Module Syllabus

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Module Description

This module will enhance teacher knowledge and context relating to the history of slavery in the United States. The content focus will be on the institution in relation to American culture, society and government, and its impact on African Americans and the country as a whole. Required readings include texts that provide both a historical summary and analysis of slavery. In module sessions, teachers will receive additional documents, as well as participate in lectures and discussions highlighting key components of how slavery affected America and its people, and how the American people dealt with slavery.

The pedagogical focus of the module will provide a broad perspective of historical content by integrating all core social studies disciplines. Teachers will focus on using children’s literature and technology tools to understand American slavery from geographic, economic, and civic perspectives. Teachers will learn to use: a.) children’s literature as teaching tools, b.) historically-centered technology methods for ensuring student comprehension of historical content, and c.) integrated social studies disciplines as a means for gaining a broad perspective of American history. Throughout the process, teachers will ensure heavy student engagement with primary source historical material while stressing research, creativity, interactivity, and cooperative student-led learning opportunities.

Combining the historical and pedagogical pieces of this module, teacher participants will utilize children’s books and technology tools by producing Google Lit Trips. Using accurate historical information about African-American slavery, teachers will be prepared to use Google Lit Trips to provide greater content understanding for their students as well as a project-based platform for examining meaningful events of American history.

Upon completion of the Slavery/The Disciplines of Social Studies module and all required assignments, teacher participants will have met both history and content pedagogy objectives as outlined below.

The historical content objectives for this module include:
· Teachers will identify ways slavery affected African American culture and society, and ways African American culture and society affected slavery;
· Teachers will describe how slavery became part of American culture, and how Americans responded to it;
· Teachers will identify ways slavery shaped and reshaped how Americans conceive of their government and the role that governmental decisions play in their lives; and,
· Teachers will list ways that slavery affected the country’s evolution.

The content pedagogy objectives for this module include:
· Teachers will view history pedagogy as an opportunity to combine multiple social studies disciplines to create a cohesive understanding of specific historical eras;
· Teachers will integrate children’s literature into their instruction about Black American slavery;
· Teachers will utilize technology as an instructional tool for delivering theme-specific historical content;
· Teachers will develop technology-generated artifacts for teaching and learning about given historical topics; and,
· Teachers will be prepared to have students use multimedia technology during history lessons.