American Democracy in Word and Deed Mount Diablo Teaching American
History Project 2009 - 2014
A Professional development partnership
between the Mt. Diablo Unified School District and the
University of California, Berkeley, History-Social Science Project
October 14 and 15, 2011 California Council for History Education Conference, California State University, Long Beach
Presenters: Jenna Rentz, MDUSD 11th grade teacher; Lauren Weaver, Teaching American History Grant Coordinator
Title of session: Engaging Literacy Strategies to Interrogate Sources and Answer Historical Questions
Abstract: In this interactive lesson, students use multiple reading and historical thinking strategies to analyze political cartoons, an excerpted speech, and textbook passages to weigh whether Roosevelt’s actions in Panama were justified. Student samples of the scaffolded essay and complete materials will be provided from this Teaching American History Grant lesson
Historian David A. Hollinger
featured speaker at MDUSD TAH
in-service day,
October 27, 2011
GUEST SPEAKER October 27, 2011 ”The Accommodation of Protestant Christianity with the Enlightenment: The Core of American Religious History”
Professor Hollinger gives an overview of American religious history - in particular, the Protestant character of the population for much of American history, the embedding of Enlightenment traditions in American life through the secular character of the Constitution and ...(more) >>>
more information
Historian Thomas Laqueur
introduces the theme of this year's
TAH grant - cultural history.
GUEST SPEAKER October 4, 2011 ”What is Cultural History”
Professor Thomas Laqueur gives numerous examples of how cultural history (in combination with other historical approaches) is part of a collective historical enterprise.
Guest speaker Professor Mark Peterson
discussed the development of
the trans-Atlantic trade
GUEST SPEAKER August 2011
”Money, Goods and Trade in Colonial America”
Professor Mark Peterson examines the role of trade in solving the economic difficulties of the early American colonies. In addition, he explains the "money problem" in Colonial America.
Sharecropper plowing his field in Alabama - Library of Congress's American Memory featuring 78 photographs of Alabama
sharecroppers. Click on image
to see more photographs.
GUEST SPEAKER May 2011 "Reorganization of the Southern Economy after the Civil War"
Professor Clarence Walker discusses the transformation of the southern economy (1865-1900) from a "share wage" system to sharecropping. Other topics include: importation of foreign labor, use of convict labor and the transformation from an agricultural to a manufacturing economy.
Map of the USA in 1824
from speaker's slides
at the March 23, 2011 in service day
GUEST SPEAKER March 2011 "Westward Expansion as Settler Colonialism"
Professor Brian DeLay argues that the history of US westward expansion was neither inevitable (rather a manifestation of a much older process unfolding around the world) nor exceptional (on the contrary, it was contingent upon many other factors coming together).
Guest speaker Professor A Dubcovsky
at the March 24, 2011 in-service day
GUEST SPEAKER March 2011 ”The American Revolution in the South and West”
Guest speaker Alejandra Dubcovsky describes events prior to and during the American Revolution in the South and West and explains how these events influenced the development of the country in the aftermath of the war.
Guest speaker Professor C. Wollenberg
at the February 1, 2011 in-service day
GUEST SPEAKER February 2011 ”The Gold Rush: A Present-Minded History”
California historian Charles Wollenberg discusses the legacy and influence of the Gold Rush on California and the economic and cultural patterns which were established during this important period in California history.
LESSON PLAN UPDATE August 2011
Teaching American History
Grant Lesson Plans Online
New and updated lesson plans for grade 4, s 5, 8 and 11 developed by staff and participants from the 2011 MDUSD Teaching American History Grant summer institute.
MS Word
