Elementary and secondary school teachers interested in developing a local history unit can adapt this fourth grade program created for three school districts in Cortland County, New York. Material is divided into 13 chapters. Chapter 1 charts the New York fourth grade curriculum by concept and content and outlines specific community study…

Addresses three commonly cited justifications for historical study in considering the value of local history. Speaks to the idea that ignorance of the past condemns persons to the same mistakes, that history offers moral guidance, and that history should be studied for its own essence. Discusses the intrinsic and practical values of history. (KO)

Old Sturbridge in central Massachusetts, a recreated New England Village of the period 1790-1840, is a museum of the past which includes a learning center with reproductions of artifacts used in the period, with demonstration areas, and a teacher center where resource materials for class use are available. (MF)

This teacher's guide utilizes the subject matter in the 1998-99 Texas Almanac in a variety of interdisciplinary student activities for grades 3-8. The guide includes a grade-by-grade curriculum chart detailing which lessons correspond to specific Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) objectives and Essential Element requirements. The 45…

Describes a course that approaches concepts of historic preservation from a humanities, rather than an architectural, perspective. The course begins with a questionnaire about the area that uses ideas from perceptual geography and social psychology. Later readings include novels, poems, essays, and songs. (MJP)

This directory lists by county 135 collections of local history to be found in libraries, museums, historical societies, schools, colleges, and private collections in Colorado. The directory includes only collections available in Colorado which contain bibliographic holdings such as books, newspaper files or clippings, letters, manuscripts,…

Small historic sites are endeavors by small communities to preserve elements of their past. The sites they choose reveal the cultural values they esteem today. The structures most frequently represented at seven museum-developed sites are schools and churches because they were agents of social order, centers of community life and ritual, and…

A guide to the assembly of local, oral history information for future historical research is provided. Since the relatively new field of oral history is the tape recording of reminiscences about which a narrator can speak from firsthand knowledge, it is necessary for the interviewer to have background knowledge of the subject matter and…

Designed primarily for use in the intermediate grades, the teaching unit provides 11 lessons and related activities for teaching students to look at colonial architectural elements as a means of learning about 18th century lifestyles. Although the unit relies upon resources available in Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia, other 18th century cities…

The book presents information on the use of oral history as a classroom device. The first chapter discusses the evolution of oral history from a practice intended to preserve information on noted Americans to a way of preserving recollections of older Americans about the past. The second chapter explains why interviewing members of their own…

This issue of the Goldfinch focuses on communities. Ethnic groups, religious groups, schools, families, even the Internet, are used as examples of communities in Iowa. Forced communities are exemplified by migration, law, natural disasters, and sometimes education. Photographs from Iowa's past show the changing nature of communities and encourage…

This issue focuses on heritage education, the goal of which is to introduce the historic built environment directly into elementary and secondary school curriculums. Kathlyn Hatch discusses how heritage education's linkage with historic preservation can help students relate to society. Earl Jones assesses the status of heritage education,…

Tracing the background and history of Mexican Americans in Detroit, Michigan, the booklet briefly reviews the early stages of Meso-American history, the Spaniards' arrival in Mexico, colonial Mexico, Mexico's revolt for independence, and the internal turmoil in Mexico which continued until early in 1861. The accomplishments of such Mexicans as…

Designed to preserve the rich heritage of the rural school system which passed from the education scene in the 1930's and 1940's, this narrative, part history and part nostalgia, describes the author's own elementary education and the secure community life centered in the one room Spring Valley School in Hamilton County, Iowa, in the early decades…

Designed for 7th- and 8th-grade students, five lessons using a block of houses in an urban neighborhood help students learn about the history of a neighborhood, the owners of the houses, and the style and architectural features of the homes. Although this unit has been developed for a specific neighborhood, a similar block study could be conducted…