National History Project
building a community of scholar teachers

  sharecropper woodblock


About the NHP

Newberry Library Programs for Teachers

Dr. Wm. M. Scholl
Center for Family
& Community History

Doing History in the Classroom: 
Rethinking the Introductory U.S. History Course

June 25 to July 19, 2002

The National History Project summer institute at the Newberry Library was designed around the concept of "doing history," that is, developing questions about the past, researching in archives and libraries, and sharing interpretations with peers.  Participants conducted research at the Newberry and other Chicago archives and produced an interpretive essay tied to documents.  Participants edited and evaluated these documents as a group.  They also kept journals documenting their experiences in the institute.

Seminars focused on assigned readings (both scholarly historical interpretations and primary sources). Some of these sessions were led by guest scholars. Participants described the seminar experience in their evaluations:
“The seminars were terrific. To speak to and interact with historians was very special.”

“The seminars made me reflect on how I teach history in my classroom and they motivated me to revise and rethink my approach.”
“The seminars were refreshing and stimulating. Not only did I gain something on my own through the readings, but I absorbed and learned a tremendous amount from the discussions that the seminars brought about. It gave me perspective on topics I thought I had already resolved in my own mind.”

“The seminars helped me to rediscover my passion for history”
Workshops and Group Meetings focused on developing and carrying out research projects. One participant wrote that "it was during one of the group meetings that my thesis became much more clearly defined." While another suggested that it was during one of these sessions that he realized how to place his project within a larger historical context.

WEEK 1
Day 1
 1 PM:
 Welcome and Orientation (Fellows Lounge)
  • Reading:  James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me:  Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, chapter 1.

3:30 PM:
 Library Tour and Orientation

4:30 PM:
 Reception (Fellows Lounge)

Day 2
 10 AM-12:
 Seminar: What is "Doing History" in the Classroom? (Fellows Lounge)

12-1 PM:
 Lunch (Fellows Lounge)

1-3 PM:
 Seminar: Textbooks and History (with Leon Fink,
Professor of history at UIC and Frank Valadez, history textbook editor) 
  • Note:  Bring the textbook you use when you teach U.S. History
  • James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me:  Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, chapter 11.

3-4 PM:
 Workshop:  Developing Research Topics

Day 3
 Morning:
 Research Time

12-1 PM:
 Lunch (Fellows Lounge)

1-3 PM:
 Seminar: Rethinking Exploration and Colonialism (with Carla Zecher, Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies, the Newberry Library) 
  • Allan Geer, ed., The Jesuit Relations:  pages 1-19, 70-93, 94,106-118, 171-185, 186-211. 
  • Optional:  Jacqueline Peterson, "The Founding Fathers:  The Absorption of French-Indian Chicago, 1816-1837," in Holli and Jones, eds, Ethnic Chicago:  A Multicultural Portrait (1995).
  • Optional:  Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, chapter 3.

3-4 PM:
 Special Collections Presentation.

Day 4
 Morning:
 Research Time

12-1 PM:
 Lunch (Fellows Lounge)

1-2 PM:
 Doing Family History Research at the Newberry (Jack Simpson, Newberry Library)

2-4 PM:
 Workshop on Research Topics;  Discussion of Readings
  • Alfred Young, The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, Introduction and as much of Part I as you can get to.

WEEK  2
Day 5
 Morning:
 Research Time

1-2 PM:
 Workshop on Research Topics

2-4 PM:
 Seminar:  History and Memory of Revolutionary America (Alfred Young, Scholar in Residence at the Newberry) 
  • Alfred F. Young, The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, remainder of Parts I and II.

Day 6
 Morning:
 Research Time

1-4 PM:
Workshop and Group Meetings on Research Projects

Day 7
 Morning:
 Research Time 

1-2 PM:
 More Research Time

2-4 PM:
 Seminar: Slavery and Freedom. 
  • Leon Litwak, Been in the Storm So Long:  The Aftermath of Slavery (Knopf, 1979), chapter 5

WEEK 3
Day 8
 Morning:
 Research Time

Afternoon:
 Historian's Chair and Group Discussions

Day 9
 Morning:
Research Time

1-3 PM:
 Seminar—Beyond The Jungle:  Teaching about Migration, Labor and Reform (Toby Higbie, Newberry Library) 
  • Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal:  Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939, pages 53-158.
  •  James Grossman, "African American Migration to Chicago," in Ethnic Chicago

3:30-5 PM:
Colloquium on Teaching Labor History (presentation by teacher who participated in the Newberry's Work and Community History Workshop during 2001-2002).

Day 10
 Morning:
 Research Time

Afternoon:
 Historian's Chair and Group Discussions

Day 11
 Morning:
 Research Time

1-3 PM:
 Seminar:  History, Legend, and the American Frontier
  • Richard White, "Frederick Jackson Turner and Buffalo Bill," in James Grossman, ed., The Frontier in American Culture (with Rob Galler, Interim Director, D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History).

WEEK 4
Day 12
 Morning:
 Research Time

1-3 PM:
 Seminar: "Dillinger's Year:  Crime and Popular Culture in the Great Depression" (Elliott Gorn, Purdue University)

3:15-4 PM:
 Special Collections Presentation

Days 13-15
 Morning:
 Research and Writing

Afternoon:
 Historian's Chair