Teaching Authentically: Creating Curricula Centered in Historical Curiosity
Location
SU-216
Start Date
28-4-2023 9:40 AM
Department
Educational Inquiry and Curriculum Studies
Abstract
Working with professors of Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) and others in the educational community of Chicago I have participated in, helped host, and created and demonstrated educational materials for the Building A More Perfect Union: A Citizens’ View of the History and Culture of an African-American Neighborhood project, as endowed by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The goals of this project broadly are to a )facilitate the Bronzeville neighborhood to highlight its rich history and b) conjure historical pride and curiosity in its students and residents. As a more personal goal I sought to continue to develop skills centered around curriculum development that I will use as a public educator. There were two series of events, one focused on gathering community members' stories and the second, a series of professional development workshops for local teachers centered on teaching the history of Bronzeville through authentic processes (archival research and oral history collection). Though I participated in both, for the latter I was also a presenter, leading an hour and half long workshop on using the Chicago Defender Archives in the classroom. I also co-taught an hour-long workshop on assessments that empower student voice, in which I developed a model and tutorials for how to use podcasting to assess oral history material. For the teacher workshops I also compiled a resource guide that brought together the different materials from the workshop series. Lastly, as a wrap up to the Bronzeville teachers’ workshops, the Carruthers’ Center for Inner City Studies and Illinois Writers Project hosted a Writingpalooza for school aged children in Chicago where I led another hour and half long workshop, but this time with middle and high school students. Our topic was an introduction to oral history. Grant-funded, community-grounded, interdisciplinary projects like this evidence the power of history in action. They allow for personal expressions of historic pride and grief to be explored in the classroom, which is one place where we can work together to build a better union.
Faculty Sponsor
Jenny Ruth Dawley Carr, Northeastern Illinois University
Teaching Authentically: Creating Curricula Centered in Historical Curiosity
SU-216
Working with professors of Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) and others in the educational community of Chicago I have participated in, helped host, and created and demonstrated educational materials for the Building A More Perfect Union: A Citizens’ View of the History and Culture of an African-American Neighborhood project, as endowed by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The goals of this project broadly are to a )facilitate the Bronzeville neighborhood to highlight its rich history and b) conjure historical pride and curiosity in its students and residents. As a more personal goal I sought to continue to develop skills centered around curriculum development that I will use as a public educator. There were two series of events, one focused on gathering community members' stories and the second, a series of professional development workshops for local teachers centered on teaching the history of Bronzeville through authentic processes (archival research and oral history collection). Though I participated in both, for the latter I was also a presenter, leading an hour and half long workshop on using the Chicago Defender Archives in the classroom. I also co-taught an hour-long workshop on assessments that empower student voice, in which I developed a model and tutorials for how to use podcasting to assess oral history material. For the teacher workshops I also compiled a resource guide that brought together the different materials from the workshop series. Lastly, as a wrap up to the Bronzeville teachers’ workshops, the Carruthers’ Center for Inner City Studies and Illinois Writers Project hosted a Writingpalooza for school aged children in Chicago where I led another hour and half long workshop, but this time with middle and high school students. Our topic was an introduction to oral history. Grant-funded, community-grounded, interdisciplinary projects like this evidence the power of history in action. They allow for personal expressions of historic pride and grief to be explored in the classroom, which is one place where we can work together to build a better union.