding local history have foundation, however, professional history teachers will be able to use documents like letters and diaries in conjunction with secondary readings to present the past to students in a way that takes into account a national or global perspective. Using secondary sources is essential for students to judge for themselves if a document has merit with respect to a given topic. Secondary sources also present students with cutting edge arguments about a topic that use documents from other regions, allowing students to compare and contrast the content and significance of the given document. Many local historians do fail research beyond their local viewpoint as Kammen sugessted, but having students identify arguments that use evidence in this way is a crucial skill for any historian. Teachers should present students with a diverse body of work on a particular topic that gives them the ability to process an argument and find fault with it. Not all historical monographs or essays make sophisticated arguments that utilize thousands of primary documents, however, identifying a flawed thesis, methodological approach, or an improper use of evidence is a skill that is at the heart of good historical skills. Without the foundation of secondary monographs and essays, students will not be able to use primary documents to refute arguments that lack merit.
24

Carol Kammen, On Doing Local History, 55.

21 In order for educators to present students with new research that refutes the accepted history of an event, or just adds a new dimension to it, the educator must constantly be involved within their field. Secondary history educators must constantly be involved with new scholarship and involved in their field as academics. History teachers are not educators first and historians second, there are equally one in the same. Professors are required to stay in touch the latest scholarship in their field so that they can present students with the most challenging and up-to date theories. For the secondary educator, the content of their lessons reflects their research and contribution to the field. If the content of a teachers lessons reflects the scholarship of twenty years ago, their students will be ill prepared for college or citizenry. America faces continued financial problems in the private and public sectors; therefore, it is essential for schools to use local history and documents as a method of preservation and support for local historical societies. Teaching local history to understand the larger themes of national and global history also requires classroom discussion to invite students to formulate hypothesizes about a document or piece of cultural history. Analyzing and interpreting documents in a group setting is very important because it allows students to build upon one anothers interpretation of a primary document. Classroom discussion creates that opportunity for students to question and clarify points. This method of education helps students learn from one another. Classroom discussion is important when using primary resources because it allows students to interject readings assigned in that class or another. This approach introduces an interdisciplinary aspect to the unit that encourages students to use literature, science, and many

22 other disciplines as lenses to view the past. Instructors may need to encourage students to draw on past readings, which is a great way to measure the success of a classroom discussion.25 One of the most authentic forms of knowledge assessment is class discussion. Formal class discussions removes the teacher from a participatory role, and lets students use oneanothers knowledge to form complex questions and descriptions of history. Much like using primary documents, this technique requires the teacher to step out of their traditional assessment methods and find a system that allows students to discuss a topic while using primary and secondary documents. During my student teaching experience at East Hartford High School, I used the Harkness method of classroom discussion after being introduced to it by the history department at the school. This method of discussion sets a clear set of rules for the discussion including a student leader, how they will be graded, and what primary and secondary resources they must reference. In this method of discussion, everyone must speak at least once, and the group must achieve all of the described goals for the group to receive an A. Many other traditional forms of assessment leave opportunities for students to use a document and still not know its precise historical interpretation. Class discussion allows the instructor to see how students interact with one-another with respect to the material and truly judge the level of comprehension. This method of assessment is also participatory, and in many instances is enjoyable for students. Students at the secondary level have the ability to learn and be assessed at the level of many college students, challenging them in this way increases their understanding of the topic and their involvement with the community by using local history requirements.26

25

Linda Levstik and Keith C. Barton, Doing History: Investigating With Children in Elementary and Middle Schools (NY, NY: Routledge, 2011). 26 For more information on the Harkness style of discussion that was developed at Phillips Exeter Academy, visit the following website: iws.punahou.edu/user/bschauble/ct/harkness.htm

23 One of the greatest obstacles facing local history education is standardized testing. National initiatives have focused on content based testing that measures the success or failure of a local school. Many educators and politicians believe that using local history in the classroom removes educational time away from content that meets national testing requirements. Measuring the quantitative outcome of a students education can be done with primary and secondary documents in several very effective ways. Many other classroom activities and assessments exist for teachers using primary sources allowing them to meet state standards while still promoting class discussion. Document based questioning is one such example that helps students foster critical thinking skills while increasing literacy. Another form of assessment that teachers can use that incorporates primary sources and secondary readings are essay tests. This form of assessment allows students to draw on their prior knowledge of readings and place primary sources into their proper historical context. Document based questioning is an assessment technique used by many state standardized tests that can be adapted to examine local history primary sources. For example, if an instructor in the Boston area was teaching a thematic unit on slavery and the Civil War, than he or she could create document-based questions that require the students to analyze a letter between William Lloyd Garrison and his wife regarding Bostons African Meeting House. The teacher could create a series of questions that require the student to read this letter and interpret how he referred to the people that attended the African Meeting house. Using document based questioning on historic homes and people that are located in the area where the student resides allow students to connect to the subject. Some students in the area may even be familiar with the

24 meetinghouse and form a much stronger interest in the topic.27 Jack Zevin argued that document based questioning does not have to be used solely in a test situation; however, they can be adapted for use in an everyday classroom with some extra effort from the instructor. Zevin believes that Great care must be taken in selecting artifacts and reading materials for student analysis and response because these encourage critical thinking of a high order in students, and tie in with stated reflective goals.28 Zevin recognizes that using document based questioning with primary and secondary sources helps foster critical thinking skills, but he fails to invite educators to use local documents from individuals that students may have heard about form their family, friends, or teachers. Understanding that local history has played a role in shaping the future of America can help create complex descriptions of the past. Not all academics are in favor of using document based questioning; Keith Barton and Linda Levstik question the ability of this activity to contribute to participatory democracy. Barton and Levstik argue that document-based questioning is used too heavily in state and college testing in their book, Teaching History for the Common Good. They argue that using primary sources in this method may be a worthwhile activity academically but not in practice because students can analyze and evaluate sources without understanding the connection between evidence and historical accounts.29 Barton and Levstik may have a legitimate point if DBQs are used in standardized tests that do not have secondary readings to place the document into its historical context. However, take the example of the African Meetinghouse given earlier,

27

Wendell Garrison and Frances Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1885-1897: The Story of His Life Vol. II (New York:1885, The Century Co). 28 Jack Zevin, Social Studies for the Twenty-First Century: Methods and Materials for Teaching in Middle and Secondary Schools (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000), 180. 29 Keith C. Barton and Linda S. Levstik, Teaching History for the Common Good (New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., 2008), 195.

25 the letter would be used in a thematic unit with readings to help students understand its content and connection to national scholarship. One of the most effective methods of assessment that can incorporate local primary documents is an essay question. Essays allow students the space to connect larger historical arguments to problems that presently face humanity by incorporating a wide variety of documents and recourses form a given unit. Jack Zevin argues that essay assessment is a great way to assess knowledge and promote competent writing skills. Zevin does caution educators to make sure that the students know the exact goals of the essay. This direction would come in a very detailed section that specifies the size, grading standards, and time allotted. Zeivin also provides teachers with a similar rubric for grading essays. If the goal of the essay was to incorporate two primary documents, then a rubric should tell the teacher and the student what percent of the essay is worth that requirement. Zevin is correct in his argument, especially when the instructor desires the students to use primary documents as evidence. Educators should give precise directions that outline the way in which students are to use sources and what the expected outcome should be. Rubrics are one way to let students know what the expectations are, and how their grade is calculated. 30 Local history in the classroom that uses primary and secondary documents, tells a story of the past in a way that is meaningful for students across a wide spectrum of cultural backgrounds. The same way this paper argues a curriculum should use diverse cultural studies to present the past, educators should strive to incorporate diverse examples of historical actors and places in their curriculum. The goal of local history in the classroom is to show how a students own community has been affected by the past, therefore examples from the community should
30

Jack Zevin, 183.

26 reflect the diverse population in the classroom so that the dominate lens of history does not continue to be the only viewpoint presented. Local history lessons can assess content knowledge; however, if the people and places that the instructor chooses to focus on perpetuate the traditional historical narrative then many students in the class will not form personal connections with the material. This approach to education may even be less culturally diverse than just using a history textbook. Educators must be aware of the content that they use in their classroom, and which examples they use so support that content. This approach to writing historical thematic units brings educators back to William Ayers and the transformative approach to education. Teachers have a terrifying power to censor or empower the histories of minority groups. When teachers search for documents and materials that relate to local and national history they should take into account the population that they wish to reach. The material should be culturally relevant to students and engage them to ask meaningful questions about the past, and place the history of their own community into the broader historical context. If educators choose not to consider their students unique cultural, economic, and political demographics, they risk making the curriculum irrelevant and academically marginalizing to their students.31 Curriculums that incorporate local history and use a multicultural approach may help reduce the occurrence of academically marginalized students in the classroom. Using this approach to curriculum design will force teachers to test for prior knowledge and be aware of their students background and interests. Knowing that a student grew up Hartford gives a teacher the opportunity to use local history examples from that area, some examples may be

31

William Ayers, Therese Quinn, David Stovall, Handbook of Social Justice in Education (New York, New York: Routledge, 2009), 497.

27 celebrated and relevant to the student. Forming local history connections with students in this way is more difficult, but will yield a much more diverse lesson plan. William Ayers uses the term academically marginalized to describe curriculum content that does not apply to the students cultural, economic, or political background. I have seen marginalization in affect in inner cities such as Hartford and East Hartford. An example of this was evident during my student teaching experience in East Hartford High School. One teacher used the same lesson plans year after year regardless of his changing classroom demographics and students prior knowledge. This method of education was extremely ineffective for several reasons. First, the material was nearly 15 years old, and did not address current local, national, or global issues that face students today. Secondly, the lessons assumed prior knowledge that did not exist. Lastly, the lessons did not appeal to the diverse population of students in the school. Using local and culturally relevant documents and historical examples each day forces educators to continuity research the topic they are teaching each year, and be aware of how history can matter to each student individually. The task of every educator is to find ways to convey the most accurate historical information to their students in a way in which is relevant. Using local history as the tool to get students interested and participating in classroom discussions, group activities, and other student centered projects makes the past relevant for students. In order to achieve this goal, educators must use a multi-cultural approach during the creation of curriculum. Looking at a historical period through the lens of art, literature, music, and science creates a cultural paradigm that invites students to use historical thinking skills to analyze documents and arguments. The skills that students gain by practicing historical thinking with respect to local history, primary documents, and secondary monographs, will help students grow beyond the classroom to become

28 responsible citizens. Thinking locally will help student understand the impact of national and global events on their own community and help form a context around law and public policy in their own community. Local history that is culturally relevant to students in every class requires educators and students to take an active role in the process of education that will evolve each day.

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30 Levstik, Linda and Keith C. Barton. Doing History: Investigating With Children in Elementary and Middle Schools. NY, NY: Routledge, 2011. Marcus, Alan S. Teaching history with film: strategies for secondary social studies. New York: Routledge, 2010.

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