TAHPS Year I Implementaton

Summer 1 of the TAHPS Grant. The first summer of the TAHPS grant was filled with many new experiences and we all learned a great deal. The summer started in Kansas City at the National World War I museum and a visit from a Gilder Lehrman team with an academic content expert and a master teacher. And what was it that we were to discuss during our time together? The Cold War was the topic of choice a subject that I knew only on a superficial level. I found the books and instruction exceptional. In addition to the lectures we were given the chance to spend some time at the regional office of the National Archives in Kansas City and the Eisenhower Library in Abilene. The time spent at both archives gave all us the chance to research and find documentation related to the subject matter. As for implementation of the subject matter I found this task to be rather cumbersome and difficult. The Cold War is a 20^th Century topic and is therefore not within my sphere of teaching US History, however some of the subject matter does have pertinence for my Kansas History class and this is the direction of implementation that I chose. For my students I like to have the student’s active in their learning of history. With this in mind I used the materials acquired at the various archives to develop document analysis activities as well as a reader’s theater lesson which will be explained further in the Google documents portion of this assignment. Readers Theater is a fabulous way for students to learn history on a more personal level and therefore a more permanent level. As for the document analysis questions, these were designed as preview activities for learning about the Eisenhower Administration in Kansas History.