Voices from Three Centuries

http://www.arps.org/USERS/ms/dubockD/voices%20lesson%20plans/lpindex.htm

“Voices from Three Centuries,” a summer institute for K-12 teachers, provided participants the opportunity to explore current scholarship while simultaneously delving into the archival material on which that scholarship rests.  In 1999, 2000 and 2001, weeklong summer institutes were funded by the Massachusetts Endowment for the Humanities, and run in partnership with the History Institute, a program of the University of Massachusetts History Department, Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, and the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, Inc. In summer 2003 the Foundation again partnered on a month-long seminar, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which focused more acutely on the braided histories of women, family and reform.  In every version of the "Voices" program, mornings began with scholarly presentations from leading historians who have used materials from the Porter-Phelps-Huntington archival collections in their own research and writing, while afternoons were spent doing guided research in the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Family Papers. Ongoing pedagogical discussions led by curriculum specialists helped participants think creatively about how to bring their discoveries into their classrooms.

Our aim in sustaining this effort is to help teachers learn to conduct their own archival research so that they may develop curricula and lesson plans in social and cultural history from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries that they know would appeal to their own students.  While teaching with primary sources has become increasingly important, many teachers must rely on pre-prepared packets of materials.  Participants in the "Voices" institute were inspired and empowered to plumb their own local archives for
material that will match the interests of their own unique students.  Through this website, which assembles some of the lesson plans produced over the years, we hope to contribute to ongoing professional collaborations between classroom teachers, humanities scholars, archivists, and museum professionals.