Washington Grantees

Grant Contact: Ryan Theodoriches
Email: ryan.theodoriches@evergreenps.org
Website: http://www.evergreenps.org

Grant awarded: August 9, 2012
The Evergreen and Vancouver district curriculum specialists, with support from the Teaching with Primary Sources Western Region, will provide professional development to district middle school teachers that introduces the Library of Congress as a pedagogical model for using primary sources in historical inquiry. The workshop will encourage attention to student's literacy needs in approaching those documents, as well as introducing the Library of Congress web resources (especially the American Memory collection) as a fertile resource for classroom instruction. Teacher teams will design a lesson which utilizes Library of Congress sources, applies inquiry-based methodology, and anticipates students' literacy needs. Teachers will deepen their understanding of Common Core standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, and develop approaches for supporting students' ability to read challenging text.

In November 2012, teacher teams will meet to watch a team member teach the lesson their team developed at the earlier training to students. After the "demonstration lesson" is taught and observed, the teams will engage in a protocol-driven, facilitated discussion of their observations and analysis of student work. During that debrief discussion, teachers will evaluate the efficacy of the lesson, discuss revisions to be applied in future iterations of the lesson, and consider ways in which the process leads them to deeper understandings regarding the teaching and learning of history. Teachers will attend a final workshop in December 2012. At that session, groups will prepare their lessons for sharing with each other and their non-participating colleagues. This grant builds on the successful collaboration model piloted earlier in ESD 112 in southwest Washington state.

Grant Contact: Tom Ikeda - Executive Director
Email: tom.ikeda@densho.org
Website: http://www.densho.org

Grant awarded: June 26, 2012
Densho's mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. Densho offers these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy and promote equal justice for all. Through a TPS Western Regional grant, Densho will integrate the rich resources of the Library of Congress with its own digital archives to create professional development for middle and high school teachers. Teachers will engage in historical thinking about the Japanese American WW II experience by analyzing primary sources and discussing how this can inform thinking about current events. In addition to their home base in Seattle (Washington), Densho also plans to offer TPS workshops in Los Angeles (California), Portland (Oregon) and Honolulu (Hawaii).

*Multiple States Served

Grant Contact: Amy Johnson - 5th Grade Teacher, Northlake Elementary School, Longview School District
Email: ajohnson@longview.k12.wa.us
Website: http://www.longview.k12.wa.us

Grant awarded: November 18, 2011
The Longview School District identified lead teachers from several elementary schools to participate in a two-day workshop and bring TPS back to their schools. The Level I workshop, presented by Dr. Peggy O’Neill-Jones and Cindy Stout, was held on March 1-2, 2012. Additional meetings are planned to encourage the implementation of TPS into lesson design and promote historical thinking.  When asked about the grant outcomes, Amy Johnson replied, “This training has changed our district. Seeing teachers excited, engaged, motivated and enthusiastic about accessing the Library of Congress to create stimulating lessons for their classrooms opened up unforeseen opportunities.”

Grant Contact: Matt Karlsen - Teaching American History Grant Coordinator
Email: matt.karlsen@esd112.org
Website: http://web3.esd112.org

Grant awarded: October 28, 2011
The Library of Congress Teaching With Primary Sources Western Region grant funding supported high school teacher engagement in a lesson study cycle deepening their understanding of and commitment to guiding student historical inquiry utilizing primary source documents.  Twenty-nine teachers from the Evergreen and Vancouver school districts attended a two-day Level I training in the use of primary sources in the classroom and the loc.gov website on January 12 & 13, 2012.  Teacher teams designed lessons utilizing the resources and pedagogical approaches described during the workshop.  The resulting lessons were taught as five “demonstration lessons”, observed and discussed by the teams, on February 10, 16, 23, 24, and March 1.  On March 7, the teams regrouped to document their lessons, reflect on the process, and discuss next steps with their districts.  Following that session, teacher-participants committed to meet with their non-participating colleagues at their schools to discuss the process and resources.  Teacher evaluations of the grant activities were very positive. As one teacher expressed, “This was not like a learning walk.  I worked on a lesson related to my work, and I’ll use it.  This is the way professional development should be.”