SESSION A 9:15 - 10:45
A1
The Jazz Age of New York City: The Melting Pot of Culture
Through Music and Dance
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Revels-Bay Music will lead a demonstration
and a hands-on workshop on the history of New York City
by tracing the roots of jazz music from West Africa, to
the Moorish Empire in Spain, through the Caribbean and into
Harlem. The performing artists will use tap dance and drums,
along with other elements of rhythm patterns and songs to
demonstrate the multicultural influences and connections
of jazz to New York history and the wider community. Audience
participation is encouraged.
Traci Mann, Dance
Napolean Revels-Bay, Artistic Director, Percussion,
Revels-Bay Music
A2
Oral History As Drama: Exploring New York History As It's
Happening
Middle School, High School
The American Place Theatre draws from its
rich history of bringing language to life on the stage to
present strategies for activating oral histories in the
classroom. This workshop will focus on the use of drama
as a tool for exploring issues around immigration and its
impact on the life and character of New York City. The workshop
will use a variety of drama exercises and activities for
identifying sources of oral histories, how to draw them
from one's own family history and community, and how to
implement them in the classroom.
David Kener, Executive Director, American
Place Theatre
Adi Ortner, Arts Education Associate, American Place
Theatre
Peter Ruocco, Director of Education, American Place
Theatre
A3
Project-Based Learning and the Integrating
of Culture and History into the Teaching of New York City
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
This presentation, led by UFT Teacher Center
staff developers, will provide teachers with a chance to
explore the various methods of integrating the teaching
of New York City history into all grade levels and content
areas, with an emphasis on project-based learning. This
session will provide suggestions and examples of student-based
projects that can be implemented on all grade levels and
content areas. There will be time for questions and discussion
about helpful strategies for teachers who are excited about
integrating New York City into their curriculum, but feel
constrained by time, their administration, or specific student
populations. In addition, participants will become familiar
with the various cultural and historical institutions, the
educational outreach they provide, including trip planning
strategies. This session includes a multi-media presentation
with small group activities.
Denise DeVito, Professional Developer,
UFT Teacher Center at Hillcrest High School
Gary Eiferman, Professional Developer, UFT Teacher
Center at Washington Irving High School
History of 1 Sickle Street: A Microcosm of Immigration
(1930-60)
A4
History of 1 Sickle Street: A Microcosm of Immigration (1930-60)
High School
In the study of ecology, students are often
asked to map out a square one yard by one yard, catalog
all the living things in that area, and then hypothesize
the relationships among these items. In a similar way, students
in United States II classes have made an in-depth study
of 1 Sickles Street, Washington Heights, using original
sources and online resources to determine the pattern of
immigration between 1930 and 1960. Students compared baseline
and similar data from 1960 to determine immigration trends;
this was supplemented with interviews of longtime occupants
of 1 Sickles Street and other community residents. In this
workshop, the teachers from West Manhattan Outreach will
first present this study along with student work. Original
sources will be available for participants, to work in groups
to see what conclusions they can reach regarding who lived
at 1 Sickle Street in 1930 and how it compares to data from
immigration trends in the United States. Participants will
discuss the impact of students working with original source
materials and using detective skills that are used by historians.
Stephen Fink, Social Studies Coordinator,
West Manhattan Outreach
Cye Lambert, Teacher, West Manhattan Outreach
A5
Mapsites.net: Putting Student Writing On the Map
Middle School, High School
Mapsites.net, a publishing program that uses interactive
maps of New York, allows teachers to turn their classrooms
into collaborative writing workshops. A web site that uses
visually exciting satellite photography of the very neighborhood
in which the users' schools are located, Mapsites.net can
be used to stimulate a wide variety of student writing -
ranging from personal essays and creative writing exercises
to more academic material, such as history or social studies
papers. Tom Beller, creator of the program, will introduce
the site. Andrew Meyers of Fieldstone School will discuss
its use in teaching Urban History, and Sarah Passino of
the Urban Peace Academy will discuss using it to teach English.
Students from each school will discuss their experiences
using the site. Presentations will include a live demonstration
of the program and discussion of student work written in
the context of Mapsites.net.
Tom Beller, President, Mapsites.net
Andrew Meyers, Teacher, Fieldston School
Sarah Passino, Teacher, Urban Peace Academy
Students from Fieldston School and Urban Peace Academy
A6
Integrating Community-Based Research
and the Arts into the Study of New York City History
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Drawing on the arts education programs of
City Lore as a model, this workshop will explore ways to
integrate community-based research in the study of New York
City history. It also will explore ideas and strategies
for using New York City as a focus for examining historical
themes and events in American history. The workshop will
provide examples of student research and artwork from City
Lore's school programs in music, dance, visual arts, and
theater. Hands-on activities using strategies and techniques
for investigating the city's culture and students' own backgrounds
will be examined.
Observing evidence of the New York City's
history first-hand helps young people open their eyes and
see their surroundings in a more informed and engaged way.
By investigating their own neighborhoods and city, young
people learn to see themselves in history and to build personal
bridges to the past. At the same time, they learn the skills
of documentation, interviewing, analysis, interpretation,
and presentation.
Amanda Dargan, Director of Education,
City Lore
Georga Zavala, Education Associate and Teaching Artist,
City Lore
A7
Geological History of Staten Island
Middle School
Staten Island's geological history is unique in its makeup,
from its serpentinite bedrock to its deposits of glacial
debris from the Wisconsin glacier. The Greenbelt Environmental
Education Center will lead a hands-on workshop and introduce
the basics of geology through engaging experiments with
rocks and mineral samples and the viewing of several fascinating
videos. Participants will develop an understanding of the
layers of the Earth, discover how the different rocks and
minerals were formed, and compare Staten Island geology
to the other boroughs. Participants will be able to replicate
the same experiments in their own area and discover its
geological history. Educational materials will be distributed.
Puiyan Ng, Educator, Greenbelt Environmental
Education Center
Maria Rossi, Educator, Greenbelt Environmental Education
Center
A8
Building Literacy Through New York
City History
Elementary School
With pressure on elementary teachers to prepare
students for the English Language Arts tests, the teaching
of history is often compromised. Teachers from Harlem and
Crown Heights - who are part of the partnership "Gateway
to the City: Using New York City Resources to Teach History"
- worked with staff from Hofstra University and the Brooklyn
Historical Society to develop curriculum units that integrate
literacy skills with historical content. In this session,
moderated by literacy specialist Dr. Sally Smith, "Gateway"
teachers showcase their integrated history/literacy lessons
and lead participants through sample activities. The use
of primary source documents and historical fiction in the
elementary classroom will be highlighted. This project is
the result of a Teaching American History Grant from the
U.S. Department of Education.
Sherryann Jackson-Brewer, Teacher,
PS 398, Brooklyn
Jessica Mitchell, Teacher, PS 46 Manhattan
Nicole Rogers, Teacher, PS 398, Brooklyn
Dr. Sally Smith, Hofstra University
Christal Terry, Teacher, PS 46 Manhattan
A9
'TAHG' YOU'RE IT: Federal Funding Brings
New York City Resources To Teachers
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
In October 2001, five New York City school
districts received the first round of prestigious three-year
grants from the U.S. Department of Education. These "Teaching
American History Grants" (TAHG) were funded under the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act with to support programs
that "raise student achievement by improving teachers'
knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of American history."
District partnerships were formed with local universities,
libraries, museums, and non-profit history groups. In this
session, cultural and academic representatives from three
of the TAHG projects will discuss the nuts and bolts of
setting up their partnerships and the issues involved in
implementation and assessment.
Robert Forloney, Learning Programs
Coordinator, Museum of the City of New York
Lynda Kennedy, Head of Teacher Outreach, Brooklyn
Historical Society
Mikal Muharrar, Project Director for Teaching History
Initiative, New-York Historical Society
Dr. Alan Singer, Professor, Hofstra University
Folk Songs
and New York Stories
A10
Folk Songs and New York Stories
Elementary School
Folk songs and stories are natural tools for learning about
our civilization. Moreover, by reaching us through compact
sensorial, emotional, dramatic, and rhythmic avenues, they
are perfect for the elementary classroom. As a historical
resource they are both art and information, difficult to
understand at first, but fun to research! Folk songs offer
students a memorable way to look at past events and eras
and appreciate their own diverse cultural history. The Noble
Maritime Collection will present an interactive performance
and workshop using popular folksongs to present historical
events and attitudes. Performer Bob Conroy will lead us
in song with his guitar. Master Storyteller Ben Jacobs will
demonstrate how a story can "spring" from song
and visa versa. Then, the Noble Maritime Collection's Education
Director and a kindergarten teacher from PS 35 will discuss
how the museum has used both oral history and songwriting
to create memorable connections between students and seniors
in the community. Finally, participants will divide into
small groups, create their own folksong verses, and perform
them with gusto.
Maureen Campbell, Teacher, PS 35, Staten
Island
Bob Conroy, Performer, Stout
Ben Jacobs, Master Storyteller
Diane Matyas, Director of Education, The Noble Maritime
Collection
A11
The Lost Museum and Virtual New York:
On line Web Resources for the Classroom
Middle School, High School
Two web-based programs--"The Lost Museum" and
"Virtual New York City"--combine outstanding scholarship
and innovative approaches to presenting the past to draw
students into sophisticated and critical investigations
of New York's history. "The Lost Museum," a 3-D
re-creation and archive of P. T. Barnum's American Museum
(http://www.lostmuseum.cuny.edu) offers a unique entree
into the history of New York in the 1850s and 1860s by inviting
students to solve the mystery of the museum's destruction
in July 1865 while investigating larger issues about mid-nineteenth
century society and culture. "Virtual New York City"
(http://www.vny.cuny.edu), builds on the collection of the
Old York Library (now housed at The Graduate Center) to
present comprehensive accounts of significant events in
the city's history and the ways they shaped New York's development.
Focusing on the ways disasters have affected New York and
its diverse peoples, "Virtual New York" contains
incomparable online resources on the 1863 Draft Riots and
the Blizzard of 1888. This session includes a demonstration
of these resources and a discussion on ways that new technologies
can tackle issues of documentation, visualization, narrative,
and learning.
Pennee Bender, Associate Director, American Social
History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Josh Brown, Executive Director, American Social History
Project/Center for Media and Learning
Ellen Noonan, Multimedia Producer, American Social
History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Utilizing Historic House Museums
as Primary Sources
A12
Utilizing Historic House Museums as
Primary Sources
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Students can visit a modest farmhouse or a
stately mansion, an urban row house or a working farm, a
humble cottage or a recreated village. They can walk around
the homes of poets Edgar Allen Poe, pioneering photographer
Alice Austen and founding father Rufus King. Historic house
museums are unique environments for learning that can be
connected to particular themes - such as family, community,
or local, state, and national history. Education programs
at Historic House Trust sites in all five boroughs are designed
to reinforce school instruction for students in a wide range
of grades. They provide the opportunity for site-based learning
in which students employ fieldwork methods to collect and
use information, and deepen their understanding of various
concepts - such as change, culture and environment. This
session begins with an overview of education programs in
various Historic House Trust museums. Participants will
then have the opportunity to join in three rotating workshops
focusing on primary source exercises such as analyzing documents,
deciphering artifacts, and evaluating archaeological evidence.
Teaching materials will be distributed to all participants.
Monica Abend, Education Coordinator,
Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House Museum
Pat Ernest, Education Coordinator, Bartow-Pell Mansion
Museum
Michael Grillo, Education Coordinator, Van Cortlandt
House
Billy Holliday, Education Coordinator, Lefferts Historic
House
Alyssa Loorya, Vice President, Hendrick I. Lott House
Joyce Mendelsohn, Education Consultant, Historic
House Trust
Loren Silber, Education Coordinator, Morris-Jumel
Mansion
SESSION B 11:00-12:30
B1
The General Slocum Tragedy: A Local History Partnership
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Before 9/11, the General Slocum Tragedy was
marked as the largest single loss of life in the New York
City history. This presentation will discuss the maritime
fire, the sinking of the excursion boat on June 15, 1904,
in New York harbor and the partnership that was created
between the General Slocum Association and an intermediate
school in Ridgewood, Queens. A tragedy in local area history
can be the springboard to a social studies project. The
film, The Slocum Is On Fire! by Christian Baudissin will
be shown.
Ken Leib, President, General Slocum
Association
Patricia Urevith, Teacher, IS 93, and President of
the Association of Teachers of Social Studies/UFT
B2
Civil War Tapestry, The New York Draft
Riots
Middle School, High School
In this participatory workshop, Kathleen Gaffney,
playwright, director, and President of Artsgenesis, will
share techniques for engaging middle and high school students
in the excitement of New York City history. This "multiple
intelligences based, interdisciplinary curriculum model"
integrates primary sources, playwriting, acting, and movement
with history and communication arts. Participants will practice
creative and dynamic approaches for teaching history and
will gain "first hand" knowledge of the New York
Draft Riots of 1863, as the people and their struggles are
stunningly brought to life.
Kathleen Gaffney, Artsgenesis President
and Artistic Director
Kary Krinzman, Program Manager, Artsgenesis, Inc.
B3
Exit Projects 'Work' in the Middle
School New York City History Curriculum
Middle School
The research-based "exit" project
has given middle school students an exciting opportunity
for in-depth cooperative learning experiences. Middle school
teachers from Harlem and Crown Heights - who are part of
the "Gateway to the City: Using New York City Resources
to Teach History" partnership - worked with staff from
Hofstra University and the Brooklyn Historical Society to
develop curriculum units for the exit projects. The programs
build students' research skills, enhance their ability to
work cooperatively in groups, while at the same time build
content knowledge. In this session, "Gateway"
teachers showcase their project-based units on "New
York City during the Industrial Revolution" and give
practical "how to" advice on issues such as dividing
students into successful groups, assigning roles within
groups, assessing individual students and groups, and guiding
students' research. This project is the result of a Teaching
American History Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Steve Gilman, Teacher, IS 195, Manhattan
Rhonda Morman, Teacher, MS 61, Brooklyn
History, First Hand: New York
and American History Courses for Teachers
B4
History, First Hand: New York and American
History Courses for Teachers
Elementary School, Middle School
History, First Hand (HFH), a partnership between
Community School District One on New York's Lower East Side,
the Gotham Center, and City Lore provides teachers, grades
3 to 8, with a new way of teaching history. This panel presentation
focuses on one aspect of HFH: the development and implementation
of four courses for teachers focusing on American history,
with a special emphasis on the history of New York City.
These courses provide opportunities for integrating New
York City themes into the core subject areas; they familiarize
teachers with new strategies for their classrooms; and focus
on the full range of primary resources available for historical
research.
The first course, "New York Challenged,"
focused on adversities that the city has faced throughout
its history, including the Draft Riots and the Triangle
Shirtwaist Fire. The second course, "New York at Work
and Play, 1940s-1950s," dealt with the ways in which
labor and leisure played defining roles in the city's past.
The third course, now underway in Spring 2003, lays out
all of New York City's history over the semester. In this
session, moderated by Marci Reaven from City Lore, History
First Hand partners will showcase the course content and
strategies, and lead participants through sample activities.
Resource materials will be distributed. This project is
the result of a Teaching American History Grant from the
U.S. Department of Education.
David Bellel, Coordinator, History
First Hand, Community School District One
Janet Chasin, Director of Literacy, Community School
District One
Dr. Richard Greenwald, History Professor
Maggie Martinez DeLuca, Curriculum Specialist
Marci Reaven, Director, City Lore
Architecture and Preservation
in the Classroom
B5
Architecture and Preservation in the
Classroom
Elementary School, Middle School
The built environment is a "living" visual record
of the past. Each New York City neighborhood has its own
unique character and history that can be explored by children.
Several neighborhood preservation organizations work with
students and teachers in local schools to utilize these
valuable sources. Partnerships throughout the city have
developed in a variety of neighborhoods with Friends of
the Upper East Side, Landmark West!, Historic Districts
Council and Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
This panel of preservationists, architecture educators,
administrators, and teachers will compare their school programs,
their strategies for teaching architecture and preservation,
how they link to learning standards and the successes and
challenges of working with schools. As part of the presentation,
a middle school teacher from IS 303 in Brooklyn will demonstrate
her " Life Around a Landmark -Coney Island" curriculum
developed with the Brooklyn Historical Society. Her students
played the role of social scientists in search of the historical
riches of the Coney Island community through pictorial essays
and interviews with local residents and historians. They
researched and identified structures potentially eligible
for landmark status within the city, state and nation.
This discussion presents a wonderful opportunity
for teachers to learn about resources in their neighborhoods,
as well as for other cultural institutions to share ideas
about accessing the classroom though the study of local
architecture and neighborhood history.
Mary Ann Arisman, Trustee, Greenwich
Village Society for Historic Preservation
Jane Cowan, Architectural Educator, Preservation
Consultant
Franny Eberhart, Preservation Consultant, Historic
Districts Council
Sandra Kasem, Teacher, IS 303, Brooklyn
Rena Sichel Rosen, Education Coordinator, Landmark
West!
Utilizing Theatre Arts to Teach
Local History
B6
Utilizing Theatre Arts to Teach Local History
Elementary School
The Broadway Theater Institute collaborated with an elementary
school, PS 58, in Brooklyn to create original theater performances
based on social studies and local history themes, most recently
immigration and Ellis Island. This "Making Connections"
theater arts curriculum encourages teachers to use materials
other than textbooks (literature, primary sources, visits
to historic sites) in order to infuse life into social studies.
This session features a panel with PS 58's retired school
principal, a classroom teacher, and teaching artist and
arts administrator from the Institute. They will discuss
and demonstrate the project components including research
and development, residencies with theater teaching artists,
staff development for teachers, student assessment, and
dissemination to other schools. The teaching artist will
lead sample theater activities as part of the presentation.
Helen Marie Guditis, President, Broadway
Theater Insitute
Catherine Kelly, Teacher, Retired, PS 58, Brooklyn
Linda Leff, Principal, Retired, PS 58, Brooklyn
Larry Raiken, Teaching Artist, Broadway Theater Institute
B7
The Great Staten Island History Scavenger
Hunt: Using Historic Sites as Interactive Learning Labs
Elementary School, Middle School
For the Social Studies teacher, historic sites present a
marvelous opportunity to bring history to life in a way
that textbooks alone cannot do. But class trips to these
sites can be difficult to organize and often force teachers
to choose between a wealth of experiences. The scavenger
hunt-outside of school hours--has the potential to empower
individual students, provide hands-on experiences, allow
for interactive learning between child and parent or sibling,
and allow teachers to use a broader range of historic sites
in the classroom than would otherwise be possible.
This panel will follow up on an experiment
that was conducted on Staten Island during April 2003. Students
at PS 36 participated in an historical scavenger hunt, The
Great Staten Island History Scavenger Hunt, in which they
were challenged to visit all four participating sites after
school hours and report back to the class what they found
at each site. They made a record of what they knew before
they visited the site (their thesis), the experience/experiment,
and what they learned at the site (their conclusion). Members
of the panel from the historic sites will present the rationale
behind the activities and the objects chosen for the experiment.
The teachers at PS 36 will present a summary of their experiences
and will be joined by students who participated in the hunt.
This panel will investigate the strengths and weaknesses
of using this approach to making history live.
Lee Conti, Director, Conference House
Museum
Emily Gear, Curator/Director, Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
Diane Matyas, Director of Education, Noble Maritime
Museum
Elizabeth Sommer, Director of Research and Interpretation,
Historic Richmond Town
Kathleen Statelman, Principal, PS 36, Staten Island
Students from PS 36, Staten Island
B8
Demystifying the Primary Resource
Elementary School, Middle School
In recent years, the use of primary resources and artifacts
has become more integral to the teaching of local history
-- particularly as they appear on standardized tests in
the form of DBQs, or Document-based Questions. Classroom
teachers are faced with an overwhelming number of sources
when seeking to integrate these types of materials into
their curriculum. This hands-on workshop includes working
with documents and artifacts from the collections of the
South Street Seaport Museum. Each participant will design
a questioning strategy based on the artifact they examine
that they feel is appropriate for the needs of their classroom.
The session will address how to identify primary sources
worthy of extended study as well as how to structure the
classroom lessons.
Hilary Eddy, School and Docent Program
Coordinator, South Street Seaport Museum
Enlivening American History
and New York City Through Primary Resources
B9
Enlivening American History and New
York City Through Primary Resources
Middle School, High School
Primary resources bring history to life for
high school students. Presenters will demonstrate that when
students are engaged in the process of historical inquiry
using primary sources, they are better able to evaluate
how history can be viewed from multiple perspectives. Their
understanding of the meaning of the American past deepens,
and their appreciation of the origins of our Nation increases.
History teachers from the Alternative High Schools and staff
from New-York Historical Society and Queens College/CUNY
worked together in last year's summer institutes to develop
teaching materials and lessons using primary sources. The
presenters will show, using three sets of materials (on
an American Revolution topic, a nineteenth century topic,
and a twentieth century topic), how students can be inspired
to ask insightful questions that require the ability to
interpret, draw comparisons, and make hypotheses. Presenters
will show how materials were constructed and organized around
a "vital unifying theme" (i.e., New York City
immigration) and give reports on how these materials are
working in their classrooms. Hands-on activities will also
be part of this session. This project is the result of a
Teaching American History Grant from the U.S. Department
of Education.
Avram Barlowe, Teacher, Urban Acadamy
Lab High School
Bayard Faithfull, Teacher, Beacon High School
Mikal Muharrar, Project Director, New-York Historical
Society
Ron Schneider, Project Coordinator, New York City
Department of Education, Office of the Superintendent, Alternative
Schools and Programs
Pam Simon, Teacher, Robert F. Wagner Jr. Institute
for Arts and Technology
Jack Zevin, Professor of Secondary Education, Queens
College, CUNY
Stories, Sources, and Oral
Histories: Two Approaches for the Local History Classroom
B10
Stories, Sources, and Oral Histories:
Two Approaches for the Local History Classroom
Elementary School
This interactive workshop, led by teaching artists from
Early Stages, features two different approaches for engaging
early childhood and elementary students in local history.
The first approach involves the program "Place Names:
Tales of Olde New York" led by teaching artist Jonathan
Kruk. From Staten To Manhattan, Breucklen to Brooklyn, place
names tell tales and teach children about New York and American
heritage. This presentation will provide a variety of sources
for stories, historic facts, and activities that can be
used in all classrooms. Dressed in colonial garb, Jonathan
Kruk will serve as guide to daily life as teachers see how
their students can gain insight into the conditions of daily
life from the clothes worn and deduce values by learning
what objects people inherited. Participants will listen
to stories revealing young New York's nurturing what we
call multi-culturalism, religious tolerance and women's
rights.
The "So Much to Tell" project, the
featured second approach, is an intergenerational oral history
project developed by teaching artist Malika Lee Whitney
with Early Stages, Inc. Through a collection of personal
narratives, multicultural stories, proverbs, games, recipes,
remedies and music, teachers work with students to create
narratives connecting their personal histories to those
in their community. This project encourages awareness of
the connection between individual history and the history
of one's own community and city.
Jonathan Kruk, Storyteller, Teaching
Artist, Early Stages, Inc.
Malika Lee Whitney, Storyteller, Teaching Artist,
Early Stages, Inc.
Jackie Pine, Co-Executive Director, Early Stages,
Inc.
Slavery and New York City - Complicity
and Resistance
B11
Slavery and New York City - Complicity
and Resistance
Middle School, High School
New York City was both a center for abolitionist advocates
and for the financing of slavery and the slave trade. This
presentation and workshop examines New York City's complex
history related to slavery. Middle and high school teachers
in the "Gateway to the City" project present their
classroom lessons around these issues. The "Gateway
to the City" project is a partnership between the offices
of Brooklyn and Manhattan High Schools, Community School
Districts 5 and 17, the New York City Department of Education/Office
of Social Studies, the Brooklyn Historical Society and Hofstra
University. Teacher materials will be distributed. This
project is the result of a Teaching American History Grant
from the U.S. Department of Education.
Michael Pezone, Law, Government and
Community Service Magnet High School, Queens
Dr. Alan Singer, Professor, Hofstra University
Adam Stevens, Paul Robeson High School, Brooklyn
Creating an Integrated Curriculum
Using the Theme of the American Revolution
B12
Creating an Integrated Curriculum Using
the Theme of the American Revolution
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
This presentation will discuss how to develop
an effective, integrated curriculum using the Backward Design
paradigm and local history themes. Dr. Harriet Pitts from
City College of New York and her graduate students will
demonstrate how the American Revolution theme was integrated
into their early childhood, elementary, middle, and high
school classrooms. This session is based on the City College
of New York course titled "Negotiating Standards, Children's
Inquiry, Use of Multicultural Materials Using Backward Design"
in collaboration with the New-York Historical Society. Student
work will be displayed during the session and participants
will have the opportunity for one-one discussions with each
graduate student. A curriculum guide with all the projects
will be distributed.
Dr. Harriet Pitts, Professor, City
College of New York
Brendan O'Hagen, Research Associate, American Revolution
New Media Project, New-York Historical Society
Graduate Students:
Renatha Adams, Nancy Aromando, Yesenia Caban, Alma R.
Carrol-Walker, Janice Carter, Aricia Centeno, Robert Evans,
Kelly Hanna, Carol Horn, Andrew Landers, Delores Lyons,
Alex Porrata, Odean Reynolds, Edgardo Rivera, Annette Saxton,
Solangel Trinidad, Nicole Waldron, Christine Williams
SESSION C 2:00-3:30
C1
Teaching Immigration with Documents,
K-16
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Primary sources allow students to act as historians:
to analyze events and individuals for themselves, to compare
opposing perspectives. History is not the past, it is the
interpretation of the past. Students reading documents form
their own interpretations and can better understand how
historians arrived at their conclusions. The Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History will lead a panel presentation
focusing on sharing materials and demonstrating the importance
of incorporating primary source documents at all levels
of teaching. Panelists will include historians and educators
from Lehman College, the Department of Education and Gilder
Lehrman. The panel will also discuss the many professional
development opportunities available for teachers offered
by the Institute including the Gilder Lehrman Collection
and summer seminars with prominent historians held throughout
the country.
Abigail Burns, Webmaster, Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History
Monique Darrishaw, Administrator for Social Studies,
Office of Social Studies and Multicultural Initiatives,
New York City Department of Education
Dr. Leslie Herrmann, Executive Director, Gilder Lehrman
Insititute of American History
Michael Serber, Education Coordinator, Gilder Lehrman
Insititute of American History
Duane Tananbaum, Chair, History Department, Lehman
College, CUNY
C2
Teaching Shakespeare in New York
Middle School, High School
Shakespeare and New York City have a rich
history together - from the Astor Place riots, where people
protested the appearance of a particular actor in Macbeth,
to a benefit performance of Julius Caesar by Edwin and John
Wilkes Booth (just prior to the latter's assassination of
Abraham Lincoln), to a small club in the West Village where
African Americans performed in Shakespeare's plays in the
early 1800s. In this hands-on workshop with Theatre For
A New Audience, teachers will compare characters from Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar with various leaders of Tammany Hall as well
as past and present mayors of New York City. Through acting
exercises using Shakespeare's text, participants will better
understand various concepts and themes - status within our
society, betrayal, the struggle for power, and others. Through
this process participants will gain the tools necessary
to teach aspects of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and the
history of New York.
Joseph Giardina, Education Director,
Theatre for a New Audience
Leland Patton, Education Associate, Theatre for a
New Audience
A Walk Through the Lower East
Side: Teachers As Researchers
C3
A Walk Through the Lower East Side: Teachers As Researchers
Elementary School
The partnership of PS 20 in Manhattan and Henry Street Settlement
will present a panel discussion that focuses on the NEH
project Walk through the Lower East Side, a model for integrating
community, architecture, history and humanities with the
arts, social studies and literacy studies. This project
enabled teachers to work directly with scholars of New York
City history, architecture, literature, women's studies,
sociology and folklore. Teachers explored research methods
and primary source materials and developed their own "humanities
research projects" based on personal interests, project
themes, and researched. The classroom teachers will discuss
their personal humanities research projects, the impact
of working with scholars, and how they translated the research
into classroom projects. The presentation focuses on how
they have incorporated this interdisciplinary process into
the teaching and learning at PS 20. The teacher and classroom
project topics included rebuilding after 9-11, firehouses,
Henry Street Settlement, architectural landmarks, oral histories,
school histories, tenements, businesses, traffic and taxi
history, Essex Street Market, to name a few. Examples of
children's work will be presented.
Mindy Gluck, PS 20 Manhattan Classroom Teacher
Dr. Lenny Golubchick, Principal, PS20 Manhattan
Maggie Martinez-DeLuca, Staff Developer and Curriculum
Specialist for PS 20, and Professor at Bank Street College
of Education
Isabel Torres, PS 20 Manhattan, Classroom Teacher
C4
A City of Neighborhoods: Bridging School
and Community for High School Students
Elementary School, Middle School and High School
Museum educators from the Cooper Hewitt, National Design
Museum will lead a hands-on workshop exploring "City
of Neighborhoods," a community-based design and advocacy
program for teachers. Recently, the program has expanded
to serve a new audience - New York City high school students.
Community leaders, architects and planners work together
with high school students to extend the classroom into the
community and apply design education strategies in a neighborhood
context. This year, the project will feature Lower Manhattan,
focusing on waterfront revitalization and youth advocacy.
The program uses primary resources such as buildings and
historic photographs, and educational strategies such as
walking tours and interviews with community members to explore
a neighborhood's past, analyze its present and plan for
its future. This session will include a video and slide
presentation along with hands-on activities that will engage
participants in the sensory awareness and historical analysis
of neighborhoods.
Monica Hampton, Program Coordinator
for Schools, National Design Museum
Elizabeth Werbe, Program Assistant for Schools, National
Design Museum
C5
Learning about Networth: The Frick
Collection, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and Socioeconomic
Class in the Gilded Age
Middle School
As the gap continues to widen between children growing up
with every economic advantage and those whose parents struggle
to make ends meet, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and
the Frick Collection have begun a collaboration based on
the concept that the net worth of a human being cannot and
must not be measured on an economic scale. Although these
two sites feature distinct aspects of New York City's history,
their collaboration offers an innovative supplement to middle
school teachers wishing to address the sensitive issue of
socioeconomic class. The goal of the collaboration is to
help educators present students with a more historically
accurate and inclusive look into the economic realities
faced by real people who lived during the "Gilded Age."
In this session, a panel of museum educators will discuss
how the collaboration between two different museums was
conceived, implemented and evaluated as well as examining
this innovative method for teaching about socioeconomic
class in middle schools.
Lynda Kennedy, Manager of Teacher Outreach,
Brooklyn Historical Society
Maria Velez, Education Assistant, Lower East Side
Tenement Museum
Meredith Watson, Education Liaison, The Frick Collection
Teaching New Amsterdam: Integrating
Museum and Classroom Learning
C6
Teaching New Amsterdam: Integrating
Museum and Classroom Learning
Middle School
The 1600s were a time of exploration, travel and trade.
The Dutch West India Company laid claim to New Amsterdam,
quickly establishing the city as the staple port of the
colony. With this settlement also came cultural contact
and conflict. The New York State Social Studies Standards
mandate the study of this history. This workshop will bring
together museum educators from the New-York Historical Society
and classroom teachers from the Corlears School and Brooklyn
Friends School to present strategies for incorporating primary
source material into the teaching of New Amsterdam. Specifically,
this workshop will model teaching from primary sources including
maps, documents and artifacts, with the goal of strengthening
the scaffolding between the classroom and the museum experience.
Discussions will also explore how teachers can create their
own touch collection for object study, some pitfalls to
avoid when using primary sources and ways in which to assess
understanding. Teaching materials will be provided.
Elizabeth Byrne, Manager of School
Programs, New-York Historical Society
Seth Flicker, Teacher, Brooklyn Friends School
Bonnie Levine, Teacher, Corlears School
C7
Hudson River Park: Outdoor Classrooms for New York City
Schools
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Hudson River Park runs for 5 miles along the Hudson River
in Manhattan from Battery Park to 59th Street. It serves
many schools in the New York region including 40 neighborhood
schools within a ten-minute walk of the waterfront and is
used daily for the study of social studies, history, physical
education, technology, mathematics and languages. In this
panel presentation, park administrators, educators, and
teachers will discuss the nearly 350 historic topics that
the Park emphasizes in the Tribeca, Greenwich Village, Chelsea,
Midtown West and Clinton communities. Topics include Native
Americans, the Colonial period, the waterfront, the American
Revolution, industry, harbor architecture, transportation,
the environment, and social development. The presentation
will highlight the value of the hands-on exploration of
historic sites, the current programs that are offered throughout
the Park by staff and tenants partners, and plans for improving
interpretative elements.
Robert Balachandran, President, Hudson
River Park Trust
Kerry J. Dawson, Director of Education, Hudson River
Park Trust
Eva Rannestad, Teacher, New York City Lab School
C8
Happy Birthday, Dear School: Celebrating
100 Years of History at PS 145
Elementary School
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Public School
145, The Brooklyn Historical Society created an after-school
program for fourth grade students. Through guided research,
students explored the history of PS 145, both the physical
plant and the experience of students there over the past
century, using evidence of the past found in walking tours,
school archives, and the Society's own archival collection.
Student work culminated in a centennial exhibit for PS 145,
which the students created with assistance from the Brooklyn
Historical Society. In addition, BHS staff provided two
staff development sessions to all fourth grade teachers,
so that the research and work of students participating
in afterschool could be shared with the entire grade.
This presentation will address process, research methods,
and outcomes. Student work will be shown. A discussion of
research methods and how to implement a similar program
in schools across the city will also be included.
Rosa Escoto, Principal, PS 145, Brooklyn
Jaime Joyce, Education Coordinator/Curriculum Developer,
The Brooklyn Historical Society
C9
Teacher As Historian
Middle School
Teacher As Historian is a professional development model
designed to improve the knowledge, understanding and appreciation
of American History for middle school teachers in Community
School District 30 in Queens. It is a partnership with the
Library of America, the National Council of History Education,
St. John's University and WNYE-FM. In this session, representatives
from each institution will discuss the project's three components:
a master teachers program in history; a series of teacher
workshops, institutes and a support network; and dissemination
of curricula and best practices. The presenters will discuss
the publication of curriculum modules, the production of
radio programs, and launching a website. This project is
the result of a Teaching American History Grant from the
U.S. Department of Education.
Irwin Gonshak, Radio Producer, Teachers
and Writers Collaborative
Dr. Gus Hatzidimitriou, Project Director, Community
School District 30
Bill Kasuli, Arts Coordinator, Community School District
30
Dr. Peter Sheehy, Library of America
Yvonne Simon, Vice President, South Street Seaport
Museum
C10
Reading the City: An Expedition Through Queens with Middle
School Students
Middle School
This session investigates how to help young people become
aware of their environment and develop a role and a voice
in their communities. In this workshop and presentation,
a middle school teacher presents her year-long "learning
expedition" developed for her middle school classes
at the Renaissance Charter School. The guiding question
was "What makes a good neighborhood?" Students
acted as urban anthropologists, ethnographers, and city
planners, investigating three different neighborhoods in
their borough of Queens. The first investigation focused
on the definition and importance of a neighborhood (Long
Island City); the second part dealt with the distinct elements
of a community (Flushing) and how it develops over time;
the third part required students to conduct both "action
research" and a needs assessment of their own school's
neighborhood (Jackson Heights). The culminating project
was a public proposal for change reflected in writing projects
that complement the themes of urban development, community
action, and diversity. In addition, there will be a special
presentation by Jack Eichenbaum, Professor of Geography,
who will demonstrate innovative methods and highlight primary
sources used to interpret the local urban landscape. Teachers
will be encouraged to lead their own interpretive walks
in their school neighborhoods.
Jack Eichenbaum, Adjunct Professor
of Geography, Hunter College, CUNY
Marianne Rossant, Teacher, The Renaissance Charter
School, Queens
C11
Continuity and Change in the East Harlem Community, 1930-1955
Middle School, High School
A scholar and a teacher in the "Fellowship in American
History" partnership will present outcomes of the project's
studies of the phenomenon of Vito Marcantonio as a force
in the East Harlem community and in the United States Congress.
Continuity and change during the period of Marcantonio's
leadership and before, as evidenced in the political and
ethnic history of that period, will be examined. Significant
people and events of this period will be documented through
student projects that utilize and analyze primary sources
to understand individuals and the processes of community
evolution. Examples and video clips of his speeches will
be shared at the presentation. This project is the result
of a Teaching American History Grant from the U.S. Department
of Education.
Andrew Higginbotham, Teacher, The Women's
Leadership School , Manhattan
Sema Brainin, Professor, Hunter College CUNY
The Lenape
C12
The Lenape
Elementary School
The Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences will lead
a workshop that offers elementary teacher activities and
techniques to implement a cultural study of the Lenape Indians
of New York and New Jersey into various content areas. Activities
include mapping where the Lenape lived, storytelling, playing
jackrabbit and rock games, classification of stones, rocks
and minerals, and making pinch pots, to name a few. A short
film about the woodland Native Americans will be shown along
with a demonstration of mini-museum in a suitcase available
for classroom use. Teaching materials will be distributed.
Maria Fiorelli, Vice President of Education,
Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences
2003
Conference
K - 12 Conference
