• How to get your kids to write like Studs Terkel

• What techniques work to lead students from stories about family heirlooms into the essential questions of American history and literature

• How well-planned research serves the development of voice and creativity

• Ways to escape the boredom of reading “copy and paste” research papers

• How to transform your classroom into an adventure by joining our Expedition to the 1930s.

• Simple strategies that draw on the power of family history to teach authentic writing.

You’ll also have a chance to hear what nationally acclaimed educators have to say about place-based approaches to teaching:

• Greg Smith, from Lewis and Clark College in Portland has written the definitive articles on place-based learning for Phi Delta Kappan and Educational Leadership. He will speak on “Learning to be where we are.”

• Rachel Tompkins, president of the Rural School and Community Trust, will speak on “Finding our way: examples of place-based teaching from around the nation."

• Sharon Bishop, co-director of the innovative Nebraska Writing Project, will talk about what she has learned as a high school English teacher about using the power of place to get quality writing. Her topic is “Place-conscious education and the teaching of writing.”

• Guha Shankar from the Library of Congress works with programs around the nation (some inspired by our work here in Montana) that extend schooling into the community. He will discuss “Getting beyond textbooks: fieldwork as education.”

You’ll even get to hear some of Montana’s own leaders in education and writing:

• Historian Martha Kohl, Montana Historical Society historian, writer, and editor, has championed the Project since her arrival in Montana in 1995 and recently served as our guest student-writing judge. In this presentation, she’ll describe the way our students can become scholarly detectives, analyzing historic buildings, neighborhoods, and local primary source records--in the context of big issues and themes.

• Poet Mark Gibbons writes powerful poems. He speaks in a voice that is not afraid of what matters. He talks about what we need to talk about. He’s also a gifted teacher. Don’t miss this chance to hear how he values his deep Montana roots. He’ll read from his new collection, Connemara Moonshine.

• Mike Umphrey has directed the Heritage Project since it began in 1995. He’ll draw on his background as a poet (The Lit Window and The Breaking Edge) and a teacher to explain how a focus on story--including narrative environment and narrative identity--can help teachers untangle all sorts of knots that bedevil schooling today.

• Professor Chad Okrusch will take a hard look at Butte’s past and its present, drawing lessons about community health and renewal that are applicable anywhere. His topic is “Environmental History, Education, and Community Renewal in Butte.”

And if that isn’t enough, you might come for the music. Montana’s widely known musical group, Dublin Gulch--named for a Butte landscape–will offer a concert of the Butte Irish music they’ve been gathering and performing for many years.

Lodging is available at the Red Lion in Butte. More economical dorm rooms may also be booked. Most sessions will be held on the campus of Montana Tech.

I could give all to Time except - except
What I myself have held. But why declare
The things forbidden that while the Customs slept
I have crossed to Safety with? For I am There
And what I would not part with I have kept.
                  "I Could Give All to Time," Robert Frost

Outline for the “R” or Reflect

Pre- Prep: Students have been studying the Vietnam War and have finished listening to a Vietnam Veteran tell his Vietnam story. He is a poet and song writer. He sang and told many of his poems to the students. They will now reflect on their own thoughts and feelings, and how they can tell some of their stories through song.

OBJECTIVES:
1. Students will learn about the role of protest songs
2. Students will identify their own political agendas and write protest songs or poems
3. Students will identify political issues that are important to them, choose a song, and rewrite the words to fit a rhythm.

TIME and MATERIALS:
1. Possibly 3 class periods. (one to research, one to write/edit, one to present)
2. Computer lab to research songs
3. Writing materials, tape/CD player if needed
4. Possibly create your own protest song so students have an idea of what is expected
5. Tape or CD of protests song from Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

DAY ONE: In computer lab
Ask the students to research songs of the Vietnam War. Have students print out and listen to the message of the song.  They will then need to list 5 current political issues that deeply concern them. Encourage students to share their topics. List some on the board.

DAY TWO:
Select an old nursery song to help students write their song or poem. Consider using:
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Michael, Row the Boat Ashore
You are my Sunshine
The Itsy-Bitsy Spider
Use the example(play some) of how the Civil Rights children of Birmingham used simple rhythms so as to focus on the passion of the message. Read students your song.
Students will write and edit their messages today.

DAY THREE:
Present songs to the class. Each student will listen and try to understand the message the song is presenting. Have students comment or write down the message.

RESOURCES:

MUSIC: examples of protest songs
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute of Music:
We Shall Overcome
Blowing in the Wind
If You Miss Me From the Back of the Bus
Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round
Freedom Land
We Shall Not Be Moved
Mind on Freedom
This Little of Mine
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

BOOKS:
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway

WEBSITES:
http://www.yahoo.music

Martha Kohl has applied her passion for understanding the past and for understanding historic places to a variety of professional positions.  Currently, Martha is a historical specialist and writer for the Montana Historical Society’s one-of-kind National Register of Historic Places interpretive sign program. Prior to that she served as the editor of the Montana Historical Society Press from 1995 through 2003 and was editor of Gateway Heritage, the Missouri Historical Society’s quarterly from 1991-1994. From 1988 to the present, Martha also has taught English, U. S. History, and literacy in Missouri and Montana universities and colleges. Martha has authored articles on topics ranging from the historic buildings of Forsyth, Montana, to African American enfranchisement to writing good papers for National History Day presentations. The Montana Committee for the Humanities recently awarded Martha a research grant to examine how Montana weddings—one of our beloved rites of passage—have changed over time and what those changes mean. This larger research project grew out of an article that she prepared for Heritage Education (Spring 2006), “Something Old, Something New: Weddings as Windows on Montana History.”

For this place-based conference, we’ve asked Martha to ground us in the combined skills of historiography and historic preservation. She’ll remind us how to “see” buildings and neighborhoods as distinct artifacts of the past. She’ll walk us through the primary historical sources that our students can plumb for still more information about those buildings and neighborhoods.  And then, she will demonstrate how big themes—the social and political circumstances of particular eras—influenced what we see in our own towns. In “Text and Context: Using Historical Sources to Understand Place,” look for a compelling presentation of how an excellent historian melds solid primary and secondary historical source research with the personalities of buildings, towns, and landscapes.

“I come from a place that plays gospel music over the loudspeaker at a gas station-- you can get Jesus while you get Super Unleaded and a bag of pork rinds to go.

I come from a place where one loves God, Mama, and football-- but not necessarily in that order, particularly on a Friday night or a Saturday afternoon.”

The post reminded me of one of my favorite writing assignments.
A few years ago as a way of beginning to study our local community I had students, who were mostly local, write about where they come from. I thought the background work we did and discussions we had leading up to the writing were very valuable. Students enjoyed thinking about and photographing the places important to them, but the quality of the writing wasn’t as high as I would have liked or as good as I thought is could’ve been. 

Right after I finished the writing assignment I found a much better model for getting the kind of specificity I wanted from students. George Ella Lyon’s book Where I’m From seems to be the original source. Though I haven’t actually read her book, I’ve since run into hundreds of great examples that follow this form. Some just use the model, others have more specific guidelines. Unlike many “forms,” rather than ending up with many examples of vague, similar writing, the style of this makes each piece unique.

I especially like the idea of creating a sort of hyper text poem—along the lines of the first post I mentioned, with links to some of the places and things the poem might reference.

I don’t have examples of my own students work, but there are many others —students, teachers, bloggers—who have also given the format a try.
The Minnesota Writing Project has even used it as a demonstration lesson, as does the United Nations Cyber School Bus.

Almost all the versions I’ve read are interesting. This was the case with my students as well. Nearly every poem my students wrote was powerful in some way—either through the language, imagery or experiences conveyed. Students seemed to appreciate the chance to think about and share what pieces of their pasts had shaped them, and I found that the short assignment really did help me understand where my students where coming from.

He defines “nature deficit disorder” as “the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and a higher rate of physical and emotional illnesses.” He quotes Paul Gorman, founder and director of the National Partnership for the Environment: “The extent that we separate our children from creation is the extent to which we separate them from the creator—from God.”

His grandson is not going to find on television the tale of becoming the man of the family at 16 years old either, as my godfather did. He financially supported his mother and sister after his father died during the Depression, while putting himself through Northwestern University on athletic scholarships and odd jobs. He kept 50 cents in his pocket for emergencies and sent everything else home. Self-sacrifice and responsibility for others are not part of the manly role model that is taught in movie chase scenes and shoot-’em-ups, or by celebrity misbehavers and cheaters.

It’s the truth of the stories told that make them so important:

Our kids need to know real things about life besides the lame fantasies they get on television: the life we lived, the good and bad choices we made, the lessons we learned, what we’d do if we had it to do over again. In short, whether role model or cautionary tale, the real story of our lives is the best thing we can give kids because it’s true, and they’ll learn from it.

Oberg suggests that adults begin writing their stories as gifts to younger family members:

Whether housewife or doctor, truck driver or engineer, lawyer or lineman, we all have stories to tell — great stories. Perhaps we could write, record, or videotape these stories for our youngsters in installments over the years — something for them to look forward to during the holidays. They hardly know us or know what’s important in life anymore, amid today’s noise and clutter.

We will better understand education’s historic role as the means through which succeeding and overlapping generations find what they most need in each other--the young need wisdom and the old need acts of regeneration--as this simple idea is recognized to be as profound as it really is.

Here are a couple examples of what’s possible: http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/home/more/my-omas-story/ and http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/home/more/songs-of-hope-music-in-libby-montana-during-the-great-depression/.

“Every moment of your life, you’re writing. When you walk the halls in this school you meet various people and you write furiously in your head.” Frank McCourt “Teacher Man”

Away-from-it-all-ness. Importing musicians with other styles and tastes is easy enough, but Montana style is about getting away from all the hubub and noise and fashion trends and pop crap. Besides, why should we go to the trouble of bringing some of that hippity-hop music here when the kids down the street have guitars and can do a pretty good job of banging out some old rock and roll songs, it’s just as much fun for dancing.

Not following trends. Do it yourself. Avoiding the madness of the world. All part of Montana style.

Full article: http://montanajones.blogspot.com/2005/12/montana-style-part-two-rock-and-roll.html

Not being with “it” when “it” isn’t all that rewarding--part of the reason for living under the big sky, I think. For a longer and some what edgier take on the charm of not being cosmopolitan--what Anthony Harrigan calls the “therapy of distance"--see this article from the Contemporary Review: http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/institute/great-plains/

I keep running into articles extolling the virtues of life in the nonurban spaces of the West, especially Montana. Harrigan suggested in his 1994 article that the dissatisfaction with urban conditions and the allure of the West might in time lead to some new form of Homestead Boom (Katherine argues that it’s been underway for a long time, since she left Racine, Wisconsin for Montana for precisely such reasons):

Ironically, the settlement of the American continent began—and long continued—with an impulse to escape the crowded conditions of the Old World, whether the poverty-stricken countryside of Ireland or Sicily or the ghettoes of Russia and Poland. Indeed for many generations of immigrants, there was truly a therapy of distance—from poverty, conscription, and religious persecution. The Russo-Germans who settled in North Dakota in the late 19th century truly fit the description of those who seek therapy in great distances. In this connection, I am reminded of the statement by John G. Ackerman in the New York Times Book Review that there is a ‘dialectic of possibility in his history which is potentially liberating’. Thus, in time, urban Americans may turn against the horrors of American urban life and decide to participate in an internal migration—a new movement West.

I would like to see an oral interview project focusing on why recent immigrants to Montana have come here.