American+Sources+Information

Program Components:

 * A 5-day summer conference (7/18-22) at the Art Institute of Chicago for teachers to explore content and teaching strategies, and to build curriculum projects that include works of art as primary sources.


 * A 2-day fall follow-up workshop (12/9-10) to refine practice and share experiences with inquiry-based instruction using works of art (substitute cost reimbursement for 12/9).


 * Teacher stipends for participation in professional development and implementation of curriculum projects.


 * Funding for buses to bring students to the Art Institute of Chicago to see and engage with works of American art.

What Teachers from American Sources Said About Their Experience:
//The American Sources professional development will change the way you teach your students. You will learn how to incorporate the visual arts into the curriculum, guide your students toward close reading paintings, photographs and sculpture, help them move toward inquiry based learning while all the while enhancing your own knowledge and understanding of American Art. You will be supported, respected, and guided toward a whole new dimension in teaching and learning.//

//Being able to talk about art and understand it in the context of American History and the trajectory of art history made connections for me that permeated the entire process.//

//I love art, but never really thought to use specific pieces as primary sources in the curriculum. Learning how to "close read" a piece of art has added to the richness and depth of a unit. Finding the artwork to go along with the literature has become paramount in my planning.//

//What I finally saw as the power in this class was the opportunity to use primary sources to help explain/understand a time period in America. This could be the art itself, nonfiction pieces such as memoirs or dairies, and other sources to help develop the inquiry question which would guide a unit.//

//Revisionist historians change how we view the past; primary sources give you a sense of how the event was experienced at the time. For example, today most people accept the view that slavery is wrong and that most Northerners during the Civil War were against slavery; however, there are many shades of gray within attitudes of Northerners during the Civil War. Using multiple primary sources allow me to show pro and con views of historical events.//

//I was TOTALLY surprised and pleased at how well this worked out with my AP students … and I plan on using this technique more and more with my classes. The students, after engaging in a variety of texts could come up with open ended, unique, and meaningful lines of inquiry after learning how to synthesize information and make inquiry questions.//

//Using multiple primary sources to promote student inquiry was also valuable because Common Core asks students to synthesize and incorporate multiple pieces of evidence in their writing. Asking students to converse and think about more than one primary source at a time is a valuable tool, particularly as they move through a high school curriculum.//

//The examples given during the process connected to the Common Core and gave more ideas on how to create this process than any other training that I've received. The experience is worth a million dollar lottery!//

**To apply, click[| here]!** **Interested in learning more about the TERRA Foundation American Sources program?** Contact Kristin Enright, Teacher Programs Educator, at kenright1@artic.edu or (312) 857-7199