Authors

From 2x4s to MLK Day

Guest Blogger — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:10:00 -0500

I used to believe that all a job took was passion. As long as I found a job I loved doing, then the rest of the work would do itself. But after two quick weeks at the Indiana Historical Society working as an intern, I can’t believe how naive that idea was. Just looking past the coffee cups, cold medicine and smiles, I began to understand how much effort is really given into doing a job correctly, even when the passion is still there.

The first day I arrived ready for anything, or so I thought. It turns out high heels aren’t the best thing to wear when doing deconstruction work. But days two and three of the deconstruction work went much smoother for me. Inventory, dry wall, and 2x4s became part of my daily routine. Everyone at IHS had put in a great effort to build the 1945 grocery store, and now had to watch it be torn down so that a new exhibit could take its place.

The last two days of that week I spent in the Marketing and Public Relations Department assisting where I could with sorting out advertisements, sitting in on meetings and looking through requests from organizations asking for donations so that IHS could send tickets and books. Also, I was given a few different tours through the Conservation Lab, the library and the vault.

My final week was spent with the Interpretation Department following facilitators and watching interpreters interact with museum guests. There were so many different rooms to be in ranging from the fancy Cole Porter Room, to the 1914 violin shop, to Destination Indiana, to the History Lab. Friday morning, I even tagged along to a radio interview as Amy Lamb promoted Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

When Martin Luther King Jr. Day finally came around, so did the guests. People poured into the doors ready for all the available activities the museum has to offer. I assisted in putting on wristbands and directed people as to where things were located.

I have had a great experience interning at the Indiana Historical Society and would strongly encourage other interns to come. There were so many people available and willing to speak with me about their own personal experiences with their jobs, and specifically about IHS.

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Alicia Creasey is a junior at Covenant Christian High School in Indianapolis and completed her school’s “J-Term” internship with the IHS. She enjoys reading, creative writing, theater and spending time with family and friends.

Through a Curtain of Fog

Guest Blogger — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:31:47 -0500

As a first-time visitor to Indiana, I discovered that the Indiana Historical Society delivers a surprisingly effective crash course in local history. Instead of reading a pamphlet and traipsing past display cases, I literally stepped into the past in the You Are There rooms. A fog “curtain” created an almost magical screen between the present and the three-dimensional, interactive world of an old photo come to life. Through my conversations in a 1924 auto shop and a 1945 grocery store, I was able to uncover stories that I might have otherwise missed. When an auto mechanic told me about African-Americans being run out of town, I learned about the one-time strength of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. Until this encounter, I thought the Klan operated almost exclusively in the South. In contrast, an African-American shopper in the grocery store showed me that by the 1940s, an integrated community thrived in at least one part of the state.

Destination Indiana helped me find answers to questions that the exhibits raised. The virtual journeys led me to learn more about the role of the Klan in Indiana politics and society in the 1920s. It was nice to be able to set the pace as I looked through photos and documents, to zoom in without losing visual clarity, and to find related journeys. Though I was sitting in a dark room with a screen, I hardly felt like a passive viewer.

One of the challenges for historians is convincing the public that old documents and photos can still be relevant. The Indiana Historical Society has found creative ways to put its collection on display, engaging the visitor to do more than just look around. I believe this kind of creativity is what it takes to interest the 21st-century digital generation. It also adds an element of discovery to visiting the History Center. My conversations with the interpreters led me to unexpected places, teaching me far more about Indiana than I ever would have learned from reading a tourist pamphlet.

Clara Silverstein is the Boston-based author of a school desegregation memoir and three cookbooks, including A White House Garden Cookbook (Red Rock Press), a chronicle with recipes of the first year of the Obama vegetable garden. She is working toward a master’s degree in public history from University of Massachusetts-Boston and plans to one day write history books.

NHD – Perfect for Language Arts Curriculum

Guest Blogger — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:00:00 -0400

National History Day is widely and normally seen as a great way to teach history. After all, “History” is its middle name. BUT. It’s even better in the English/Language Arts classroom. Here’s why.

Seven core standards exist at every grade level in the Language Arts curriculum—three reading, three writing, one listening and speaking. When students participate in NHD, they immerse themselves in all seven. Want proof? Take a look:

Reading Researching an NHD topic in depth requires students to read, understand and respond to a variety of writing that meets and exceeds grade-level achievement. One way – certainly not the only way, but one way – to think of researching for NHD is to expect students to read a few books on their topic to gain depth of understanding. Students can start by reading broad and general information on their topic. They may even start far below their grade level reading. Quick, general, foundational information may be achieved by starting either with the lowest level books on the topic (even early elementary picture books) or with encyclopedia entries. Then it’s on to more complex books that increasingly challenge the student by going into greater length, greater depth, greater understanding and greater appreciation.

Consider some aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s life as a topic. Students might start by quickly reading a David Adler, Barbara Cary or Russell Freedman elementary-level work and might finish by reading David Herbert Donald, Harold Holzer, James McPherson or Carl Sandberg.

The same is true for any topic be it the Wright Brothers, the Black Plague or Pearl Harbor. By starting easy and moving toward the most scholarly works written on the topic, the student will grow in every reading standard from vocabulary in context that real writers use in the real world to analyzing differences in authors’ conclusions.

Writing Whether the student chooses performance, documentary, Web site, exhibit or research paper, preparing for NHD requires navigating through every writing standard in the book. NHD students plan, write, edit, revise and finalize their work. Narrative, expository, persuasive and descriptive writing will be part of the journey. Developing a strong thesis statement is central to NHD projects. Standard conventions are required for success. From journaling about their topics to composing a script, from editing for purposes of falling within a maximum word count or time limit to considering mood and emotional appeal, from checking spelling to re-reading for clarity, NHD gives students both purpose and audience to their writing.

Speaking Often the most ignored of the standards because it is not tested, speaking is central to success in NHD and in life. In all categories, students are expected to be able to respond to unanticipated questions from adults (judges) in cogent ways. To do this, they must prepare. Performance and documentary categories require 10-minute scripts that students must rehearse and perform to be of high quality. Presenting the project in a pleasing way and orally defending it upon judges’ examination require two different and valuable speaking skills that build confidence and prepare students for the adult world.

NHD in an English classroom puts positive pressure on students to:

research well
collaborate with others
communicate knowledge
create a learning experience for others
become more expert in a topic
compete like athletes in an academic setting

It accomplishes all this while having fun. Hmm. Depth of learning. Exceeding standards. Success. Fun. These are the reasons why National History Day should find its way into your English classroom.

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Dick Rooker is a retired Language Arts and History Day teacher and parent. He and his wife Nancy continue to actively support History Day in their community by sponsoring students in Warsaw.