Chicago: My Kind of Town!

After our adventure to Chicago, I must say the trip was quite valuable.  One of the best ways to learn history is to experience it first hand and the experiences that we had did not disappoint.  We visited a wide variety of historical landmarks and were exposed to an abundance of curricular resources.  I only wish that my students could have the same experience.  From here though it becomes my job to share what I have learned and hopefully ignite the flame of future historians in my 7^th graders.  The pictures that I took will be key, and will be the closest that many of them ever get to these sites, as will the load of new resources acquired on the trip.  I am sitting here looking at a stack of notes, brochures, primary documents, folders, and other modes of information picked up along the way, all of which will contribute to making me a better teacher of American History.  The weather was crummy, but the trip was unforgettable. 

Mr. Bridgman and the Lincoln family.

Our journey began in the Land of Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois.  Here we spent two fantastic days examining the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.  We visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Lincoln’s home, his tomb, and the site of a once younger Lincoln’s law offices.  We also found time in this initial leg of the trip to venture to New Salem, an old colonial town where Lincoln once co-owned a shop.  As one would expect, there were statues, plaques, and numerous other memorials to the president everywhere we looked throughout Springfield.  The library and museum were great and gave me an over all pretty good idea of Lincoln’s life growing up and ultimately as president.  Our speaker Erin Bishop was helpful and though we had technical difficulties at the museum, the web quest that she highlighted contains several online resources that appear useful.  The president’s tomb was breathtaking and a fitting tribute to one of our nation’s finest leaders and it was cool to imagine what he might have been doing in his day as we toured Lincoln’s home.  For a history aficionado like me, Springfield certainly had its charm.

Abraham Lincoln's tomb.

While in Springfield we studied Lincoln and the Civil War antebellum time period.  On the other hand in Chicago, where we spent the majority of our time, there were other things to learn.  Topics of study included labor history, the Progressive Movement, immigration, and much more.  While there we kicked things off at the Art Institute of Chicago.  I was enamored by Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting and enjoyed the free time to explore the museum toward the end of the day.  The next two days included time spent at the Chicago History Museum.  I must say, that it was here that I gained the most inspiration throughout the trip for my future teaching practices.  Dr. Sarah Marcus exposed us to a plethora of ideas and activities to be used in our classrooms.  My favorites included the Historical Head activity, artifact analysis, and the historical fiction stories found on the museum’s website.  These engaging activities will only make history that much more exciting for my students and hopefully picque their curiosity to learn more.  The following day at the museum we were greeted by Chip Brady, who introduced us to the power of the Document Based Question (DBQ).  I quickly realized that DBQs are quite valuable tools for teachers trying to get the best out of their students’ writing abilities.  The graphs, political cartoons, maps, newspaper articles, and other documents that can be found in Brady’s DBQs provide evidence.  From that evidence, students are asked to think about a historical time period or event and make an argument.  This is definitely something I can see myself using as an authentic assessment of student performance in the future.  Other stops in Chicago included a trip to the home of the architectural genius that is Frank Lloyd Wright, Jane Addams’ Hull House settlement for Chicago immigrants, and tour of Haymarket Square and George Pullman’s town and museum led by our very knowledgeable guide Mr. Bill Adelman.  In Oak Park, home of Wright, I gained a new appreciation for architecture and better command of the vocabulary that comes with the various genres of it.  At Hull House, I learned how to eat healthy and experienced their urban garden.  On the Haymarket tour, thanks to Mr. Adelman, I was able to better envision and see first hand the site of the notorious Haymarket incident where American immigrants were sadly stripped of their first amendment freedom to assemble. 

Haymarket "Martyrs" statue at Haymarket Square.

The learning experience in Chicago was phenomenal, but so was the food!  Gino’s East Deep Dish Pizza was outstanding.  I loved the corn flavored crust and even wrote my name on the wall as is custom at the restaurant.  On one particular evening, my roommates and I stumbled on to Ditka’s Steakhouse, owned by legendary former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka.  The prime rib was outstanding!  Also, I would be remised to forget about the authentic Lithuanian meal that we had on the final day of the trip.  Stuffed cabbage, kougala, and meat dumplings were the main course.  It was pretty good stuff.  But, I didn’t only eat in my spare time.  I was lucky enough to catch a White Sox game at US Cellular Field, visited Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, posed for a picture with the Michael Jordan statue at the United Center, walked the midway at Navy Pier along Lake Michigan, and gazed down at the city from the 103^rd floor of the Sears Tower.  When I first looked down, I about had an accident.  It was quite the experience.

Navy Pier

Overlooking the Chicago skyline from atop the Sears Tower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Wisconsin, we visited the Wisconsin Museum and Historical Society in Madison, walked through the state capitol, and were lectured by, University of Wisconsin professor and mentor to Dr. Rees, Stan Schultz.  We had lunch at the Great Dane, dining in a unique garden setting.  I opted for the Brats and fried cheese, but did not encounter any Cheeseheads.  At the museum I really admired the historical society’s Wisconsin curricular textbooks.  Many of them cover topics conducive to teachers both in and outside of the state.  I also thoroughly enjoyed the Odd Wisconsin exhibit which featured everything from Seinfeld Festivus poles to Teddy Roosevelt’s drinking glass.

Wisconsin Historical Society and Museum. Madison, WI

As I look back, the trip provided a treasure trove of information, tools, and materials that I will be using in my classroom next year.  I saw some great sites, learned a great deal, and was able to network with some colleagues in my kind of town.

Wisconsin

Seinfeld's Festivus Pole on display at the Odd Wisconsin exhibit at the Wisconsin Museum of History. Manufactured by the Wagner Company for the governor of Wisconsin, a big Seinfeld fan.

Our trip to the Badger State today consisted of stops at the Wisconsin Museum of History, directly across from the state capitol, and the Wisconsin Historical Society.  At the historical society, we attended lectures by colleagues of our esteemed professor Dr. Jonathan Rees.  Leading off we found Jonathan Pollack, a classmate of Dr. Rees’, speaking to us about the intriguing topic of immigration.   Pollack was particularly helpful providing us with primary documents including naturalization applications which will go nicely with the early 1900s citizenship test that I currently use.  After examining these documents, I couldn’t help but wonder exactly how and why such immigrants ventured to the United States.  What were their individual stories?  All of them were very different, yet all with the same dreams.

The state capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin.

It’s always fun to work in the field of history and for a brief moment pretend that I am a historian and not a middle school American History teacher, not that there is anything wrong with that.  Today at the historical society, I was able to do a bit of research about one of the many facets of the history of the great state of Wisconsin, in the museum’s archives.  It was here that I found yet more primary documents, some of which I will use in my upcoming lesson plan.  Our guide, Mr. Harry Miller, pointed out a folder dealing with child labor.  This worked out perfectly as I intend to examine it further in my plans.  I ran photocopies and noticed that the documents centered on a debate over the appropriate age for children working as pin setters in bowling alleys in the city of Milwaukee.  These documents will be used to allow students to compare and contrast any jobs and labor that they may have performed with the plight of young children and their labor during the days of the Progressive Movement.  Harry mentioned the primary documents of photographer Louis Hine who brought the abuses of child labor to the forefront in the early 1900s.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get to these documents as our next lecture was about to occur.  Oh well, there is always the Internet. 

Our second lecture featured Dr. Rees’ mentor, Stan Schultz.  Schultz was different, yet quite entertaining.  I especially appreciated his dirty mouth.  His specialty is the Progressive Movement which he felt could be made into an entire class.  His lecture was engaging as he moved around and varied his tone of voice to show his interest as many great educators do.  I felt that his wife, a high school teacher, was really on to something as he bragged about her methods of teaching progressivism through the lens of student participation in the community.  If anything, it should give them a sense of ownership for improving society around them.  By the same token, I found his parallel of the Progressive Movement of today with the movement of the early 1900s to be both appropriate and unfortunate at the same time.  Schultz argued that even today we are dealing with many of the same issues from the early progressive era.   Women’s reproductive rights like abortion was one of the many examples that he provided.  I also felt that he was right on with his statement that anything with important historical significance should be argued about and disagreed upon by historians.  History can be and is messy and although many see it as a regurgitation of facts  can be more about making a good argument and backing it up with facts, or in other words taking a stand. 

Stan Schultz lecturing about the Progressive Movement at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

 

The Wisconsin cuisine was outstanding.  Throughout the day, I had brats with sauerkraut at the Great Dane brew pub in Madison and sampled some of the local beers along Lake Mendota prior to leaving to board the bus for our return trip to Chicago.  I also sampled fried cheese and cheese curds.  Well, Wisconsin is known for its dairy products.  Yum!  Oh yeah, on another note the weather held out today too.

Lake Mendota, one of two lakes surrounding the isthmus of Madison, Wisconsin.

Super Bowl Shuffle!

Just wanted to take a second to honor the 1985 Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears.  The Super Bowl Shuffle was a famous performance by many of the players prior to the game to benefit Chicago charities.  The video is below.

Eating Habits and a Rainy Day…..

We toured Hull House today and I was amazed at the personage of Jane Addams.  Certainly a woman of the people, Addams along with Ellen Gates Starr founded the Hull House settlement for immigrants in the city of Chicago.  Clearly a humanitarian, Addams it turns out was quite the dynamic figure.  She was a great essayist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who organized with her pen, while Starr was more of a foot soldier out picketing with the common immigrant laborers.  Her ideas were viewed as being Communist and dangerous by corporate leaders around Chicago and indeed throughout the United States.  It was even suggested by the FBI, at one point, that she was the most dangerous woman in the United States.

Jane Addams can of peas.

 

Ellen Gates Starr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the negative attention, though Hull House did lead to real progress for a widespread cross section of various ethnic immigrant groups throughout Chicago.  Thanks to Addams’ finances and that of other philanthropists, children in particular benefited with advances including a juvenile justice court and the first public playground in Chicago.  While visiting Hull House, I was able to get my hands on a couple of resources that should be helpful for my curriculum.  I picked up a DVD called An Experiment in Democracy which will be a useful addition to my immigration units.  In addition I purchased a picture book by Carol Saller simply titled Working Children.  As I mentioned before, there is a great possibility that my lesson plan will focus on child labor.  This resource and other pictures from Louis Hine as Dr. Rees mentioned should each help in the construction of my lesson.

As one would expect, a natural chore of the staff at Hull House was to take care of the boarders’ nutrition.  I found the Hull House museum’s current revival of this element surprising.  It was interesting that they were focused on other topics than just preservation of documents and artifacts.   We journeyed to their ornate urban garden and were later treated to an organic meal.  The museum is currently advocating healthy eating habits and biodiversity in food and crops planted anywhere throughout the United States including their very own urban garden.  Dr. Rees our vegetarian professor had to have been in paradise as we dined on mushroom soup and a fancy salad with mixed greens harvested at the garden, by some of the teachers on our trip.  The meal was fine, especially the thumbprint plum cookies for dessert.   Yet as dinner time rolled around, my roommates and I found that we somehow still had room for a bit more manly of a meal and we stopped at Ditka’s Steakhouse for dinner.  Any time you have the tenacious former coach (Mike Ditka) of the DA BEARS and steak together it makes for a manly evening!  The prime rib was excellent, though probably not as healthy as our organic meal for lunch.

The Hull House Museum's urban garden

 

Ditka's: The Prime Rib was excellent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One part of Chicago that I greatly underestimated is the beautiful architecture showcased throughout the city.  I have touched on this in other blogs with our Frank Lloyd Wright and old town tours, but the Chicago skyline is tough to beat.  We cruised down the Chicago River on a boat christened Chicago’s Fair Lady.  Unfortunately the rain was relentless and most of the group spent the majority of the tour on the bottom deck of the boat.  It was tough to visualize the process that city planners and laborers must have gone through in rerouting the river that feeds into Lake Michigan.  All in all, the tour was unique and we are hoping for better weather tomorrow in Wisconsin!

Our boat, Chicago's Fair Lady, at dock.

Aboard our boat on the Chicago River.

More of the Chicago skyline from our boat on the Chicago River.

Oak Park, Illinois: Home of Frank Lloyd Wright

I walked into our trip in Oak Park, Illinois with a somewhat negative attitude.  I knew that Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect and that as a group we would be looking at homes and buildings that he had designed.  I thought to myself I looked at tons of old houses yesterday as Dick Cody gave us a tour of old town Chicago.  Yes, St. Michael’s church was cool, but everything else looked the same to me and Dick seemed to go on and on.  He was a sweet old man, but he bored me to death.

Our guide, Monte Levinson, a retired physician, however, turned out to be quite the resource.  The tour began with a trip through Wright’s house and studio.  It was here that he designed 1,200 buildings, only 460 of which were eventually constructed.  The tour was broken down into two trips.  First came the one throughout the interior of the Wright family household.  Shortly after that, we mozied on through an Oak Park neighborhood, home to many other Wright constructed households.   

Frank Lloyd Wright house. Notice the overhangs and light band windows.

 

Another house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, Illinois.

I really didn’t know a whole lot about the particular topic at hand, but thanks to Monty began to understand the intricacies of Wright’s architecture.  He relied heavily on prairie style, but was open minded to the wishes of his clients and often had to compromise in many cases.  His style featured deceptive entrances, horizontal thrusts, light band (Japanese style) windows, overhangs, etc.  It was also fun to compare the houses built by Wright with other historic styles of architecture such as neo-classical, Victorian, Tudor, and many others.  At the end of the tour, I felt so confident that I had learned the differences in various types of architecture that I even purchased some flash cards dealing with the different types of historic housing.  I intend to use these flash cards particularly when teaching the birth of the Constitution and the federal government by comparing ancient Greek architecture with that of state and federal government buildings and beyond.  It might also be interesting to compare and contrast social classes living in different styles of architectural housing that they lived in.  Later we went to the Science and Industry Museum where again architecture was a major theme.  This time we looked at the beaux art styles of the Columbian Exposition (World’s Fair) of 1893 in Chicago.

Charyotids at the "White City" part of the Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) in Chicago, 1893.

German U-boat in the Museum of Science and Technology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I concluded the evening in style with a trip to US Cellular Field on the south side of Chicago.  The Tigers beat the White Sox 2-1.  Sorry Mr. Festerling about the loss, but it was nice to sit next to a real Chicagoan and Sox fan at the game.

U.S. Cellular Field. In a pitcher's duel, the Tigers beat the Sox 2-1.

Chip Brady and DBQs

Our lecturer today at the Chicago History Museum was former public school teacher Mr. Chip Brady.  His lecture included the use of primary documents in the classroom through the mode of document based questions (DBQs).  Document questions seem essential, because they guide student learning and promote student critical thinking and forming of an argument.  The outline that Mr. Brady provided was helpful and it sounds like he is convinced that such DBQs take several days and can act as a mini-unit if used correctly. 

He did mention that context is key.  You wouldn’t want to introduce one of these units without providing the appropriate background knowledge first.  Even though it is some times tempting to introduce concepts with primary documents, minimal impact should be expected without setting the stage first.  For example, you wouldn’t want to attempt to teach about the mafia and organized crime, without teaching about prohibition first.

Brady explained that using bucketing activities helps students with metacognition in order to organize their thoughts and create outlines that are easy to follow when writing.   I have also, in my district, learned that Step Up to Writing provides a pretty helpful model as star ideas on power outlines can be used as beginning points for different paragraphs in a student’s argument.   Dr. Rees even mentioned that in some cases it may even be appropriate to go ahead and pre-bucket for students to give them an idea of how to organize their arguments.  His reasoning was that it helps to keep the student on task and focused on the question.  I thought this was a great point.

It was also pointed out, that DBQs  do not always have to lead to a written argument.  Rather, instead there can be debate.   Through the use of the “thrash out” students can debate with one inspect other in a respectful manner.  Brady argued that it doesn’t matter what side of an issue you take as long as you can make an argument.  He explained that students must be respectful and site documents.  I feel that debate is great way to encourage student critical thinking.  In the past, I have used debate with the controversial historical figure that is Jackson.  I intend to use it much more and can see using the DBQs to help focus each side, but need to work on the logistics of having a scholarly debate a little more and would appreciate any suggestions.

Lesson Plan

At this point, I am thinking I will either base my lesson plan off of prohibition including some elements of organized crime in Chicago or Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution.

Chicago History Museum

"Hello again everybody" and "Holy cow!" The late, great Harry Carey and I.

In terms of having a direct impact on future plans in my classroom, the Chicago History Museum ranks at the top of the list thus far.  We heard great stories, examined interesting artifacts, were exposed to new primary documents and maps on the Internet, and read historical fiction.  There was a wide variety of techniques that can be incorporated in the classroom for students with a variety of different learning styles.  Our speakers, Dr. Sarah Marcus and Heidi Moison of the Chicago Historical Society represented their city well and empowered our group of teachers greatly for future work in the classroom.

Once again the stories were top notch.  It was interesting to hear that Mrs. Catherine O’Leary maybe was not the person not to blame for the Great Chicago Fire after all.  Rather this probably an anti-Irish, anti-immigrant story of folklore as elite Chicagoans looked for a scapegoat.  I enjoyed hearing about the Columbian Exposition World’s Fair of 1892 and was not very familiar with the 1919 race riot, so that was interesting to hear about as well. 

Online resources were in abundance as we learned throughout the museum’s workshop. The online Chicago History Encyclopedia will be put to good use in my classroom.  The newspaper excerpts looked  interesting, and I really liked the rich map indicating all of the strikes and riots in Chicago in a given week long time frame.  It was cool because it allows the user to identify which companies were dealing with labor unrest and the dates in which labor actions happened.  This will be a great source when I teach about both immigration and the Industrial Revolution.

Recently I have gotten better at using historical fiction in my classroom and have found to be helpful in developing student interest and comprehension.  In my building our department has sets of Nextext   Chicago Stories website provides similar resources, though I was disappointed to find that while their were stories for the elementary and high school curriculums, there was nothing age appropriate for middle school.  That was kind of a drag!  I do however like the “historical head” activity and can see myself using that in the classroom possibly with our Nextext series.

Finally, the artifact examination was also and interesting one.  We passed around several household items from late the late 19^th and early 20^th century United States.  I kind of kick myself now.  You see when I was younger, my grandparents owned an antique shop with a wide variety of these type of artifacts.  I really didn’t pay a whole lot of attention unless grandpa literally pulled something off the shelf to show me.  I wish I had been a little more focused on some of those things.  Had I known at the time that I was going to be a history teacher, I could have been developing a nice little collection.  Oh well, I guess there’s always ebay.  The artifact approach is certainly a useful for kinesthetic learners.  There are students out there that feel the need to see, touch and hold everything.  I did pick up some Civil War era bullets in Springfield that were advertised as being authentic.  I’m sure the boys in particular in my classes will like these.  I guess it’s a start in the right direction.

All of this was great, but the highlight of my day was the trip with my roommates to Wrigley Field.  Talk about history!   One of the oldest fields in the major leagues, Wrigley Field is a landmark, and I was thrilled to see it.  Holy cow!

The "Friendly Confines" of Wrigley Field

 

 

 

The Art Institute of Chicago

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words (or in some cases a thousand dollars).  Today we spent time at the Chicago Art Institute touring the American collection with our guide Lauren.   On my last post I spoke about the importance of storytelling and hooking the learner’s interest with some of the great stories that history has to offer.  These stories help students to visualize how things used to be.  However, if we never show them pictures, artifacts, paintings, and other works of art, we are neglecting a major group of learners that rely on visual stimuli to do their best thinking and learning.  This is something that I am aware, needs to be improved in my classroom and if used properly I think will lead to more buy in from my students.

The lion and I in front of the Chicago Art Institute

Let me be the first to say that I am no artist; I do a great stick figure.  But, I certainly do admire great works of art and at the Chicago Art Institute, I saw plenty of them, some of which will be used in my classroom.  I will use the Thomas Cole Last of the Mohicans piece as a discussion starter when I teach the French and Indian War.  I was also thrilled to learn about the famous American Gothic painting by Grant Wood.  It is just one of those things that I’ve probably seen a thousand times, but never really knew the story behind it about the farmer and his wife and the painting’s purpose.  It was interesting to me that Wood’s dentist was actually the man that posed as a farmer for the painting.  Its called American (Gothic) because Wood, who had spent time in Europe and was taken by the gothic architecture there, had noticed a gothic window while driving by a farmhouse in Iowa.  This work would be a great tie in, possibly, for teachers discussing the Dust Bowl or drought and farmer’s reliance on favorable weather conditions for their harvest.

Grant Wood's American Gothic painting.

My last name is not very common, but I did find it on this human anatomy book in the institute's gift shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to the trip to the museum, we toured some the major sites of downtown Chicago.  The architecture of the city is quite the work of art in its own right.  We did walk to the Sears Tower and intend to go back at night to view the city in lights from the skydeck.  The elaborate shapes and designs of these mammoth buildings proved to be quite breathtaking!  One of my favorites was the one with the interesting gargoyle characters on the rooftop along State Street.  Among other activities we visited Navy Pier on Lake Michigan, which I would like to see again, strolled by the Blues Festival at Millenium Park, and had deep dish pizza at Gino’s East.   It was great!

Chicago skyline

 

 

Navy Pier

Me posing at the Cloud Gate in Millenium Park

Gino's

History: Alive and Well in Springfield and New Salem

If a journey through Springfield, Illinois gives one a sense of Abraham Lincoln the politician, a trip to the colonial town of New Salem sheds light on Abraham Lincoln the man.  I was lucky enough to visit both today and will take the stories that I’ve learned and use them in the classroom.  After all, students thrive on stories and when you teach Social Studies, they can be a great tool. 

Stories as simple as those involving his every day life, including his belief in hard work and reading and studying in order to be successful.  These stories carry a positive message that children can look up to.  While I looked at his top hat on display in the Lincoln- Herndon law offices, I was reminded of the story of how he carried his letters and legal papers inside the brim of his hat.  This might be a simple story, but it is the kind of thing that children like hearing about in History class.  Dates and places are great, but any elements of culture and every day life that can be included, in my opinion are beneficial.

Lincoln's top hat rests below a picture of his idle the "Great Compromiser" Henry Clay on display at the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices

Dramatic stories are also fun as I was reminded by the video at New Salem Village.  The video recounted that as a new comer to New Salem, Abe of course was greeted by Jack Armstrong and the local thugs in a not very friendly fashion, but eventually won their respect as he defeated Jack in a wrestling match.  This would be a popular story particularly with athletes and as a coach allow me to develop better rapport with both the student and student athlete.

Though fun, this story pales in comparison to the attempted heist of President Lincoln’s corpse.  While visiting his tomb today, I was reminded once again of this fascinating story.  The tomb itself was breathtaking and a beautiful dedication to one of our nation’s all time greatest leaders.  I learned a little more about the posthumous reality that is the Lincoln family and intend to study it more as I recently purchased a book about the attempted grave robbery at the presidential library.  My suspicion it that just hearing the word grave robber will hook many students attention before they even learn about the story.

Sadly, unfortunately History some times gets a bad rap.  Students hear the word and automatically associate it with dates and names coming straight out of a textbook.  On the bright side, I would argue that little stories like these about Lincoln and others can help greatly improve their attitudes toward the subject that we as History teachers love.