TPSWR Summer Teacher Institute 2019 – Women’s Suffrage
On June 27-28, 2019, Teaching with Primary Sources Western Region hosted the 3rd annual Summer Teacher Institute in collaboration with the History Colorado Center and the Center for Colorado Women’s History at the Byers-Evans House Museum.
Thirty six educators from Colorado, New Mexico, Alaska, and Wyoming attended the 2-day intensive focusing on telling the Women’s Suffrage story through Library of Congress historical documents. Leading the workshop were Sherrie Galloway, Michelle Pearson, Rolly Schendel, and Cynthia Stout.
Note: The majority of the links below direct you to a public facing Google Doc or Folder. Feel free to copy to your own drive and use as you see fit.
Primary Source Icebreakers
The day started off by using the Primary Source Icebreakers activity. This activity involves choosing a set of primary sources, either random or linked to a unit, and engaging with the primary source individually and with a partner. The collection of 9 quick strategies are great for both in-depth discussion and prepping the mind for critical thinking.
Understanding history means not only hearing from the voice of the victor, but also from the missing voices. To illuminate this thought, we explored the exhibits at History Colorado, (specifically Keota, Amache, Zoom-In, Denver A-Z, Bent’s Fort, and the Dust Bowl) taking inventory of what things can be used from the exhibits using this Task Sheet, and then finally after a second run-through, what voices are missing from the exhibit’s story, using this Reflection Sheet.
Hidden Gems of the Library of Congress – Women’s Rights Addition
Hidden Gems of the Library of Congress– Check out this Googledoc for collection of Library of Congress links and other educational organizations with primary sources for Women’s History in Colorado and nationally.
Using technology is an important tool in the educator’s arsenal. We utilized QR codes to engage with primary sources and inquiry questions with the QR Code Scavenger Hunt – History Colorado Denver A-Z. Something else that might be helpful to you might be this Inquiry Questions QR codes that contain general questions that can be used with any number of primary sources.
Six Classroom Activities with Primary Sources
Each of the Round Robin strategies below are task sheets designed to be as short or as long in the classroom as you would like. Linked at the bottom of the task sheets are the primary sources that were used, including:
Byers-Evans Museum – Historic Places as a Primary Source
For the second day, the Center for Colorado Women’s History at Byers-Evans House, took us through a historical house museum and asked us to engage with the artifacts from two early Colorado pioneer families and important women’s suffragists. The story of their lives can be told by analyzing their artifacts. Donated to the Colorado Historical Society in 1981, the house and all of its contents have been preserved, including 90% of its original furniture, glassware, and other household items from the Evan’s family. My personal favorite was a hand operated pump vacuum cleaner.
Thanks to all of the educators who attended, trainers who shared their expertise, and History Colorado and the Center for Women’s History at Byers-Evans House Museum for helping to make the 2019 TPSWR Summer Teacher Institute a huge success!
Check out the whole Agenda with links to all of the resources and strategies used here.
Also, be sure to check out the TPS Western Region Activities and Resources Google Drive Folder that contains all we have done in the past and more.
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