Year Four: American Diversity and Identity

Program Overview
March 2013-June 2013

Inter-district planning meeting (Orientation): March 26, 2013

Teachers will attend an Inter-District Planning meeting to lay the foundational work for the lesson plan and summer seminar. The meeting is led by curriculum and content specialists and serves as a platform for discussion of upcoming themes and lessons. The orientation provides an opportunity for teachers to ask questions and learn about the program requirements. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Distinguished Speaker workshop at Rice University: March 28, 2013 

Teachers will attend a content-rich evening led by a distinguished scholar of American History. H.W. Brands, the author of more than 25 critically acclaimed books of American History, will present on the changing face of American Foreign Policy in the 20th century and enjoy a private dinner with cohort 4 TAH grant participants.

Register here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seven-day summer American History seminar at Rice University: June 10-18, 2013

The summer seminar provides content-rich faculty lectures exploring the specified TAH grant themes. 

Theme Four, American Diversity and Identity, will examine the diversity of the American people including the roles of race, class, ethnicity, and gender in the history of the United States, and in terms of identity, views of the American national character, ideas about American exceptionalism, and regional differences among Americans. 

Theme four will emphasize:

  • American identity
  • America the Melting Pot – assimilation and cultural pluralism, immigration, tolerance of the Other, nativism
  • Gender in U.S. history - the changing role of gender throughout U.S. history
  • Minority groups in U.S. history
  • Population mobility –social and economic mobility as well as physical freedom
    • westward movement,
    • the shift from rural to urban
    • social mobility/class mobility
    • economic opportunity 
     

Theme Two, Movers and Shakers: Profiles in Leadership, will provide an investigation of key figures and movements in American history that have shaped the future trajectory of the nation. Through the investigation of critical documents in American history, the emphasis of Theme Two will be on how the words and deeds of individual Americans have determined the course of our nation, and how the work of various individuals builds to something greater than the sum of their parts. Thirty percent of our teachers identified “important leaders in U.S. history” as an urgent professional development need. This self-assessment points to a critical need for an emphasis on key figures in American history.

Theme Three, the United States and the Global Community, will examine U.S. engagement with foreign powers over time. The emphasis of Theme Three will be on significant issues, episodes and turning points in the history of the United States and the global community with an emphasis on U.S. foreign policy. In our teacher survey, 51 percent of respondents assessed their content knowledge of U.S. foreign policy (past and present) to be fair or poor. This self assessment highlights a significant need for an emphasis on U.S. engagement with the world. We will address theme three in years four and five in order to stress the importance of the U.S. interaction with the global community. 
Theme three will emphasize:

  • Globalism in U.S. History
  • Foreign Policy

Additionally, we will incorporate pedagogy seminars into the institute to reinforce strong strategies for teaching traditional American history.

Readings will be assigned by professors in advance for discussion at the seminar.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Field study: June 20-24, 2013 

Each year, the grant cohorts participate in an experiential field study. The itineraries have varied in order to highlight the diverse themes and time periods being addressed in that particular grant year. 

Year four: New York City, Modern America and the Global Community, 1914-present