Welcome to America's Journey: Ever Growing Freedom
“Ever Growing Freedom” is a three-year venture among five partners to provide
teachers with the content specific knowledge they need to enrich student
learning about American history.
It goes beyond merely presenting history content to teachers and, instead, goes into the classroom to help teachers bring best practices history instruction directly to their students.
Princeton City School District is the applicant and the partners are Fairfield City Schools, Middletown City Schools, and Miami University Hamilton. In addition, the Ohio Social Studies Resource Center was also a partner in the first year. In years two and three, the de facto partner was Teaching with Primary Sources, Midwest Center.
This Teaching American History grant is the 4th conducted by Miami University-Hamilton. Covering the period from before contact with indigenous people through Reconstruction, the 3-year program served teachers in grades 4, 5, and 8, with the inclusion of a few AP teachers enrolled as “teachers of excellence.” It made a concerted (and successful) effort to integrate pedagogy with content, and benefited from a partnership with the Library of Congress through its Teaching with Primary Sources program. Drawing on the resources of Miami University for all phases of the program, this TAH grant provided for on-site travel experiences to illustrate the themes being considered in the classroom. These rigorous field experiences incorporated both content lessons and pedagogical discussions into the very fabric of each trip. The teachers participating in this program became a tightly-knit group. Federal evaluators and other guest observers all noted the bonding that contributed to a particularly strong sense of cohesiveness. The support from the district coordinators of the three school systems certainly enhanced the good feeling and their willingness to share in multiple activities with the teachers helped maintain the momentum from beginning to end. The 3-year program also benefited by starting with a week-long field experience in Virginia that brought the group together and set the proper tone. Each year addressed a different theme. Year One focused on the American world before the arrival of Europeans and Africans, and the creation of the interconnected Atlantic world. Year Two concentrated on Ohio history over the course of this period. And Year Three examined the American Civil War. The first year began with a lengthy trip to Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown, Virginia, that provided the framework for the entire 3-year grant. Over the course of the academic year, teachers attended 3 day-long seminars dealing with the American world before the arrival of Europeans and Africans, the creation of an English empire in North America, and the African American experience in the English colonies. Then in July, teachers participated in a week-long institute examining the prelude to the Revolution, the War for Independence, and the Constitution. The program included class trips to Fort Ancient Village and the Ohio Historical Society. The second year, dealing with Ohio history, included 3 day-long sessions that included such topics as dancing in history, the experience of American women in the period from 1776 to 1800, party politics in antebellum Ohio, the arts in Ohio, 19th century immigration to Cincinnati, and transportation in Ohio. The week-long summer institute amplified on all of these themes, and included lectures by an official from the National Afro-American Museum and by a member of the Ohio Center for Law Related Education. Teachers also visited the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The third year focused on the American Civil War. In the 3 day-long sessions, teachers examined the various issues that led to war, the diplomatic failures that contributed to war, personal issues during the war, and the aftermath during Reconstruction. During the week-long institute this year, teachers visited Gettysburg National Battlefield, Washington, D.C., and Mount Vernon. Each year, the entire program proved to be a well-integrated effort to combine both pedagogy and content. The director of this endeavor was Dr. Julieanne Phillips, who oversaw the creation of activities that combined content sessions with innovative and grade appropriate classroom activities. In the second year, for example, Dr. Judith Zinsser offered a session dealing with role-playing as a way of understanding the stresses that led to war. In the third year, while at Gettysburg, Dr. Johanna Moyer reflected on medical issues and the care of the wounded, and then Dr. Michael Pratt, Dean and Vice Provost for Miami’s regional campuses, presided over a tour of the battlefield, with particular reference to the archeology. And in all three years, teachers benefited from continuous presentations by teachers trained by the Library of Congress’s Teaching with Primary Sources program. This Teaching American History was special in terms of the close attention paid to the integration of pedagogy and content, the rigorous and rich field experiences, and the primary source training, all of which contributed to the enthusiasm for the program, and the dynamic involvement of the teachers who created excellent lesson plans and classroom activities with the exceptional materials and training they received from the Program.
A brief overview of America's Journey: Ever-Growing Freedom
