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Partnership News
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September 2015
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I hope you enjoyed this beautiful summer. The Partnership had a very busy past few months, with teacher institutes in all three of our major current projects. We highlight in this issue recent products from our
Native Americans of New England program supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Featured Resource section below provides a link to a new, searchable set of
lesson plans developed by the participants in the Native Americans of New England NEH Summer Institutes held in July 2015 and July 2013.
In the Educator Lessons column, we feature a video of one of the participants, Amherst teacher Jane Costello, communicating her perspectives on the importance of enhancing K-12 teaching on Native American history and current issues in Native communities. Coming soon is a new teacher resource, a website for Teaching Native American History--we'll announce it when it's ready. We hope these resources and perspectives provide you with food for thought and new tools as you consider what you teach and how you teach the young people in your classrooms. Have a great fall!
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Partnership Update
The
Western Massachusetts Math Partnership (WMMP) is currently enrolling professional learning communities (PLCs) on algebraic thinking for October 2015-January 2016. Apply
here! Priority deadline is
September 25. School administrators interested in having their districts participate in the WMMP should contact the
Partnership director. The
Five College Consortium has pledged $15,000 in matching funds to support WMMP activities in 2015-2016. To get involved in WMMP planning or to receive regular WMMP news, you can
join the WMMP listserv.
The Doors to the World project's first summer institute for educators, "Critical Multicultural Literacies for Global Understanding," took place July 13-16, 2015, at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. Doors to the World is a web-based resource to support PreK-3 teachers' use of global children's picture books in their classrooms. Participating educators at the institute studied critical perspectives on international children's literature and global understanding, then developed mini-unit plans for their classrooms which will also be featured on the website when it is launched next spring. Partners on the Doors to the World project include Hampshire College's Childhood, Youth, and Learning Program, the UMass Amherst College of Education, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, the Five College Center for East Asian Studies, and the UMass Amherst Center for Educational Software. The summer institute was expertly led by Maria José Botelho, Associate Professor, College of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Natalie Sowell, Associate Professor of Theater, Hampshire College. The Doors to the World project is made possible by a grant from the Longview Foundation.
The Partnership held its second NEH Summer Institute for Teachers on Native American history,
Native Americans of New England: A Historical Overview, directed by University of Massachusetts Amherst historian
Alice Nash at UMass Amherst July 6-24, 2015. Twenty-three participating educators developed
lesson plans to address Native American history in their classrooms; these plans are now available on the
Native Americans of New England page of the Partnership website and will also be among the resources shared on a new website currently under development called
Teaching Native American History, to be launched later this fall. We are very excited about the possibilities the new website affords to disseminate resources to encourage and enhance K-12 teaching about Native Americans. Both the institute and the new website are supported by a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
The Partnership Advisory Council welcomes its new and returning members for 2015-2016. We are expanding the Council's membership to include additional faculty members, school districts, and community-based organizations. Check out the 2015-2016
Council roster.
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| Two men at Plimoth Plantation explaining trade between Mashpee Wampanoags and Colonists. |
Featured Resource
NEH Native Americans of New England-Teacher Lesson Plans
This summer 23 teachers worked on extensive
lesson plans based on the knowledge they gained from the NEH Summer Institute
Native Americans of New England: A Historical Overview. These lesson plans cover a wide variety of topics having to do with Native American history and cater to various K-12 grade levels.
The Five College Consortium has a great search engine that allows for easy navigation. You can search by topic, grade level, number of days to complete and even the state or school where the teacher came from. Explore the lesson plans and you might be inspired to adapt them for your own classrooms.
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Educator Lessons
Native Americans of New England: A Historical Overview was a three-week NEH Summer Institute for Teachers offered under the auspices of the Five Colleges Consortium. The 2015 Institute took place July 6-24, 2015, at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
We interviewed one of the teachers, Jane Costello, a teacher of English Language Learners at Fort River Elementary School in Amherst, MA. She has taught at both elementary and secondary levels in the Amherst School system and she has led ELL teacher training workshops in the Boston area. Early in her career, Jane taught in rural West Africa and in the urban Boston area. Teaching literacy to people from a variety of cultural backgrounds has always been at the core of her work.
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| Native Americans of New England Presents: Jane Costello |
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Opportunities for Educators
Diversity in Children's Books, September 19, 2015, 1:00pm at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA. A panel discussion with authors Lesléa Newman, Tanya Lee Stone, Padma Venkatraman, and illustrator Floyd Cooper. Free with museum admission.
Dr. Patrick Camangian, University of San Francisco, speaks at three events on "From Hoping to Coping: Teaching Youth to Thrive through Trauma." Sept. 24: Hampshire College, 12:00-1:00 pm; UMass Amherst 4:00-5:30 pm. Sept. 25: Holyoke High School, 4:00-5:30 pm.
Mead Art Museum's Archaeology Day, October 3, Noon-4 pm. Meet Five College archaeologists and learn about their excavations, explore art from ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, make fun crafts and more. For more information: www.amherst.edu/mead.
Folktales from Asia, Wednesday, October 7, 2015, Bowker Auditorium, UMass Amherst at 10AM, Ages: Grades 3-12. Two acclaimed artists invite students to experience Old Japan through folktales and traditional music. Motoko and Masayo are both first generation Japanese immigrants, expanding their art forms and creating rich, new works for the American audience. Award-winning storyteller Motoko shares tales of humor and wisdom, imparting cultural lessons and morals. Virtuoso Masayo Ishigure plays koto and shamisen, and discusses the history of the instruments. Witnessing this unique collaboration the students gain understanding of how arts enrich lives across time, and across geographical and cultural boundaries. For more information and reservation: Folktales from Asia.
MassPoetry Student Day of Poetry comes to Western Massachusetts December 18, 2015! Co-sponsored by the Five College Schools Partnership, the Smith College Poetry Center, and the Childhood, Youth and Learning Program of Hampshire College, this event will be held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Campus Center and will bring poets together with western Massachusetts secondary students and their teachers to engage in poetry readings, workshops, and an open mike. To register your class or for more information, go to the MassPoetry website.
Also check out the variety of events and programs offered through the Five College Consortium, the Five College Center for East Asia Studies, the Collaborative for Educational Services, and the Pioneer Valley STEM Network.
Send relevant announcements of opportunities for educators for this newsletter to
Marla Solomon.
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