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Year Three Offerings
2011 – 2012 School Year & Summer

School Day Seminars

American Encounters:  U.S. History in Global Context
(Mandatory for all completers & part-time participants.)
With David Quigley, Boston College,  Caroline Allison, David Blanchard, and James DeBenedictis, Reading Memorial High School History Department, and Patricia Fontaine, University of Massachusetts Lowell
OCTOBER 27, 2011, 7:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. – READING MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTANCE LEARNING LAB

“America as a nation is not self-contained.  It is connected with and partially shaped by the world beyond it.”  This session will introduce a rationale and practice for a new way of considering United States history by integrating it into a transnational and global framework.  Emphasis will be placed on reframing several specific topics in U.S. history in global context.  Part of this session will include curricular ideas for an integrated U.S. and world history course.   Also featured is work with the Common Core Framework for Literacy in History/Social Studies including strategies and resources for linking the Common Core with historical inquiry and performance based writing assessments.

“Submitted to a Candid World:” The Declaration of Independence in a Global Context
With David Armitage, Harvard University and Patricia Fontaine, University of Massachusetts Lowell
NOVEMBER 15, 2011, 8:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. – READING MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTANCE LEARNING LAB

The Declaration of Independence of 1776 announced the entry of the United States onto the world stage and inaugurated a new genre of document that would be used by various groups in the following centuries to herald their arrival among "the Powers of the Earth." This session will view the American Declaration from a global perspective: placing 1776 into the context of contemporary international and global connections, examining the legacy of the Declaration in the century after 1776, and analyzing other declarations of independence since 1776 for their debts to—and divergences from—the American model. The latter portion of this seminar will model work with literacy strategies to support student skills in reading history with a variety of forms of textual and visual sources.

American Art and History in an International Context at the Art of the Americas Wing, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
With Museum Staff and Educators from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
DECEMBER 13, 2011, 7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (includes estimated travel time) – MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON (bus transportation provided from Reading Memorial High School)

Explore the Art of the Americas wing at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, one of the most comprehensive art museums in the world.  With a broad content emphasis designed for both U.S. history I and II teachers, we will consider art and artifacts from the Revolutionary War Era to the mid-twentieth century, taking into account how historical events and international connections contributed to the construction of an American identity.  This session includes a scholarly presentation, gallery tours and activities, modeling of classroom strategies that integrate the use of art and literacy, and an overview of Educator’s Online, a free learning tool that lets teachers quickly and easily create custom art galleries to share with students online or in the classroom.    

Antebellum American Religion and Reform in an International Context
With Chris Beneke, Bentley University and Chip Brady and Mollie Hackett, The DBQ Project
JANUARY 10, 2012, 8:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.  - READING MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTANCE LEARNING LAB

This session will look at the connections between religion and reform in the decades prior to the Civil War.   In considering global context and exchange in American religious developments, we will examine how movements for social reform encouraged men and women from across the globe to turn their faith into political action.  The latter part of the session will feature work with the DBQ Project, an organization committed to helping teachers implement rigorous writing and thinking activities with students of all skill levels.  In two concurrent sessions we will model work with “How free were free blacks in the North?,” a DBQ with international connections. In an introduction to the DBQ process, some participants will go through all the steps of teaching a DBQ by doing one as a group, while teachers already familiar with the DBQ model will concentrate on ideas for sustainability of the DBQ project across their departments while also working with strategies to create original DBQs for the classroom. 

Transnational Migration since the Late-Nineteenth Century
With Brooke Blower, Boston University and Lisa Green, Swampscott High School
FEBRUARY 10, 2012, 8:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.  – READING MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTANCE LEARNING LAB

This session will emphasize recent historical scholarship on the position the United States occupied in the broader trends of international migration.  Paying special attention to global contexts and the phenomenon of return migration, we will explore the highpoint of Western migration before and after the turn of the twentieth century.  Comparisons will be made across regions and to the post-1965 resurgence of immigration and related misunderstandings and mythmaking about the earlier period.  The latter part of our session will showcase work with a variety of student centered discussion protocols and will emphasize strategies to foster student literacy and critical thinking skills.

Presenting History:  Using Weebly to Create Student and Teacher Websites
With John Wren, University of Massachusetts Lowell
SESSION A:  MARCH 1, 2012 OR SESSION B:  MARCH 2, 2012 - READING MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY MEDIA CENTER COMPUTER LAB

This hands-on session will introduce teachers to Weebly, an online resource for the creation of teacher and student websites and blogs.   Weebly enables students and teachers to express themselves using a variety of multimedia features.  The program is simple to use with a drag and drop website editor that allows users to add text, pictures, videos, music and audio, maps, and photo galleries to their sites. Examples and tips for effective implementation will be discussed and shared.  Weebly is free, useful for both Macs and PCs, and is accessible over the Internet without the need for installation.

“The Wilsonian Moment:” Woodrow Wilson’s Post-World War I Diplomacy on the World Stage
With Erez Manela, Harvard University and Lynne Laffie, Teacher and Professional Development Consultant
MARCH 27, 2012 - READING MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTANCE LEARNING LAB

In his Fourteen Points, President Woodrow Wilson called for "a free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims.”  During the spring of 1919, Wilson's words would help ignite political upheavals in countries across the developing world.  This session will examine the importance of the Paris Peace Conference and Wilson’s influence on international affairs far from the battlefields of Europe.  U.S. reception to the Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles will also be considered.  The latter part of this session will focus on the use of formal seminar discussions in the history classroom.  With an emphasis on developing skills in literacy and critical and creative thinking, seminars prepare students for life in college and the work place by developing speaking, listening and problem solving ability.    Teachers will engage in a seminar style discussion and will experience how seminars can be used with students to develop more respect for other people’s values, experiences, and opinions through lively interactive discussion.

“Bringing the Foundation of Freedom:” The Global Influence of U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1960s
With morning presenter TBA and Museum Staff and Educators from the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum
APRIL 30, 2012 (tentative) - READING MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTANCE LEARNING LAB and JOHN F. KENNEDY LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON, MA

This session will consider how the United States military and other state programs worked to project an image of the United States to a global audience and will explore the sense of a U.S. responsibility to bring American ideals, products, culture, and democracy to the world.  While at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum we will work in the museum galleries and with primary source documents to explore the main developments in American politics and society during the years of the Kennedy administration, with emphasis on foreign policy and international connections including confrontations between the USA and the USSR over Berlin, the Peace Corps, the space race, and the civil rights movement.

History Book Discussion Study Groups

Led by Professor Robert Forrant, University of Massachusetts Lowell
LOWELL HIGH SCHOOL SESSIONS (Wednesdays):  December 7, 2011, January 4, February 1, March 7, April 4, 2012, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
READING MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL SESSIONS (Mondays):  December 5, 2011, January 9, February 6, March 5, & April 2, 2012, 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Participating teachers will meet for five two-hour history book discussion study groups to deepen their content knowledge of the designated historical periods and theme studied that year. The study groups will provide an opportunity to read and discuss five historical works related to the program year’s theme.  Resources and instructional strategies to incorporate the content into the classroom will be provided and discussed.  

Book Titles
December:    Friends of Liberty, Thomas Jefferson, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, and Agrippa Hull:  A Tale of Three Patriots, Two Revolutions, and a Tragic Betrayal of Freedom in the New Nation by Gary B. Nash and Graham Russell Gao Hodges

January:  Empire of the Summer Moon:  Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne

February:  Death in the Haymarket:  A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America by James Green

March:  Satchmo Blows Up the World:  Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War by Penny M. Von Eschen

April:  Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Books are provided for all participants.

As a result of participation in the school-day seminars and the History Book Discussion Study Group, teachers are required to develop a work product such as a 3 – 5 day lesson plan or a multi-media project.   Graduate credit and/or PDPs will be provided.  A sharing conference in fall 2012 will provide the opportunity for teachers to share their newly created lessons and curriculum projects.

Primary Source Summer Institute

The U.S. and the World: Expressions of Power, Past and Present
With presentations by leading academic historians, independent scholars and “lead teachers”
JULY TBA, 2012 AT READING MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL, ONLINE ORIENTATION & FOLLOW UP DAY TBA

What constitutes power on an international stage? How is power extended and maintained, how is it challenged, and what erodes it? With an emphasis on 1898 to the present, this course will examine America’s rise to world power, looking beyond war making and formal diplomacy to the broader cultural, political and economic dimensions of foreign relations.  Exporting consumer goods and political ideals, “winning hearts and minds”  through foreign aid, waging “wars” on poverty, terrorism and drugs, and protecting American prestige and influence have all been expressions of U.S. power abroad. We’ll investigate how these themes played out in particular regions (for example, Mexico and the Caribbean; the Middle East), looking back to earlier historical precedents and forward to present situations. Finally, we’ll ask if the U.S. is in decline as a world power today, and consider whether our current global commitments are an extension of or departure from historical trends.

As a result of participation in the Primary Source Summer Institute, teachers are required to develop a work product such as a 3 – 5 day lesson plan, an in-depth book review, or a film guide.  Graduate credit and/or PDPs will be provided.  A sharing conference in fall 2012 will provide the opportunity for teachers to share their newly created lessons and curriculum projects.