Nevada & the West/Online Digital Libraries

Recommended Children's and Pedagogy Literature: Nevada

2011-02-13T14:21:00.000-08:00

I recommend the following books for use when teaching about Nevada history to students in intermediate-level grades:

How to Draw Nevada's Sights and Symbols (A Kids Guide to Drawing America) by Fein, Eric and Muschinske, Emily
My First Pocket Guide: Nevada by Marsh, Carole
S Is For Silver: A Nevada Alphabet by Coerr, Eleanor
Nevada State Theme Unit IF8947
The Hoover Dam: The Story of Hard Times, Tough People and The Taming of a Wild River (Wonders of the World Book) by Mann, Elizabeth and Wischonke, Alan
Patty Reed's Doll: The Story of the Donner Party by Laurgaard, Rachel K.
The Hoover Dam by Zulhke, Jeffrey
Nevada Trivia Book by Moreno, Richard
Nevada Timeline: A Chronology of Our State's History, Mystery, Trivia, Legend, Lore, & More! by Marsh, Carole
Ryholite: The True Story of a Ghost Town by Siebert, Diane
Nevada: The Silver State (World Almanac: Library of the States) by Hana, Jon
The Silver State of Nevada Map by Marsh, Carole
Tales for Tomas by Miller, Mike
Tarnished Legacy: The Story of the Comstock Lode by Hopkins, Ellen
Ride Like the Wind: a Tale of the Pony Express by Fuchs, Bernie
Nevada Native Americans! by Marsh, Carole
Uniquely Nevada by O'Connor, Rebecca and Myers, Dennis
Nevada by Ollhoff, Jim
Nevada, A Journey of Discovery by Green, Michael
Uncovering Nevada's Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State by James, R. & Reid, J.
Ordeal by Hunger by George Stewart
The First 100: Portraits of the Men and Women Who Shaped Las Vegas by Hopkins, A.D.
Young Las Vegas: 1905-1931: Before the Future Found Us by Whitely, Joan Burkhart

Recommended Resources: Nevada History

2010-06-09T09:36:00.001-07:00

You may find some of these resources of particular interest:

The First 100 Persons Who Shaped Southern Nevada: This site includes biographies of 100 of the most influential people in the history of Southern Nevada.
Online Nevada Encyclopedia: A collection on encyclopedic entries relating to Nevada history along with collections of digitized artifacts.
Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years: This is the portal for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' digitized collection of resources relating to the Southern Nevada boomtown era (1880s-1920). It includes a collection of teacher resources including primary source-based lesson plans for all grade levels.

For a particular interest in the Donner Party, review these resources:

The Emigrants Guide to Oregon & California by Lansford Hastings
Diary of Patrick Breen
Interactive Map
Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party by George Stewart
The Donner Party, a PBS Video by Ric Burns
The Donner Party Chronicles: A Day-by-Day Account of a Doomed Wagon Train, 1846-47 by Frank Mullen, Jr.
Statistics and Maps (Source Unknown; please advise if you can identify the source)

How do I use primary sources in my classroom?

2010-05-05T12:03:00.000-07:00

To guide students through the process of analyzing primary sources, consider using primary source analysis sheets. For a thorough list of analysis sheets separated by media type, visit the University of Northern Colorado's Colorado Rural Partnership Analysis Tools. Additional primary source analysis sheets from the National Archives and Library of Congress assist in working with:

In addition, some instructional methods are particularly amenable to working with primary source documents. Examples include use of inquiry, primary source sets, scavenger hunts, found poems, life-in-a-box activities, gallery walks, sort it out activities, reading maps in sections, and zooming-in to pictures.

Inquiry Questions

Instructional Strategy Defined: Students answer higher-level thinking questions requiring they engage in artifact analysis. The goal of historical inquiry is to have students work with primary sources to think historically — doing what historians do.

Primary Source Sets

Instructional Strategy Defined: Primary source sets are collections of primary source artifacts that, when presented as a group, enable students to engage in historical inquiry.

Scavenger Hunts

Instructional Strategy Described: Ask students to engage in a scavenger hunt where they simply seek the types of resources available in the collection(s). This activity may require independent searching, or scaffolded, linear searches with a particular end-goal.

Found Poems

Instructional Strategy Described: Have students work with a single teacher-selected primary source document. Students review the document highlighting words that are important to them. They then cut out twenty of those words (of their choosing) that are the most meaningful for them. They then make a poem by arranging these words into their own creation.

Life in a Box

Instructional Strategy Described: Create a packet of six artifacts (with the artifacts scaffolded leading from more to less obscure), numbering each from one to six. Pass around each artifact one time at a time. Have students try to determine the name of the person in the box in the least number of artifacts.

Gallery Walks

Instructional Strategy Described: Find a collection of relevant primary sources including pictures, maps, and other documents. Separate students into groups and provide each group with a different inquiry question. Have students move from source to source collecting data relating to their question. Upon completing the browsing process, each group should work independently to analyze findings and prepare a response to their question. After completing the responses, allow each group to read their inquiry question and response. After all groups complete their presentations, have students discuss whether they might dispute some of the conclusions based on data uncovered by either their group or another group.

Sort It Out

Instructional Strategy Described: Provide approximately ten artifacts and have students start with a question (e.g., “How have resources and materials changed the way we live and travel?”). Using that question, have students separate the artifacts into categories. Students must determine category names while fitting each artifact into their self-selected categories.

Map Sections

Instructional Strategy Described: Download several maps and print them out on large paper. Cut the maps into several sections and provide small groups with one section each of the map and a map analysis sheet. Hide map sections with essential information (e.g., title, date). Have students analyze their map section and then have groups find other groups who have sections from the same map. Combined groups should then work together to continue their analysis (identifying more than they were able to identify in their smaller groups). Upon exhausting information accessible in the joint groups, have groups find the remaining part of their maps in the hidden location (e.g., outside of the classroom) and do final observations using the entire map.

Zoom-In

Instructional Strategy Described: Choose one primary source picture and slowly reveal different parts of the picture asking students what they can deduce during each "reveal." Encourage lower-level questioning at the beginning and more evaluative questions upon showing the entire picture. You may begin with an overarching inquiry question they will consider throughout the process.

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Useful places for finding primary sources about Nevada:

Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years: Good for mining and early Southern Nevada community resources
Online Nevada Encyclopedia: Provides a broad range of topical information about the history and culture of the State of Nevada (including Native Peoples)
Library of Congress—American Memory Collection: This site includes a wealth of resources throughout the history of the United States and pre-national era. There is some information on Nevada, but it is limited.

Sample Nevada Activities

2010-05-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

During the second session of this module, we completed several activities. The worksheet that guided this set of activities is available here.

Cookie Geography: Using blue frosting, draw the river systems from the state on a cookie.

Recommended cookie recipe: 3 c flour, 1 c powdered sugar, 1T vanilla, 1.5 c butter; Place batter in bar pan about 3/4" thick; Bake 20 minutes at 325°F.
To prepare the cookie shape, cut the shape before and immediately after baking.
Recommended frosting recipe: 3 c Crisco, 2 lbs. powdered sugar, 2 T meringue powder, 2 T clear vanilla extract, 2 t clear butter extract, pinch of salt, ~4 T water (add slowly until desired consistency), gel food coloring (if using water-based food coloring, add before water to ensure proper consistency).

Timeline Matching: Match the year with the event from Nevada history.
Playground Map Race (Nevada grid map/USA grid map): Time students as they write all the county and county seat names on a map of the state.
Draw the Seal: Students draw the Seal of the State of Nevada from memory.
Draw the Flag: Students draw the state flag from memory.
State Symbols: List all state symbols from memory.
County Puzzler: Place all counties in their respective locations when they are delivered in the form of a puzzle.
County Word Search: Race to complete a word search listing all county names, without receiving a list of the county names.
Sing the State Song
Nevada Towns on-the-Walls: Use posters and clues to learn Nevada town names.
Nevada Research Report and Presentation (HTML version/DOC version): This project was developed by fourth grade teachers at Heckethorn Elementary with special thanks to Mr. Colin Haas. The materials include the assignment expectations, a grading rubric, project topic suggestions, and detailed guidelines for students).
Draw a Nevada Map (HTML version/DOC version): This project was developed by Mr. Colin Haas and includes all requirements students, working in groups, must complete.

In addition, I recommend these lesson plans:

Example student projects from Mr. Colin Haas' fourth grade students (included as part of their Nevada Research Report and Presentation assignments).

Mormon Fort

Hoover Dam

Nevada Citizenship Awards

2010-05-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

Some schools implement an annual Nevada Citizenship Awards Ceremony. Though all students in all fourth grade classes must master certain content (that which appears in the State Curricular Standards), some students achieve the award by successfully memorizing and completing the following:

Place all county names and county seats correctly on a map of Nevada;
Recite the names of all Nevada governors in order of office;
List all Nevada state symbols;
Sing the Nevada state song;
List the tribes of Native Peoples from Nevada's history and accurately place the territory of each on a map of the state;
Recite the preamble to the Nevada State Constitution; and,
Draw all major physical features on a map of the state.

The planner students receive at Heckethorn Elementary School lists the requirements for both the Nevada Citizenship and Great American Awards. See a sample below.

At an end-of-year ceremony, students and their families celebrate their accomplishments.

Example of invitation for an awards ceremony
Example of an awards ceremony program
Example of an awards certificate

*Note: All files are in Word format for easy modification.

**Special thanks to Mr. Colin Haas and Mrs. Pearl Nagoshi for sharing this idea and their materials.

Lecture: Michael S. Green, Ph.D. — "Civil Rights in Las Vegas"

2010-04-29T19:40:00.001-07:00

Lecture: Michael S. Green, Ph.D. — "Civil Rights in Las Vegas"

Lecture: Michael Green — "Nevada during the American Revolution"

2010-04-29T19:39:00.001-07:00

Click here to access Dr. Michael Green's lecture titled "Nevada during the American Revolution."

Lecture: DeAnna Beachley, Ph.D. — "Women in Nevada and California Mining Camps"

2010-04-29T19:37:00.001-07:00

"Women in Nevada and California Mining Camps"—A lecture by DeAnna Beachley, Ph.D.

Assignment: Primary Source Kits

2010-04-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

Click here for the full expectations and grading rubric for the primary source kit assignment.

Click here for exemplary examples from previous submitted entries (under the "View" menu, choose "List."

Overview: This assignment requires you develop three primary source kits, each addressing a different theme, region, person, event, or era from Nevada history. You may not use the same topics used in the book reviews prepared for this module. Each kit must explicitly align with intermediate-level Nevada Curricular Standards and must include cross-curricular learner objectives. Each of the three kits will include at least five primary source links, a detailed, research-based historical overview, and a related lesson plan. Each lesson should: a.) last approximately 1-3 instructional hours; b.) include at least three teaching objectives; c.) use varied instructional strategies with the intent of reaching all learners; d.) be engaging and collaborative; and, e.) provide students with opportunities to engage in historical inquiry while interacting directly with primary source artifacts. Feel free to communicate with your colleagues as you brainstorm ideas, share resources, and edit each others’ works, but resulting kits must be entirely your own.

For each of the three primary source kits, you must include the following:

At least five linked primary source artifacts collected from a reputable digital collection;
A detailed description of the topic for the kit that is thorough and relevant while being of substantive quality to provide teachers with adequate background information needed to teach and supplement the lesson; and,
A standards-based detailed lesson plan using a pre-designed format, vocabulary words, and recommendations for differentiating instruction.

Use the following examples to guide your kit preparation:

Historical Content Descriptions (see “Overview”)
Primary Source Sets
Inquiry Questions
Standards-Basis: Nevada Standards and Example
Lesson Format
Lesson Activity Ideas

The information you will need to include in each kit appears below:

Page 1: Demographic Information, Primary Source Kit Overview; Primary Sources

Last name
First name
Preferred email address
Decision to share name and email address
A title for the primary source kit
Primary category for this kit
Titles and URLs for at least 5 primary sources

Page 2: Historical Context Description

Historical context

Page 3: Lesson Plan

Lesson title
Lesson overview
Applicable grade levels
Lesson objectives
Needed materials
Relevant vocabulary words

Page 4: Lesson Plan, continued

Sponge activity
Anticipatory set
Content delivery
Activity
Student assessment
Closure
Additional comments

Page 5: Applicable Intermediate-Level Standards

Nevada State Social Studies Standards, Grade 4
Nevada State English/Language Arts Standards, Grade 5
Nevada State Mathematics Standards, Grade 5
Nevada State Science Standards, Grades 3-5
Nevada State Physical Education Standards, Grade 5
Nevada State Health Standards, Grade 3-5
Nevada State Art Standards, Grade 5
Nevada State Music Standards, Grade 5
Nevada State Theater Standards, Grade 5
Nevada State Computer and Technology Standards, Grade 5
Nevada State Foreign Language Standards, Grade 5

After compiling each kit, click here to upload your kit to the module database. [To see a sample of each of the five input screens, click on these pages individually: page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5. These pages are NOT live and will NOT save your data! You must use the official link (here) submit your data!]

You will need to upload each kit separately. Be sure to keep a copy of your work in a word processed document as a back-up of your submitted kits.

Class Slides

2010-04-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

Click here to view class slides for Session I.

Click here to download class slides for Session II.

Syllabus

2010-04-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

Click here for a copy of the syllabus.

Upon completion of the module, third through fifth grade teachers will have the ability to competently plan and deliver historically accurate, standards-based instruction that relies heavily on historical inquiry and primary sources. With a focus on teaching the history of Nevada, teachers will use technology skills to access and record self-created instructional plans.