Join Us for a Primarily Teaching Summer Workshop

We are now accepting applications for Primarily Teaching—our summer institute for educators on using historical documents in the classroom. Learn more and apply online.

Summer 2014 workshops will be conducted at:

• The National Archives at Chicago, June 23–27
• The National Archives in Washington, DC, July 7–11
• The National Archives at Atlanta, Morrow, GA, July 21–25
• The National Archives at Boston, Waltham, MA, July 21–25

All workshops will have a national theme—Leadership and Legacy in History—matching that of National History Day in 2015. (Participation in the National History Day competition is not required.)

Each National Archives location will explore a specific case study, with original documents in our archival holdings, that fits within this broader theme:

• Chicago: Journey for Civil Rights in the Midwest
• Washington, DC: Investigations of Ellis Island, 1900–1920
• Atlanta: FDR and the Tennessee Valley Authority: The Controversy of Progress
• Boston: Boston Schools Desegregation: Lessons of Leadership, Courage, Process, and Equality

Digitization of documents related to these case studies will be our priority. You will find between 3 and 5 items (documents, photos, maps, etc.) to scan and describe. We will add these to our online tool for teaching with documents—DocsTeach.org—while participants are onsite. During the workshop, you’ll produce a DocsTeach learning activity using the digitized materials.

After guided research using the case study, you will have the opportunity to continue researching the case study, or to go on to independently research a more specific topic of your choice related to Leadership and Legacy.

Last year’s participants in Boston and Washington, D.C., located and scanned over 90 primary sources that are now available to educators on DocsTeach! Topics included:

• Vietnam draft resistance,
• Watergate,
• the Red Cross,
• mob violence and lynching,
• and campus unrest in the 1960s.

Join us this summer!