Annenberg Learner Search Results

Episode 6: Haydee Rodriguez – CA State Board of Education Member  

…few people that even though a lot of the people on the Board are former educators, or maybe administrators, but in recent history and maybe in the State Board’s history, I may be the only classroom teacher. It’s very important because as teachers, we’re the ones who are putting a lot of these policies that…

Episode 24: Social Media Literary with Rob Greenfield

Episode 24: Social Media Literary with Rob Greenfield March 8, 2023 Robert “Rob” Greenfield is a history and social science teacher and the digital literacy coordinator at Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts. In 2019, he created a full year senior history and social science elective called Digital Media and the Impact of the…

Episode 13: Discovery Education with Matthew Woods, DEN Star

Episode 13: Discovery Education with Matthew Woods, DEN Star September 15, 2022 Matthew Woods is a K- 12 educator in Virginia. His professional experience includes being a high school history teacher, building and central office administrator, adjunct professor, and field instructor at the collegiate level for student teachers. Additionally, Matthew is the author of the…

Episode 25: Chemistry – Challenges and Solutions

…age.  The one thing that’s always been true is humans have named their periods of history after the chemistry they’ve been doing at the time. So over thousands of years chemistry has reached the point where we can take the sand on this beach and convert it into the chemical component that is the center…

Episode 20: Californians for All with Josh Fryday

…are the kinds of things that it’s because of individuals; it’s because of leaders who step up and have the courage to do the right thing that makes history and changes the course of history. I love reading about those stories that I didn’t know that much about and then thinking about how we can…

Episode 26: LA84 Foundation with Renata Simril

…introduced a ballet folklorico program to her students. The dance class begins at 08:00 a.m., almost an hour before school starts, and it’s about teaching the cultural competency and the history behind folklorico dance. The students actually dance, and move, and to see these young kids talk about how they learned about their culture, how…

Episode 10: Griffin Education with Tim Griffin

…for 7th grade math or I’m in 5th grade, we’re studying American History, what can we find out about that? The main purpose of my nonprofit, which is Griffin Education, is we make all my music and music by other people with permission. We make it available. We organize it by grade level and subject,…

Episode 28: South LA Best Buy Teen Tech Center with Thai Buckman

…is that the Teen Tech Center has a particular learning approach grounded in research from education, developmental and social psychology, cognitive science, and youth development – things like learning by design, following your interests, building a community, and fostering respect and trust. How do you cultivate this approach and how does it show up at…

timeline: History of Psychology: Timeline

Contemporary Foundations

section: Interview with Andy Knoll

…life is a planetary phenomenon, you’re interested in asking questions not only about Earth and its history but about Mars and its history, about Europa and its history and ultimately, by using remotely sensed information from powerful telescopes, perhaps even about a history of life that may have been played out in another solar system….

section: Interview with Lonnie Thompson

…history of solar variations, which is very important in the natural forcings of the climate on the planet. We have a couple of post-docs now looking at organics, fire history. We know very little about the history of fires in the Amazon rain forest, but we do know that all these ice cores, the moisture…

unit: Bringing It All Together – History/Social Studies

…and critical thought about topics in history and social studies. Such analytical and critical thought is applicable beyond history and social studies instruction—from understanding sources of information on the Internet to critiquing the positions of interest groups. Video and Reflection: Revisit Reading and Writing in History as an example of bringing reading and writing together…

video: History and Memory

Art has been a medium through which people have not only documented, but also shaped history—both past and future. Periodically, individuals, groups, and societies have also drawn on or appropriated artistic forms of the past to make statements in and about the present. Art can commemorate existence, achievements, and failures, and it can be used…

unit: Big Ideas in Literacy – History/Social Studies

Introduction Welcome to the history/social studies content-specific units on disciplinary literacy. These next four units explore disciplinary literacy in history as an approach to teaching history and social studies. Unit 5 will introduce useful concepts and tools that promote disciplinary literacy. Units 6 and 7 will focus on specific reading and writing practices, respectively. Unit…

interactive: History of Psychology

video: Cultural Psychology

Interview Excerpt: Hazel Markus on the Emergence of Cultural Psychology Dr. Hazel Markus explains how the inextricable factor of one’s own cultural perspective led to the development of the subfield of cultural psychology. Cultures are not new, but cultural psychology is a relatively new force in the field of psychology — for a variety of…

video: The Redemptive Imagination

video: Explorations in Archeology and History

Video Summary: How can ancient history and archeology be brought to life in the classroom? To launch her lesson on world civilizations, Gwen Larsen begins by looking at each student’s personal history. By taking on the roles of archeologists and presenting their own heirlooms, students learn how to decipher artifacts and make connections to the…

video: Exploring Geography Through African History

…Social Studies Alive. Class at a Glance Teacher: Lisa Farrow Grade: 7 School: Shiloh Middle School Location: Hampstead, Maryland Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “Exploring Geography Through African History” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Culture Time, Continuity, and Change People, Places, and Environments Production, Distribution, and Consumption Content Standards: Geography History Economics…

section: Controversial Public Policy Issues — Other Lessons

…643, Washington, DC 20005-1401. The Bill of Rights in Action, published three times a year by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, focuses on controversial law-related issues. Each edition includes a set of content overviews and teaching activities for integrating law-related topics into U.S. government, U.S. history, and world history curricula. Contact Constitutional Rights Foundation, 601 South…

video: Contemporary History

section: Activities: Forced Displacement

…World History For What Reasons Are People Displaced? High School Geography, Social Studies, U.S. History, World History Examining Common Attitudes and Perceptions of Refugees Through Photographs High School Geography, Social Studies, U.S. History, World History Using Media to Portray the Experiences and Perspectives of Displaced People High School Geography, Social Studies, U.S. History, World History…

program: Disaster and Government Response: The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the New Deal

…who were forced to leave the stricken prairies of the Dust Bowl in search of work. #8041 Photographer: Russell Lee This historical era is commonly taught in high school social studies and history courses. The National Center for History in the Schools identifies this period in U.S. History as Era 8, Standard 1 (The causes…

video: How We Organize Knowledge: The Structure of the Disciplines

“When we want to learn something new, we have to figure out what are the main guideposts in the terrain of a body of knowledge. And that’s what we call the structure of the disciplines – the big ideas, the big modes of inquiry that are used in history, mathematics, science and so on. And…

section: Compare: Can Images Lend Authority to Mythic History?

…and Illustrated Books Dimensions: H: 8 5/8 in. (22 cm.), W: 13 ¾ in. (35 cm.) Location: Private Collection Credit: Courtesy of Bridgeman Art Library Can images lend authority to mythic history? The line between fact and fiction is often very blurry, especially when it comes to history and even more so when it comes…

program: Protest and Politics: 1968, Year of the Barricades

…protestors worldwide. Each movement also had its unique historic antecedents and national circumstances, however—and a particular government response with which to contend. The news media, through its increasing ability to swiftly and graphically cover 1968’s many incendiary happenings—including the protests—transcended the role of chronicler, becoming a force that was shaping history. Background Political Developments The…

section: Interview with Jeremy B. C. Jackson

…in the depletion of the stock to some much lower level. The history of fisheries is the history of sequential disasters of overfishing. Interviewer: In addition to a decline in large fish populations, how else are marine ecosystems changing? JEREMY: From my point of view, there are six different things that are causing the degradation…

video: Competing Ideologies

Video Summary: From declaring war to waging peace, history is shaped by the ideological beliefs of the people who lived it. Different people hold different ideas about human nature and how a society should be organized. In his ninth-grade world history class, Wendell Brooks explains how competing ideologies drive the world events that make up…

unit: Change and Resistance: Civil Rights Movements Across the Nation

…period marks a particularly powerful nexus of activism and social change. This historical era is commonly taught in middle and high school social studies and history courses. The National Center for History in the Schools identifies this period of US history as Era 9, Standard 4: “The struggle for racial and gender equality and for…

section: Compare: How Can Pictorial History Support Dynastic Rule?

…to a history that is available to just a few specialized people or to a larger community? Both of these works embody memory visually. How does this compare with the histories that you encounter in your own culture? Do you think history told visually can express the same things as history communicated verbally or orally?…

program: Explorations

Choose a section below to begin. History of Psychology: Explore historic moments in the development of modern psychology. Research Methods: Explore the scientific method of psychological research. The Human Brain: Explore the human brain’s role in regulating everyday life. Life Span Development: Explore our amazing capacity for change. Approaches in Practice: Explore the approaches and…

section: Popol Vuh – Getting Started

…of Mayan culture. Their present history includes a fight to restore Mayan language, customs, clothing, and religious practice to the descendants of the empire. Their divine history is recorded in Popol Vuh. David Damrosch Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University: “This book is both a history of the world and a series of vivid tales…

section: Guide to Researching Photographs

…on Copyright Implications for Educators education.illinois.edu/wp/original/copyright/implications_for_ed.html To view an activity exploring copyright laws, see America’s History in the Making, Unit 12, “Using Digital Technologies” (www.learner.org/courses/amerhistory/units/12). Back to our classroom: Ms. Green sets out to search for photographs depicting scenes of the Congressional investigation of the Teapot Dome Scandal. She has 15 minutes to teach 34…

section: Interview with Martha Farnsworth Riche

Interviewer: Can you tell us about the history of your role in the U.S. Census? MARTHA: I’m a demographer which means that I study populations and changes in populations. In particular, I study the interaction between population changes and things that at other people care about. It could be the environment. It could be the…

video: Portraits

Throughout history and across cultures, people have shown a fascination with faces, and in turn, with portrait representation. The depiction of an individual likeness is about identification, but more than that, it is a record of an interaction between an artist and a sitter, both of whom contribute to the portrait’s form and content. Far…

unit: About This Course

Reading and writing are no longer the sole responsibility of the English classroom, but a critical part of how students explore and understand complex concepts across all disciplines. By examining general disciplinary literacy strategies and practices—and then focusing more deeply on their own discipline—middle and high school teachers will gain insight into how to support…

Teacher Appreciation: Defying Gravity- Teachers Who Keep Reaching

…larger thread of history and made reading a book a class all the more worth it – there is so much out there, we should try to know as much as possible about it. — There are a few professors one finds themselves following throughout college – my music and theatre history professor was that…

video: History in the Real World: A Documentary Filmmaker

…that literacy plays in mathematics, science, history, and the English language arts in creating dynamic career paths. When students ask how these core discipline areas are relevant to their lives, this video series presents passionate professionals as career role models who are making a positive difference in the world. From the development of technical, social,…

program: Forced Displacement: Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice

…time. (See Activity 2.) A refugee is not the same as an internally displaced person (IDP). Refugees cross an international border; IDPs have been forced to leave their home, but have not crossed a border and, therefore, remain in their own country. Grade Level High School Classroom Connections Geography Social Studies U.S. History World History…

video: The West

section: Art: Alabama Loyalists Greeting the Federal Gun-Boats from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)

» Kara Walker (American, b. 1969) Alabama Loyalists Greeting the Federal Gun-Boats from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) Artist / Origin: Kara Walker (American, b. 1969) Region: North America Date: 2005 Period: 1900 CE – 2010 CE Material: Offset lithography and silkscreen Medium: Prints, Drawings, and Photography Dimensions: (Image) H: 26 in….

lesson: Henry Adams (1838-1918)

…intellectual history in its examination of early-nineteenth-century America and is still regarded as a formative piece of historical analysis on the period. While he was at work on the History Adams also found time to experiment with novel writing, publishing two works of fiction, Democracy and Esther, in 1880 and 1884, respectively. In 1885 Adams’s…

U.S. Immigration: Legal v. Illegal (Part 2)

…modern immigration to the U.S. All this clamor can hide the fact that this is really the first time in U.S. history that there has been a problem called “illegal immigration.” Yes, Chinese immigration was halted by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” of 1907 allowed the U.S. to stop Japanese…

section: Expert Interview Transcript: Ian Tattersall, Ph.D.

Curator, Department of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History Curator in the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He is recognized as a leading scientist in the field of Human Evolution, with a career than spans several decades and countries around the world. Tattersall has authored many books,…

video: How People Learn: Introduction to Learning Theory

“Teaching is not simply random, and ad-hock and haphazard; there are some ways to actually shape your work that are likely to be more effective, because they respond to what learners are actually doing, thinking, and experiencing.” Linda Darling-Hammond Key Questions How do people learn? How can learning inform teaching practice? Learning Objectives History of…

video: Understanding Stereotypes

…the Negro Baseball Leagues in future publications. Class at a Glance Teacher: Libby Sinclair Grade: 4 and 5 School: Alternative Elementary School 2 Location: Seattle, Washington Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “Understanding Stereotypes” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Culture Individuals, Groups, and Institutions Civic Ideals and Practices Content Standards: History Civics Psychology…

video: California Missions

Video Summary: “How can I teach my students California’s state history, integrate technology, and support a bilingual class?” This question prompted fourth-grade teacher Osvaldo Rubio to develop the lesson “California Missions.” The California Framework for state history requires students to learn about the geography of California; the social, political, cultural, and economic life of its…

section: Interview with Paul Hoffman

…pressure mantle conditions, for example. We can tell not only about the early history of the solar system but also of the history of pre-solar grains—grains of dust, which were produced and which experienced a history before they were incorporated in our solar system can be studied through isotopes. It’s almost limitless, the applications of…

video: English Settlement

section: Resources

video: Lessons for Life: Learning and Transfer

“We don’t learn in school just to stay in school for the rest of our lives. We have to be able to transfer what we learn in one setting and use it somewhere else. In order to transfer our knowledge we have to be able to learn things in a way that is flexible, that…

video: Ceremony and Society

People across the world engage in a wide range of ceremonial rites and spectacles. Some of these are religious, others political or social. Through these practices and the arts that accompany them—costumes, masks, vessels, ancestor figurines, altarpieces, staffs, and other objects and images—people across cultures define identity, build community, express belief, negotiate power, and attend…

video: The Amistad Case

…Court helps shape American history. Class at a Glance Teacher: Gary Fisher Grade: 8 School: Timilty Elementary School Location: Roxbury, Massachusetts Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “The Amistad Case” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Culture Time, Continuity, and Change Power, Authority, and Governance Civic Ideals and Practices Content Standards: History Civics Economics…

video: The Fifties

section: Art: “Many fall in battle and King Harold is killed” (detail) from the Bayeux Tapestry

…The latter, which seem to comment on and in some places undermine the main narrative, offer a possible counter-narrative to the Norman perspective. The work is, therefore, not only a document of social and political history in medieval Europe, but also a reminder that history is, so to speak, in the eye of the beholder….

section: Art: Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of his Sons

…under the label of “history painting.” When Jacques-Louis David began his artistic career, heroic scenes with complex compositions and minute detail characterized history paintings by masters of the French Academy. In the years before the turn of the century, however, David would play a major role in changing that. Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies…

video: New World Encounters

video: Thinking About Thinking: Metacognition

“We can teach children to think about their thinking in ways that help them understand what they know and what they don’t know and what they’d like to learn, and to help them reflect on their learning and to evaluate their work against a continuum that they’re on. All of those kinds of thinking actually…

video: Using Primary Sources

Video Summary: Examining primary sources and artifacts from the past gives students the chance not only to study history but to become historians and anthropologists themselves. Fifth-grade teacher Kathleen Waffle attended a summer teaching institute at Colonial Williamsburg to learn more about primary sources from the colonial period and how to use them with her…

video: Reconstruction

video: America at Its Centennial

section: Online Textbook

video: The Body

From painting to sculpture, body art to performance art, the body has figured prominently in the creative expression of nearly all cultures from the beginning of civilization. Through art, the body becomes a site for defining individual identity, constructing sex and gender ideals, negotiating power, and experimenting with the nature of representation itself. All Video…

section: Art: The Railroad Stations Were at Times So Over-Packed with People Leaving that Special Guards Had to Be Called in to Keep Order from the Migration Series

…who were impacted by it. In addition to studies from life, the work involved extensive research. In preparation for the project, Lawrence spent months poring over migration-era documents at the Schomburg Collection in Harlem, which remains a major center for the study of African American culture and history today. The Migration Series, which consists of…

section: Compare: How Can Art Help Us Come to Terms With Traumatic Memory?

…How can art help us come to terms with traumatic memory? An important function of much artwork dealing with history is commemoration and memorialization. When the history addressed is traumatic, art can play a special role in helping people come to terms with the past and move forward. It can at the same time be…

video: Cosmology and Belief

In all cultures, people strive to understand their reason for being and their place in the universe. Art can be an instrument for not only recording spiritual beliefs, but also for creating myths, defining the realms of mortal and immortal, communing with ancestors, channeling forces of good, and repelling those of evil. All Video on…

section: Advocating and Securing the Rights of Displaced Persons: The Roles of Governments, International Groups, and Individuals

…play in advocating for and securing the rights of displaced persons. Grade Level: High School Subjects: Geography Social Studies U.S. History World History Background Note: Sections of this background are taken from the Collection introduction because they support the learning targets of this activity. Individuals and groups of people have been displaced throughout history and…

video: Explorers in North America

…a Glance Teacher: Rob Cuddi Grade: 5 School: Winthrop Middle School Location: Winthrop, Massachusetts Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “Explorers in North America” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Culture Time, Continuity, and Change People, Places, and Environments Power, Authority, and Governance Production, Distribution, and Consumption Global Connections Content Standards: History Geography Economics…

video: Death

Death is one of the few experiences common to all people and all societies. But how different people have conceived of death and how those conceptions have shaped their behaviors and practices has varied over time and across cultures. Through art, people have expressed attitudes toward death that are in some respects universal, while in…

video: Industrial Supremacy

section: For What Reasons Are People Displaced?

…Restriction Act, which was passed in 1901 and was designed to discourage non-Europeans from coming to the country. Grade Level High School Subjects Geography Social Studies U.S. History World History Cold War refugees from Asia also impacted the West. Hundreds of thousands of so-called “boat people” — formerly people from the French colonies of Indochina…

unit: Interview with Featured Scientist Robert P. Kirshner

…this thing that makes the universe speed up? We’re trying to measure the history of cosmic expansion. We think that the universe began at a Big Bang, and was expanding. That the expansion slowed down over time due to gravity. But then about 5 billion years ago this other thing, this dark energy seemed to…

section: Advocating and Securing the Rights of Displaced Persons: The Roles of Governments, International Groups, and Individuals

…not enjoy the full or equal legal protection of fundamental privileges. Many countries detain refugees in detention centers. Grade Level High School Subjects Geography Social Studies U.S. History World History Created in 2004, the UN’s Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement state that IDPs retain the economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights as all people…

section: Class Context

…students were somewhat familiar with Spanish history from previous Spanish and world history classes, not everyone knew about the historical context of the painting prior to this lesson. All students were, however, comfortable with the vocabulary and communication skills needed for the partner discussions, creative writing, and contextual reading in this lesson, as they had…

video: The Urban Experience

For thousands of years cities have been hubs of activity, centers of industry, and places from which new aesthetic trends originate, evolve, and spread. The creative visions of planners, painters, architects, and sculptors have shaped the development of cities around the world. In turn, the urban experience has inspired the creation of artwork depicting aspects…

video: China Through Mapping

Video Summary: In this lesson, Mimi Norton integrates world geography with the study of Chinese culture and history by engaging her young students in a variety of activities to locate natural and human-made landmarks on maps of China. To build background for this lesson, she has had the students create salt-dough maps of China and…

section: Authors and Literary Works

video: Converging Cultures

Throughout history, economic needs, material desires, and political ambitions have brought people from different cultures and communities into contact, sometimes across great distances. Whether clashes or cooperative endeavors, these convergences have brought about the exchange of knowledge and ideas. In the visual arts, they have led to creative juxtapositions, hybrid styles, innovative forms, and the…

video: World War II

video: The Natural World

From the earliest times, people have found sustenance and solace, challenge and mystery in the natural world. From representations of animal and vegetable life to landscapes and earthworks, art has been a means by which humans have expressed their awe of, communion with, dependence on, and isolation from nature. Of course, art is never a…

lesson: Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616)

…to Catholicism, assumed the name Isabel Suarez, and married Sebastian Garcilaso de la Vega, one of the Spanish conquistadors. Growing up as the child of this interracial marriage, Garcilaso de la Vega became fluent in both Spanish and the Inca language Quechua and acquired a detailed knowledge of Incan imperial history as well as the…

video: Reading and Writing in History

The following education experts appear in this video: Heather Lattimer is an associate professor at the University of San Diego in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences. She specializes in secondary literacy, content area literacy, social studies and history education, project-based learning, and curriculum design and evaluation. Chauncey Monte-Sano is an associate professor at…

video: The Reform Impulse

video: Using the Socratic Method in History

…McElveen School: Millennium Brooklyn High School, Brooklyn, NY Grade: 10 Discipline: History (Humanities 11) Lesson Topic: Voices from the field: Perspectives of the soldiers Lesson Month: March Number of Students: 25 Other: Collaborative team teaching. Humanities is a two-year course combining English and social studies. The course culminates in a Global History NYS Regents exam….

video: The New City

video: Historical Change

…in time. As the lesson concludes, students present their time wheels to the class. Class at a Glance Teacher: David Kittts Grade: 1 School: Santo Domingo Elementary School Location: Santo Domingo, New Mexico Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “Historical Change” highlights the following NCSS standards-based theme: Time, Continuity, and Change Content Standard: History…

video: Westward Expansion

section: Art: “Alexander Fights the Monster of Habash” from the Shahnama

…15 5/8 in. (39.69 cm.) Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Credit: Courtesy of Bridgeman Art Library Written in the early eleventh century by Abu’l Qasim Ferdowsi, the Shahnama is an epic poem relating the history of Persia (present-day Iran) through the exploits of its kings. A number of illustrated copies of the Shahnama…

video: The Sixties

Professor Scharff weaves the story of the Civil Rights movement with stories of the Vietnam War and Watergate to create a portrait of a decade. Lyndon Johnson emerges as a pivotal character, along with Stokely Carmichael, Fanny Lou Hamer, and other luminaries of the era.

video: Our Nearest Neighbor: The Moon

Learning Goals Moon landing. During this session, you will have an opportunity to build understandings to help you: Describe, cite evidence for, and evaluate current theories of the Moon’s origin Explain how the Moon’s history informs our understanding of Earth’s history Comprehend the scale of the Earth-Moon system Video Overview Earth’s Moon has been a…

video: Historical and Cultural Context: Langston Hughes and Christopher Moore

video: The Individual in Society

…Fenway. Class at a Glance Teacher: Brian Poon Grade: 12 School: Brookline High School Location: Brookline, Massachusetts Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “The Individual in Society” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Individual Development and Identity Individuals, Groups, and Institutions Power, Authority, and Governance Civic Ideals and Practices Content Standards: History Civics Psychology…

lesson: William Bradford (1590-1657)

…they began the difficult work of establishing a community in unfamiliar, and sometimes hostile, territory. Bradford was elected governor in 1621 and occupied that office, with only brief intermissions, until his death in 1657. In 1630 he began writing Of Plymouth Plantation, the history of his “Pilgrims’” religious and civil settlement in the New World….

video: Public Opinion and the Vietnam War

…approval and disapproval. Class at a Glance Teacher: Liz Morrison Grade: 9 School: Parkway South High School Location: Manchester, Missouri Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “Public Opinion and the Vietnam War” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Time, Continuity, and Change Science, Technology, and Society Civic Ideals and Practices Content Standards: History Civics…

section: Art: Memory Board (lukasa)

…form of government that combined divine kingship and rule by council. As is often the case with empires built on dynastic rule, politics were closely associated with history for the Luba. The mbudye association was created in the 1700s as a council charged with preserving and interpreting both the political systems of the Luba state…

video: Past, Present, and Promise

Experiment: Tracking Racial Bias Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the behavior of individuals and their mental processes. Like many sciences, psychology has evolved with technology, giving doctors and researchers new tools to measure human behavior and analyze its causes. In this program, Dr. Mahzarin Banaji from Yale University uses the Implicit Association…

video: Expanding Academic Language

Lili Velo explains the importance of learning and practicing academic language to help students interpret historical texts, especially in a classroom that consists predominantly of English language learners. Teacher: Miroslaba “Lili” Velo School: Tennyson High School, Hayward, CA Grade: 11 Discipline: History (U.S. History) Lesson Topic: Native American removal Lesson Month: January/February Number of Students:…

section: Expert Interview Transcript: Christopher Wills, Ph.D.

Professor of Biology Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of California at San Diego. He studies intriguing questions about evolution, such as, what is the evolutionary history of sex? Perhaps it originated as the incorporation by cells of exogenous genetic material. He is the author of several books, including Children of Prometheus: the Accelerating…

section: Scientists

Content Developer Daniel P. Schrag Daniel Schrag is professor of Earth and planetary sciences and environmental engineering at Harvard University and the director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Schrag studies climate and climate change over the broadest range of Earth history. Schrag received a B.S. from Yale in 1988. He majored in…

video: Conflict and Resistance

Throughout history, groups and individuals have sought not only to maintain control over their own lives, but also to assert their power over the lives of others. Visual art has played an important role in documenting such conflict and resistance. It also has served as a means for expressing personal views on politics, war, social…

section: Native Voices – Activities

section: Expert Interview Transcript: Philip D. Gingerich, Ph.D.

Professor of Geological Sciences Gingerich is a professor of geological sciences and director of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan. He has studied the evolution of archaic whales for over twenty-five years, collecting specimens in Pakistan and Egypt. In 2000, he found fossils that confirmed the assertion by molecular biologists that whales…

video: Making Writing Explicit in Social Studies

…Discipline: History/Social Studies Lesson Topic: Writing about complicated things (“It’s Complicated”) Lesson Month: March Number of Students: 20 Other: Theme-based semester-long elective course in the history discipline. “It’s Complicated” focuses on current world issues. Content is 100 percent student inquiry-driven, topics are selected by students, and content is built by Mr. Lazar as they go….

lesson: Getting Ready

…or costume element and references to Magritte and Nikolais. Conduct research into the history of street performance and how its influence is felt in Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam. Take on the role of an art historian discussing a specific type of street performance. Guiding Questions These are questions for your group to consider as you…

video: Using Document-Based Questions for Historical Writing

Amanda Westenberg uses grouping techniques, peer revision, self-revision, and teacher feedback to address the skills needed to write a document-based essay. Teacher: Amanda Westenberg School: Rangeview High School, Aurora, Colorado Grade: 12 Discipline: History (World History) Lesson Topic: Document-based question on China’s one-child policy Lesson Month: May Number of Students: 30…

video: FDR and the Depression

video: Using Student Data to Plan Instruction

Amanda Westenberg discusses her technique of using student performance data to drive instruction. Teacher: Amanda Westenberg School: Rangeview High School, Aurora, Colorado Grade: 12 Discipline: History (World History) Lesson Topic: Document-based question on China’s one-child policy Lesson Month: May Number of Students: 30…

section: Interview with Mark Cane

…destructive one in history. There were very severe famines in India and China and Ethiopia and Northeast Brazil associated with that event. The British set up this observatory to try to understand and predict the monsoon since it was the failure of the monsoon rains that had caused this famine. Walker focused on the Southern…

video: Close Reading of a Primary Source

Ann Pember’s students discuss the meaning and role of the USA Patriot Act after reading an article from the New York Times. Teacher: Ann Pember School: Malden High School, Malden, MA Grade: 9 Discipline: History (U.S. History 1/U.S. Social Studies) Lesson Topic: The constitutionality of the Patriot Act Lesson Month: December Number of Students: 30…

program: Immigration, Urbanization, and Identity: The Progressive Era City

Introduction #3024 Photographer: Jacob Riis Source: Museum of the City of New York The end of the nineteenth century saw a period of rapid immigration and urbanization. As the promise of factory jobs and higher wages attracted more and more people into the cities, the United States began to shift to a nation of city…

video: Thinking and Communicating Like a Historian

…Discipline: History/Social Studies Lesson Topic: Writing about complicated things (“It’s Complicated”) Lesson Month: March Number of Students: 20 Other: Theme-based semester-long elective course in the history discipline. “It’s Complicated” focuses on current world issues. Content is 100 percent student inquiry-driven, topics are selected by students, and content is built by Mr. Lazar as they go….

section: Authors and Literary Works

video: Series Overview

…how others have lived and what they valued. Art Through Time: A Global View, featuring thirteen half-hour programs, a guide, text, and other Web resources, takes a thematic approach to art history and appreciation. Rather than a linear chronology, the materials explore connections in Western and non-Western art, illuminating the breadth, complexity, and beauty of…

video: Reading Like a Historian

Lili Velo uses historical context to teach students how to analyze historical documents. Teacher: Miroslaba “Lili” Velo School: Tennyson High School, Hayward, CA Grade: 11 Discipline: History (U.S. History) Lesson Topic: Native American removal Lesson Month: January/February Number of Students: 25 Other: Sheltered class (for English language learners)…

video: The Twenties

video: TR and Wilson

video: Capital and Labor

timeline: TR and Wilson – Key Events

video: The Coming of the Civil War

Simmering regional differences ignite an all-out crisis in the 1850s. Professor Martin teams with Professor Miller and historian Stephen Ambrose to chart the succession of incidents, from ‘Bloody Kansas’ to the shots on Fort Sumter, that inflame the conflict between North and South to the point of civil war….

section: Exploring Borderlands – Activities

lesson: John Smith (c. 1580-1631)

…and escaped. He made his way back to England in 1604. Given Smith’s history of daring exploits, it is perhaps not surprising that the Virginia Company, a group of investors interested in colonizing England’s holdings in North America, selected him to serve on an expedition to form a settlement in Virginia. But while Smith’s qualities…

section: Rhythms In Poetry – Activities

video: Exploring Borderlands

Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldúa tells us that the border is “una herida abierta [an open wound] where the lifeblood of two worlds is merging to form a third country — a border culture.” This program explores the literature of the Chicano borderlands and its beginnings in the literature of Spanish colonization….

video: The Bhagavad Gita

This epic tale of the warrior-prince Arjuna confronting a life-or-death dilemma during civil war presents a unique and powerful philosophy of duty, discipline, and serving a higher purpose. Beautiful illustrations connect the story with its rich history and culture. Featured speakers include Sheldon Pollock, Professor of Sanskrit Studies and acclaimed composer Philip Glass.

Ancient Immigration (Part 1)

…and covering thousands of miles to move into Asia and northwest Africa. This travel wasn’t just something we did, it’s likely what made us who we are. The “Human Migrations” unit of Bridging World History (discontinued) explains how traveling and encountering new climates, landscapes, animals, foods, and challenges led to the development of the first…

program: Economies and Empire: Colonialism and the Clash of National Visions

Introduction #9004 Source: Smithsonian Institution Archives. In the two hundred years between 1500 and 1700, travel by land and sea linked disparate parts of the globe in intricate relationships based on resources, wealth, trade, and power. This expanded system of international trade brought peoples and cultures into contact, and set in motion the phenomenon in…

section: Art: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

…not offer resolution to the horrors of the past; rather, it facilitates reflection on those events. In the same vein, the location of the memorial—lying along the former path of the Berlin Wall and in proximity to the Reichstag, as well as the site of Hitler’s now-demolished Chancellery—represents a self-conscious acknowledgement of Berlin’s painful history….

video: Dreams and Visions

Art, of course, is about seeing. But it is not always about representing the world as it exists, and sometimes it can allow us to see with more than our eyes. From Aboriginal artists who paint the unseen forces of the universe to Surrealists who looked into the recesses of the unconscious mind for inspiration,…

section: One Hundred Years of Solitude – Getting Started

…novel is a family history, a retelling of Latin American history, and a chronicle of human experience—how we perceive the things we do, the people we love and hate, and the events we live through, as individuals and as part of human civilization. Love, birth, war, and death in the novel all have roots in…

lesson: Joy Harjo (b. 1951)

…University of Arizona, and the University of New Mexico. The Harjo family has a prominent place in the history of the Creek Indians. As the great-great-granddaughter of the leader of a Creek rebellion against their removal from Alabama to Oklahoma, Harjo comes from a people with a painful history. Still, her poetry often emphasizes the…

session: Russian: Russian Cities, Russian Stories

…in mixed-level groups, they read and interpret a story derived from their geography lesson. They conclude by creating and then presenting their own stories to the class. In a separate activity, Russian IV students debate the role of the leader in Russian history after reading an article about Vladimir Putin. Video Summary In this lesson,…

lesson: Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492-1584)

…superiors did. Much later in his life, he decided to write an account of those impressions, intending to offer a corrective to what he saw as the distortions and half-truths perpetuated by other historians. (Significantly, Díaz’s work also serves as a corrective to Cortés’s “great man” view of history in that it emphasizes the role…

section: Art: Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne

…same French citizens who had beheaded the king and overthrown the monarchy less than a decade earlier. His solution was to reject the prototypical Absolutist portrait of arrogant privilege associated with France’s recent past and to look, instead, for models in ancient and medieval history. Napoleon’s pose draws on imperial Roman imagery, Jan van Eyck’s…

video: The Middle East Conflict

…East to stay informed about this volatile region of the world. Class at a Glance Teacher: Justin Zimmerman Grade: 6 School: Magnolia Middle School Location: Joppa, Maryland Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “The Middle East Conflict” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Culture People, Places, and Environments Global Connections Content Standards: Geography History…

video: Southern Renaissance

“My subject in fiction,” Flannery O’Connor tells us, “is the action of grace in the territory held largely by the devil.” One might do well to ask what, if not the devil, haunts the American South in this era between the wars. This program uncovers the revisioning of Southern myths during the modernist era by…

video: The Power of the Situation

…college students volunteered to be subjects and were carefully tested for sound psychological and physical health. Half of the students were randomly selected to act as prisoners, the other half to act as guards. The study took place in a simulated jail facility in the Stanford University Psychology Department. Once the study subjects entered the…

section: Art: Utatane soshi emaki (A Wakeful Sleep)

» Tosa Mitsunobu (Japanese, 1434–1525) Utatane soshi emaki (A Wakeful Sleep) Artist / Origin: Tosa Mitsunobu (Japanese, 1434–1525) Region: East Asia Date: Late 15th–early 16th century Period: 1400 CE – 1800 CE Material: Ink, color, and gold on paper Medium: Painting Location: National Museum of Japanese History, Chiba Prefecture, Japan Credit: National Museum of Japanese…

video: Domestic Life

From furniture and tapestries to bowls and baskets, art has figured prominently in domestic life for thousands of years. Within the space of the home—be it a palace or a hut—aesthetically and culturally significant objects have fulfilled purposes both mundane (e.g., storage and service) and transcendent (e.g., the facilitation of prayer). Moreover, the activities and…

section: Authors and Literary Works

section: Session Author and Literary Works: N. Scott Momaday

N. Scott Momaday Courtesy, University New Mexico Press Author Bio Navarre Scott Momaday (1934- ), a Native American of Kiowa and Cherokee descent, was raised in the American Southwest on various Native American reservations. His mother and father both worked as teachers in Native American schools, but they also pursued artistic interests: Momaday’s mother was…

lesson: Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa) (1858-1939)

[1089] John S. (Jack) Coldwell, Jr., U.S. allotting surveyor and his interpreter making an American citizen of Chief American Horse, Oglala Sioux (c. 1907), courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Department. A Santee Sioux, physician, government agent, and spokesperson for Indian rights, Charles Alexander Eastman was also the first well-known, widely read Native…

section: Commentary

video: What Is Matter?: Properties and Classification of Matter

Learning Goals The moon as seen from space. During this session, you will have an opportunity to build understandings to help you: Recognize the criteria that make something “matter” Differentiate between essential and accidental properties of matter Understand some of the history behind the classification of matter Begin to build a model that differentiates between…

workshop: Historical References in the Arts

Learner Team member Jan Adkisson, also known as the principal of Drew Model School in Arlington, Virginia, explores how the hat she created affects the way she moves. How does art history inform and influence contemporary works of art? How do individual art forms affect or inform each other in a multi-arts work? In this…

section: Art: Fa’a fafine: In a Manner of a Woman, Triptych 1

…world, and, in fact, during other periods in Western history, the two-sex, two-gender model was not the norm. In Samoa, for example, there traditionally has been an accepted “third gender” category. Originally this group was comprised of biologically born men who lived as women. Today, individuals who identify as third gender, or fa’a fafine, might…

lesson: Harriet Jacobs (c. 1813-1897)

…about the condition of women held in slavery. She initially approached Harriet Beecher Stowe, the celebrated author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, about writing her narrative, but ultimately Jacobs decided to compose her history herself. Adopting the pseudonym “Linda Brent” and disguising the names of the other characters in her story, she used her autobiographical narrative…

video: Bringing Artists to Your Community

…to their curriculum, then puts these lyrics to music. Sandi Waitman’s third-grade class explores Colorado history through a song. And social studies teacher Jim Rittenhouse describes the process Stanwood used to create an emotion-filled song about the massacre of Plains Indians at nearby Sand Creek. Young Audiences of Colorado sponsors workshops for artists to learn…

video: The Civil War

video: The Rise of Capitalism

video: Constructing a Community

…Social Studies Teacher Jackson Heights is a landmark historic district, and I wanted the students to understand and appreciate what landmarks are about. I feel like the students’ history knowledge was really helped by the art-making they did in this project. When they started to see that the models they’d been building actually looked like…

section: Expert Interview Transcript: G. David Tilman, PhD

G. David Tilman, PhD Professor of Ecology; Director, Cedar Creek Natural History Area Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota, and Director of the Cedar Creek Natural History Area. Tilman studies patterns in the biological diversity, structure and dynamics of plant (and sometimes insect) communities, as well as the effects of…

lesson: Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880)

…American Review in 1821 calling for American authors to take American colonial history and Native American life as subjects for their fiction. Taking up the challenge, Child wrote Hobomok, a tale of interracial marriage between a Puritan woman and an Indian man set in colonial Salem. Although Hobomok was published when Child was only twenty-two,…

video: The Coming of Independence

video: Robert Lowell

Considered the leading poet of his generation, Robert Lowell in his early work examined history — employing the past to make commentaries on the present. In the 1950s, the poet began to merge public with personal history. Following the lead of the so-called confessional poets, his own style shifted from densely textured formalism to the…

section: Art: Life Mask of Chief Tapua Te Whanoa

…for the most elite Maori men. On occasion, a woman who was the highest ranking member of her lineage would also wear a full facial tattoo. Usually, however, women of status wore partial moko on the bottom half of the face. The history of tattooing in the Pacific is bound up with the history of…

How can schools prepare for discussions of controversial issues? (Part II)

…In the introductory video for Teaching ‘The Children of Willesden Lane,’ Martina Grant’s students discuss their “universe of obligation;” reasons why people choose to act and not to act during times of crisis; and how history is connected to their own lives and experiences. Once we understand why individuals or communities fail to act during…

section: Compare: How Do We Represent Dreams in Art?

…and gold on paper Medium: Painting Location: National Museum of Japanese History, Chiba Prefecture, Japan Credit: National Museum of Japanese History, Chiba Prefecture, Japan How do we represent dreams in art? Both of these works feature a woman asleep and presumably dreaming. The nature of the dreams and the presentation of the women are exceedingly…

video: Developing Questions that Promote Discussion

…McElveen School: Millennium Brooklyn High School, Brooklyn, NY Grade: 10 Discipline: History (Humanities 11) Lesson Topic: Voices from the field: Perspectives of the soldiers Lesson Month: March Number of Students: 25 Other: Collaborative team teaching. Humanities is a two-year course combining English and social studies. The course culminates in a Global History NYS Regents exam….

section: Using Media to Portray the Experiences and Perspectives of Displaced People

…item, without recognizing the myriad life stories contained in that image. In other words, these media features tend to lump all displaced people together. Grade Level High School Subjects Geography Social Studies U.S. History World History The subject of refugees is one topic that demonstrates the need for more critical media literacy and media habits….

section: Examining Common Attitudes and Perceptions of Refugees Through Photographs

…host country nationals may cause refugee women and girls to stay home, only venturing outside — such as to go to classes or other appointments — when accompanied by other family members. Grade Level High School Subjects Geography Social Studies U.S. History World History Violence is a major and real problem for female refugees. Refugee…

video: Using Emotional Content in the History Classroom

History teacher Judi Freeman uses video testimonials from the Holocaust to make her lessons meaningful to today’s students….

section: Compare: When It Comes to Art, How Do We Define Historical Accuracy?

…We often think of history painting in terms of events long past, but current events are also depicted in images, preserving a record for the future. The relationship between the actual event and the images that document them is always questionable, but even more so when there are living eyewitnesses to the scene portrayed. Both…

timeline: The Tale of Genji – Map & Timeline

…something new. The old capital of Heian is where Murasaki Shikibu lived and set her novel, The Tale of Genji, a testament to an ideal society and ideal way of life that was mostly imaginary, but distinctly Japanese. This timeline shows both the history of the society of The Tale of Genji and its history…

lesson: Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

…eloquent articulation of ideals of liberty and justice (most famously in the Declaration of Independence) have made him a hero to many, while his ownership of slaves and sometimes disingenuous political rhetoric have disappointed others. As historian Joseph J. Ellis puts it, “The best and worst of American history are inextricably tangled together in Jefferson.”…

timeline: The Bhagavad Gita – Map & Timeline

…fought for control of this land, until the British Empire overcame local powers in the late 1700s. The nation of India would emerge from that empire in the 1940s. This timeline shows both the history of the written story of The Bhagavad Gita and the history of Indian politics and religion that influenced that story….

section: Compare: How Can a Portrait Make a Broader Social Statement?

…Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Credit: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund How can a portrait make a broader social statement? Throughout history, portraits have often borrowed elements from earlier works of art. Sometimes this was the artist’s way of demonstrating his or her own skill. Often it was a…

lesson: Washington Irving (c. 1783-1859)

…newspapers for some years, Washington Irving captured the nation’s attention with the fictitious A History of New York, supposedly written by a curious old gentleman named Diedrich Knickerbocker. In this work, which was accompanied by a publicity campaign involving newspaper reports on the putative whereabouts of the fictitious Knickerbocker, Irving made fun of the pretensions…

video: Choosing Instructional Approaches

…A vocal music teacher takes on different roles to help students find creative solutions to artistic challenges. Theatre An acting teacher becomes a facilitator as his students report on research about theatre history. Visual Arts A visual art teacher guides her students in a drawing assignment, varying her approach based on the students’ individual needs….

lesson: Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937)

…frustrating information gap. However, some are less bothered, including critics who believe that an author’s biography is immaterial when compared to a text’s “cultural” history–that is, the general history of politics, entertainment, social issues, cultural trends, and the like during the years of the text’s composition. Pynchon is known for writing densely detailed, nonlinear narratives…

lesson: Lorenzo Asisara (b. 1819)

[6856] San Gabriel Mission (1832), courtesy of the California Historical Society. While the institution of slavery is generally associated with African Americans and with the antebellum South, it was in fact present in other regions and at other times in American history. Lorenzo Asisara’s story is an example of the enslavement of Native Americans in…

timeline: Popol Vuh – Map & Timeline

…the Spanish incorporated all of Mexico and Central America into one vast colony, the Quiché Mayans preserved their culture and language, and now share their great creation story with the world. This timeline shows both the history of the Mayan story of creation and the history of Mayan politics and religion that influenced that story….

video: Every Rock Tells A Story

Learning Goals Microscopic view of a fossil. During this session, you will have an opportunity to build understandings to help you: Appreciate that rocks are evidence of the basic processes that have transformed the Earth over billions of years Describe the stories that fossils and layered rocks tell Understand some of the history behind the…

section: Additional Photograph Resources

Here you will find a list of links to common digitized photograph and photographic ephemera collections for both humanities and science-based topics, primarily from the United States. Local libraries and historical societies are also a great place to access photographs that connect to both local and national history. Local science museums may also have digitized…

video: Cultural Studies: N. Scott Momaday and Russell Leong

section: Online Textbook

Online Text by Robert Kirshner The videos and online textbook units can be used independently. When using both, it is possible to start with either one. Watching the video first, and then reading the unit from the online textbook is recommended. Each unit was written by a prominent physicist who describes the cutting edge advances…

section: Civic Engagement — Other Lessons

…problem more efficiently. Students should investigate: seriousness of the problem in the community and how it compares to other communities; demographics of the problem (who is most affected? why?); history of the problem in the community, with an emphasis on how the problem has changed over time; causes of the problem; solutions to the problem,…

It’s Here! You’re Viewing the New Annenberg Learner Website! 

…words. Series now available : Against All Odds American Cinema A Biography of America Democracy in America Destinos Developing Writers Discovering Psychology French in Action The Habitable Planet Voices & Visions Art Through Time The Brain: Teaching Modules Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions The Constitution: That Delicate Balance Earth Revealed Economics U$A: 21st Century Edition Ethics…

video: Applying Psychology in Life

Interview Excerpt: Stephen Ceci on Child Witness Credibility Research Psychologist Stephen Ceci discusses the psychological factors that must be considered when interviewing young children in judicial settings. It may come as a surprise to some people that nearly three million young children in the U.S. are interviewed each year by law enforcement, child protection, and…

video: Different Kinds of Smart: Multiple Intelligences

“Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, gives us a different framework for teaching and thinking in the classroom, as well as how we think about what people do in life. We rely on lots different abilities to succeed in life. Different people have those abilities differently developed, and using the strengths that we have as…

program: Place, Culture, and Representation: The Art and Politics of the Harlem Renaissance

Introduction #7051 Photographer: Berenice Abbott Between 1910 and 1930, the African American population increased by about forty percent in northern states (especially in major urban areas) as a result of the Great Migration. Cities including Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York City (including Harlem) had some of the largest population increases in the…

video: Historical and Cultural Context: Christopher Paul Curtis

Laina Jones and her sixth-grade students in Dorchester, Massachusetts explore The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Jones uses nonfiction, documentary film, and historical photographs to contextualize the events in the novel and the civil rights movement. The students make deep connections to the literature through drama, poetry, and creative writing…

lesson: Getting Ready

…If you have had your own students create costumes for characters from history or literature, discuss this experience: How effective were the students in representing artistic and historical elements in their design choices? If you have not explored these activities with your students, share and discuss your lesson plans or journal writings about how you…

section: Part A: Metric System Basics (35 minutes)

In This Part History Units and Prefixes Working With Metric Prefixes History The metric system was introduced in France in the 1790s as a single, universally accepted system of measurement. But it wasn’t until 1875 that the multinational Treaty of the Meter was signed (by the United States and other countries), creating two groups: the…

section: The Causes and Evolution of Global Human Displacement

…and the beginning of the Cold War that pushed 40 million people into statelessness. Europe became the focus of refugee history because inward-looking nations such as the United States made it more difficult for refugees and migrants to enter the country. World War II marked a turning point in the movement of peoples. On the…

section: Interview with Daniel Pauly

…that is generated by a nuclear reactor, by an accelerator or three hundred years of history. Interviewer: When you put together all this data, what are the results are? DANIEL: When you put together the open expeditions plus bridging data that we have in certain countries from 1900 to World War II and the field…

section: Class Context

It’s one thing to be fluent in another language, but I don’t think anyone can achieve full fluency unless they have a good grasp of the culture and feel comfortable in that culture. – Pablo Muirhead YEAR AT A GLANCE Identity Who are you? Where are you from? African Presence in Latin America History; Contributions…

unit: Interview with Featured Scientist David Spergel

…is the history of acceleration in the universe? DAVID: We believe that during the first moments of the universe the universe underwent a period of acceleration that we call inflation, so that a very tiny portion of a very tiny region in less than a trillionth of a second inflated, accelerated, to become the whole…

lesson: N. Scott Momaday (b. 1934)

…II materialistic culture on his people. Momaday uses Native American oral and European American poetic traditions, oral and written history, autobiography, and legend to create a rich panorama of Native American life. His first major work, House Made of Dawn (1968), is about a Native American who cannot reconcile his Pueblo heritage with city life….

section: Class Context

I think it’s important that we touch upon history, science, math, and all the other curricula in our Spanish class to show that these things are done in this language. In different countries that are Spanish-speaking countries, they do study science. They do study history. They study math. So do we. But when you put…

video: A Vital Progressivism

lesson: Spirit of Nationalism – Activities

video: Making Connections

…to make connections with some of the things that they’ve been studying in drama. Jennifer Larson, Theatre Teacher Fiddler on the Roof gave students a lot of context for the history of Jews prior to World War II. It was a multi-level process of learning. The first was academic. The students were asked to choose…

section: Interview with Pam Matson

…they recognize that there are multiple and interacting challenges that they’re faced with and they act, they can survive. And I think there are examples of that in our ancient history. In modern history, yes, there are still some examples. Fifty years ago, human population was growing incredibly rapidly and we didn’t have the food…

section: Interview with Robert Crabtree

…at the top of the food chain. The wolves came and the researchers and educators took full advantage of that. Interviewer: Let’s go back historically. Tell us a little bit about the history of the wolves in this part of the world. BOB: There had been rumors of the great wonders of Yellowstone from trapping…

section: Interview with Penny Chisholm

…of a very important complex, co-evolved system that maintains a balance in the whole CO2 system through these really important feedback mechanisms. What we’re concerned about now, having mined this fossil carbon and put it suddenly into the atmosphere, is that in the earth’s history there’s never been a change in CO2 that’s been this…

section: Class Context

…Shuffelton     YEAR AT A GLANCE Russian I Background on Russia and the Russian Language Basic Introductions; Alphabet Personal Interests; Verbs and Activities Family School (Comparative Traditions, Subjects, Grades) Descriptive Phrases Numbers Your City Going Places Geography (United States, Russian Federation) Weather and Nature Time and Calendar Russian IV Literature Russian History School Profile…

unit: Reading and Analyzing Texts

video: Popol Vuh

This video introduces the Mayan creation story in all its grotesque humor, luminous beauty, and unique language. See the Mayan writing and drawing that originally brought this story to life, and follow its journey around the world. All Video on Demand files are protected by copyright law and are free for this streaming purpose only….

Annenberg Learner

Multimedia resources for K-12 classroom instruction and teacher professional development All Podcast Professional Development Classroom Resources All Grade Levels K-2 3-5 6-8 9-12 College/Adult All Subjects Arts Education English Language Arts Mathematics Science Social Studies & History STEM/STEAM World Languages Arts Education English Language Arts Mathematics Science Social Studies & History STEM/STEAM World Languages Join…

section: Homework

…one remaining hotel accommodate all the stranded guests? Think of this as adding together an infinite number of infinite sets. This will be similar to putting rational numbers into one-to-one correspondence with the counting numbers. Suggested Readings Read History and Transfinite Numbers: Counting Infinite Sets. Download PDF File: History and Transfinite Numbers: Counting Infinite Sets….

video: Markets (Microeconomics)

…contract in baseball history. These stories show how a well-functioning free market pricing system determines how producers manufacture goods, what they will pay, what goods will be manufactured, and for whom the goods will be produced. All Video on Demand files are protected by copyright law and are free for this streaming purpose only. Downloading,…

video: Judgment and Decision Making

…parts or being killed by a shark? Answer: 2) Do more Americans die from a) homicide and car accidents, or b) diabetes and stomach cancer? Answer: 3) Which claims more lives in the United States: lightning or tornadoes? Answer: Adapted from The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making, by Scott Plous. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 1993…

unit: Writing: Big Ideas

Introduction Reading and writing are intricately related and are often viewed as “two sides of the same coin” (Graham & Perin, 2007; Tierney & Pearson, 1983). According to Langer and Flihan (2000), “Because writing and reading involve the development of meaning, both are conceptualized as composing activities in the sense that both involve planning, generating,…

video: A New System of Government

section: Search for Identity – Activities

lesson: Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989)

…Louisiana State–helped revolutionize the teaching of literature within the American university. That volume was followed in 1943 by Understanding Fiction. Warren left Louisiana State that same year. Much of Warren’s own prose and poetry grows out of his critical engagement with the history of the American South. That engagement was evident in his biography of…

video: Rhythms in Poetry

Amidst the chaos following World War I, Ezra Pound urged poets to “Make it New!” This call was heeded by a large range of poets, from T.S. Eliot to Jean Toomer. This episode explores the modernist lyrics of two of these poets: William Carlos Williams and Langston Hughes. What is modernism? How did these poets…

unit: Arts Education

…at Chattanooga Research clearly shows that integrating the arts in the instruction process enhances learning. As students explore the arts as subjects in themselves and relate them to other subjects in the curriculum, they draw on a fund of knowledge, cultural context, and sensory experience that is as ancient as human history, yet endlessly renewed….

timeline: Timeline: Colonial Settlement

Several European nations were colonizing North America and the Caribean while British colonists were settling in North America. And events in Europe often affected colonization. What else was happening during the settlement of the thirteen colonies?…

unit: Argument Writing

…especially appropriate to a disciplinary literacy approach to history and social studies since it closely reflects important ways of thinking that are embedded in historical study. That is, an argument establishes claims and supports them with evidence from the historical record. A claim made without supporting evidence or on the basis of faulty evidence is…

section: Art: Standing Statue of Hatshepsut

…women in Egyptian history to have assumed the role of pharaoh. In portraits such as this one, Hatshepsut is depicted not only in the vigorous, forward-striding stance common in Egyptian art, but also bare-chested and wearing the royal kilt. She is shown, moreover, donning symbols of power traditionally reserved for male rulers—the striped Nemes headdress…

section: Becoming Visible – Activities

video: Migration From Latin America

Video Summary: Since the 1960s, unprecedented numbers of Latin Americans have left their homes to move to other countries. Some risked their lives to escape dangerous conditions; others sought better opportunities. For the vast majority, their destination was the United States. But why did they choose to come to America? And how does America decide…

section: Art: Black Stork in a Landscape

…studies contributed to the growing interest in natural history that accompanied the scientific revolution of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The documentation of the natural world was a means of gaining knowledge about a new habitat. They also reflected European colonial impulses. The collection of samples from the environment—whether specimens or reproductions—might be understood as…

video: Landmark Supreme Court Cases

…to see if they have changed. Class at a Glance Teacher: Wendy Ewbank Grade: 7-8 School: Madrona Middle School Location: Edmonds, Washington Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “Landmark Supreme Court Cases” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions Power, Authority, and Governance Civic Ideals and Practices Content Standards: History Civics…

section: Utopian Promise – Activities

video: Building Community

“One thing I really liked… [was] the fact that all of the groups were working together, and that’s really an important thing when you get in literature discussion groups. [They have to] appreciate and accept other people’s opinions and ideas, and at this age that’s a challenge. It helps us get closer… It builds community…

lesson: John Rollin Ridge (Yellow Bird) (1827-1867)

…footnotes of their books on California history). As it gained currency, Ridge’s story was also widely pirated and embellished by other novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters. Although Ridge’s literary endeavors did not make very much money–he had received no profit from his novel by the time he died in California in 1867–he did create an enduring…

section: Scientists

Content Developer Daniel P. Schrag Daniel Schrag is professor of Earth and planetary sciences and environmental engineering at Harvard University and the director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Schrag studies climate and climate change over the broadest range of Earth history. Schrag received a B.S. from Yale in 1988. He majored in…

video: Understanding Research

…not only on individual employees’ behavior, but also on the behavior of an entire organization. The application of this research helps individuals develop mechanisms for coping with stress, and assists organizations in evaluating the health and effectiveness of the workplace. A profile of Professor Maslach is available at http://maslach.socialpsychology.org/ on the Social Psychology Network website….

section: Public Policy and the Federal Budget — Essential Readings

The following readings can be found below: From Behaviorist to Constructivist Teaching Creating Effective Citizens  …

video: The Classroom Mosaic: Culture and Learning

“Learning is essentially cultural, that is, we live in a culture – it comprises our experience. We use that whenever we learn something new. So teachers need to know how to understand the cultural context and experiences their students bring to the classrooms. They also need to help students find themselves in the school curriculum…

section: Authors and Literary Works

section: Civic Engagement — Student Perspectives

…each participated in a service learning project in which they were to identify a community problem, select a student partner with a similar interest, identify a community partner who could educate them on the history and current status of the issue, and make a presentation first before their classmates and ultimately before the City Council….

section: Art: Afghan soldiers from the ruling Taliban movement and visiting journalists stand in front of one of the destroyed Buddha statues in the central province of Bamiyan, March 26, 2001.

…CE Material: Photograph Medium: Prints, Drawings, and Photography Credit: © Omar Sobhani/Reuters/CORBIS Situated along the ancient trade network we now know as the Silk Road, the Bamiyan Valley, located in present-day Afghanistan, has had a rather cosmopolitan cultural history, one marked by religious and artistic cross-fertilization. Beginning in the second century BCE, Bamiyan became an…

video: Research and Discovery: Shirley Sterling and Laura Tohe

At the Skokomish reservation in Washington State, Sally Brownfield and her eighth-grade students study the literature and issues related to the Indian boarding school program through community involvement and self-examination. Brownfield begins with her students’ questions and supports them through a cycle of investigation, discussion, presentation, and reflection as they seek answers. The students use…

section: Commentary

video: Research and Discovery: Edwidge Danticat, An Na, Laurence Yep, and more

In Clayton, Missouri, Kathryn Mitchell Pierce’s sixth-grade students read works that explore issues of historical and contemporary immigration. Pierce uses “text sets” of multicultural picture books, poetry, and nonfiction to introduce the students to a wide range of perspectives and to set the stage for their novel study. The Students choose, and then discuss in…

video: Analyzing Complex Text

Michelle Brenner’s students analyze an excerpt from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by gathering evidence to support their point of view. Teacher: Michelle Brenner School: North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC Grade: 11 Discipline: ELA/History (American Studies) Lesson Topic: Chapters 21–30 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain…

section: Masculine Heroes – Activities

section: Art: Double-Sided Diptych

…Mediterranean world, and Byzantium in particular, exposed Ethiopians to Christianity early on. In the fourth century, the Ethiopian king Ezana of Aksum made it the court religion, commencing a long history of Christian art in the area. Much of the early Christian art produced in Ethiopia was destroyed during incursions by Islamic forces in the…

lesson: Maxine Hong Kingston (b. 1940)

…while adding elements of history, legend, autobiography, and “outsider” observation. While most famous for her first novel, the 1976 National Book Critics Circle award-winning The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, which addresses the complex issues facing Chinese American women, Kingston also wrote a companion novel, China Men, that does the same for…

section: Session Author and Literary Works: Ishmael Reed

…as an icon of iconoclasm in the world of letters. Reed’s work often addresses the concept of a contradictory cultural position; for example, in “Dualism,” Reed’s speaker describes himself as both insideand outside of history. Frequently, his work focuses on the ambivalence of such characters who are inside and outside their community; for example, in…

video: Reading and Responding Like a Historian

LeRoy Votto’s students discuss their thoughts on Wendell Phillips’s speech “The Philosophy of the Abolitionist Movement.” Teacher: LeRoy Votto School: The Urban School of San Francisco (Private), San Francisco, CA Grade: 10 Discipline: History (the Civil War) Lesson Topic: The abolitionist movement and its message Lesson Month: January Number of Students: 14…

section: Art: Untitled, page number 21, from the Arrow’s Elk Society Ledger

…assimilate them into Western culture. In fact, Colonel Richard Pratt, the officer in charge of Fort Marion, actually used ledger drawings, which he sold to tourists and collectors, as evidence of Native American assimilation. Ironically, these same images were a means of preserving not only a Native American art form, but also Native American history….

section: Art: Dance Vest with Esù Staff Figures

…also found at liminal places such as doorways and crossroads due to his identity as an agent of change, The Esú sculptures seen here are enveloped in cowrie shells. Esú’s association with cowrie shells has a long history, although the precise reason for the linkage of the deity and these symbols of wealth is unclear….

video: Literature, Art, and Other Disciplines

Introduction “One of the problems with integrating literature [and] other domains is the belief that there has to be some grandiose formal plan. And there does not. It can be very impromptu.” Dorothy Franklin 7th Grade Teacher, DeWitt Clinton Elementary School Chicago, Illinois Across the country, teachers are offering students doorways into literature via the…

section: Art: The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton

…Portrait of Louis N. Kenton stands out among the artist’s portraits for its extreme simplicity. Kenton was the artist’s brother-in-law, and the details of his profession have been lost to history. In this composition, Kenton stands before a stark, light background in an empty room. The space is only barely suggested by the angle of…

lesson: James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

…with his American audience, a problem exacerbated by his frequent involvement in petty lawsuits and his increasingly conservative harangues about the sociopolitical state of the country. Despite his threat to stop writing, Cooper actually wrote prolifically until his death, producing a total of thirty-two novels, along with several political tracts, works of history, and biographies….

lesson: Rudolfo A. Anaya (b. 1937)

[6133] Anonymous, Young Hispanic Woman (c. 1969), courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection. Rudolfo Anaya was born in Pastura, New Mexico. His family moved to Albuquerque when he was fifteen. While working as a public school teacher, he earned degrees from the University of New Mexico. Anaya’s first novel, Bless Me, Ultima…

lesson: Samuel de Champlain (c. 1570-1635)

…France in four books, which combine illustrations, maps, personal narrative, geographical and natural description, history, and ethnographic insights into Native American life. His combination of pictorial and verbal description lends his work an unusually vivid quality that literary critic Gordon Sayre has described as a “distinctive narrative story-board effect.” In 1629, invading British troops unexpectedly…

section: Art: Saint George and the Dragon

…the dragon has a long history in art, where it has often been understood as a metaphor for the victory of the Christian spirit over the forces of evil. The forest in Altdorfer’s work not only sets the tone for this contest, but also seems to be an integral factor in it. Activated by the…

video: Facilitating a Socratic Seminar

Kristen Ferrales demonstrates how having students write to prepare for discussions creates a deeper understanding of the topic and leads to a more productive Socratic seminar. Teacher: Kristin Ferrales School: The Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, New York, NY Grade: 11 Discipline: History (Global Research) Lesson Topic: Socratic Seminar: Lasting impacts of the…

video: Designing the Classroom to Support Understanding

Kristen Ferrales explains how she intentionally designs her classroom to create an effective learning environment. Teacher: Kristin Ferrales School: The Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, New York, NY Grade: 11 Discipline: History (Global Research) Lesson Topic: Socratic Seminar: Lasting impacts of the Haitian Revolution Lesson Month: March Number of Students: 21 Other: This…

section: Expert Interview Transcript: David Page, MD

…Biomedical Research, and professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1992 his laboratory mapped and cloned the entire Y chromosome. Today, he uses the map and other tools to trace the genetic causes of male infertility, the history of the Y chromosome and human populations, and the origins of common genetic diseases….

lesson: Thomas Morton (c. 1579-1647)

…with the Puritans and ruthlessly satirizing the Plymouth group, New English Canaan is not simply a history, nor is it wholly satirical. The book is also meant to serve as a promotional piece, celebrating the wealth and promise of the lands of New England and encouraging non-Puritans to settle there. Morton’s florid, urbane writing style…

lesson: William Apess (1798-1839)

…living in Massachusetts.) His efforts to publicize their case and to articulate their grievances helped them eventually win the right of self-governance from the Massachusetts State Legislature. Apess’s final published work, the text of a lecture on King Philip that he delivered to a Boston audience in 1836, is a moving study of the history…

section: Art: Frescoed Wall from the House of Livia

…Historia Naturalis(Natural History), when Livia was newly betrothed, a white hen holding a laurel branch in its beak dropped into her lap. The event was interpreted as an omen of good fortune, laurel being not only a symbol of peace and victory, but also, as an evergreen, associated with virtue and immortality. Livia supposedly planted…

lesson: Susanna Rowson (c. 1762-1824)

…nation’s history until Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin over half a century later. As literary critics have noted, the book’s power lies in its accessibility and appeal to a broad spectrum of readers; scholarship on inscriptions and marginalia found in extant eighteenth- and nineteenth-century copies of the book reveals that Charlotte Temple was…

video: Growth and Empire

video: Celebrations of Light

…have studied, which will later be displayed in the school’s hallways. Class at a Glance Teacher: Eileen Mesmer Grades: K-1 School: Saltonstall School Location: Salem, Massachusetts Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “Celebrations of Light” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Culture Time, Continuity, and Change People, Places, and Environments Content Standards: Geography History…

video: Slavery

video: Finding Your Voice

…Cultures class. Cathryn Peterson, Language Arts Teacher In World Cultures we spend about ten weeks studying conflict, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. We focus on the idea of culture throughout the entire year, and we try to focus on teaching kids about that in terms of history, art, literature, and their own personal experiences with the…

video: Gender-Based Distinctions

…The lesson concludes with a lively class discussion between the two genders. Class at a Glance Teacher: Tim Rockey Grade: 12 School: Sunnyslope High School Location: Phoenix, Arizona Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “Gender-based Distinctions” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Power, Authority, and Governance Civic Ideals and Practices Content Standards: Civics History…

section: Art: Gertrude Stein

…she did not look like the painted image. In response to this criticism, Picasso famously and succinctly predicted, “She will.” Ultimately, his wry retort proved to be accurate. This portrait has emerged as the iconic image of Gertrude Stein. Even though the likeness is not realistic, it is the picture by which history remembers her….

video: Writing

Images and words are symbols that both denote actual things, like people, objects, and places, and connote more abstract ideas, feelings, concepts, and theories. Given this shared function, it makes sense that the boundaries between words and images often overlap and that the two are so frequently juxtaposed. Since the dawn of civilization the relationship…

video: Health, Mind, and Behavior

Essay: Holistic Medicine and the Biopsychosocial Approach Recent studies in the relationship between mind and body hint at new ideas that go beyond traditional biomedical approaches to illness. This holistic approach has inspired a field of health psychology research in which both a medical and a psychological perspective are used to study why we become…

video: Teaching Visual Art

…from two periods in history to help a fifth-grade class discover that there is more to a painting than meets the eye. After examining the paintings, students draw original portraits, expressing information about their subjects through expression, clothing, background, technique, and other visual cues. They conclude the lesson by sharing their responses to each other’s…

section: Art: Equestrian Portrait of the Count-Duke Olivares

…Photo courtesy of the Kehinde Wiley Studio, New York. © Kehinde Wiley American painter Kehinde Wiley creates large and conceptually complex portraits. He reinterprets old master history, religious, and mythological paintings, source images that celebrate the white European elite. His new images replace the central figures in these pictures with vivid portraits of young, often…

video: Leaders, Community, and Citizens

…– and how they might be resolved. Class at a Glance Teacher: Cynthia Vaughn Grade: 1 School: Rooftop Alternative Elementary School Location: San Francisco, California Themes and Standards Addressed in This Lesson “Leaders, Community, and Citizens ” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes: Power, Authority, and Governance Civic Ideals and Practices Content Standards: History Civics…

video: Two Dance Collaborations

…studied cycles in science, we’ve talked about how history repeats itself in various forms – all of those things tie together with the actual circles that the students make. Stephanie Johnson, Dance Teacher Scott and I are always really interested in seeing how we can give the kids opportunities to connect between what he’s doing…

video: Breathing Life Into Myths

…puppets because any time I plan a curriculum for the kids, my first thought is “How can I draw them in?” We’re working with art, we’re working with theatre, we’re working with history, and obviously, we’re working with language arts and writing.   JENNIFER LARSON, Theatre Teacher The way I worked with Helen Schell is…

section: Art: Memorial Head

…indicative of social and aesthetic ideals. Rings around the neck, for instance, allude to layers of fat that signify health, beauty, and success. During most of the history of these terracotta heads, they were reserved for royalty, and many of their features are specifically designed to convey the subject’s elite status. The facial expression exhibited…

section: Migrant Struggle – Activities

lesson: Helena Maria Viramontes (b. 1954)

[6125] Anonymous, Protest for Legislature to Improve Conditions [for Migrant Farm Workers] (1969), courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection. Viramontes is a Chicana writer who was born in East Los Angeles, California. She attended Immaculate Heart College and the University of California, Irvine. She is co-founder of the Southern California Latino Writers…

section: Art: Hagia Sophia (exterior)

…and other materials Medium: Architecture and Planning Dimensions: (Dome) H: approx. 182 ½ ft. (55.6 m.); (Minarets) H: approx. 197 ft. (60 m.) (each) Location: Istanbul, Turkey Credit: Courtesy of Vanni/Art Resource, NY Located in present-day Turkey, Hagia Sophia, or the church of Holy Wisdom, has a long and complex history. The spot where Hagia…

video: Spirit of Nationalism

Declaring Independence, 1710-1850 The Enlightenment brought new ideals and a new notion of selfhood to the American colonies. This program begins with an examination of the importance of the trope of the self-made man in Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, and then turns to the development of this concept in the writings of Romanticist Ralph Waldo Emerson….

section: Art: Ruins of the White Temple and Ziggurat

» Unknown artist(s). Uruk, Mesopotamia Ruins of the White Temple and Ziggurat Artist / Origin: Unknown artist(s). Uruk, Mesopotamia Region: West Asia Date: ca. 3200–3000 BCE Period: 30,000 – 3000 BCE Material: Brick Medium: Architecture and Planning Dimensions: H: 40 ft. (12 m.) Location: Warka (ancient Uruk), Iraq Credit: © Nik Wheeler/CORBIS In the fourth…

section: Art: Lindisfarne Gospels, fol. 29 (Cotton MS, Nero D.IV)

…words, and sacred names are given decorative emphasis, is characteristic of many medieval religious manuscripts. However, the Lindisfarne Gospels exemplify a unique stylistic blending associated with a particular period in English history. Often referred to as “Insular,” this hybrid style draws on native Anglo-Saxon and Celtic designs as well as Roman, Coptic, and Eastern traditions….

section: Art: Bamboo in the Wind

…Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Credit: Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Bamboo has been an important and meaningful subject for painting during many periods in Chinese history. In addition to its status, along with plum blossoms, orchids, and chrysanthemums, as one of…

lesson: John Winthrop (1588-1649)

…in the shaping of Puritan social, religious, and political policies, and his Journal remains the most complete contemporary account of the first two decades of the Bay Colony’s history. Composed during his busy career as a public servant, the Journal reflects Winthrop’s often militant commitment to firmly establishing orthodoxy within his community. He chronicles both…

lesson: Edward Taylor (c. 1642-1729)

…Metrical History of Christianity. His best-known poems, a series of 217 verses called Preparatory Meditations, are lyric explorations of the Puritan soul and its relation to the sacrament. The poems’ struggles with complicated theological issues are carefully contained within rigidly structured six-line stanzas of iambic pentameter. While the metaphors and metaphysical conceits in Preparatory Meditations…

section: Modernist Portraits – Activities

lesson: Mary Rowlandson (c. 1636-1711)

[2788] Mary Rowlandson, A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, A Minister’s Wife in New England (1682), courtesy of Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. Born around 1637 in Somerset, England, Mary White was the sixth of ten children. Her family immigrated to New England when she…

video: Utopian Promise

Puritan and Quaker Utopian Visions, 1620-1750 When British colonists landed in the Americas they created communities that they hoped would serve as a “light onto the nations.” But what role would the native inhabitants play in this new model community? This Unit compares the answers of three important groups, the Puritans, Quakers, and Native Americans,…

section: Art: “Wassily” Chair

…but also on the history of modern design. The initial concept behind the Bauhaus was the unification of traditional fine arts and design through craft. By 1923, the focus of the school shifted to industry, and design for mass production became the guiding vision. At the time Breuer first designed the “Wassily” chair (named for…

section: Art: Kennedy Family on beach, Hyannis Port, 1959 (Caroline overhead)

…to ignore the camera, they were well aware of its presence. In fact, they had invited Shaw to photograph them. This private, touching moment is, then, essentially staged and performed. The long history of European ruler and state portraits from which presidential portraiture in the U.S. derived was marked, even at its most casual, by…

lesson: Bartolomé de las Casas (c. 1474-1566)

…to Spain. Until his death at the age of ninety-two, he continued his crusade by serving as attorney-at-large for the Indians in the Spanish courts and by publishing moving accounts of their tragic plight. Casas’s monumental History of the Indies and The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies are among his most…

video: One Hundred Years of Solitude

This video introduces the idea of magical realism, of a world where the impossible and the possible are mingled, and people accept the presence of both in their daily lives. How much of the novel is a metaphor for life in Latin America? Decide for yourself as you dive into this novel by the winner…

video: Creating a Culture — The Story Begins

…explore the concept of culture, what the different components are that go into establishing a culture. We start by studying Canadian, Native American, pre-Columbian, and American history. Then students devise a culture as they would like to see it, within the limitations of a tropical island. Lisa Kindall, Theatre Teacher The sixth-graders came to me…

video: Making a Difference Through Giving

Video Summary: How do you teach students to become effective citizens? How can young children make positive contributions to their community? Darlene Jones-Inge challenges her fourth- and fifth-grade students to think of realistic solutions to some of the problems facing their school, community, country, and the world. Ms. Jones-Inge begins with a class discussion about…

video: A Standards Overview, 6-8

Lessons from grade 6–8 classrooms illustrate how the NCSS standards and themes can be integrated into the middle school curriculum. Middle school teachers explore a number of expectations and outcomes in their lessons and build on the fundamentals established in the elementary grades. Themes of civics, political science, and history begin to take on more…

section: Poetry of Liberation – Activities

lesson: Leslie Marmon Silko (b. 1948)

…writer. She published Laguna Woman, a collection of poems, in 1974 and her first novel, Ceremony, in 1977. In many ways Ceremony was a Laguna answer to N. Scott Momaday’s Pulitzer prize-winning House Made of Dawn. Like Momaday, Silko weaves myth, history, and personal recollection, but in Ceremony the importance of the feminine landscape replaces…

section: Art: The Triumph of Juliers from the Marie de’ Medici Cycle

…France, and daughter of the grand duke of Tuscany and archduchess of Austria, Marie desired a series that would commemorate her own achievements. By mixing allegory and history, Rubens—with the assistance of Marie herself—crafted a magnificent collection of heroic images marking the significant moments in the queen mother’s life. The Marie de’ Medici Cycle was…

video: Native Voices

Native Americans had established a rich and highly developed tradition of oral literature long before the writings of the European colonists. This program explores that richness by introducing Native American oral traditions through the work of three contemporary authors: Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo), and Luci Tapahonso (Navajo).

section: Art: Portrait of Woman Wearing Corset

» Unknown artist, United States Portrait of Woman Wearing Corset Artist / Origin: Unknown artist, United States Region: North America Date: ca. 1899 Period: 1800 CE – 1900 CE Material: Photographic print Medium: Prints, Drawings, and Photography Location: Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress In…

lesson: Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932)

[4112] Anonymous, Two women hulling rice, Sapelo Island, Georgia (c. 1900), courtesy of the Georgia Department of Archives and History. Charles W. Chesnutt was a pioneer among African American fiction writers, addressing controversial issues of race in a realist style that commanded the attention and respect of the white literary establishment of the late nineteenth…

lesson: Diane Glancy (b. 1941)

[4203] Anonymous, Protest Against the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) (1970), courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection. Born in Kansas City, Diane Glancy is a poet, short story writer, playwright, and professor. She received her B.A. from the University of Missouri in 1964, her M.A. from Central State University in 1983, and…

video: Assessing Students’ Learning

video: Teaching for Understanding

section: Expert Interview Transcripts: Timothy Read

Assistant Researcher Read, is an assistant researcher with the Microbial Genetics Group at The Institute for Genomic Research in Maryland. In addition to examining the genome and evolutionary history of Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax, Read also explores microbial genes as potential drug targets….

video: Seminar Discussion

…Clinton Elementary School Chicago, Illinois Students in Dorothy Franklin’s urban Chicago classroom participate in a quarter-long study of Black History, spanning slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and modern events. In order to meet the needs of the diverse student population, including newly proficient ESOL students, special education students, and students reading at or above grade…

section: Online Textbook

video: Poetry of Liberation

For many, the 1960s mark the true end of modern America. Whereas the modernists remained serious about the transcendent nature of art, the artists of the 1960s wanted an art that was relevant. They wanted an art that not only spoke about justice, but also helped create it. This program explores the innovations made in…

video: Citing Evidence from Primary Sources to Support Arguments

In LeRoy Votto’s classroom, students read, annotate, write about, and discuss Wendell Phillips’s speech “The Philosophy of the Abolitionist Movement.” Teacher: LeRoy Votto School: The Urban School of San Francisco (Private), San Francisco, CA Grade: 10 Discipline: History (the Civil War) Lesson Topic: The abolitionist movement and its message Lesson Month: January Number of Students:…

section: Session Author and Literary Works: Keith Gilyard

…received an American Book Award in 1992. Gilyard is especially interested in language education for African Americans and other people of color. In his poetry and the books of essays he has edited, and particularly in his work Voices of the Self, he reflects on the rhetoric of race and on his personal history. Having…

video: Understanding Media: The Inside Story

video: Issues in Social Studies: Creating Effective Citizens

…views about how to meet that goal. Some educators use positive examples from history to provide a solid foundation for the principles of democratic citizenship. Others support this approach but add a rigorous examination of the issues that arise within a democracy. Both perspectives point to innovative ways of teaching students what effective citizenship entails…

video: Online Textbook and Video

This online textbook chapter supports and extends the content of the Evolution and Phylogenetics video. The chapter covers the evolution of phylogenetics as a field of study.

video: English in the Real World: A Sports Journalist

…that literacy plays in mathematics, science, history, and the English language arts in creating dynamic career paths. When students ask how these core discipline areas are relevant to their lives, this video series presents passionate professionals as career role models who are making a positive difference in the world. From the development of technical, social,…

section: Art: View of the gardens at Stourhead Estate

…picturesque gardens. As one roamed through the garden, one would come upon these architecture elements and be prompted to reflect on history, mythology, art, and literature. These references to bygone eras, moreover, suggested to the British a time when human beings, not yet overcome by the corruption and urbanity of the present day, lived in…

section: Southern Renaissance – Activities

section: Session Author and Literary Works: James Welch

…Reynolds Price has written that these two novels “provide steady and penetrating looks at young Indian men whose spiritual blight and psychic paralysis are not confined to reservation life but are universal in their nature and causes.” Welch’s most recent works, The Heartsong of Charging Elk and Killing Custer, draw on nineteenth-century, Native American history…

section: Art: Carnival au Cap Haitien

…Middle Ages, taking on various forms as it spread. As Christian Europeans established their presence in North and South America starting in the sixteenth century, they brought the tradition with them. Among indigenous populations, Carnival morphed further, often taking on political as well as religious significance. The history of Carnival in Haiti began with slave…

lesson: Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908)

…on the triumph of seemingly weak characters over their aggressors–are characterized by poetic irony and a subtle critique of oppression and prejudice (a critique that Harris may never have fully appreciated). Whatever his intentions, Harris’s work is undeniably important as a record of traditional African American folktales that might otherwise have been lost to history….

lesson: Bret Harte (1836-1902)

[3707] Louis Charles McClure, The Gold Miner (c. 1890), courtesy of Denver Public Library, Western History Collection. At the height of his career, in the 1860s and 1870s, Bret Harte was one of the most famous and most highly paid American writers. His popular accounts of life in Gold Rush-era California, including short stories such…

section: Art: Mulackstrasse 37, Berlin from The Writing on the Wall, Projections in Berlin’s Jewish Quarter

…Artist Shimon Attie uses photography, video, and installation to restore the memory of people and events forgotten by history. In one of his best-known projects, The Writing on the Wall, Attie took his work to a once vital Jewish neighborhood in former East Berlin, where, he has said, he felt the latent presence of the…

section: My Name Is Red – Getting Started

…and of how style, identity, tradition, and the modern speak, affecting how a painter will make a single identifying mark―one line of a horse’s nostril, for instance―and how civilizations meet and change one another. Orhan Pamuk: “Historical novels are, I think, are about the age they were written. History is an excuse for talking about…

video: Blended Learning: Evaluating Source Material

…skills of annotation, sourcing, corroboration, and class discussion to evaluate the source materials at hand. Teacher: Andrea Gambino Rhodes School: Centennial Campus Magnet Middle School, Raleigh, NC Grade: 7 Discipline: History/Social Studies Lesson Topic: Innovation in the Industrial Revolution and the impact of the Industrial Revolution on society Lesson Month: November Number of Students: 30…

section: Art: Terracotta Army (detail) from the Tomb Complex of Qin Shi Huangdi

…of Qin Shi Huangdi, Xi’an, China Credit: Courtesy of the Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, California Qin Shi Huangdi (r. 246–210 BCE) is considered one the greatest military leaders of Chinese history. Initially king of the feudal “Warring State” of Qin, he eventually conquered and consolidated the rival states to establish the Qin Empire in 221…

lesson: Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

…Franklin’s story that his Autobiography is often considered, in literary critic Sacvan Bercovitch’s term, an auto-American-biography. That is, it functions as a narrative that constructs a kind of ideal American citizen, even conflating Franklin’s personal history with the founding of the nation. Born the youngest son in a family of fifteen, Franklin rebelled at an…

section: Art: Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587–1645), Count-Duke of Olivares

…cm). Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Credit: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund The equestrian portrait has a long history in European art going back to antiquity. Over succeeding centuries, the form found its way from sculpture to painting and was reinterpreted according to changing values. In ancient…

section: Compare: Why Make More Than One Copy of a Portrait?

…possible for us to produce infinite copies of our portraits, while programs such as Photoshop allow us to restyle those portraits to our hearts’ content. But the desire to replicate and alter portraits is in no way a twenty-first-century phenomenon. Throughout world history, people have sought ways to do these very things. However, as the…

section: Patriotism and Foreign Policy — Teacher Perspectives

Alice Chandler teaches U.S. government to seniors at Duke Ellington High School of The Arts in Washington, D.C. She was interviewed in relationship to her lesson on patriotism and foreign policy in which the students worked in committees to design a Museum of Patriotism and Foreign Policy.

lesson: Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

…did not please many of her fellow writers in the 1920s and 1930s, and Hurston died in poverty and total anonymity. However, Hurston’s prominent position in American literary history today suggests that perhaps she was more prescient than she could have known. After spending the first thirteen years of her life in Eatonville, Hurston was…

section: Compare: How Can Art Help Us See the Spiritual in Nature?

…spiritual world finds expression in art across cultures throughout history. For the Confucian artist like Guo Xi, the landscape was a place of retreat, where the viewer could find spiritual solace and refreshment without compromising his civic responsibilities. For the Christian artist like Patinir, the landscape was largely symbolic—a representation of a world that simultaneously…

section: Patriotism and Foreign Policy — Student Perspectives

The students whose interview comments are excerpted below were seniors in a one-semester course in U.S. government at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, a magnet high school in Washington, D.C. Here they discuss their experiences creating a Museum of Patriotism and Foreign Policy.

section: Compare: How Has Technology Impacted the Relationship Between Word and Image?

…cm.) Location: Otto Vollbehr Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress/Photo by Octavo How has technology impacted the relationship between word and image? The invention of moveable type in the fifteenth century was a watershed moment in history. The ability to produce printed…

video: Becoming Visible

Ethnic Writers and the Literary Mainstream, 1945-1969 This episode guides the viewer through the works and contexts of ethnic writers from 1945-1965. Starting with the works of Ralph Waldo Ellison, Philip Roth, and N. Scott Momaday, we explore the way writers from the margins took over the center of American culture….

section: Art: Suijin Shrine and Massaki on Sumida River from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

…scene confirm that it is spring. Well-known places in and around Edo (present-day Tokyo) often had seasonal associations and the practice of linking certain motifs with certain seasons had a long history in Japanese art. Although Hiroshige followed these conventions in many of the scenes from One Hundred Famous Views, he reinvigorated them through his…

section: Compare: Why Has the Modern City Inspired so Many Artists?

…do you think the artist feels about these changes? Caillebotte’s street scene might be described as more naturalistic, while most people would talk about Boccioni’s work as more abstract in form. How does each artist’s style help to express his distinct vision of urban life? In the history of European art, especially, cities have long…

video: Watch the Program

(60 Minutes) While you watch, consider these focus questions: Lesson 1: Influences of the Past What historical references might have influenced Quidam? What role does history play in the ideas that artists have? Lesson 2: The Power of Costume What do costumes symbolize or represent in various works of art? How is a costume a…

video: Science in the Real World: A Biotech Startup

…that literacy plays in mathematics, science, history, and the English language arts in creating dynamic career paths. When students ask how these core discipline areas are relevant to their lives, this video series presents passionate professionals as career role models who are making a positive difference in the world. From the development of technical, social,…

section: Art: La quema de los Judas (The Burning of the Judases)

…tradition in Mexico of using the Judases as a vehicle for social satire and political protest. For this reason, they were banned by those in power at various points in the country’s history. Rivera’s scene is simultaneously dark and playful, condemnatory and celebratory. The “Judases” in his mural are a suit-wearing politician, a heavily armed…

section: Art: The Five Scrolls

…form, in Herlingen’s work, carefully positioned lines of text form the ornamental border and white passages dividing the sheet into discrete segments. Micrography is part of a tradition in Judaism that tends to shy away from figurative representation in favor of art that focuses on the word as the embodiment of sacred history and teachings….

section: Compare: Where Is the Line Between “art” and “craft”?

…quilt with Mary Lee Bendolph’s raises many questions about not just art, but also art history. Questions to Consider Both of these quilts were created through a technique known as piecing. The design produced in each, however, is strikingly different. Compare the two designs and their visual effects. What does each say about the aesthetic…

section: Art: Venus Table from the Dresden Codex

…a source of information and a carrier of meaning. In the sixteenth century, Spanish missionaries led by Bishop Diego de Landa attempted to wipe out native cultural traditions and religious systems by destroying books and other records of Maya history. As a result, only a handful of ancient Maya codices are known today. The Dresden…

video: The God of Small Things

This video introduces the world of caste, where people are born into a certain level of society and mingle with others on pain of death. You’ll see a culture struggling with the burdens of the past yet reaching for a new future, and hear from passionate readers of the novel. All Video on Demand files…

lesson: Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

[4768] Aaron Douglas, The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1941), courtesy of The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art. Langston Hughes stands as one of the most prolific writers in American history: he wrote poetry, two novels, two autobiographies, three volumes of short stories, several plays and musicals, over twenty years of newspaper columns,…

video: Identifying Evidence from Multiple Sources

Jesse Gore teaches students how to analyze evidence from primary and secondary sources in order to defend ideas. Teacher: Jesse Gore School: Dillard Drive Middle School, Raleigh, NC Grade: 7 Discipline: History Lesson Topic: Napoleon Bonaparte: A hero or a tyrant? Lesson Month: November Number of Students: 28…

unit: Reading: Big Ideas

Introduction Reading is a complex process that involves interactions among the reader, the text, and the context. Meaning does not reside solely on a page of text, with the intent that the reader will extract meaning from that page. Rather, meaning is actively constructed by what the reader brings to the text and how this…

lesson: William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

…title as its locale and chronicles the history of the people and place from its inception to the present. Williams draws on Joyce’s circular structure in Finnegans Wake and echoes Eliot’s use of the modern city in The Waste Land, but the specifically American diction and emphasis on the particular render it starkly original. One…

unit: Big Ideas in Literacy – English

…several types (novels, memoirs, biographies, plays, poetry, editorials), written at different points in history and for varied audiences. They engage in reading and critical analysis of written text and oral text (speeches, debates). With respect to both written and oral language, students are readers and listeners as well as writers and speakers, creating stories and…

section: Commentary

section: Authors and Literary Works

lesson: Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612-1672)

[1219] Anonymous, The Mason Children: David, Joanna, Abigail (1670), courtesy of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, 1979.7.3. Anne Bradstreet was born in England in 1612 to well-connected Puritan parents. Her father, Thomas Dudley, was unusual in his commitment to teaching his daughter literature, history, and…

section: Compare: Why Do We Decorate Sacred Text?

…1/16 in. (53.5 cm.), W: 22 in. (55.9 cm.) Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Credit: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund Why do we decorate sacred text? Throughout history, art and writing have had a special relationship to religion. Many of the world’s major religions have used art…

video: Borrowing From the Arts To Enhance Learning

Fifth-grade students designed visual representations of their own personal histories at Browns Mill Elementary School in Lithonia, Georgia. Teachers use arts-based techniques to engage their students’ minds, bodies, and emotions, adding vitality and context to day-to-day learning experiences: At Maria Mitchell Elementary School in Denver, Colorado, Penny Suazo raises achievement in her class of active…

section: Compare: When It Comes to the Art of Writing, How Important Is Legibility?

…Books Dimensions: H: 7 ½ in. (19.1 cm.), W: 6 in. (15 cm.) Location: Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Credit: Courtesy of Bridgeman Art Library When it comes to the art of writing, how important is legibility? Although we tend to regard the primary function of text as the communication of content, throughout history we find…

lesson: Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810)

…three different periodicals and became increasingly interested in politics and history. Brown’s gothic romances, which delve into the uncertainties and contradictions of human nature, were among the first important novels published in the United States. Fascinated by states of altered consciousness, such as sleep-walking and religious enthusiasm, he influenced the later psychic excavations of Edgar…

video: Facilitating Discussion

…dilemmas presented by the text. Ms. Schnabl believes that integrating subject areas makes learning meaningful for students and tries to find ways to connect themes from science and history with their reading. She contextualized Among the Hidden within a class theme centered on the tensions between government limits and personal freedoms by helping the class…

video: Dramatic Tableaux

…study, historical fiction, in which they are expected to see how realistic characters change when some element of history influences their lives. Tableaux helps kids become part of the book, create personal responses to the literature, and connect with the characters, conflicts, and plot in a meaningful way. For resources that can help you use…

section: #1069

Carrying placards, 18 persons staged a demonstration in front of Lincoln High School at the fall semester opening in a protest against the lack of counseling services and educational opportunities for Mexican American students. It was the first such demonstration in Los Angeles history….

lesson: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

…War, and his tragic death have afforded him iconic stature within the annals of American history and made him a hero to many. Lincoln had little formal schooling and was mostly self-educated, eventually training himself in the law. After setting up a successful legal practice in Illinois, he became interested in politics and was elected…

lesson: Ghost Dance Songs

[4219] Western Photograph Company, Gathering Up the Dead at the Battlefield of Wounded Knee, South Dakota (1891), courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution. One of the most tragic events in Native American history was the massacre of some two hundred Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge reservation, on…

section: Compare: Why Might Individuals Document Their Personal Histories in Art?

…history of countries, communities, or institutions. It can also serve biographical or autobiographical purposes, relating the life story of an individual in order to teach a lesson, commemorate that person’s accomplishments, or assert the subject’s claims to a certain title or position. The Cheyenne ledger drawing and the image from the Medici series seen here…

video: Blended Learning: Purposeful Instruction

Andrea Gambino Rhodes discusses the ways in which she chooses primary sources to frame her lesson to engage students, such as by using an infographic and selecting sources according to student strengths and interests. Teacher: Andrea Gambino Rhodes School: Centennial Campus Magnet Middle School, Raleigh, NC Grade: 7 Discipline: History/Social Studies Lesson Topic: Innovation in…

timeline: The God of Small Things – Map & Timeline

…this small region of southern India, Kerala. It is far from the big, glamorous cities in the north and east, a seemingly sleepy backwater where terrible human dramas are played out. This timeline shows both Roy’s life and the history of religion, war, and politics that influenced the writing of The God of Small Things….

section: Compare: How Can Art Aid in the Reconciliation of New and Old Beliefs?

…How can art aid in the reconciliation of new and old beliefs? Through trade, travel, conquest, and missionary zeal, Christianity has spread around the globe. Along the way, it has been adapted and interpreted according to the values, beliefs, and needs of various populations at different points in history. The art produced when Christianity has…

unit: Series Resources

Essential Lens provides the following resources to support teaching and learning with photographs: A Brief History of Photography was written by Essential Lens advisor and photography historian, Dr. Makeda Best. The Guide to Researching Photographs has researching tips for making the best use of online photograph collections. Focus In Activity explores the step-by-step process for…

section: Teaching Strategies

section: Art: Lintel 25 of Yaxchilán Structure 23

…the sculptural door lintels that were commissioned by the city’s rulers and are believed to document their history. A lintel is the horizontal beam that spans the opening between two upright architectural elements. This particular lintel (referred to by current day archaeologists as lintel 25) was located above the central doorway of a palace structure…

section: Art: Coronation Sword and Scabbard of the Kings of France

…the French army, who held it point up for the remainder of the proceedings. As with many royal ceremonial objects, the sword, with its golden handle and gemstone-encrusted scabbard, was visually magnificent. It was also laden with historical associations. Though rooted in myth and legend, the history of the sword added to its potency as…

video: Ezra Pound

…personality and the political views he expressed during World War II. Pound saw the poet as a “guide and lamp of civilization,” and into his best-known work, the 800-page Cantos, he poured his knowledge of philosophy, economics, art, and history. However divided his critics, Pound’s bold theories and poetic experiments set the standards of modernism….

section: The God of Small Things – Getting Started

…twin siblings Rahel and Estha experience full immersion in their large, diverse, unique, and typical family. Grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, cousins and siblings all play a role in shaping the world of the twins, for better and for worse. Each family member’s life is affected by politics, history, and culture clash, and while each…

lesson: Toni Morrison (b. 1931)

…and Toni Cade Bambara. Her novels include The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Jazz, and Sula. One of the most prominent African American woman authors in the nation’s history, Morrison was the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize, which she did in 1993. Morrison is best known as the author…

section: Compare: Can Art Contribute to the Formation of Bodily Ideals?

…bodily beauty and perfection are not universal. Rather, they are constructs of particular people at particular moments in history. Since ancient times, art has been a means of refining, codifying, and representing these ideals. Both Polykleitos’s Doryphoros and Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man offered other artists standards after which to model their own works. These works, in…

lesson: Leslie Feinberg (1949 – 2014)

…in a society that provides no models and no safe refuge for her. Thus, even as its startling depictions of brutality and cruelty may be uncomfortable for some readers, the novel answers a need in the queer community for testimonials that establish a common history and reveal stories that had for so long remained untold….

section: A Brief History of Photography

Dr. Makeda Best Boulevard du Temple. 1838-1839. Paris, France. (Louis Daguerre) During the 1830s, two different kinds of photographic images developed in France and England. The metal-based and mirror-like daguerreotype was invented in France in the 1830s by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce. The daguerreotype, named after Daguerre, who introduced it to the world in…

video: Using Resources

section: Art: “Battle of Lanka, between Rama and Ravana, King of the Rakshasas” from the Ramayana

…exploits of Rama, the king of Ayodha and the seventh incarnation of the god Vishnu. Like the Greek epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, these two Indian works offer accounts of a mythological past in which supernatural forces were alive in the world and gods populated the realm of mortals. Rather than a history to…

section: Rights and Responsibilities of Students — Lesson Plan

The Lesson Plan section contains everything you will need to fully understand the featured lesson. It has the following sections: Context presents background information on the teacher, the school, and the course in which the lesson was taught; Lesson-Specific Standards identifies the national standards from the Center for Civic Education and the National Council for…

section: Compare: What Happens When Art Is at the Center of Conflict?

…they differ in nature from the kinds of images that were destroyed in each case? Within both Christian and Islamic religious traditions, attitudes and approaches toward images have varied over time, across geographic regions, and among distinct groups of people. Why is it important to consider these variations in thinking about the history of art?…

lesson: Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

…Library in New York, where she investigated documents related to United States Indian policy starting from the Revolutionary period. She gathered her findings together into a book, A Century of Dishonor (1881), narrating the history of cultural insensitivity, dishonest land dealings, and devastating violence that the American government had perpetrated upon various Indian tribes. Her…

lesson: Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

…of Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. However, unlike most of his famous contemporaries, Poe rarely described American life in any direct way in his writings. Often set in exotic, vaguely medieval, or indeterminately distant locations, Poe’s work seems more interested in altered states of consciousness than history or culture: his characters often…

lesson: Audre Lorde (1934-1992)

…the African American community. She draws inspiration from African history and myth, and many readers consider her best poetry to be those works that deal most closely with myth. Lorde’s poems are not just directed at her own race; indeed, much of her work, often termed protest poetry, is laced with social criticism meant to…

lesson: William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870)

…and The Forayers (1855). Some of the raw material for these works no doubt came from Simms’s father, who was a soldier of fortune, wandering the South for years (leaving Simms in the care of a grandmother), eventually growing rich, and collecting stories and observations. Simms’s novels represent the history of the American South and…

lesson: Gary Snyder (b. 1930)

…and history. Snyder’s training in Zen Buddhism seems to unite his interest in foreign cultures, ancient ritual, and the serenity of nature; Asian influences in his work align him with Pound and Williams. Unlike Romantic poets, who used nature to mirror their emotions, Snyder does not use natural images to reflect his inner feelings, but…

section: Teaching Strategies

video: Social Justice and Action: Joseph Bruchac and Francisco Jiménez

This program begins with profiles of the featured authors, then moves on to Chicago, Illinois, where Lisa Espinosa’s seventh-grade students explore themes of representation through literature, documentary film, and photography. The students look critically at past and current media depictions of African Americans, Latino/as, and Native Americans, and examine ways in which artists and writers…

section: #592 Paris Liberation

U.S. soldiers of Pennsylvania’s 28th Infantry Division march along the Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe in the background, on Aug. 29, 1944, four days after the liberation of Paris, France. World War II began in September 1939 with Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland. He launched the Holocaust and history’s most destructive war, leaving 17,000,000…

timeline: Contemporary History – Key Events

section: Art: Racing Clocks Run Slow: Archaeology of a Racetrack

…these poignant historical events is elegiac and emotional. Racing Clocks Run Slow concerns a less tragic subject, but Attie still approaches it with sensitivity and respect for the history of an institution that remains quite meaningful to its community many years after its closing. The Bridgehampton Auto Racetrack on Long Island, which shut its doors…

unit: Many Planets, One Earth

section: Art: Ka’ba

…marble and is covered by a black silk drapery called the Kiswa, which is replaced annually. Ritual prayer at the site focuses on the structure’s exterior. The interior is an essentially empty space ornamented only with calligraphic quotations from the Qur’an. The Ka’ba has a long history as a site of devotional practice. According to…

lesson: W. E. B. Du Bois (c. 1868-1963)

…form the first all-black protest movement in American history, the Niagara Movement, which was dedicated to direct action to end racial discrimination. By 1910, the Niagara Movement was folded into a new organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Du Bois was recruited to serve as the NAACP’s director of publicity and…

section: Rights and Responsibilities of Students — Essential Readings

About the National High School Mock Trial Championship by the National High School Mock Trial Championship, Inc. Matt Johnson’s students have participated in a variety of mock trials. This article sets out the history, purpose, and rules of the National High School Mock Trial Championship for those teachers considering participation… read more below…

section: Compare: What Is the Significance of Location in Ceremonies?

…overwhelming an audience through its enormity, costly materials, and visual opulence. Throughout history, rulers from different parts of the world have recognized that the backdrops for ceremonies can often be as effective in communicating power as the ceremonies themselves. Questions to Consider Here we see a page from a Mughal manuscript depicting an event at…

lesson: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)

…reflect a new concern with global affairs, as well as an increasingly caustic and pessimistic tone. Nonetheless, during the final years of his life, he found himself celebrated everywhere, attaining fame at home and abroad as a kind of living literary institution and firmly securing a place for himself in the history of American letters….

lesson: Alexander Posey (1873-1908)

[5168] Russell Lee, Street scene, Muskogee, Oklahoma (1939), courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USF33-012332-M3 DLC]. Alexander Posey recorded his insights into Creek Indian tribal politics and Native American customs in his poetry, journalism, and political satire. He lived through a crucial period in the history of the Creek Nation, when the tribe’s land base…

section: Compare: How Can Images Be Used to Structure Historical Narratives?

…a Norman patron might have commissioned English artists to make this work? From what you know about the Column of Trajan, do you have any reason to believe it was created by persons other than loyal Roman citizens? In general, how do you think the perspective of the artist might influence the telling of history?…

Should schools allow discussions of controversial issues? (Part I)

[OP-ED] On Saturday, August 9 in Ferguson, Mo., a police officer fatally shot Michael Brown, a young black man, sparking protests in the town and discussions about race and history across the United States. On August 21, Ed Week reported that the superintendent of a nearby school district banned the discussion of the events in…

lesson: Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941)

…Anderson’s best-known work is Winesburg, Ohio (1919), a collection of connected stories about residents of a small midwestern town. This work applied some of the experimental techniques of modernism (multiple perspectives and an interest in psychology in particular) to fiction and met with critical praise for its innovation and realism. Anderson’s style of storytelling is…

lesson: Life Span Development

You will learn about some of the biological, cognitive, and psychosocial developments that take place from birth across the life span. As you explore, keep in mind the following questions that are on the forefront of the developmental psychology: How do innate and environmental factors interact? What relationships exist between development in one period of…

lesson: Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980)

…World War II; and authored several children’s books. Rukeyser never wrote in any particular poetical form, but instead preferred to experiment with language and structure. Her intricate and complex verse addresses a wide variety of subjects, including anthropology, war, the environment, biology, psychology, religion, and social issues such as women’s rights, motherhood, lesbianism, and anti-Semitism….

video: Cognitive Processes

Interview Excerpt: Robert Glaser on Cognitive Processes Researcher Dr. Robert Glaser explains how the process of organizing knowledge in sophisticated patterns enables people to become experts. One of the studies we’ve conducted on cognitive processes involves trying to understand what it means for people to be an expert. First, we want to understand the performance…

video: Readers as Individuals

…in such workshops provide the glue that holds the classroom together. Students have to be clear about their short- and long-term obligations and be willing to accept individual responsibility for meeting them. Teachers have to come to such workshops with a wide range of knowledge about both young adult literature and adolescent psychology. In addition,…

section: Art: Dream, Caused by the Flight of a Bee (Around a Pomegranate, a Second Before Waking Up)

…Dalí and many other artists in the Surrealist group were extremely interested in psychology and the unconscious mind. They were particularly fascinated by the odd and even nonsensical juxtapositions that occur in the dream state. Many of the Surrealists were adherents to the ideas of Sigmund Freud, whom Dalí met in the late 1930s. Following…

lesson: Henry James (1843-1916)

…him was best achieved not by chronicling material conditions but rather by examining the subjective, psychological complexities of human beings. His interest in psychology led him to develop the use of limited third-person narration, which is often regarded as one of his major contributions to American fiction. By relying on narrators who are not omniscient…

unit: Seeing Others from the Self

section: Gothic Undercurrents – Activities

unit: Different Brains

unit: The Unity of Emotion, Thinking, and Learning

video: Introduction to the Video Library

unit: Implications For Schools

video: The Self

Experiment: How Self-Efficacy Affects Performance In this program, psychologists study elements that influence how we view ourselves. We’ve learned from their research that our attitudes play an important role in our abilities. In program 12, Motivation and Emotion, we learned that optimists perform better than pessimists do. Similarly, people who have a better view of…

video: Testing and Intelligence

Interview Excerpt: Howard Gardner on Multiple Intelligences Dr. Howard Gardner defines mulitiple intelligences and explains how the theory represents intelligences not measured by traditional IQ tests. The theory of multiple intelligences argues against the idea that intelligence can be accurately measured with just an IQ test. If you look at the world around you and…

video: Sex and Gender

Experiment: Developmental Gender Study Some of the most basic differences between the sexes are revealed at a very young age. These findings raise a central question: Are gender differences and behaviors learned or innate? Developmental neuroscientist Dr. Michael Meaney of McGill University studied the gender roles in young vervet monkeys and Norway rats at play….

video: Constructing Social Reality

Interview Excerpt: Steven Hassan on the Power of Cults and the Myths Surrounding Them Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Cult Expert Steven Hassan addresses the factors that enable cults to gain and control the minds of followers. My definition of a cult is a pyramid-structured, authoritarian group or relationship where deception, recruitment, and mind control…

video: Maturing and Aging

Test Yourself: Myths and Realities About Old Age As the human life span increases, the elderly make up a greater part of the general population. We know more about the physical and mental effects of aging than ever before, and yet outdated cultural ideas about old age are pervasive, and often influence how we view…

video: Cognitive Neuroscience

Essay: Understanding Cognitive Neuroscience The experiments in this program help illustrate not only the brain’s flexibility and responsiveness, but also how we measure these responses and changes. Through a variety of instruments, doctors are able to take pictures of the brain, but only as recently as the 1990s did functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) make…

video: Psychopathology

Experiment: The Genetics of Schizophrenia Psychopathology is defined as the study of any significant behavioral or psychological syndrome that impairs an individual’s daily functioning in society. The current dialogue among doctors and researchers treating mental disorders explores the intersection of genetics and environment in major mental illnesses. In their study of schizophrenia, a psychotic breakdown…

video: Psychotherapy

Interview Excerpt: Hans Strupp on Psychodynamic Therapy Dr. Hans Strupp discusses the elements necessary from both patient and therapist for successful psychotherapy. The key ingredients of successful psychotherapy are a patient who can work in therapy, a therapist who can work with his or her patient, and a relationship between the two that makes it…

unit: Different Learners, Different Minds

video: The Mind Awake and Asleep

Essay: The Anatomy of Dreams “Sleep…knits up the raveled sleave of care.” —William Shakespeare On average, we are asleep for a third of our total life span. In addition to its overall restorative role, sleep also simultaneously engages and restores the brain. Sleep researchers have discovered that the brain is surprisingly active during sleep. Dream…

video: The Mind Hidden and Divided

Interview Excerpt: Jonathan Schooler on Discovered Memory and False Memory Dr. Jonathan Schooler describes how the brain’s susceptibility to false memories can make it difficult for people to distinguish actual from imagined experiences. Discovered memory refers to situations in which people believe they have suddenly remembered a long-forgotten memory. These memories may be of any…

video: Motivation and Emotion

Interview Excerpt: Martin Seligman on Optimism and Pessimism Dr. Martin Seligman describes how attitudes of optimism and pessimism influence job performance. In our research on the roles of optimism and pessimism, we conducted studies in the workplace. We looked for a demanding field in which there were a lot of challenges, frustration, and rejection. The…

video: Behavior Disorders of Childhood

video: Remembering and Forgetting

Essay: The Biology of Memory Memory is defined as stored information. When we take in information — a lecture, for example — neurotransmitters in the brain are working to filter and store the information in memory. While it sounds simple, memory is a complex and dynamic process that relies on a series of factors. At…

video: Learning

…reinforce the choices that lead to self-control. Parallel human experiences include healthy behavioral changes such as cultivating good exercise habits, quitting smoking, or finding alternative outlets for anger and stress. Mary Ann Chapman expands on Dr. Rachlin’s findings, and how the principles of operant conditioning can be used to overcome bad habits or addictions. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199909/bad-choices…

video: Sensation and Perception

Interview Excerpt: David Hubel and the Visual Pathway Dr. David Hubel explains how cellular structures in the nervous system create the visual pathway between eyesight and brain processing. In order to understand what we mean by pathway, you need to understand that cells are clustered in the nervous system. They’re aggregated into groups the size…

video: Language Development

Interview Excerpt: Daniel Slobin on Patterns in Language Development Dr. Slobin discusses how grammatical errors offer insights into how children use patterns in language development. One of our main concerns as psycholinguists is figuring out the strategies that children use to discover the grammar of their languages. If you ask ordinary parents how their child…

unit: Conclusion: A Community of Educators

unit: Teachers & Lesson Plans

video: The Developing Child

Interview Excerpt: Judy Deloache on Symbolic Reasoning Researcher Judy Deloache describes how children’s recognition of scale models as representations reflects development of symbolic reasoning. One of the most distinctive human characteristics is the ability to understand and use symbols. We have a variety of symbol systems in our everyday lives. We use language, we read,…

video: The Behaving Brain

Essay: The Brain and Amnesia The human brain is an extraordinarily complex organ made up of different regions and parts, each with its own function. Chemical molecules and electrical impulses constantly flow between regions of the brain, sending signals and messages to other parts of the brain and body. Much like an orchestra, brain functioning…

video: Modernist Portraits

Jazz filled the air and wailed against the night. Caught in the sway, American prose writers sought out the forbidden – the slang, the dialects, and the rhythms of the folk and of everyday life. Writers such as Hemingway, Stein, and Fitzgerald forged a new style: one which silhouetted the geometry of language, crisp in…

video: Reducing Poverty (Microeconomics)

After the Great Depression President Franklin D. Roosevelt put forth a social security program, using money from employer/employee wages. In 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Welfare Reform Act, providing childcare assistance for mothers in the work force. The Perry School for Community Services, a Washington, D.C. poverty-reduction program, offers after-school programs for kids and…

section: Civic Engagement — Teacher Perspectives

Bill Mittlefehldt teaches human geography, a social studies elective, to juniors and seniors at Anoka High School in Anoka, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. During the nine-week course, students work in teams on a service-learning project in which they identify a community issue related to their curriculum, select a community partner whose work…

video: Expectations for Success: Motivation and Learning

“A lot of times people think about motivation as something that the student has – she’s either motivated or un-motivated. But we actually know that motivation is a function of what happens in classrooms. The way teachers construct tasks, the way they let students know about their competence, the way they scaffold and support developing…

section: Candide – Connections

In the Images of World Literature slideshow, you saw images inspired by Candide. Here at Connections, you can find varied interpretations, analyses, and performances of the story of the best of all possible worlds….

video: Watch It, Do It, Know It: Cognitive Apprenticeship

“A cognitive apprenticeship sort of takes off from where candle-makers and cloth-makers left off in the days gone by, and says ‘How do we teach someone by modeling and demonstrating a way of thinking, a way of “working in our minds?” ” Linda Darling-Hammond Key Questions How can students learn to think strategically? How can…

video: Feelings Count: Emotions and Learning

“How students feel affects whether and how they can learn. If they’re anxious or fearful they’re not going to be able to take in information. Teachers not only can learn to create a safe environment they can learn to develop emotional intelligence. The students actually gain the skills of managing their emotions, solving conflicts, and…

section: Things Fall Apart – Key Points

video: Pulling It All Together: Creating Classrooms and Schools That Support Learning

“As our standards go up, as we aim to educate all kids effectively, we need to put together all of the pieces of learning theory that we’ve acquired over this last century into settings where kids are supported – where they’re scaffolded, where they’re challenged, where they’re motivated, where they have the opportunity to learn…

video: A Better Brain: The Ethics of Neuro-Enhancement

As our story begins, Maria, a teacher, sits at a school assembly, where a graduate who now works at Hype Pharmaceuticals describes a new drug called Alerta. Developed for people with narcolepsy, it allows someone to forego sleep for extended periods of time. Maria doesn’t have narcolepsy—she is perfectly healthy, in fact—but she does have…

video: Word Study and Fluency

Learning Goals At the end of this session, you will better understand: concepts and research-based principles of effective work-study the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics why fluency is important in beginning reading instruction issues and controversies in word study instruction Factors Related to This Session Emergent literacy Phonics Accuracy and fluency   “We don’t…

section: Regional Realism – Activities

video: Social Realism

Class Consciousness in American Literature, 1875-1920 This program presents the authors of the American Gilded Age, such as Edith Wharton, and juxtaposes them with social realists like Anzia Yezierska. These writers expose the double world that made up turn-of-the-century New York: that of the elite and that of the poorest of the poor. Which of…

section: Civic Engagement — Lesson Plan

The Lesson Plan section contains everything you will need to fully understand the featured lesson. It has the following sections: Context presents background information on the teacher, the school, and the course in which the lesson was taught; Lesson-Specific Standards identifies the national standards from the Center for Civic Education and the National Council for…

unit: Bringing It All Together – Mathematics

Introduction You have now had a number of opportunities to consider what it looks like to incorporate the disciplinary literacy practices of reading, writing, speaking, and listening into mathematics classrooms. As a way to revisit what it means to engage in these disciplinary literacy practices, solve the Harvesting the Field Problem [PDF], drawing on the…

lesson: Approaches in Practice

To begin, you will learn about these approaches and their unique perspectives on human nature and psychological disturbance. Then, you will put each into practice for a common psychological disorder.

video: Psychological Factors and Physical Illness

video: The Locus of Learning and Memory

lesson: Children’s Ideas About the Solar System

Below are common ideas children in grades K-6 have about this topic, compiled from research on children’s ideas about science (see the Session 1 Children’s Ideas Bibliography). Consider what evidence might refute this idea, and why a child would be likely to believe this? 1. Children’s theories of the origin of the solar system and…

video: Frontal Lobes and Behavior: The Story of Phineas Gage

section: Art: Andy Warhol

» Alice Neel (American, 1900–1984) Andy Warhol Artist / Origin: Alice Neel (American, 1900–1984) Region: North America Date: 1970 Period: 1900 CE – 2010 CE Material: Oil on canvas Medium: Painting Dimensions: H: 60 in. (152.4 cm.), W: 40 in. (101.6 cm.) Location: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Credit: Photo courtesy of…

video: Looking at Abnormal Behavior

video: The Nature of Stress

video: The Anxiety Disorders

video: Personality Disorders

video: The Responsive Brain

Experiment: The African Cichlid Fish Dr. Russell Fernald is a neuroethologist at Stanford University. Neuroethology integrates brain science with the study of behavior in natural habitats. The goal is to illustrate the interaction among brain, behavior, and environment. Dr. Fernald’s long-term work focuses on the African cichlid fish and how its social system regulates not…

video: Substance Abuse Disorders

video: Sexual Disorders

program: The Human Brain

Your brain can be considered the most complex organ in your body and the centerpiece of your nervous system. Although your brain works as a unified whole, neuroscientists can identify areas within it that perform specific functions. Your brain is organized into three interconnected layers: the central core, limbic system, and cerebral cortex, all of…

video: Mood Disorders

video: Organic Mental Disorders

video: Psychotherapies

video: An Ounce of Prevention

section: Constitutional Convention — Essential Readings

The following essential readings are available below: Authentic Intellectual Work in Social Studies: Putting Performance before Pedagogy Assessment in a Social Contructivist Classroom  …