Welcome to WASAH

Overview of the Wisconsin Academy for the Study of American History (WASAH)

Overview:

In June 2007, CESA 6 received its second federal Teaching American History (TAH) grant award from the U.S. Dept. of Education, more than $998,000 for three years, to coordinate and deliver additional professional development programming and opportunities to grade 4-12 teachers of U.S. history. This new programming, entitled the WASAH Project, (or the Wisconsin Academy for the Study of American History) is more expansive in scope than CESA 6's first TAH project, and targets teachers from schools located within the regions served by CESAs 6, 7 and 9.

K-12 Teacher Participants:

In Year 1, the WASAH Project enrolled 51 teachers of U.S. history to participate in program activities for 3 years, starting with the April 26, 2008 kickoff workshop at UW-Marathon County. Year 1 ran from the July 2008 Summer Institute at UW-Marathon County through May 2009. In Year 2, 44 teachers enrolled in the program activities running from the July 2009 Summer Institute through the spring of 2010. Currently, 45 teachers are enrolled in Year 3, which started with the July 2010 summer institute at UW-Green Bay and will run through the conclusion of the 2010-2011 school year. The WASAH Program serves teachers of U.S. history and Wisconsin history in grades 4-12, as well as other social studies teachers, grade 4-5 elementary teachers, and other teachers (e.g., English and American Literature teachers) who extensively incorporate U.S. history themes into their curriculum.

WASAH Activities:

Project activities for each year include a 5-6 day summer academy in late July, visits to historical content provider sites throughout the state, and two full-day workshops and six half-day seminars throughout the subsequent school year. (Participants must attend a minimum of two of those seminars.) Activities and programming for Year 3 will include the following:

July 18-23rd 2010 -- Summer Institute at UW-Green Bay. Participants will attend sessions featuring content, use historical resource and use of instructional best practices. Sessions will also include visits to the Archives and Area Research Center on the UW-Green Bay campus, plus the National Railroad Museum and Neville Public Museum. At the conclusion of the institute, participants will select a lesson unit/lesson plan project to work on and complete by April 2011, along with a reflective narrative recounting each participant's experience with researching and reading historical sources, developing lesson plans and using instructional and classroom strategies that incorporate historical thinking and student-centered learning concepts. Lesson plans will incorporate content, resource and instructional themes covered during the summer institute.

Oct. 6, 2010 Full Day Workshop at UW Green Bay -- Participants will attend one full-day workshop that features content and instructional-based themes that complement topics covered during the summer institute. Workshop will run from 8:45 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Presenters will include UW-Milwaukee historian Rob Smith (civil rights history in the north, work hands-on with National Humanities Center resources; UW-Madison history instructor John Kaminsky (Shay's Rebellion and other early republic crises); and other presenters.

Fall 2010 Seminars -- Three 3-hour seminars will be scheduled during weekday evenings or Saturday mornings, covering content themes and providing a forum for discussing assigned readings.

(1) Thursday evening, Sept. 23rd, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. at UW-Oshkosh Forrest Polk Library -- Book discussion with Jeff Pickron, Chs. 20-22, David Kennedy's "Freedom from Fears"; time to conduct online and hands-on historical research, including review of primary documents at the Area Research Center.

(2) Saturday, Nov. 6th, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at UW-Marathon County -- Book discussion with Brett Barker, Chs. 20-22, David Kennedy's "Freedom from Fear." Also, UW-Stevens Point professor Shanny Tuft will give a presentation entitled "American Religious Pluralism." The seminar will take place at the Terrace Room on the first floor of the main campus building.

(3) Wednesday evening, Dec. 8th, 6:00-8:30 p.m. at CESA 7 in Green Bay -- The primary activity will include a presentation and discussion facilitated by UW-Green Bay professor Kendall Staggs, focusing on the theme of "American Freedom and US-Middle East Relations since 9/11." More information soon to follow.

March 2, 2011 Full Day Workshop at UW Green Bay -- Participants will attend a second-full day workshop that again features content and instructional-based themes covered during the previous summer institute. Instead of scheduling two regional workshop sites like we did in Year 1, we are scheduling one workshop that all participants would be required to attend. Guest teachers would again be invited to attend, and the workshop would again include a "share fair" session. Specific session topics and presenters will be announced later this fall. Time will be set aside for teachers to complete one portion of the post-tests (either multiple choice AP History questions or complete an essay from a document-based question) that were initially given as pre-tests in Wausau in July 2008.

Winter/Spring 2011 Seminars -- Three additional 3-hour seminars will again be scheduled during weekday evenings and Saturday mornings, covering content themes and providing a forum for discussing assigned readings:

(1) Saturday, Jan. 8th, 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Oshkosh-- Book discussion with Stephen Kercher (UW Oshkosh) on chapters from Rick Perlstein's "Nixonland." Will also include additional activities, to be announced later this fall.

(2) Tuesday evening, Feb. 8th, 6:00-8:30 p.m. in Wausau -- Book discussion with Brett Barker on chapters from Rick Perlstein's "Nixonland." Will also include additional activities, to be announced later this fall.

(3) Saturday, April 16th, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at CESA 7 in Green Bay -- Activities to be announced at a later date.

Other Resources -- Core participants will also have opportunities to seek small group and one-on-one assistance from experienced teachers, historians, archivists, curators and curriculum specialists on the use of strategies for developing lesson plans and incorporating learner-based and project-based activities in the classroom that promote historical and critical thinking skills. Participants are also encouraged to purchase up to $100 in books, subscriptions and memberships during each school year.

Submission of Written Project -- In April, 2011, participants will submit their complete lesson plans and reflective narratives. WASAH staff will ultimately post these lesson plans on the online website for sharing with other teachers.

Assessment Activities -- Throughout the thirdyear cycle (July 2010 - May 2011), a random sample of teacher participants will help administer pre and post U.S. History Assessments to their students designed to measure student U.S. history content knowledge, and administer pre and post Student Interest Inventories to measure their student levels of interest in learning U.S. history. At the end of the 2010 summer institute and the 2020-11 school year, teachers will also be asked to complete session/workshop questionnaires to provide feedback on the nature and quality of those sessions.

WASAH Topics & Themes:

The WASAH Project will feature U.S. history content themes and topics that focus around the unifying theme of "American freedom." This theme was selected to promote the exploration and study of the many eras, events and persons comprising U.S. history through the perspectives of economic, political, social and religious freedom. This project will help teacher participants and their students to better understand how various events, persons and activities defined, impacted, and expanded and restricted how and whether various American groups enjoyed freedom politically, economically, socially, and so on. This approach will help all to make greater sense of the significance of our nation's history, how events or persons have affected various groups, and how seemingly unrelated events or eras are in fact connected. Specific topics and themes for the Year 2 Summer Institute, workshops and seminars are currently being developed by WASAH leadership, and will focus around the sub-theme of "Expansion of American Freedom."

Project Partners:

CESA 6 will partner with the history departments for UW-Oshkosh, UW-Marathon County and UW-Green Bay in the design, coordination and implementation of all project activities and services. Those lead partners will also collaborate with the Wisconsin Historical Society, CESA 7, CESA 9, Neville Public Museum in Green Bay, Outagamie Museum in Appleton, the Marathon County Historical Society, other area museums and historical societies, and the Archives and Area Research Centers at UW-Oshkosh, UW-Green Bay and UW-Stevens Point in the delivery of project activities and resources.

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