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Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum announces summer
teaching workshops
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Bringing historical fiction to life
[MAY 28, 2005]
SPRINGFIELD -- The
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum announced May 23
that it is offering four complimentary one-day workshops in June and
August, focused on incorporating digital resources into the
classroom and using history to teach across the curriculum.
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Each workshop will include two
sessions: the first, a Library of Congress project to instruct
teachers how to incorporate digitized information into their
curriculum; and the second led by Peoria's renowned storyteller
Brian "Fox" Ellis, who will demonstrate how to teach historical
fiction and relate it to state standards in English, history,
science, geography and even math skills.
"Opening the doors for teachers to
learn creative ways to teach history will help to combat historical
illiteracy among American schoolchildren," said Richard Norton
Smith, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library and Museum. "As educators come together in the workshops,
they can create and generate more ideas on how to make history come
alive in their own classroom."
The first session of the workshop is
provided through Eastern Illinois University. "An Adventure of the
American Mind," the basis for the session, is a national project
designed to assist classroom teachers in accessing, using and
producing curriculum incorporating the Internet and digitized
primary source materials from the collections of the Library of
Congress. Workshop attendees will be introduced to the components of
the Library of Congress website, with a focus on resources that
pertain to Abraham Lincoln.
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The second session, led by
storyteller Brian "Fox" Ellis, is an interdisciplinary workshop
where educators will learn the nuts and bolts of effective
historical research, with an emphasis on the life of Lincoln.
Participants will learn to conduct oral history interviews and how
to turn rough notes into tellable stories. The session will also
provide the opportunity to learn how to turn Internet research,
library research, old newspaper articles, obituaries and diaries
into dynamic performance material with creative writing concepts to
link Lincoln with English, history, science, geography and math
skills. Educators will also learn the storytelling skills needed to
be a bridge to help students connect with history in a more
meaningful way.
The workshops will run on June 28,
June 29, Aug. 9 and Aug. 10 from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and will be
open to 50 teachers a day.
Teachers who complete the workshop
are eligible for six continuing professional development units.
Teachers interested in attending should contact Dee Dee Hall at
DeeDee_Hall@ihpa.state.il.us or Carol Manning at
Carol_Manning@ihpa.state.il.us The registration deadline is June
10.
[Abraham
Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum news release] |
