This project is a partnership between the Mt. Diablo Unified School District, the UC Berkeley History Department, the UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project, and the Oakland Museum of California.
Focusing on the needs of low performing Mt. Diablo Unified schools, this grant will provide elementary, middle, and high school teachers with academic literacy tools to help students develop better reading and writing skills. Teachers will learn about and gain experience modeling historical inquiry and historical thinking in the classroom to deepen student knowledge and understanding of traditional American history.
Additionally, grant teachers will increase their own historical content knowledge through after-school Historians’ presentations that focus on cultural and intellectual, economic and/or political history.
Through content learned during the Historians’ Colloquia, as well as academic literacy and historical thinking professional development during four school-year release days and a one week summer institute, teachers will create, teach, evaluate, and revise a history lesson each year that is designed to improve student academic and historical literacy skills. Through the use of literacy strategies in the history classroom, this project aims to lessen the wide achievement gap in American history between those proficient in English and those who are not.
2006 Grant Abstract
| Grantee Name: |
Mount Diablo Unified School District, CA |
| Project Name: |
Teaching American History for All |
| Number of Teachers Served: |
50 |
| Number of School Districts Served: |
1 |
| Number of Students Served: |
11,000 |
| Grade Levels: |
5, 8, 11 |
| Topics: |
colonists as citizens, self-government in the colonies, Reconstruction, and corporations as citizens |
| Methods: |
summer institutes, colloquia, coaching, and online activities |
The project aims to lessen the wide achievement gap in American history between those proficient in English and those who are not. Teachers will learn how to lower language barriers by providing models for the strategic application of language development to history texts. They also will learn to analyze sources for historical value and accessibility to English learners and low-literacy students, developing source-specific reading and writing skills, and keeping students fully involved in subject-matter discussions. Content and literacy instruction will provide teachers with the tools they need to increase student achievement
|
