Resources for Teaching Women's History

By Nina Kendall

March is Women’s History Month.  Celebrating Women’s History Month reminds Educators of the painful truth that including the history of women in classrooms is still a challenge. Here are a few digital tools and unique resources you can use to put more women’s history in your lessons.

Interactive: Progressive Era Women

The Progressive Era Women Interactive at the National Women’s History  Museum website combines group artifacts and classifying items with the examination of events in movements in the Progressive era. A unique way to interact with text this activity could be used to help student test their knowledge and understanding of the era.

 

 Woman Suffrage Centennial Web Exhibit

The Oregon Blue Book is sponsored by the Oregon Secretary of State. The Web Exhibit about Women’s Suffrage celebrates the centennial of suffrage in Oregon. The collection of digital artifacts provides students with the opportunity to interact with primary sources as individual or as a class. These sources are applicable at the state levels or as exemplars at the national level.

 Setting the Precedent: Women who excelled in Business interactive

This interactive is hosted by the Smithsonian and illustrates the growing role of women in the 20^th century. This would be a fun and empowering choice activity to add to a unit about Modern America. Learn about 4 women who made the move from the home to the boardroom expanding on traditional roles.

 

 Failure is Impossible

The Teaching with Documents: Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment webpage features the Failure Is Impossible script created for the 75^th anniversary of women’s suffrage. Now you can download this story to dramatize it in your own classroom. Bring the struggle for suffrage alive.

 

Cult of Domesticity

How did the cult of domesticity oppress and empower women in the nineteenth century? Use these carefully selected primary sources and graphic organizer to learn more about the Cult of Domesticity.  Later in your year follow up with the lesson Women, Temperance Reform, and the Cult of Domesticity.

 

Discovering American Women’s History Online

Looking for a source for a specific topic? Try this database. Search by topic, keyword, or state.

 

Rachel Carson

See footage from the period and learn more about Rachel Carson and her work from Bill Moyers Journal. Find the roots of the environmentalist movement.

All photos in this blog were taken at the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space.

Putting the Finishing Touches on National History Day Projects

By Nina Kendall

                 National History Day (NHD) is a research competition for 6^th - 12^th grade students who complete primary and secondary source research based on a theme and produce a product that range from performances to papers.  Students then get an opportunity present their project and are interviewed by a panel of judges.  Whether you are concerned about common core, like history as inquiry, or want to incorporate more project based learning, NHD has something to offer every teacher, student, and classroom.  

I am a big fan of National History Day. Obvious, I know.  I recommend it to anyone who will listen. It was one of the greatest things I did as a student. It is one of the things I enjoy helping students with most each year.  For more than 10 years, I have watched students mature as learners, and gain confidence from experience.  It is rare to watch a student’s horizons broaden before your eyes but for my students NHD has done just that every year.

 At this time of year, students are finishing up their projects and preparing for regional or state competition.   After months of research, it is now time to prepare products for presentation.  Like many of my students, future participants are seeking advice.

General Advice and Suggestions for Reflection:

Ask yourself: What is my thesis? Is it clearly expressed in my project and process paper? If not, fix it now. Changes are easier the earlier you make them.

As you finalize the product have fun. Your project should share what you have learned, how it relates to the theme, and how fascinating you find it. People will respond to your interest in the subject.

Double check the rules. It will reassure you that you are on the right track.

Start the bibliography now if you haven’t already. It is going to take your longer than you think it will.

Use bibliographic annotations to your advantage. They should be short but informative. Ask yourself what is it I need to tell someone else so they understand how useful a resource was.

Have someone else read your process paper.  You should be able to answer yes to the questions below.

Does it explain your thesis?

Are the explanations of your decisions based on history?

Print an extra copy of your process paper and bibliography. You might need it.

Here are a few places to get advice:

National History Day has conducted and archive google hangouts in conjunction with the Smithsonian, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Newseum about each type of project. Take the time to watch the hangout and learn more about how to perfect your project from experts.

Lagrange College has been working to help teachers and students with participation in National History Day for several years. One of the unique resources they have to offer are the notes from each of the NHD google hangouts that provide you with summaries of each categories hangout.

 Here you can get advice from a NHD student veteran. Let students see what one of their peers would say to them.

Check out the advice and podcast Smithsonian’s History Explorer has to offer. Here more about research or take advantage of the chance to search available collections.