(NOTE: Further related exhibits are available on request by contacting Michael Hutchison, Lincoln High School, 1545 South Hart Street Road, Vincennes Indiana, 47591)
Balloteers: Voting in the 21st Century (2000) (co-producer)
North American Quilt (1998, 1999, 2001) (member of teacher advisory group)
I also have authored several Surfing Shorts for OnlineClass, including "The History of Flight", "The American Civil Rights Movement", and "A Trip to Gettysburg"
(Co-editor, 1998-1999)
(Note: Virtual Blackboard was created in 1998 by an AT&T grant. I was approached to become one of two co-editors of the site, which I did until the funding ended in 1999. The site is still available, although it is no longer active. My duties as co-editor included promoting the site, recruiting teachers who were interested in developing "modules" and "web tours" for the site, and editing the modules contributors submitted. In 2001, the Virtual Blackboard site was merged into Tramline's Field-Trips site.)
The American Presidency: A Virtual Overview is a "module" I created for Virtual Blackboard in early 1999.
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Curriculum (2000-present)
The War (Broadcast date, 2007)
I contributed four lessons to the Ken Burns film on World War II. Lessons include:
The War Through the Eyes of Al McIntosh (A lesson in which students develop "home town" newspapers featuring stories during the war years)
D-Day: June 6, 1944 (A lesson where students evaluate the invasion strategy in an attempt to find the most suitable landing location for Allied forces)
Censorship (A lesson where students hold a mock trial to determine if the Chicago Tribune was negligent by publishing a story inferring that US forces had broken the Japanese military code prior to the Battle of Midway)
The Battle of the Bulge (A lesson in which students role-play US or German soldiers and write "letters home" where they describe conditions during the last German offensive of World War II.)
The Civil War (Re-air date, September, 2002)
See the lesson contributor biographies here
I also moderated a special TAPPED IN Social Studies forum featuring filmmaker Ken Burns in September, 2002. View the transcript of that session here.
Lessons I contributed to the web site include:
The Union's Grand Strategy (a map exercise about Union military strategy)
Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts (a lesson involving a letter the Union Colonel sent to his wife about the burning of the town of Darien, Georgia)
Civil War Music (a lesson comparing Union and Confederate songs)
Lee and Grant at Appomattox Court House (a lesson involving Grant's memoirs about the surrender)
Sherman's March to the Sea (a primary source lesson utilizing the lyrics to "Marching Through Georgia" and a report written by Sherman)
The Battle of Antietam (in this lesson, students analyze primary source materials as well as battle maps and develop "newspaper front pages" about the battle).
Other lessons for the series:
Lessons I created for the series were not selected for inclusion in the web site. Interested persons are welcome to download, print and use the lessons. (Note: answers are included, and it may be advisable to retype the questions.)
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Little Round Top is a lesson in which students analyze Chamberlain's report to his commanding officer about the events during this pivotal part of the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Words of Abraham Lincoln is a lesson in which students compare three Lincoln speeches... his 1862 Annual Message to Congress, his Letter to Mrs. Bixby (which was featured in the film "Saving Private Ryan", and the Gettysburg Address.
Billy Yank and Johnny Reb is a lesson that incorporates diary entries from two of the major characters in the series, Elisha Hunt Rhodes and Sam Watkins. Be sure to also access the related web page with excerpts from Rhodes' diary.
Well-Founded Fear (A "Point Of View" presentation, June, 2000)
I developed two lessons for this presentation about political asylum. Both lessons were designed for middle school/high school students. Each lesson is available in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) or .html format.
This link will allow the viewer to download each lesson in .pdf format (note, Adobe Acrobat is necessary to view the lessons in .pdf format.)
Each lesson is described below in .html format
Asylum "Talk Show": Students “role play” various persons in the case of the SS St. Louis to illustrate the historical evolution of asylum policy and the interaction between moral, ethical, and political issues and pressures in decisions concerning this policy.
Debate: America, Refugees and Asylum: After viewing the program, Well-Founded Fear, students will conduct a classroom debate on the topic: Resolved: US asylum policy regarding asylum status shall be eased in order to provide more refugees “safe haven” in this country.
Lost Liners (a PBS production, July, 2000): I developed three lessons on this production about three ocean liners that sunk "before their time", the Titanic, the Lusitania, and the Empress of Ireland.
"The Blame Game": This lesson is designed to help students investigate the sinking of the RMS Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by a German submarine while en route from the United States to England. Students will take various roles and act as an "international board of inquiry" to determine fault and responsibility for the sinking of the Lusitania.
"Bigger, Faster, Stronger, Higher" (Investigating Popular Faith In Technology): In this lesson, students analyze popular feelings and beliefs about two major disasters: the sinking of the Titanic (1912) and the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger (1986). Through their investigation, students will compile evidence about how much people respected, relied upon, and admired technological progress in the case of Titanic as well as Challenger, and draw conclusions about how these tragic disasters affected popular opinion about technology. In addition students are encouraged to examine their own lives, considering whether their own reliance on technology (computers, television, home appliances) is harmful or helpful.
"Titanic Artifact Activity": While the 1997 film provided moviegoers with an idea of the lifestyles of the first, second, and third class passengers who sailed aboard the ship on its maiden, and only voyage, the real stories and real artifacts show a much richer picture of what life was like at the dawn of the Twentieth Century. With this activity, students will investigate the lives and legacies of the passengers aboard the Titanic by analyzing their stories and the things they left behind when the great liner sank.
PBS Democracy Project: I wrote a student "challenge" for the PBS Democracy Project's "Build Your Own Campaign" contest during 2000, as well as provided two lesson plans for teacher/student use during the 2000 election campaign. I also wrote the for teachers wanting to use the various lessons.
PBS Democracy Project student challenge #4: "Exploring the Past". In this challenge, student teams attempt to mold a fictitious presidential candidate into a model president based on past presidential personalities.
(Students participating in these challenges were eligible to compete for a week's trip to attend a week-long US Government seminar in Washington, D.C. The competition ended in November, 2000; I was a judge to determine which student teams won the grand prize.)
Democracy Project lessons:
Is the Electoral College Out of Date?: In this lesson, students will act as a "constitutional convention" convened to propose and ratify amendments, particularly the system of presidential election. They will look at current research into the Electoral College and defend a position as to the future of the system. Then they will work toward a common goal of a feasible system of electing the president.
Voting Rights: What Age is Too Young?: In this activity, students will write letters to their state and/or national leaders either in support or against a fictitious proposed constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 18 to 16. While there is no current proposed amendment (at least none on the federal level), this is an opportunity for students to become involved in participatory democratic politics.
Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey: I wrote a "Model United Nations" lesson for this 2001 PBS production.
Educational Resource page and contributor biographies
Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town: I wrote two lesson plans for this 2001 production, which aired in June. (Note: Store Wars was nominated in late 2001 for an "Eddie" Award for K-12 Educational Content in the category of Best Companion Classroom Content for a national broadcast.)
Lesson contributors' biography page: http://www.pbs.org/storewars/teachers.html
Lessons I contributed to this production:
The
impact of Big-Box Stores on Ashland, Virginia (and on your town)
is a lesson in which students investigate the impact not only of
a Wal-Mart store in Ashland, but the impact of "big-box"
stores in their own communities. Included in the lesson is
a survey in which students investigate the negative and positive
impact of a large chain store as well as the relationship of
prices between locally owned stores and chain stores.
Role-Playing the Ashland/Wal-Mart Story is a "talk show" activity I developed for the program in which students take roles of various participants in the Ashland/Wal-Mart controversy. Included roles are the Ashland mayor, the leader of the "Pink Flamingos" (those local merchants opposed to the store), as well as others for/against the store.
NOW With Bill Moyers (2002) I contributed a lesson for a segment of the September 20, 2002 show entitled, “Distant Neighbors”,
regarding the lifting of the US trade embargo of Cuba.
(http://www.pbs.org/now/classroom/cuba.html)
Liberty!: The American Revolution (2004): I contributed six lessons for the re-airing of this PBS series.
Lessons include:
The Reluctant Revolutionaries which examined the conflicting views and convictions of various colonial groups during the early Revolutionary period.
The Declaration of Independence: An Analytical View, in which students investigated the merits and meaning of one of the most important historical documents in American history.
Washington and the Continental Army which investigated the impact the commander of American forces had on keeping his army together.
Factors That Handicapped the British investigated the problems that the empire had in fighting an extended war against the Americans.
Revolutionary War Music looked that the "meaning behind" several popular songs of the 18th Century as they related to the Revolutionary War.
Creating A New Nation concerned the issues and problems facing the new nation in regard to self-government, and anaylzed documents such as the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
Author information for Liberty! lessons
NOTE: A seventh lesson comparing the American experience during the Vietnam War with the British experience during the Revolutionary War was not used. It is included here for download.
Ken Burns American Stories, a 2002 PBS series:
I contributed a lesson for an upcoming re-airing of “Empire of the Air”, dealing with the impact of
the “Golden Age” of radio on American society.
The web page for "Empire of the Air" is located at: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/films/empire.html
The lesson is located at: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/empire/educators/
I also contributed three lessons for the re-airing of "Baseball" in May, 2003. (Note: new and updated lessons for this series will appear on the site in Fall, 2010. Lessons planned include updates on "Baseball Memories", "Mapping Baseball", and "Women in Baseball", as well as three new lessons, including "Baseball Museum Exhibits", "Dynasties and Lovable Losers", and "World War II and September 11, 2001: Baseball and Its Influence on the National Morale)
(NOTE: These lessons are dedicated to the memory of my father, who was a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan for years.)
Lessons include:
Baseball Memories is a lesson in which students interview a parent or other adult about memories of a baseball game they attended.
Mapping Baseball involves students charting movement of baseball franchises through the 1950s and '60s. It also involves creation of an "International Baseball Hall of Fame".
Women in Baseball includes a "talk show" which includes representative female baseball players from the 1940s on.
Horatio's Drive (2003) is a Ken Burns film about the first cross-country road trip in 1903. I contributed two lessons for this film.
Family Road Trips asks students to interview an adult about a vacation trip as an "oral history" activity.
New Frontiers asks students to compare the journey of Horatio Nelson Jackson and Sewall Crocker to the journey of Lewis and Clark 100 years before.
NOTE: One lesson was not selected for inclusion in the lesson materials. Teachers are welcome to view and use that lesson by clicking HERE. (This lesson deals with students comparing the inventions and innovations from 1903 with inventions and innovations from their lifetime in the early 21st Century.)
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2005) is a Ken Burns film about the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion, who spurred controversy throughout the early 20th Century. I contributed two lessons for this film.
Johnson, Louis, and Ali is a comparison study of the three famous boxers, each of whom excelled at their sport, but who also invited controversy or changed convention regarding how African-Americans were perceived or were expected to behave.
Press Perceptions of Jack Johnson asks students to evaluate how popular media of the early 20th Century objectively or subjectively covered Johnson's boxing career.
A third lesson, including a study of the early Civil Rights movement and comparison of the views of Booker T. Washington and WEB DuBois, was not selected for inclusion on the web site. It is available for viewing HERE.
Reporting America at War (2003) is a film which aired on PBS highlighting the role of war correspondents in conflicts since the Spanish-American War. I contributed three lessons for this film:
Debate: Press Censorship analyzes whether or not journalists should enjoy the same rights of free press in wartime as they do in peacetime.
The Death of Captain Waskow (by Ernie Pyle) is an in-depth look at one of the most famous columns by one of the most famous journalists of the World War II era... Ernie Pyle.
Orchestrated Hell evaluates a radio broadcast by Edward R. Murrow of CBS as he accompanied a Royal Air Force bomber crew on a mission over Berlin in December, 1943.
One lesson, "War Correspondents Hall of Fame" was not selected for the site. It can be downloaded by clicking on the link.
Destination America (2005) is a four part investigation of historic and current immigration trends in America. I contributed five lessons for the programs.
Lessons:
Freedom to Worship: In this lesson, students write "letters home" to their loved ones in Europe about religious freedom (and the lack of it) in their new homeland.
Freedom From Oppression: Students will explore historical and current genocides and develop "magazine (or newspaper) pages" reporting on their research. Students will also debate how the international community should react to genocide.
Freedom From Want: Students will examine the many problems immigrants have faced in trying to assimilate into American society. Students will use their research to write a "first person" account of the successes and failures these groups have in realizing the "American Dream."
Freedom From Fear: Students will learn about the process of applying for asylum through a mock trial involving the case of Rodi Alvarado.
Freedom to Create: Students will research foreign-born artists who came to America and the impact they had on American society and culture.
Beyond the Fire , is an interactive web site which highlights the plight of teenaged refugees from several war zones worldwide. I was the educational consultant for the site, and contributed two lessons.
Teenaged Refugees: Comparing Life Experiences compares the types of lifestyles and concerns teenaged refugees would have compared to "average" American students.
Child Soldiers divides students into groups to investigate the impact of forced military service on children as well as on their homeland.
PBS Concepts Across the Curriculum (July, 2004) I contributed several lessons for the Secondary lessons section of the July, 2004, theme, which was "Democracy Around the World".
Author information can be found HERE.
PBS Concepts Across the Curriculum (January, 2005) I contributed several lessons for the Secondary lessons section of the January, 2005, theme, which was "Great Leaders of the 20th Century"
Author information can be found HERE.
The Great War (Revamped web site, October, 2004) I contributed two lessons for the updating of this web site. The PBS series originally aired in 1996.
Lessons I contributed include:
Lesson #7: The Failed Peace (In this lesson, students investigate why it was impossible to maintain a lasting peace at the end of World War I.) (This lesson is also available in .pdf format.)
Lesson #8: The Legacy of the Great War (In this lesson, students investigate how the ethnic, social and political conflicts which sparked World War I and continued after the end of the war continued into the 21st Century.) (This lesson is also available in .pdf format.)
Vietnam Online (2005): I was a contributing author for the teacher's guide for the re-airing of a segment of Vietnam: A Television History, which aired in April, 2005 as part of the "American Experience" series.
RFK (American Experience, 2004): I was a contributing author for the teacher's guide for this American Experience presentation on the life of Robert F. Kennedy.
Social Studies School Service Document-Based Activities (Using Primary Sources and the Internet): I developed four sets of primary historic source units available for sale in late 2001 and early 2002. Included were World History lessons over World War II as well as American History lessons regarding the home front in World War II. In Spring, 2002, lessons on the Civil War and Writing the Constitution were added. Lessons on the Renaissance Era: Politics and Economics are now available.
Lessons on DBQ Practice: Ten AP-Style Document-Based Questions Designed to Help Students Prepare for the U.S. History Examination became available in February, 2003.
A second set of DBQ Practice Questions are now available. Ordering information can be found HERE.
Document-Based Activities on Civil Liberties (Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, and Due Process of Law)
Document-Based Activities for US History (Reconstruction, Cold War, and the 1950s) are now available.
Document-Based Activities for US History (Sectionalism and Progressivism and the Age of Reform) are now available.
Ordering information for the US History lessons can be found here.
Ordering information for the World History lessons can be found here.
Ordering information for the Civil Liberties lessons can be found here.
Lesson plan for the DVD version of the Ron Maxwell film Gettysburg. (Note: lesson is in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format.)
Big Ideas in American History is a Power Point presentation which highlights social, political, and economic "Big Ideas" in US History from the Revolutionary War era to modern times.
I also contributed several "Backward Planning Units" for US History, including "Writing the Constitution", "Slavery", "Sectionalism", "Civil War", "Reconstruction", "1920s", "Depresssion and New Deal", "World War II Home Front", "1950s", "Cold War", and "Civil Rights Movement". Information on the series can be found here.
US History Google Earth lessons are now available as well. These include "Lewis and Clark", "Texas and the Mexican War", "The Underground Railroad", "North and South in the Antebellum Era", "Transcontinental Railroad", "Immigrant Journeys", and "Cuban Missile Crisis. Information on the series can be found here.
World History Google Earth lessons, including "World War I", "World War II", "Holocaust", and "Cold War" will be available in late 2010.
Multimedia Learning (2005) I completed a Power Point presentation and ancilary materials on the Civil War. I also completed presentations on the Colonial Period as well as the American Revolution. Check HERE for information on purchasing the Civil War Power Point.
C-SPAN Road to the White House mini-lesson (February, 2004): I co-authored a lesson on the weekly "Road to the White House" series with Chris Carrier, a middle school special education teacher from California. This lesson dealt with strategies to get young people involved in the political process and to vote.
"Making History"is a 2008 story I wrote for Cable in the Classroom Magazine which highlighted lesson ideas and web-based resources students could use for the 2008 primary election campaign (February, 2008)
"Campaign Planning"is a 2008 follow-up story in Cable in the Classroom Magazine which highlighted stories of various resources and teacher interviews regarding the 2008 general election campaign (September, 2008)
"Using the World Wide Web in the K-12 Classroom" is a handout I created several years ago to distribute to teachers in my school district during professional development classes. Dr. Terrie Gray of ED's Oasis asked to see a copy, and she included it for download at her site. NOTE: it is necessary to download the Adobe Acrobat plug-in to view this file.
"Using Technology in a Social Studies Classroom": is an article I wrote for the "Well Connected Educator" in 1998 which highlights my 1997 "Modern Presidency" project. I'm honored to mention that this article has been linked to in several web sites, including several graduate course web sites which use it as an example of student web publication. It also has been featured in "Yahooligans" as well as other education web sites. I think it's a tribute to the students who worked on the "Modern Presidency" web projects that other education professionals consider the work they did effective enough to include in their own web sites and articles. Technology and Learning Magazine also included a link to this story in the article they did on me as a regional winner of their "Teacher of the Year" contest in 1999.
"The Busy Teacher's Guide to Using Classroom Technology": After several years of being able to utilize other web sites and resources, I felt it was time to let other teachers know about those web sites. The "Busy Teacher's Guide" was a good way to tell others about what was available that I had utilized.
Investigating the Civil War: A Multimedia Approach is a story I did for Technology and Learning Magazine's web site about my experiences working on the Civil War series, as well as projects my students did on that series.
In addition, I've written two "Curriculum Connections" pieces for Cable in the Classroom Magazine, The Nuremberg Trial (for a Court TV production), which appeared in the March, 1997 edition of the magazine, and Intimate Portrait: Golda Meir, which appeared in the May, 2001 edition of Cable in the Classroom. I also wrote a review of webquests for the April, 2003 edition of the magazine, and a "Meeting Standards" box on the Discovery Channel program "Israel and Palestine: The Roots of Conflict". I also wrote Curriculum Connection stories for Discovery Channel's "Russia: Land of theCzars". I also contributed a "Teaching Tip" segment on A&E Biography's presentation of "Harry Truman" in the June, 2007, edition of the magazine.
In 2007, I also wrote a "Meeting Standards" piece on C-SPAN's The Capitol, and in February, 2008, I wrote a feature story for the magazine called Making History, in which investigated Web 2.0 tools and the 2008 Presidential campaign.
I also contributed a review of Classroom Connect's American Memory Primary Sources software which was published in the October, 2001 edition of T.H.E. Journal.