Portraits of the Young Teacher Experiencing and Incorporating Art into Teaching:  A Memoir (Including Creating Dialogue Using Historical Paintings).¹

Jeremy Greene

First portrait: A group of teachers closely following a lecture on art and its uses in textbooks and the classroom.

     Have you ever thought of teaching the second half of the US survey through the use of the American flag?  Neither had I. Or did you know the connection between Budweiser and Custer's Last Stand? Neither did I. The first paradigm shift in my thought in using visuals with students was after I attended a professional development workshop on visual images at the American Antiquarian Society with speaker Louis Masur who argued persuasively that "Pictures Have Now Become a Necessity" in teaching history and that one could teach 20^th Century United States history through the use of the flag. He mentioned a few of the following to make his point: Iwo Jima, covered caskets in Vietnam, Neil Armstrong on the moon, Iranian students burning the flag at the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and the picture on the cover of his The Soiling of Old Glory: The Story of a Photograph that Shocked America (See the roll of film he shot and the photographer's account of events here: http://stanleyformanphotos.com/gallerysoilingoldglory.html): Jim Craig wearing the flag after the "Miracle on Ice", as well as the prevalence of American flags everywhere across the American landscape after 9/11, among others.² At the same conference, art historian Patricia Johnston showed the attendees the difference between what is considered high and low art, by showing the different ways that Custer's Last Stand (or the Battle of Little Big Horn), or the Battle of Greasy Grass, has been represented by the different sides since the battle. She focused on Budweiser's use of it in advertising campaigns.³  For me, this was a sea change. Many readers, I am sure have experienced something similar after taking a film or media (or even better, a world history) class where you thought "I will never look at a movie (or world history) the same way again." In similar fashion, coming to grips with my ignorance of visuals and the possibilities for visual learning was eye opening. Not only would I never look at images the same again, but neither would my students.

Second portrait: A large cocktail party with one hundred historical actors such as Napoleon, Confucius, Bill Gates, Run Run Shah, as well as many painters.

Third portrait: A light bulb in a thought bubble turned on over a teacher's head.

     The second moment, a Eureka moment, was looking at Dai Dudu, Li Tiezi, and Zhang An, 2006, oil on canvas painting Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante. The painting shows one hundred historical actors arrayed in various positions at what could only be called the most interesting gathering in human history (the best representation on-line is here: http://cliptank.com/PeopleofInfluencePainting.htm)!⁴  What would these famous characters from history say to each other?   Let the students decide. Using the painting's historical actors students were assigned several of the roles to do just that. Incorporating social media amplified the discussion – one could say more things could be overheard. This was a breakthrough!  This led to other interactive strategies using social media that continues to change my practice, as it should with all of us. These were the two key moments that changed the use of visuals with students in class. But lessons were not always so cutting edge, and in too many ways my lessons were "visually challenged."  This article documents how I was blind to visuals, but now, through certain experiences that led to changes in my instructional practice, my students are allowed to see.

Fourth portrait: The Arnolfini Portrait (1434) in high school textbook, approximate dimensions 1.5 in. x 2 inches.

     The idea to force students to bring a painting to life is not a new one. As a first year teacher, I toyed with the idea before happily arriving at Jan Van Eyck's The Arnolfini Portrait (http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jan-van-eyck-the-arnolfini-portrait). Using the portrait, students did a series of activities to make the painting more than just another visual in their text.⁵  First, describe the portrait.⁶ Then, have the Arnolfinis' add dialogue. These conversations were often humorous. Next, have the students give the painting context – what happened before and what happened after. Lastly, have students rewrite the story adding terms and knowledge about the era or the chapter. For the Arnolfini painting, this meant adding information about the Renaissance and rise of the town and merchant class in Europe. This activity led to students who were engaged and had fun writing stories about the past that were realistic. What more could a first year teacher want? [See Addendum A for Arnolfini lesson.]

Fifth portrait: A world history teacher teaching United States history.

     During the early years of my career, there was little that was added visually in the world history courses. I did assign those caption questions that appear under visuals (which are too often ignored in our texts) for homework, bought several useful posters to complement the content taught, and used the National Archives and Records Administration's Document Analysis Worksheets (http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/), as well as one of mine [See Addendum B.⁷, and lastly created a lesson using Will Cuppy's (and William Steig's illustrator) "William the Conqueror" chapter in his always laugh inducing The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody to introduce the Bayeux Tapestry [See Addendum C.].⁸ In contrast to this meager inclusion, when teaching United States history, of which I had more knowledge and hands-on experience than world history, I used primary sources, including visuals, extensively. Consequently, students learned the class through a narrative of primary sources. One of the students' favorite lessons included the use of a collection of Smithsonian prints and photographs. ⁹ Students acted out what was in one or more of the pictures while including content that they were learning. In essence, the lesson puts the Arnolfini lesson on stage [See Addendum D for Smithsonian print lesson.]. It makes sense for a teacher to adopt different approaches to primary sources in each of the history courses that we teach. Relying mainly on primary sources to drive teaching can work more easily in a United States history course where the sources are more accessible to students. Although one should not wish to mimic in world history courses what happens in their US history courses, such as looking at several thousand primary sources in my US classes. Some activities, work in any course, like the one using Smithsonian prints as a way of making prints and visuals important.

Sixth portrait: Graduate students in a small seminar room looking at slide on wall, with articles on table highlighted and marked up by students.

     The best graduate courses broaden one's horizons and create a desire for the student to continue to learn more about what is taught (and what isn't!). One such course was "American Identities" at Salem State University, co-taught by art historian Patricia Johnston (mentioned above) and Lucinda Damon-Bach from the English Department. Seeing, rather experiencing, a mixture of arts and literature led to exponential understanding as opposed to one or the other [see Addendum E for one lesson created for the unit plan created for the course].¹⁰ This dialogue between art and literature is one we should try to recreate in our world history courses and one I hope to recreate on a larger scale for a proposed co-taught course on world history and literature.¹¹

Re-viewing first portrait: A group of teachers closely following a lecture on art and its uses in textbooks, and the classroom.

     A few years after this, I saw Johnston's name on a professional development offered by the New England History Teachers Association and the American Antiquarian Society (which is the best place to see America's visual past up to 1876).¹² Funnily, this single day had more effect on my teaching than "American Identities," the five day intensive course with several hundred pages worth of reading mentioned above. This might relate to what Wordsworth wrote about poetry: "emotion recollected in tranquility." Although the Salem State course had excited the mind, it had led to only a few lessons, not a conscientious change in my practice. Having a few years for the information and approaches to marinate made this time different. (This seems to happen often to teachers of world history.) After the professional development day there was what could be described as an aggressiveness to look for visuals like the American flag in various places throughout history or representations of history that are commercialized and bring them into the class. Importantly, this professional development day led to the history teachers' reading group at my school to select Masur's article as well as other resources on how we used visuals effectively in the class.¹³

Re-viewing second portrait: A large cocktail party with one hundred historical actors such as Napoleon, Confucius, Bill Gates, Run Run Shaw as well as many painters.

Reviewing third portrait: A light bulb in a thought bubble turned on over a teacher's head.

     After hitting upon the idea of a social media assignment using Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante (2006) a re-phrased Bruce Springsteen lyric kept rolling around in my head: "[We] got this [painting] and I learned how to make it talk." This is just what my students did with the painting [see Addendum F for the initial lesson entitled "The Twittering Masses" submitted to world history lesson jamboree]. The assignment has changed over four years. The home for the activity went from being held on Turnitin (https://turnitin.com/static/index.php) discussion boards, which felt very web 1.0 to Ning (http://www.ning.com/) which felt comfortable for students, in that it is like a private Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/). The posts changed from an open conversation speaking to those around your actor and those that agreed and disagreed with them to having to reference the themes or content of the World History Advanced Placement (WHAP) class [see student examples in Addendum G]. Although students enjoyed the free wheeling nature of the original where posts had to hit upon content covered that year, having students required to write on a specific piece of content in Advanced Placement Course Description has led to improved test scores.¹⁴ Lastly, the lesson moved from a review activity to the first writing activity of the year for the unit, 1900-present. This increased student engagement right at the start of the course.

Seventh portrait: A lesson on a computer screen showing a four-column chart with roles from the Foundations unit, columns for audiences to write, formats to write in, and topics to write about.

     One student (see Lenin in the student work section of Addendum F) was so engaged she asked if we were going to do more lessons like it. This was not planned and sent me searching (for what: specify). Eventually, RAFTs were found on the lesson jamboree. In RAFT's students consider: roles, audiences, formats, and topics to create writing assignments. Students used roles to write either first person accounts or other types of writing to include individuals and topics in WHAP.¹⁵ The idea of role-playing has since become the focus of writing assignments. RAFT's were adopted for my freshmen classes. In another course, America and the 1960's, students role play a made-up person throughout the course writing a persona journal or diary for each unit and a rationale for why he or she wrote what that entry. In the same class, for the Vietnam unit, students role played a person whose oral history they have read and write to other people from the 1960s who they meet through reading their oral histories.¹⁶ Mimicry, imitation, and role play are ways of making students participants in the history they are studying and the literature that is available supports this view of student learning.¹⁷

Eighth portrait: An email with a lesson for the Renaissance in response to a cry for help on the WHAP Educational Discussion Group.

     Other lessons have been critical in the use of visuals to teach content. One that stands out, was one onubmitted by Bram Hubbell to the lesson jamboree discs (which I missed and thus received via email). The lesson "Placing the Renaissance in a Global Setting" uses Hans Holbein the Younger's The Ambassadors (1533) (http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hans-holbein-the-younger-the-ambassadors) to realize the lesson's title [See Addendum G]. What is wonderful about the lesson is that it does what art historians would like their students to do with a painting, namely sit, and become accustomed to everything in the painting and then analyze what is there. The content is also great. The use of a painting to frame a lesson also drew me to a lesson created by James Diskant using Jean-Baptiste Isabey's ubiquitous Congress of Vienna (1819) painting.¹⁸ In small ways this lesson is similar to the "Twittering Masses" role play in that it uses historical actors from a painting and others who could (or should) have been there.  In other ways it asks much more of the students and when done correctly has a definite teachable conclusion whereas what students get out of the Twittering Masses is harder to measure and more about providing questions than answers.

Ninth Portrait: A student speaking to the class with Machu Picchu placed on a screen behind her.

     Breaking up the year and having fun is a must if you are going to keep students doing the difficult but necessary work of deep reading and in-depth analyzing required of rigorous history instruction and learning. One activity that always brings laughter and learning is debates. The most anticipated activity each year is the March Madness Rulers of the World Tournament that follows closely to the specifications written up in a World History Connected article by Jason Webster and Grady Long.¹⁹ A preparation for the March Madness tournament has been mini one-day affairs usually before Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. For instance, in previous years my students have debated what is the greatest invention in world history.²⁰ The inventions were replaced last year by most important UNESCO World Heritage site.²¹ And this year the Heritage sites will be replaced by most important object using the British Museum's website and book 100 Objects.^{22See Addendum H for how I structure the debates}

Tenth portrait: A group of teachers sitting on gallery chairs intently viewing Emmanuel Leutze's The Storming of Teocali by Cortez and His Troops (1848) at the Wadsworth Athenaeum²³

     The National Endowment for the Humanities offers many professional development opportunities to teachers at all levels. I have been lucky to be chosen for several of them. The most recent was Picturing Early America: People, Places, and Events 1770-1870 headed by Patricia Johnston.²⁴ The course had guest lectures by the leading scholars in the field and visits to museums like the Peabody Essex Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, and helpful resources like the Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library.²⁵ The experts in content were more than matched in their presentations by the resident pedagogical experts at Salem State University, such as Brad Austin.²⁶ The most relevant pedagogy session that applies to this article, was J.D. Scrimgeour's: "Creative Writing in the History and Art Classroom" [See Addendum I]. The content and pedagogical sessions helped students look anew at objects. Asking new questions about objects, paintings and prints became standard practice for students in the class.²⁷

     Through the workshop one could not help thinking about how we look at the world is certainly filtered in our everyday lives through many presentation platforms, but especially the computer. Sometimes in wonderful ways! Participants loved the use of Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) and Tagxedo (http://www.tagxedo.com/) for creating word clouds.²⁸ The presentation tool Prezi (http://prezi.com/welcome/) blew most of us away compared to Power Point. All students in the workshop were required to create a series of lessons or a unit using material from the course. For my part, I created a lesson on the American Revolutions that compared the American Revolution to the Revolutions in Latin America (Visit http://picturingamerica.salemstate.edu/ Search "2010 Unit Plans" for the author's lesson). Using an idea picked up at a professional development workshop run by Niall Ferguson led to the development of a lesson using Thomas Cole's Course of Empire paintings (http://www.explorethomascole.org/tour) and the fates of empire.²⁹ This could easily be used in conjunction with the Conrad Demarest "Model of Empires" which is often used as a rubric for helping students structure the arc of empires. It is simple to do, just click on the images in the "Decode" section of the website and go through the paintings in chronological order.

Eleventh portrait: A pile of books on a nightstand.

     There are several books that encourage the reader to look at art anew. One is Timothy Brooks's Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of a Global Age (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008).³⁰ Brooks uses the paintings of Johannes Vermeer as a touchstone to travel the world of the 1600s and explain what is in each painting. One could easily use several of Vermeer's paintings and the author's best examples to teach a lesson on 17^th Century globalization. Similarly, Patricia Fara starts most chapters in her book, Science: A 4000 Year History (New York, Oxford University Press, 2009) with a description of a visual and then goes on to tell a story related to that visual in most chapters. Although overly western for a book that sells itself for its global coverage, the best chapters' visuals are adaptable to the classroom as lessons [much like Bram Hubbell's use of the Ambassadors – see Addendum I]. The chapter "Scholarship" and its use of a painting of Murad III's observatory, is one of the best examples.³¹ Another excellent visual to use shows Yuri Gagarin circling the Earth and waving down to an African who has broken chains (of imperialism) and is waving back at Gagarin.³² Though there are some nuggets in the Fara text, the book is to be recommended more for its technique of making visuals central to her text, and it seems teaching, than its world history content.

     Another technique that could be adopted is Eduardo Galleano's use of what could be best describe as "text photographs" in Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone (New York: Nation Books, 2009). He describes a photograph, often imaginatively, to get at its essence and larger importance. For instance, in his chapter (no chapter in the book is more than two pages long, the one quoted from is half a page) "Photograph: The World's Most Populated Eyes" Galleano describes the context of the famous Alberto Korda photograph:

         "A ship has blown up in the port. Seventy six workers dead . . .

          A multitude fills the streets of the city.

          From the podium, Che Guevara, observes so much rage concentrated in one place.

          He has the crowd in his eyes.

           . . . The photograph will become a symbol of our times."³³

     A teacher could easily give the chapters that start out with "Photograph" in Galleano's book and then give students photographs to imitate his technique, if not his politics. And at the bottom of the pile I'll pick just two big books, Penelope Hobhouse, Plants in Garden History: An Illustrated History of Plants and Their Influence on Garden Styles – from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day (London: Pavilion Books Limited, 1997) and John Onians, editor, Atlas of World Art (London: Laurence King Publishing Limited, 2004). Both are idea starters and context enhancers for teachers.  The idea of a lesson comparing gardens from different areas and places using the beautiful illustrations in Plants in Garden History is a no brainer to any world history teacher who flips through the book. Pulling it off though will take more thinking. The Atlas of World Art is the text to start with when contemplating re-decorating your world history course with art and visuals all year long.

Twelfth portrait:  A teacher in his study planning his course without re-inventing the wheel.

Thirteenth portrait:  The future.

     Although the Atlas of World Art is the text to start with for re-decorating, the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/) is the best place to start. It is a one-stop Cliff Notes to most of what one would need to know to be seen as knowledgeable in art history either at a cocktail party or the classroom. The Timeline is easy to search and shows art in chronological and regional displays. Thematic essays help the novice understand what they are seeing often in useful historical context. This helps with the struggle to be the expert in the classroom when presenting art.

     A caveat, after spending some time at the Met's site one might be complacent and feel the Timeline and Google Images, or include Google Art Project (http://www.googleartproject.com/) and Mark Harden's Artchive (http://www.artchive.com/) for those in the know, are the only sites a teacher needs, but experience tells a different story. Texts with their pre-selected visuals chosen by experts still hold up as the visuals one usually desires to use with my students more than a Google Images search. (Of course, after finding a visual in a book, the easiest way to bring it to students is by finding it on the Internet. But, the visual found is not the same if one had simply searched for, say, Versailles.³⁴)

     For instance, using Lapham's Quarterly (http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/.   See a selection of art in their most recent issue: http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/visual/art/) There are a treasure trove of visuals in each thematic issue. Also, catalogs and books from exhibitions are an obvious example of where to get great visuals. One good example is the groundbreaking book of photography The Family of Man (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1955) that argued that humans share common experiences in the same world. Students could obviously update this work, creating an online gallery for either the world or preferably particular places. Another example would be The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006) which should expand nearly every person's visual vocabulary of Latin America. [see Addendum J for lesson using Casta paintings from the book). Not to be forgotten, are well illustrated texts like Niall Ferguson's Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (New York: Basic Books, 2002) or Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's Ideas That Changed the World (New York: DK Publishing, 2003) or his textbook, The World (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008). These are the types of popular texts or textbooks which can bring in the visuals to enhance the Prezis and lessons we do.

     Lastly, we must not forget objects. Jackdaws, with their facsimiles are still an exciting resource to use in the classroom (http://www.jackdaw.com/). The key is to get multiples of the same set so small groups of students can look at the same set during the same lesson. And books with sources are becoming more common, from bestsellers like David McCullough's 1776: The Illustrated Edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007) with its pull out documents to the more world history titles such as Beau Riffenbaugh's Men Who Mapped the World: The Treasures of Cartography (London: Carlton Books, 2011) with its removable replica maps. As the world moves increasingly to a virtual world, giving students something real – that they can hold, if only in replica, becomes something out of the ordinary and engaging. The same can be said with art and material culture. Documents too often, and tragically, seem extraordinary in history class due to their absence. So let us be examples, teachers who have students desiring to integrate art, objects, and material culture into their writing, their discussion, and their thinking just as much as we desire to bring those same things into our work in the classroom. Let our work continue.

Jeremy Greene teaches freshmen world history and WHAP at Chelmsford High School, Chelmsford, MA, where he is also the International Relations advisor. He is a perpetual graduate student at Salem State University. He can be reached at worldhistoryteacher@hotmail.com.  He sometimes has the idea that forty can still be considered young.

Addendum A  Creating dialogue using a historical painting.

Description: 5 minutes. You have five minutes to describe the painting. You should try to get as much detail as possible into your writing. Use your list of descriptive words to help you.

Have 2-3 students share their descriptions.

Dialogue: 5 minutes. Add a dialogue. Have the man and woman talk (with the artist?). What do they say? Bring in some information from the chapter at least 5 terms or ideas from the Renaissance.

Have 2-3 students share their descriptions.

Synthesis: 15 minutes. Put it all together and add context. What happened before this scene, during, and after? Make sure to include your description, your knowledge of the Renaissance and trade, and of course, some dialogue.

Have students share (online?)

Extending the lesson: One could also have others enter into the painting: a merchant, a banker, the apprentice painter, a Lutheran, a Catholic, a peasant, a ship's captain and so forth. Or have characters from another painting, for example Dirck Hals, "Banquet Scene in a Renaissance Hall" (1628): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dirck_Hals_-_Banquet_Scene_in_a_Renaissance_Hall_-_WGA11035.jpg . This could be a discussion on the Northern Renaissance and change over time for 1450-1750. One could also bring in ideas from Timothy Brooks's Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of a Global Age (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008).

Addendum B   Primary Source Questionnaire – can be used for any type of source.

Name:

Date:                                     

Period:

1. List the three main ideas (or purposes or major parts of a story) of this document?

A.

B.

C.

2. a. Primarily (CHOOSE ONE), what type of document is this: Political/Gov't, Religious, Intellectual/educ., Military/war, Economic/$, or Social/lifestyle? b. How can you tell – what ("evidence") gives it away? c. Which other PRIMES does it fall into? d. How?

A.

B.

C.

D.

3. a. Why do you think this document was created? b. What "evidence" in the document helped you decide why it was written? c. Who was this document created for (do they have a title - king or president?)? d. Who (name a person or a group) else at the time of its creation that would be interested in it?

A.

B.

C.

D.

4. a. Can you believe this document / How reliable do you think this document is? b. What corroborating evidence is there or what type of corroborating evidence would you need or verification? c. What does this look like that you've previously studied or seen? d. How?

A.

B.

C.

D.

5. a. Who created the source? b. When? c. Where? If there isn't proof (for a, b, or c) what would you guess for each and why? d. What is the creator's point of view or bias (racism, sexism, ageism, etc.)? e. Name or title of document or source (if there is no name or title, what would be an appropriate one)?

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

6. If you could ask the creator of the document two questions about the content ("reference reading") - what would they be?

A.

B.

Addendum C   William the Conqueror / Bayeux Tapestry lesson.

Have students read and take notes on the chapter. Tell them they will be able to use their notes for the quiz tomorrow.

For the quiz, give each student a single piece of copy paper. Have students fold the paper in quarters. Then have students illustrate the history of William's life using their notes. Stick figures are acceptable. Students should annotate as little as possible, but where necessary. 15 minutes maximum.

Once quizzes are collected, show students scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry (excellent examples and resources here: http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/)  Students can make their own slides http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/interactive/BayeuxCreate.htm.  This might be an option for the quiz. When I used to do this lesson, I used a book with a fold out Bayeux Tapestry. A quick Amazon search shows there are several examples.

For remainder of class, discuss the significance of the tapestry, visual imagery in the (European?) Middle Ages and why the text is in Latin.

Addendum D Creating a historical skit using Smithsonian photographs

Give each student one photograph.

Have students describe what they see. Students write one thing that is interesting in the photograph or could be. Students share their answers with their neighbor. Then two pairs share all their answers. Then the groups of four have to incorporate the four photographs into a skit/story that includes terms and content we have studied. Skits should be at least one and no more than two minutes long.

Note: Some times I would only have 2 or 3 groups.

Addendum E  Thanksgiving lesson using sources

Topic Two: First Contacts between Europeans and Natives 1500-1677 and Thanksgiving

Knowledge Objectives:

·     Students will learn about the primary source accounts and later representations of the first Thanksgiving

Behavioral Objectives:

·     Students will be able to write a complete essay on different issues around Thanksgiving

Set-up: First Thanksgiving plaque, "The First Thanksgiving" by Jennie Brownscombe – a photocopy, especially a color photocopy, would also work

Activities and methods:

Subtopic 1: The Pilgrims and Thanksgiving

Introduction Have students write what happened on the first Thanksgiving in at least 50 words. 3-5 minutes.

1)   Show students plaque, have them write at least a 50 word description of what they see (does not have to be in paragraph form) 2-3 m. [picture available here: http://www.pilgrimhall.org/f_thanks.htm

2)   Then ask them to fill in 3 columns:

a)    Column 1 - what they think is probably accurate

b)   Column 2 – what they are not sure

c)    Column 3 – what think is probably inaccurate 5-10 minutes.

3)   Read "harvest festival" paragraph from Mourt's Relation, page 82, then have students as a class answer what should change in the 3 columns [Available here: http://www.pilgrimhall.org/1stthnks.htm

Addendum F

The Twittering Masses Role Play Using Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante

Description – I set up 103 discussions on turnitin.com for this lesson so they post into that person's discussion board and all replies are kept under the initial post.

Grading is also difficult – Since not every one will have the same amount of replies – people are more likely to write to Hitler than Cui Jian for instance. So, I am grading the posts by using a checklist – did they post on other's boards and did they reply to posts? At the same time I am grading the quality of the posts – does it meet expectations – if yes, full credit, is it lacking something then ¾, ½, ¼ or 0 credit. 1 point for each board they post on and 2 points for replies on their boards – total 12 points

(TWO THINGS TO NOTE: one, often my classes only have 150-200 points, tests are usually out of 40 for instance, and two, it is possible and likely that some dinner party guests will get no posts – in that case I gave full credit for replies by default)

I would be interested in feedback or improvements people think they can make on this lesson – should I use Moodle, etc.? Many thanks.

And you can add or subtract people as you wish, so we have actually added Marcus Garvey, Jomo Kenyatta, Stephen Biko, and Emiliano Zapata to our role play and taken the painters (of this painting) out of the role play – See list.

Go to http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1162771/The-Internet-sensation-dinner-party-painting-103-historical-guests--spot.html#comments  to see who all these individuals are, in color.

The rules:

You will imagine that each of the historical actors above has access to twitter, the expanded edition, to communicate to the other guests present.

You will choose four of them to role play in the "Twittering Masses" role play.

As your historical person, during the Twittering Masses role play you will write, "tweet," at least four other persons. Two of the people should be in close proximity to you based on the painting above. Another tweet should go to the person you feel closest to (not by proximity) at the party – this could be based on ideology (MLK Jr. and Gandhi), background (Tagore and Gandhi), lifestyle (Gandhi and Mother Theresa), etc. Explain in your tweet why you are writing them. The other tweet should go to the person you see as most opposed, or farthest from you – Gandhi and Hitler or Gandhi and Gates or Gandhi and Churchill – in this tweet you should either try to bridge the gap between your differences or explain why the person is wrong in their beliefs.

If you have only three guests – you will need to make 5 initial tweets.

You will respond to each initial tweet.  Then who knows . . .

All tweets should have some connection to WHAP content or themes. You may want to comment on the surroundings or other guests . . .

So how many did you recognize?

1. Bill Gates, Microsoft founder

2. Homer, Greek poet

3. Cui Jian, Chinese singer

4. Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary

5. Pavel Korchagin, Russian artist

6. Bill Clinton, former U.S. President

7. Peter the Great, Russian leader

8. Margaret Thatcher

9. Bruce Lee, martial arts actor

10. Winston Churchill

11. Henri Matisse, French artist

12. Genghis Khan, Mongolian warlord

13. Napoleon Bonaparte, French military leader

14. Che Guevara, Marxist revolutionary

15. Fidel Castro, former Cuban leader

16. Marlon Brando, actor

17. Yasser Arafat, former Palestinian leader

18. Julius Caesar, Roman emperor

19. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, WW II U.S. aviator

20. Luciano Pavarotti, singer

21. George W. Bush, former U.S. President

22. The Prince of Wales

23. Liu Xiang, Chinese Olympic hurdler

24. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General

25. Zhang An, the painter

26. Mikhail Gorbachev, former Russian leader

27. Li Tiezi, the painter

28. Dante Alighieri, Florentine poet

29. Dai Dudu, the painter

30. Pele, Brazilian footballer

31. Guan Yu, Chinese warlord

32. Ramses II, Egyptian pharaoh

33. Charles De Gaulle, French general

34. Albert Nobel, Swedish chemist who founded the Nobel prizes

35. Franklin Roosevelt, former U.S. President

36. Ernest Hemingway, American novelist

37. Elvis Presley, American singer

38. Robert Oppenheimer, U.S. physicist

39. William Shakespeare, playwright

40. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer

41. Steven Spielberg, U.S. film director

42. Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter

43. Marie Curie, physicist and pioneer of radioactivity

44. Zhou Enlai, first Premier of the People's Republic of China

45. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, German writer

46. Laozi, Chinese philosopher

47. Marilyn Monroe, American actress

48. Salvador Dali, Spanish painter

49. Dowager Cixi, former ruler of China

50. Ariel Sharon, former Israeli Prime Minister

51. Qi Baishi, Chinese painter

52. Qin Shi Huang, former Chinese Emperor

53. Mother Teresa, Roman Catholic missionary

54. Song Qingling, Chinese politician

55. Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet

56. Otto Von Bismarck, German statesman

57. Run Run Shaw, Chinese media mogul

58. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher

59. Audrey Hepburn, actress

60. Ludwig Van Beethoven, German composer

61. Adolf Hitler, Nazi leader

62. Benito Mussolini, Italian fascist leader

63. Saddam Hussein, former Iraq president

64. Maxim Gorky, Russian writer

65. Sun Yat-Sen, Chinese precommunist revolutionary

66. Deng Xiaoping, Chinese Communist revolutionary

67. Alexander Pushkin, Russian author

68. Lu Xun, Chinese writer

69. Joseph Stalin, former Soviet Union leader

70. Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian painter

71. Karl Marx, German philosopher

72. Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

73. Abraham Lincoln, former U.S. President

74. Mao Zedong, Chinese dictator

75. Charlie Chaplin, British actor

76. Henry Ford, founder of Ford motor company

77. Lei Feng, Chinese soldier

78. Norman Bethune, Canadian physician

79. Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist

80. Juan Antonio Samaranch, former International Olympic Committee president

81. Chiang Kai Shek, Chinese general

82. Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist

83. Li Bai, Chinese poet

84. The Queen of the United Kingdom

85. Cornelius Baba, Romanian painter

86. Auguste Rodin, French artist

87. Dwight Eisenhower, former U.S. President

88. Michael Jordan, U.S. basketball player

89. Hideki Tojo, former Japanese Prime Minister

90. Michelangelo, Italian Renaissance painter

91. Yi Sun-Sin, Korean naval commander

92. Mike Tyson, American boxer [Muhammad Ali

93. Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister

94. Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author

95. Shirley Temple Black, American actress

96. Albert Einstein, German physicist

97. Moses, Hebrew religious leader

98. Confucius, Chinese philosopher

99. Gandhi, Indian spiritual leader

100. Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter

101. Toulouse Lautrec, French painter

102. Marcel Duchamp, French artist

103. (Osama bin Laden, founder of al Qaeda, is behind George W. Bush, no 21)

Example of Student Work from first year [done at the end of the year as a review activity]: Student writing as the Queen of England to Josef Stalin:

Who knew I would ever be seated near the notorious Joseph Stalin. As a leader, you were one of the most significant in history by transforming the Soviet Union from an agricultural nation to a global super power. However as my people will tell me, there is evidence to suggest you as a murderer and a fascist, who aided communist parties all over the world. You were responsible for the deaths of millions, who you sent to the Gulags or had executed during the Great Purge. This reign of terror was a horrid act and you also managed to purge your own people, army, and fellow intellectuals. I, Queen Elizabeth II, am devoted to my religious and civic duty to my legions of followers all over my realm, and in no way support your radical actions.

The Queen

Josef Stalin's reply:

Whoa Whoa Whoa,

I never killed anyone. And unlike you capitalist swines there is no way for my people to afford prisons. So, as a positive alternative, they can repay their debt to society in a great way, bettering things for society! Railroads, Road roads, you name it, they'll build it! Why? because they all recognize me as a God. Don't insult the man and the culture that saved yours from living in the subway like rats.

Much love,
Stalin

Student as Benito Mussolini writing to Stalin:

I thought I was done tweeting, but then I saw you here, and realized I needed to talk to you. I, Benito Mussolini, couldn't be farther apart from you seeing that fascists and communists are sworn enemies dedicated to each others destruction. Reflecting this we have both seated ourselves looking in opposite directions. I also hate your stupid little mustache, and when I see it I want to cut it off and shove it down your commie throat. Back to business though, fascists like myself stress our national superiority, while communists seem to stress that the people are inferior and only by everyone living in mutual states of inferiority can you not be as inferior. Russia has never and never will be the third Rome.
Roma aumenterà ancora!
Distini saluti,
Benito Mussolini

Stalin's reply:

Hey Benny,

How'd that whole fascist thing end up for ya? If i remember correctly I lived to fight another war. To top it all off, my empire survived after my death, unlike yours that died because of your death. Nice job picking an ally that is totally looking out for you're best interests too... Hitler must've been a pal. Enjoy that shameful dirtbath!

Stalin

Student as Marie Curie writing to Stalin:

I am writing to you because we are very opposed in ideals. Science is an extraordinary field where anything is possible with the right amount of hard work, innovation and understanding. Great problems can be solved with science, and the ability to explore the scientific fields should be an inherent right of anyone who wishes to seek it. During your time in Russia, science along with art and literature were under strict ideological control, something that hindered the natural progression of scientific exploration and freedom to venture beyond what is already known. People's inclination toward experimentation was suppressed unless it followed the government's ideology, which is suppressing natural human curiosity that often times makes this world a better place through science. I also condemn your acquirement of the atomic bomb, an invention my advances in science helped created. The arts and sciences are fields that are open for personal interpretation, but under your regime that wasn't the case, and people did not have the opportunity to truly engage in the freedom that arts and sciences offer.

-Marie Curie

Stalin's reply:

Marie,

I completely agree with you, we're not too different in ideologies after all! State sponsored science clearly achieves the best results. The best art has my face on it! And lets be serious, if you could have the power to kill as many people as you saw fit you'd use it too. You tell me my people suffered, but no one was in poverty, and clearly I was loved because I was worshiped as a god. Thanks for the tweet, did you partly invent this thing too?

Stalin

Student examples from the next year, note the requirement of themes and the improvement in imitating Twitter:

Student writing as Bill Clinton to Vladimir Lenin:

Theme 5: Development and transformation of social structures
Social and economic classes
Theme 4: Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems
Capitalism and socialism

@Vladimir Lenin

I'm going to speak bluntly: I do not like you. I think that communism is a stupid idea and that capitalism is better. I mean, you lowered everyone else's social and economic class except for your own and all of your other communist buddies. I'm going to spoil the future for you now: America (Capitalism to the max) wins out over you and your socialist pigs (Animal Farm reference). Communism was bound to fail in your country because without competition fueled by war, your country has no need to industrialize, leaving you all as farmers. While in America, we have competitive markets, sure our economy has its ups and downs, but our worst economy is still better than yours. So there, take that.

Bill Clinton

Lenin's reply:

Development and interaction of cultures
Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
Science and technology
Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems
Labor systems
Capitalism and socialism
Development and transformation of social structures
Social and economic classes

@Bill Clinton

I do not understand how you can say you "won" when there are people in your country that go hungry. You are the leader of one of the wealthiest nations in the world, and yet you let your elderly go without health care.

It is no wonder that you are a fan of Capitalism. In 2007, you made 40 million in speaking tours alone. You do not have to worry about having a place to sleep at night. In your country, the poverty line for a five person family is about $25,000. You make 1,600 times this a year!

You claim that Communism does not produce technology. Then how is it that Yuri Gagarin, Soviet Hero, became the first man in space, and the first man to orbit the Earth? How is it that we have the largest weapons stockpile in the world?

I hope you sleep well knowing your people are suffering.

-Vladamir Lenin

Student writing as Fidel Castro to Lenin:

Theme 3: State-building, expansion, and conflict
Political structures and forms of governance

@Vladimir Lenin

Dear Mr. Lenin, I would like to extend my most humble greetings toward you and tell you how glad I am to finally be able to talk to you. You were a real inspiration for you as you set the standard for how a communist country should be run; you were bold when you overthrew the tsars. I must emit, you really gave me inspiration when I wanted to establish communism in my own country of Cuba, so thank you.

Fidel Castro

Lenin's reply:

@ Fidel Castro

Thank you very much for your kind praise! I hear you are in poor health, I hope that you are comfortable; a man that has been such an effective leader of Communism for so long deserves a rest!

How you overthrew the Batista is a story of true bravery. You were willing to give up everything for Communism and you are the perfect example of what a member of the Party should be. You saw injustice, and you destroyed it!

I wish you the best in your retirement. You are one of the greatest leaders of our time!
-Vladamir Lenin

My comment:

I am surprised the two of you, Vlad and Fidel, did not bring up how U.S. imperialism is the highest (and last) stage of capitalism:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1916lenin-imperialism.html

Mr. Greene (party crasher)

Lenin's reply:

@ Mr. Greene

Although I appreciate your advice, I ask you kindly to stay out of these immense affairs of state. You are speaking to some of the most powerful men in the world; I believe we know what we are talking about. Do you govern the masses? I think not.

Good day to you, sir.

Vladimir Lenin

Addendum G   Placing the Renaissance in a Global Setting³⁵

([WHAP Era] 1450-1750)

Overview:  In most world history and Western civilization courses, student learn about the Renaissance.  The Renaissance is often presented as a uniquely European event without recognizing the important links between Italy and Asia that underlie the Renaissance and made it possible.  

Background; Students will have read about the Renaissance in their textbook.  They should have an understanding of Humanism and the Renaissance's origins in Italy.

Objective: Students will look at Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors in order to understand the culturally diverse origins of the Renaissance.  They will identify the different items in the painting to understand the Asian influences on the Renaissance.

Time: One class period

Materials Required: A copy of The Ambassadors that can be projected in front of the class. (http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/server.php?show=conObject.227)

Procedures

1) Show students a copy of Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors.  Let them know that painting was made in 1533.  Ask them to study the painting and to identify why this painting is considered a prime example of a Renaissance painting.  These are the main Renaissance qualities:

           - precise & detailed reproduction of two males

           - sense of self-awareness, as opposed to medieval painting

           - use of perspective & oil paints

2) Tell the students that the two figures are Jean de Dinteville, French ambassador to the English court of Henry VIII, on the right and his friend Georges de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur, on the left.  

3) Ask students to identify all the items on the table.  They should identify the following items on the lower shelf:

           - a hymn book

           - a merchant's arithmetic book

           - a lute

           - a terrestrial globe

           - a set of flutes

           - a set square

On the upper shelf:

           - a celestial globe

- several specialized instruments: quadrants, sundial, and a torquetum (timepiece & navigational aid)

4) Inform the students that these items symbolize the seven subjects of that made up Humanism: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy.  Ask them what Holbein is suggesting by placing these two people in the same painting as the subjects of Humanism.

- Students should make the connection that worlds of politics and religion are closely related to humanist thinking.

5) Ask the students if they know the origins of the objects on the table.

           Lute – derived from the Turkish oud

Printed Books – printing presses were Chinese in origin, and moveable type was a Korean invention

Merchant's Arithmetic Book – based on Islamic merchants' methods of bookkeeping

           Navigational Equipment – adopted from Arab and Jewish astronomers

           Carpet – probably from Near East (Turkey)

6) Ask the students to identify the clothing the individuals are wearing.  They are wearing silks and velvets which also originally come from Asia.

7) Ask the students to identify the pattern on the floor of the painting.  It is geometric in design, which would suggest an Islamic influence.

8) After you have gone over the painting with the students, ask them what they can infer about the nature of the Renaissance.  They should be able to identify that much of what was supposedly new about the Renaissance was rooted in Asian culture and technology.  Ask them also why the Renaissance began in Italy.  Hopefully they will recognize that Italy was directly linked to the Islamic world through trade, and it was the link for many of these cultural borrowings.

Additional Resources:

Brotton, Jerry.  The Renaissance Bazaar: From the Silk Road to Michelangelo. (Oxford, 2002)

Hobson, John M. The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. (Cambridge, 2004)

Bram Hubbell

Friends Seminary

bramhubbell@gmail.com

Addendum H  One way of structuring mini-debates

Structure of mini-debates:

1st round (round of 16)- why is your Heritage Site more important to a specific WHAP era in history than your opponent's?

For 1st round WHAP eras are: Foundations (10,000 BCE to 600 CE), 600-1450 CE,
1450-1750CE, 1750-1914CE, 1914-present

Procedure: lower ranked place goes 1st for up to one minute, then higher ranked place
speaks for 90 seconds - this includes a rebuttal, then 1st place has 30 seconds for rebuttal.

2nd round (round of 8) - Why is your Heritage Site more important to your WHAP region
than your opponents?

For 2nd round - know your regions

Procedure: same as second round with different topic.

3rd round (final four) - Why is your Heritage Site more important to world history than your opponents?

For 3rd round - know everything

Procedure: Each place speaks for up to two minutes.
Then each place can ask one question of the other places - up to one minute respond
Then one minute conclusion in same order as opening statements

Addendum I  Handout on creative writing in the history and art classroom

J.D. Scrimgeour lesson³⁶  with two examples created by the author.

CREATIVE WRITING IN THE HISTORY AND ART CLASSROOM

Practices for successful creative writing assignments

1. Provide and discuss models.
2. Identify structural qualities of the models to imitate. Ideally, these should serve as prompts and shaping devices rather than handcuffs.
3. Do prewriting – make lists.
4. Encourage sharing. Be open to students' different approaches and how they may provide insight into history or art.

The Object Poem

           "No ideas but in things" –William Carlos Williams

           Select an object that you have seen in Salem and write a poem about it that imagines the life of that object. As with "Cigar Store Indian,"³⁷ [see my examples immediately below], begin the poem simply by trying to describe the object precisely and accurately (you may want to describe the surroundings as well; you may want to sketch the object first). Then, imagine the places the object has been in the past, or what the object has seen. You might want to focus on a particular scene. If it is a made object you might consider how it got made and by whom.

           You might use anaphora (repetition of and initial word or phrase) to help generate a pace and a pattern (For example, "It has seen. . .").

           The object can be something officially "historical," such as an artifact in the Peabody Essex Museum [(PEM)], or it can be an "unofficial" object – a tree, a building, a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, even a gum wrapper.

           Finally, as in "Cigar Store Indian," you might try to bring the poem back to the present, and look ahead to the future [See "Museum Quality"]. Where will the object be in the future? What will it see?

Similar alternative assignments:

The Descriptive Poem: Describe an object or a place, forcing yourself to look carefully at what an object is and does. Through this attention, try to have the object gradually tell us something about the historical moment that it comes from, as James R. Scrimgeour does in his poems, "Judge Corwin's Kitchen,"[³⁸] and "The Flax Break."[³⁹] In "The Flax Break," the flax break (an item used in the 1600s) takes on a symbolic significance. Just as it treats "rough and unruly flax," the witch trials could be seen as a way to treat "rough, unruly" people.

           Like Scrimgeour, you might concentrate on just describing what the object looks like and what it does. Don't explain the connection too overly.

The monument poem: Write a poem that describes a public monument designed to commemorate a historical event, as Yusef Komunkaya does in "Facing It."[⁴⁰]  You might begin by describing how you stand physically in relation to the monument, as well as describing the monument itself. Sometimes where a monument is located – what is around it – says something about how people feel about what it commemorates, so you might describe its surroundings. You might also include images from the past that the monument brings to mind and put them alongside images from the present.  Note how Komunyakaa remembers "the booby trap's white flesh" from his days in Vietnam, then sees the names "shimmer on a woman's blouse," which is a flash from the present. Don't be afraid if the images become a bit jumbled.  That's an indication of how powerfully history can infuse the life we live today.

Poems about art: Write a poem in the voice of a person or object in a work of art. How is the person/object feeling? What is he/she/it thinking about and noticing? If it is a painting, refer to other things in the painting. Have the subject respond to the surroundings. Once you've done that, have the subject think about something not in the painting.  What path does your observation about the painting open up for you?

Two Books:

A Surge of Language: Teaching Poetry Day by Day ([Portsmouth, NH: Heinneman,] 2004)

David Capella and Baron Wormser

Poetry is part of the 7-12 English curriculum, but many students, and teachers too, are afraid of it. They think of poetry as esoteric, insular, even elitist.  Baron Wormser and David Cappella prove otherwise and show how in a friendly, informal way how poetry can be incorporated into the classroom daily. (from Amazon.com editorial review)

Sleeping on the Wing: An Anthology of Modern Poetry with, Essays on Reading and Writing. (1982)

Kate Farrelll and Kenneth Koch

Koch did some of the groundbreaking work about teaching poetry to children and making it fun and accessible. This anthology of modern poets is for secondary school students, but I've used assignments and poems from it in graduate classes down through kindergarten.

Examples of my work from workshops at Salem:

Museum Quality 7/27/05

A Starbucks cup at the PEM

they gave it to me

to teach me a lesson

red and cheery

female figures dancing with latte mugs

and a host of options:

caf/decaf?  cream/soy/milk? shot?

Did it need to be copyrighted?

And what does this cup make of me?

Holding it up for the class to see

teacher/student?  observer/observed? consumer/consumed?

And this gallery (?)

with shipcaptain's loot – curios from all over –

I wonder if they were acquired the way Starbuck's coffee is:

By fair trade ?(!)

And I wonder if this cup will remember me (?)

when it's put on display

for an exhibition titled,

"21^st Century Material Culture":

Starbuck's coffee cup

Copyright 2002 (Winter)

unused

A Freke⁴¹ Coincedent 7/12/2010

Like a porcelain doll, she stands sits there.

           And her mother's arm gets so drawn out it disappears

           then rebirths with her birth

rearmed to hold her up for the world (no hub, not yet, edge, barely holding on back then, of the universe) to see.

           (this porcelain-esque doll was) So much more sublime than a red petticoat!

In Worcester, black hole of the universe,

           At least that's what it was referred to by the Greenpeace canvassers when I was a canvasser -

           a hole as black and velvety and rich as her father's dress coat with those silver buttons

           from the slave mines of Potosi?

And here she is breakable

           better than those bugs crushed into colour

           and potions ported across the Silk Road - traded from traveler to traveler

           making their way across the Atlantic before steam for some unknown artist to colour her in, like magic

And was she, too, traded

           after her father died

           (a year after he wore that coat for the first last time)

(inheritance and property laws being what they were)?

And why does my daughter

           want me to trade for someone that looks like the porcelain Freke?

Addendum J  Writing assignment using Casta paintings

¹ Author's note: The title is taken from James Joyce's coming of age novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The word portrait is taken more literally in this essay than in Joyce's novel. The portraits here refer to the different experiences the author has or, in regards to the future, plans to experience. The author considers forty to be young (The author did not always think forty was young.).  The author wishes to thank the editors and peer reviewers of World History Connected, especially Marc Gilbert, Jim Diskant and Ralph Croizier for their helpful editions and suggestions

² See Masur's essay, "Pictures Have Now Become a Necessity': The Uses of Images in American History," Journal of American History, vol. 84, Issue 4 (Mar., 1998), 1409-24 here: www.americanantiquarian.org/chavicreadings2011/masur.pdf or at J-Stor. The Soiling of Old Glory was a picture taken by Stanley Forman in Boston during an anti-busing rally. The picture won the Pulitzer Prize. For US history teachers, a nice companion book for visuals on the flag is David Hackett Fischer, Liberty and Freedom: A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

³ See Patricia Johnston, ed. Seeing High and Low:  Representing Social Conflict in American Visual Culture, (University of California Press, 2006). See chapter six, Patricia M. Burnham, "Custer's Last Stand: High-Low on Old and New Frontiers" for some of the sources used in the presentation. For one view of a Budweiser advertisement see here: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/7678534.  See chapter six "Continuity and Change Over Time: Custer's Last Stand or the Batlle of Greasy Grass" in Bruce Lesh, Why Won't You Just Tell Us the Answer?: Teaching Historical Thinking Skills in Grades 7-12 (Portland, ME: Stenouse Publishers, 2011), 115-36.

⁴ There work can be compared to the work of Ilya Gluzanov, especially his "Mystery of the Twentieth Century." Image available here: http://www.tanais.info/art/en/glazunov18more.html

⁵ The Arnolfini portrait seems to have drawn interest not only a beginning history teacher and his students, but experts to its untold story. See http://www.umass.edu/chronicle/archives/00/04-14/harbison28.html and http://jade-wildy.suite101.com/theories-on-the-meaning-of-the-arnolfini-portrait-a288984

⁶ It helps to have a list descriptive words, nowadays easily found on the Internet; for instance: http://www.msgarrettonline.com/descripwords.html or http://www.kisd.org/khs/english/help%20page/Descriptive%20Words.htm or http://www.momswhothink.com/reading/list-of-adjectives.html#Adjectives%20List

⁷ One could also use the SCIM-C technique which incorporates many of the same types of questions. See "SCIM-C Explanation: A Strategy for Interpreting History," Historical Inquiry: Scaffolding Wise Practices in the History Classroom, http://www.historicalinquiry.com/scim/index.cfm for an example of the type of questions used in SCIM-C. A new resource is the National History Education Clearinghouse's teachinghistory.org. For example, how they use this primary source questionnaire: http://teachinghistory.org/system/files/Internment_Graphic_Organizer.pdf to bring together the primary sources in the lesson "Using Historical Footage (Middle School)": http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/24313.  The site has a wonderful search engine, so a search of art comes up with Daisy Martin's article "Using Visual Fine Arts to Enrich Understanding" (http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/ask-a-master-teacher/24271) among others.

⁸ Will Cuppy, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (Boston: Non-Pareil Books, 1984 [originally published in 1950]), 159-165.

⁹ The American Experience: A Resource Portfolio of American Images. Published by Scholastic under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution.  Scholastic Magazine Inc., 1975. 19 volumes. The sets are made up of prints and photographs printed on heavy card stock. The set is thirty-five years old and still in good condition.

¹⁰ The author completed a 64-page unit on six topics of the American Indian for this course. Available from the author by request.

¹¹ The proposed course is: English 12 and history elective:

World Literature in Historical Context:

In this course students explore the literary contributions of authors from many nations by reading and analyzing works from diverse eras and cultures.  The works represent the literary genres of fiction, poetry, drama, autobiography, biography, diary, speech, reportage, history, and the essay. The literature is placed into historical and comparative context through the study of geography, history, art and music. Students also look at recent events in the places, cultures, and lifestyles studied to analyze change over time. Through the literature, students explore the roles played by race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and culture. They will also identify commonalities amongst the nations of the world and discuss the universal themes presented in the literature. Authentic assessment includes presentations, performances, analytical, and original writing, Socratic seminars and journals as well as quizzes and tests. Students should be prepared to complete approximately one hour of homework a night.

¹² For information about the New England History Teachers' Association visit http://nehistoryteachers.org/ or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-England-History-Teachers-Association/218761641477941.  The American Antiquarian Society has treasure trove of material, here is one place to start: http://www.americanantiquarian.org/electronic.htm

¹³ In addition to Masur, we read Chad Berry, Lori A. Schmied, and Chad Schrock, "The Role of Emotion in Teaching and Learning History: A Scholarship of Teaching Exploration," The History Teacher Vol. 41, No. 4 (August 2008), 437-452, and watched the segment on Four Photographs that appears on the DVD American Photography: A Century of Images (http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/).   This was followed by sharing lessons and techniques. American Photography is an exemplar of how history, in this case 20^th Century US history, can be taught through visuals, specifically photography.

¹⁴ This is based on an increase in student scores from my first year teaching WHAP to my second year. Although not scientific, scores increased significantly even though time in class was reduced by a third. Another contributing factor might have been the use of RAFTs (see next footnote).

¹⁵ See article: Helen Gregg and Jeremy Greene, "RAFTing on the Great New Sea of Knowledge: Historical Role Playing for Engagement, Authenticity, and Interaction," World History Connected October 2010 <http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/7.3/gregg.html> (27 Nov. 2011).

¹⁶ Oral histories come from Christian G. Appy, Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides (New York: Viking, 2003); Wallace Terry, Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History (New York: Ballantine Books, 1991); and Ron Steinman, Women in Vietnam: The Oral History (New York: TV Books, 2000).

¹⁷ See Gregory L. Roper, The Writer's Workshop: Imitating Your Way to Better Writing (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2007) and Kelly Gallagher, Write Like This: Preparing Students for Writing in the Real World (Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers, 2011) for arguments and models for the practice of mimicry or imitation in writing. And read Paul Tough, "Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self Control, New York Times,  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27tools-t.html?pagewanted=all, September 25, 2009 for an article on the benefits on role-play for younger students.

¹⁸ See James A. Diskant, "Engaging Students in Jigsaw Learning, Poster Projects, and Ad Hoc DebatesTo Encourage Them to Become Critical Thinkers," World History Connected February 2010 <http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/7.1/diskant.html> (29 Nov. 2011). Specifically the lesson entitled A Large Roundtable Discussion in Three Parts: The World Around 1825: Who is in Control? Reactionaries, Moderators, or Revolutionaries (See his Addendum A)

¹⁹ Jason Webster and Grady Long, "Using Debate Competition in the Classroom: History Style," World History Connected February 2010 <http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/7.1/webster.html>

²⁰ They used the Foreign Policy Research Institute's "Teaching a New Generation of American Innovators" here: http://www.fpri.org/education/innovation/, specifically "From Stone to Silicon" here: http://www.fpri.org/footnotes/1325.200810.husick.stonetosilicon.html and here: http://www.fpri.org/footnotes/1325.200810.husick.stonetosilicon.pdf.  The lesson "20^th Century Innovation Tournament" on the site does what I do in more depth, but over several days: http://www.fpri.org/education/teachinginnovation/burback.20thcenturyinnovationtournament.doc

²¹ For a list of UNESCO World Heritage sites visit http://whc.unesco.org/en/list.  The CyArk's project website looks promising and inviting to students: http://archive.cyark.org/.  For a text source, see UNESCO, The World's Heritage: A Complete Guide to the Most Extraordinary Places (London: UNESCO Publishing, 2009).   See the TED Talk, "Ben Kacyra: Ancient wonders captured in 3D" for more: http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_kacyra_ancient_wonders_captured_in_3d.html

²² Visit the BBC's "A History of the World" here http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/, and also the British Museum's "A History of the World in 100 Objects" website here: http://www.britishmuseum.org/system_pages/holding_area/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx, and Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects (London: Viking, 2011).

²³ Visit the Wadsworth Athenaeum here: http://www.thewadsworth.org/american/ to see the painting.

²⁴ Visit the National Endowment for the Humanities project Picturing America here http://picturingamerica.neh.gov/ for more on which the NEH workshop was focused.

²⁵ Virtually Visit the Peabody Essex Museum here: http://www.pem.org/, Museum of Fine Arts here:  http://www.mfa.org/, the Wadsworth Athenaeum here:  http://www.wadsworthatheneum.org/, and the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library here:  http://maps.bpl.org/.

²⁶ For instance Brad Austin shared the short clip from the John Adams series where John Adams shows his disapproval of John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT0qNAYJQWU

²⁷ For instance read "Teaching Yourself to Teach with Objects" by John Hennigar Shuh, Journal of Education, Volume 7 (4) p. 15. The article contains a list of ways to view a Big Mac box. The list can be seen here: www.allaboutshoes.ca/images/en/pdfs/.../activity2_50_ways.pdf.

²⁸ Visit http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/10/top-20-uses-for-wordle.html for 20 ways to use Wordle. And http://blog.tagxedo.com/101-ways-to-use-tagxedo-completed for 101 ways to use Tagxedo. For a Wordle of the text of this article including addenda see http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4571572/WoPictures_of_the_Young_Teacher_as_Experiencing_and_Incorporating_Art

²⁹ The paintings are also mentioned in Ferguson's recent Civilization: The West and the Rest (New York: The Penquin Press), 295-6, 298-9 but not as fully used as they were in his presentation.

³⁰ World History Connected's review of Vermeer's Hat: http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/6.1/br_weston.html

³¹ Fara, Science, 61-67. See the painting on-line here: http://www.qantara-med.org/qantara4/public/show_document.php?do_id=1217&lang=en

³² Ibid. 340.

³³ Galleano, Mirrors, 332. The Korda photograph can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heroico1.jpg as well as on tee shirts everywhere.

³⁴ For instance, I would use Pierre Patel's Versailles which I found in Penelope Hobhouse's Plants in Garden History (162) and then found on-line here: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GPvNiTV6SWg/SDFor2zqS6I/AAAAAAAAA10/9ubrGLoqWq0/s1600-h/080505-PHobhouse-PierrePatel-Versailles1688-b.jpg.  This image does not make the first page of a Google Image search.

³⁵ This lesson was shared on the world history lesson jamboree that is offered through the Advanced Placement Educational Discussion Group. It can currently be found on the WHAP community page under resources. It is used with the author's permission.

³⁶ This lesson was shared by Scrimgeour at the NEH workshop mentioned. It is used with the author's permission. I have re-typed and formatted it.

³⁷ This poem appears in J.D. Scrimgeour, The Last Miles (Fine Tooth Press, 2005).

³⁸ The poem appears on page 29 of this page: http://people.wcsu.edu/scrimgeourj/weare.doc

³⁹ Much of James Scrimgeour's poetry can be found on his webpage here: http://people.wcsu.edu/scrimgeourj/poetrypage.html

⁴⁰ The poem is available on-line here: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15830

⁴¹ Visit the Worcester Art Museum pages on the Freake's or Freke's here: http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/unidentified_17th/john_f/painting-discussion.html and here: http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/unidentified_17th/elizabeth_f/painting-discussion.html.