Wondering what the President was doing on your birthday? Read his diary!

Most of the  Presidential Library sites have a "daily diary" section. For example: for a student born during the Clinton administration, here's the page: http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/potusschedules.html

TIPS for reading old handwriting.. play with these from Ancestry.com    It's a "crash course" on how to look at all those signatures & letters!  A great activity would be to let the kids try out making their own speech or writing their own letters using the handwriting of the past. Remind students that students in schools in the U.S. always had "handwriting class" and they spent hours on learning how to write clearly. 

Classroom / library activities / project ideas for students

1.

Select “ancestors” from the people studied throughout the course OR create an ancestor from among the pictures of any particular studied. Using primary source materials, collect pictures of your "ancestor", representative documents that detail their life (e.g. a passport, a military document, etc.) and arrange them in a collage, a book, a poster or other presentation package. Try some of the new 2.0 digital resources also.

(adapted from AP Resources 2005)

2.

Virtual "ancestors in a basket" : collect 25 to 30 "items" (documents, pictures of clothing, records or sound clips, pictures, etc.) on a particular decade. Create an online collage, voicethread, or other digital presentation on how these items represent your particular decade. 

(adapted from AP Resources 2005)

3. 

Similar to #2 above, write a story following the life of a person - real or imaginary - for whom those items are meaningful. Weave the items into the story.

4.

Monument project: Create a persuasive presentation (digital, print, or voice) to convince the President of a philanthropic organization that he/she should give you money to create a monument to your hero. Using primary resources, you must show why this person is worth of a monument, and you must include a description, either visual or audio, of a suggested design.

5.

Using Voice Thread, collect digital images from a particular time period; or poems; or documents and have students record information about the image, an analysis or the image, or tell a story about the image.  If using poetry or written documents, have students tell the story behind the document, something about the author, and a citation to where it was found.

(adapted from Timelines Summer institute)

6.

In Language Arts classes, use primary source images as story-starters. Images from the Farm Security Administration during the 1930's are excellent sources for rich imaginative stories.  L.A. classes can team up with History to create historical fiction stories using descriptions of the time/place.

7. Use a series of primary documents to introduce a time period or event that the class will be studying.  Ask questions, tell stories, tell them the background of the images you use and get them to look closely at the images to speculate on what it was like, or what event it may be showing.

8. Have students make a wordle or an image chef word cloud out of a speech or document. Then have them analyze the speech based on the possible theme that shows via the larger print...

This is an example of President Reagan's Berlin Wall Speech.

9. Likewise, create a wordle yourself and use it to introduce a new time period/unit e.g. "what issues seem to be important as portrayed in this word cloud?" ..."what can we infer about the time period?"  You can also use this during the unit to check in with students about the over-arching themes of the times.

10. Hmmmm, a wordle like this might make a good final exam question: "taking the themes as presented in this word cloud, explain why...... (your choice of what they should explain)

11. Try this: assign groups of 3-4 students. Give them each an object from a specific time period, event or location. For example an LP of Bob Dylan, a letter home from a soldier in Viet Nam, a photo of a hippie handing flowers to police.  Ask students to describe the objects - write down exactly what they see. Then ask them to compare/contrast the meaning of the objects in light of what they know about the time period.

From here you can move into history - discuss the effect of the war in Viet Nam on American life; discuss the political reasons for the Viet Nam war,etc.

You can move to language arts - have students take on the 'persona' of someone who may have used this object and write a short story, a letter or other creative writing task.

12. Have students create their own primary document: write a letter to their Congressperson, the President, or other elected official.

Here's a start on where to write... click on the image below to get to the "find your representative" website:

13. Give students the name of a person in history. Have student research the docs that support his/her life, professional contributions etc. Create a presentation of these docs.   Example: If researching Elizabeth Cady Stanton... ask: what documents would be important to show her life? Maybe the Declaration of Sentiments from Seneca Falls, her obituary, some of her writings, and some images. These can be found in many of the institutional sites: Library of Congress, Smithsonian, NARA, as well as other sites. Click on U.S History (right) and look those over!

14. Describe it in 10.  Have students work in groups of 3-5. Give them a photo. Have each group describe that photo in 10 words.  

          Things to do with this activity:

           1- have each group create a wordle. Share out with the class. Discuss/compare/contrast

           2- take those 10 words and create a 6-word poem.  You can add up to 3 "filler" words to help move it along logically. Post them around the room and on a wiki or other collaborative tool.  Send an invite to parents, other classes, your administrators, etc to "vote" on the top poems.

15. NARA's Constitution Project

16.  Not all primary sources are documents  - teach with:

There are many lessons here that utilize "material" history - excellent for hands-on ideas.

17. To continue with the idea of teaching with materials... bring in an old kitchen tool (I've used a potato ricer) and let the kids loose on what that's all about. Use the Library of Congress (or other) "unpacking" tool to open up ideas from students on what they're seeing, what it might have been used for, and speculate on the time period of it's use. 

19. Smithsonian: American Stories  - choose an era

       a. How do these objects tell the story of the era?

       b. Pick 3 objects; describe them, imagine their use. Then

           scroll down to read about them. Compare/contrast

           your thoughts, and what the text says about them.

       c. Choose 3 objects. Choose 3 similar objects from

           your life. Compare/contrast them

       d. Why do you think that the Smithsonian chose these

           objects to highlight? What objects would you

           add/ take away from this collection? Create your

           own collection of 5-6 objects that exemplifies

           your era OR using this collection, create a visual that

           shows each object within a category [e.g. social, economic

            etc.]

        e. Write a story that uses at least 3 of these objects in some way.

20. ORAL HISTORIES

        1. you can use the resources from the Oral History Association to help you find oral histories. Have students pick one. Using close reading techniques, have students read through sections of their oral history. Have them use 3-2-1 technique:  give 3 facts, ask 2 questions, state one feeling or personal observation. have students put their facts onto a timeline of facts - either about the person or about the time period of the narrator. Use this oral history as background to the study of a time period or event.   If students are choosing different narrators - have them create a class 'brainstorm' graphic showing different points of view about the time period or event.

        2. Pick one oral history for the whole class to read. Have students each do through the 3-2-1 activity and post their facts on a class timeline.

        3. Have students create their own primary source: have them make oral histories of their parents, their siblings, themselves.... share them with 2.0 media (voicethread,etc),on blogs,etc. Have students make their own books, and illustrate them with drawings and/or photographs.