Image: Maypole dance, Central Park, New York 1905 Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA  LC-D4-9287 <P&P>

"The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said;  

The recent buds relax and spread,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh."
-  Philip Larkin, The Trees

As we greet the new month tomorrow and follow the advice of the poet and "begin afresh, afresh, afresh...."

Library of Congress videocast depicts librarian, Jennifer Cutting at the American Folklife Center discussing the origins of the Maypole dance and festivities to celebrate the month of  May! Traditionally these old world customs had some difficulty finding a place in early America with the Puritans banning them... Learn about the origins of May Day and view video clips of these customs being performed.

Also the New EDSITEment Student Resource to engage students in a critical reading of Nathaniel Hawthorne Short Story:

Launchpad: "The May-pole of Merry Mount," by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This Launchpad, adapted from www.WhatSoProudlyWeHail.org, provides background materials and discussion questions to enhance your reading and understanding of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The May-pole of Merry Mount.” After discussing or thinking about the questions, click on the videos to hear editors Amy A. Kass and Leon R. Kass converse with guest host Yuval Levin (National Affairs) about the story. These videos are meant to raise additional questions and augment discussion, not replace it.

Shelley

EDSITEment

"Silent sentinel" Alison Turnbull Hopkins at the White House on New Jersey Day. Library of Congress,

1917 Jan. 30

Notes

Summary: Photograph of Alison Turnbull Hopkins with banner, "Mr. President How long must women wait for liberty," picketing for suffrage outside White House gate. Title derived by Library of Congress staff. Photograph published in The Suffragist, 5, no. 56 (Feb. 7, 1917): 4. Caption reads: "New Jersey Day: Mrs. J.A.H. Hopkins heading the line". Photograph illustration in story "Fourth Week of the White House Guard."

Follow this Brief Timeline of the National Woman's Party 1912-1997 from EDSITEment-reviewed American Memory Project (Library of Congress) back to 1917 when this photograph was taken.  There we find on March 4th "more than 1,000 women marched around the White House in icy, driving rain on eve of President Wilson’s second inauguration." On the cusp of WWI,  EDSITEment lesson Voting Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage directs students research in archival material from 19th and early 20th century arguments for and against women's suffrage. 

The timeline goes on to note a seminal event that occurred on April 2nd of that same year (1917) while the federal woman suffrage amendment was being reintroduced in House of Representatives, Jeannette Rankin of Montana, the first woman elected to Congress, formally joined the House of Representatives.  Learn more about this trailblazing Congresswoman who took office before women even had the right the vote!! through Women in Congress website.

Move the clock forward to today March 1, 2012, to hear President Obama issue his annual proclamation officially commemorating Women’s History Month, 2012:

As Americans, ours is a legacy of bold independence and passionate belief in fairness and justice for all. For generations, this intrepid spirit has driven women pioneers to challenge injustices and shatter ceilings in pursuit of full and enduring equality. During Women's History Month, we commemorate their struggles, celebrate centuries of progress, and reaffirm our steadfast commitment to the rights, security, and dignity of women in America and around the world....

The president goes on to "call upon all Americans to observe this month and to celebrate International Women's Day on March 8, 2012, with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that honor the history, accomplishments, and contributions of American women. He "invites all Americans to visit www.WomensHistoryMonth.gov to learn more about the generations of women who have shaped our history."

The Library of Congress portal to National History Months is a partnership EDSITEment colloaborates on with several other government organizations. This March 2012 devoted to Women's History Month you'll find current resources such as NEH funded PBS educational interactive game Mission US latest episode, Flight to Freedom.

In this resource, students can become Lucy King, a 14 year old slave in Kentucky and make decisions to search for a path to freedom...also on this site students can engage in the new Think Fast! About the Past to test their speed and understanding of this historical period.  There is a helpful Mission 2 Educator Guide for teachers to go along with the game.

For a snapshot of where America is today regarding women's progress turn to data from the US Census:

US Census Bureau Facts for Features Profile for America, Women's History Month: March 2012

For a journey back through time to experience personal and public events from women's unique perspectives open:

EDSITEment's new feature Women's History Month which highlights multiple resources lessons, websites, interactives in 2012 year's theme, Women's Empowerment:

• Women in the Capital: Empowerment through Politics 
• Women Writers: Empowerment through the Pen 
• Women’s Writing: Empowerment through Coming of Age 
• Women’s Creativity: Empowerment through the Arts 
• Women’s Equality: Empowerment through Social and Political Struggle 
• Women’s Military and Civilian Service: Empowerment through Wartime 
• Women in American History and Culture 
• Women in World History and Culture

Shelley

EDSITEment

Portrait of Rudyard Kipling.

Born in Bombay India on December 30st 1865, British author and master storyteller Rudyard Kipling was both respected as a journalist and lauded as "The Poet of the [British] Empire." In his fiction, though, he blended the best of both skills and was ultimately awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas, and remarkable talent for narration which characterizes [his] creations." More background information about Rudyard Kipling is available online from the Nobel E-Museum, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed Academy of American Poets.

Turn the corner to the New Year by introducing your student to the time this author was born into and the world that he brought alive in his timeless classic ~"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," a short story from The Jungle Book (1894)

This is an engaging example of this author's ability to mix scientific and historical fact with imaginative characters to create a believable and entertaining tale.  Illustrated E-text of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" at the University of Virginia, available through EDSITEment-reviewed Center for Liberal Arts. Though the following EDSITEment Lesson activities are noted for elementary school level, they can be easily adapted for older grades.  My 7th grade English students reveled in the exploits of this incorrigible, cunning, and most courageous mongoose when I taught it in middle school.

Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing Fact and Fiction

Students use interactive materials to learn about Rudyard Kipling's life and times, read an illustrated version of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," and learn how Kipling effectively uses personification by mixing fact and fiction.

Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing Words and Pictures

Students read an illustrated version of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," examine how Kipling and visual artists mix observation with imagination to create remarkable works, and follow similar principles to create a work of their own.

Additional learning activities:

Explore India. Have your students more thoroughly explore The EDSITEment-reviewed PBS website India: Land of the Tiger. When they finish, you might challenge them to test their knowledge of India with the Himalayan Hike game!

Travel Back in Time! At the Victorian Station, available through the EDSITEment resource the Victorian Web, your students can meet the luminaries of the Victorian Era (such as Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Ludwig von Beethoven, and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky), learn about the Victorians' daily life, try Victorian games and recipes, test their knowledge of the era, and even discover a 19th-century robot!

Older students will enjoy learning about the era in which Kipling lived and wrote in this EDSITEment Lesson based on Geroge Orwell's 1931 autobiographical essay, "Shooting an Elephant," about his experience as a police officer in colonial Burma.

Statue of James Madison

Credit: Walker K. Hancock, Library of Congress James Madison Building, Carol Highsmith, photographer

 

“The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution."

 

With these words as preface, on December 15, 1791 Congress sent ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution to the states for their ratification. It is no exaggeration to say that the Bill of Rights is one of the most quoted of our laws.

A Japanese torpedo bomber over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941.

Credit: Image courtesy of American Memory at the  Library of Congress.

 

Today President Obama issued a Presidential Proclamation designating December 7th "National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day."

On a serene Sunday morning 70 years ago, the skies above Pearl Harbor were darkened by the bombs of Japanese forces in a surprise attack that tested the resilience of our Armed Forces and the will of our Nation. As explosions sounded and battleships burned, brave service members fought back fiercely with everything they could find. Unbeknownst to these selfless individuals, the sacrifices endured on that infamous day would galvanize America and come to symbolize the mettle of a generation….

I encourage all Americans to observe this solemn day of remembrance and to honor our military, past and present, with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I urge all Federal agencies and interested organizations, groups, and individuals to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff this December 7 in honor of those American patriots who died as a result of their service at Pearl Harbor.

EDSITEment joins the nation by reflecting upon this fateful day in American History with resources to help students investigate the events leading up to the attack.

In the lesson, Turning the Tide in the Pacific, 1941-1943, students put themselves in the shoes of U.S. and Japanese diplomats in the final months of 1941, earnestly trying to reach a settlement that will avoid war. Through the use of primary documents and an interactive map and timeline, they consider whether there was any reasonable chance of preventing the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific.

For the longer historical view, The Road to Pearl Harbor explores the rise of animosity between the United States and Japan beginning in World War I and continuing over the next two decades. The National History Education Clearinghouse website, teachinghistory.org comments “this unit is full of rich primary source material and a wide variety of related classroom activities.”

EDSITEment Student Interactive: How to Win a World War: East Asia and the Pacific in WWII includes map of the World War II Pacific Theater students can use to follow the campaigns.

For additional resources follow Thinkfinity resources link: Remembering Pearl Harbor including activities for younger students like Wonderopolis, How to unlock a secret code?  For middle school students, link to a lesson from Xpeditions, Getting Involved in War which introduces them to the causes of the War and considers the reasons Japan decided to attack Pearl Harbor. 

Shelley

EDSITEment

Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) the arm of the American Library Association devoted to young adults bids you and your students "Happy Teen Read Week!"  which falls between October 16th  - 22nd this year.  This national celebration of reading for the young adult set has been an annual tradition since 1998 marked by events in school and public libraries across the country. Visit YALSA's Teen Read Week  site for ideas.

In the spirit of this year's theme, Picture It @ your library®,  EDSITEment joins in the celebration with suggestions for resources to "encourage teens to read graphic novels and other illustrated materials, seek out creative books, or imagine the world through literature, just for the fun of it."

Students learn how reading a poem is like looking at a photograph.

Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" in Graphical Representation

Students learn how the comic strip can inform the reading of a short story.

Picturing America on Screen

Picturing America on Screen is an NEH-funded documentary film project produced by Channel 13, WNET, New York. A group of 25 films created by 9 talented directors presents a sampling of Picturing American art ranging from the mystery and beauty of Anasazi pottery to the sculptural poetry of contemporary artist Martin Puryear.

Featured Websites

• Picturing America
• Picturing America on Screen

Featured Lesson Plans

• Benjamin Franklin's Many "Hats"
• Edward Hopper's House by the Railroad: From Painting to Poem
• Homer's Civil War Veteran: Battlefield to Wheat Field
• Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask
• Martin Puryear's Ladder for Booker T. Washington
• Mission Nuestra Señora de la Concepción and the Spanish Mission in the New World
• Picture Lincoln
• Romare Bearden's The Dove—A Meeting of Vision and Sound
• The Massachusetts 54th Regiment: Honoring the Heroes
• Thomas Hart Benton — The Sources of Country Music

And for teen's reading enjoyment how about some good old-fashioned spooky stories?

Tales of the Supernatural

Taking their name from the Gothic architecture that often served as a backdrop to the action, these novels present supernatural events in naturalistic terms, thrilling readers with strange tales filled with mystery and terror.

Shelley

EDSITEment

We join the nation this week in the celebration of our Constitution ~ to commemorate the legacy passed down to us from our Nation's Founders and to recognize its dynamic force which continues to guide and inform our democracy! 

President Obama issued a proclamation designating September 17th – 23rd National Constitution Week

In the United States, our Constitution is not simply words written on aging parchment, but a foundation of government, a protector of liberties, and a guarantee that we are all free to shape our own destiny.  As we celebrate this document's profound impact on our everyday lives, may all Americans strive to uphold its vision of freedom and justice for all.

“I encourage Federal, State, and local officials, as well as leaders of civic, social, and educational organizations, to conduct ceremonies and programs that recognize our Constitution and reaffirm our rights and obligations as citizens of this great Nation.”

Visit EDSITEment's newly configured and updated Constitution Day feature

This feature has many components including Educational games and Interactives to engage your students in this living document, bilingual materials to share with Spanish Language students, EDSITEment Recommended Constitution Webography for links to authoritative information along with multiple Teacher Resources for each grade band to help bring the Constitution into your classroom.

  K-2

• The President's Roles and Responsibilities: Understanding the President's Job
  As a nation, we place no greater responsibility on any one individual than we do on the president. Through these lessons, students learn about the roles and responsibilities of the U.S. president and their own roles as citizens of a democracy.
• The President's Roles and Responsibilities: Communicating with the President
  Through these lesson, students learn about the roles and responsibilities of the U.S. president and their own duties as citizens of a democracy.

  3-5 

• The Preamble to the Constitution: How Do You Make a More Perfect Union?
  Archival materials and other resources available through EDSITEment-reviewed websites can help your students begin to understand why the Founders felt a need to establish a more perfect Union and how they proposed to accomplish such a weighty task.
• The First Amendment: What's Fair in a Free Country?
  This series of activities introduces students to one of the most hotly debated issues during the formation of the American government -how much power the federal government should have - or alternatively, how much liberty states and citizens should have.

  6-8 

• Before and Beyond the Constitution: What Should a President do?
  In this curriculum unit, students look at the role of President as defined in the Constitution and consider the precedent-setting accomplishments of George Washington.
• The Constitutional Convention: What the Founding Fathers Said
  By examining records of the Constitutional Convention, such as James Madison's extensive notes, students witness the unfolding drama of the Constitutional Convention and the contributions of those who have come to be known as the Founding Fathers: Madison, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and others who played major roles in founding a new nation. In this lesson, students will learn how the Founding Fathers debated, and then resolved, their differences as they drafted the U.S. Constitution.
• The Constitutional Convention: Four Founding Fathers You May Never Have Met
  Introduce your students to four key, but relatively unknown, contributors to the U.S. Constitution-Oliver Ellsworth, Alexander Hamilton, William Paterson, and Edmund Randolph. Learn through their words and the words of others how the Founding Fathers created "a model of cooperative statesmanship and the art of compromise".
• The Federalist Debates: Balancing Power Between State and Federal Governments
  This series of activities introduces students to one of the most hotly debated issues during the formation of the American government -how much power the federal government should have - or alternatively, how much liberty states and citizens should have.
• The Supreme Court: The Judicial Power of the United States
  This lesson provides an introduction to the Supreme Court. Students will learn basic facts about the Supreme Court by examining the United States Constitution and one of the landmark cases decided by that court. The lesson is designed to help students understand how the Supreme Court operates.

  9-12 

• Magna Carta: Cornerstone of the US Constitution
  Magna Carta served to lay the foundation for subsequent declarations of rights in Great Britain and the United States. In attempting to establish checks on the king's powers, this document asserted the right of "due process" of law. It also provided the basis for the idea of a "higher law," one that could not be altered either by executive mandate or legislative acts. This concept, embraced by the leaders of the American Revolution, is embedded in the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution and enforced by the Supreme Court.
• “An Expression of the American Mind”: Understanding the Declaration of Independence
  The major ideas in the Declaration of Independence, their origins, the Americans’ key grievances against the King and Parliament, their assertion of sovereignty, and the Declaration’s process of revision.This lesson will focus on the views of the founders as expressed in primary documents from their own time and in their own words.
• Slavery and the American Founding: The "Inconsistency Not to Be Excused"
  John Jay wrote in 1786, “To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused."  This lesson will focus on the views of the founders on slavery as expressed in primary documents from their own time and in their own words/

• The Constitutional Convention of 1787
  The delegates at the 1787 Convention faced a challenge as arduous as those who worked throughout the 1780s to initiate reforms to the American political system.
• James Madison: From Father of the Constitution to President
  Even in its first 30 years of existence, the U.S. Constitution had to prove its durability and flexibility in a variety of disputes. More often than not, James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution," took part in the discussion. Madison had been present at the document's birth as the mastermind behind the so-called Virginia Plan. He had worked tirelessly for its ratification including authoring 29 Federalist Papers, and he continued to be a concerned guardian of the Constitution as it matured.
• The Federalist and Anti-federalist Debates on Diversity and the Extended Republic
  The proposed Constitution, and the change it wrought in the nature of the American Union, spawned one of the greatest political debates of all time. In addition to the state ratifying conventions, the debates also took the form of a public conversation.
• Balancing Three Branches at Once: Our System of Checks and Balances
  Attempting to form a more perfect union, the framers of the Constitution designed a government that clearly assigned power to three branches, while at the same time guaranteeing that the power of any branch could be checked by another.
• John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, and Judicial Review:How the Court Became Supreme
  It is safe to say that as James Madison was the "father" of the Constitution and George Washington the "father of the powers of the Presidency," John Marshall was the "father of the Supreme Court," almost single-handedly clarifying its power of judicial review.
• Frederick Douglass What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
  Students are guided through a careful reading of Douglass' greatest speech in which he both praises the founders and their principles, and condemns the continued existence of slavery. The Constitution is presented as a "glorious liberty document" which, if properly interpreted, is completely anti-slavery.
• Abraham Lincoln's Fragment of the Constitution & the Union (1861): The Purpose of the Union
  This lesson will examine Abraham Lincoln's brief but insightful reflection on the importance of the ideal of individual liberty to the constitutional structure and operation of the American union.
• The First Amendment
  The freedoms of expression that are outlined in the first amendment are rights that each of us practices over the course of our lifetimes--every week and every day. We exercise the rights guaranteed in this amendment every time we voice a political opinion, read a newspaper, or attend religious services.
• Regulating Freedom of Speech
  Freedom of speech is a fundamental American right, and regulation of that freedom has been a fundamental responsibility of the Supreme Court throughout our history. With the Internet, students can observe firsthand how today's Court exercises this responsibility at a time when technology has extended the freedom to speak in ways our nation's founders could not have imagined.

Shelley

EDSITEment

President Obama has issued a formal proclaimation declaring today, August 26th 2011, "Women's Equality Day" calling "upon the people of the United States to celebrate the achievements of women and recommit ourselves to the goal of gender equality in this country."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/08/25/presidential-proclamation-womens-equality-day

In answer to this call, EDSITEment would like to share a number of resources which celebrate the historical acheivement of women who have devoted their lives to this cause.  These lessons help students begin to appreciate the deeply entrenched opposition the early Women's Rights crusaders had to overcome - perhaps still have to overcome - to move our nation toward the goal of gender equality yet to be fully realized.

Who Were the Foremothers of Women's Equality?

Women's Equality: Changing Attitudes and Beliefs

Exploring Women's History Through Film

Cultural Change

Women's Suffrage: Why the West First?

Voting Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage

The Women's Declaration of Independence: The Seneca Falls Convention

Shelley

EDSITEment