This month, EDSITEment helps you get ready to go back to school, offers American Art Appreciation Month resources, celebrates the first commercial recording of country music, and recommends some history websites. Also check out EDSITEment’s student resources, including interactives, lesson activities, and specially designed student lauchpads; list of expert-reviewed humanities websites; and daily calendar of great events.
Back to School Resources
For teachers of U.S. history and American government and civics—especially those wishing to integrate primary sources into their curriculum—EDSITEment has collected its most frequently accessed content in this subject area for August and September:
• U.S. History and Social Studies: Magna Carta to First Great Awakening
• Literature & Language Arts: Beowulf to Things Fall Apart
• Folktales, Fairytales, and Mythology: Aesop to Cinderella
• Art History: Caves to Pompeii
• World Languages: La Familia to French and Family
August Is American Art Appreciation Month
Explore Picturing America and Picturing U.S. History for lessons, activities, interactives, and more.
Picturing America, an exciting initiative from the National Endowment for the Humanities, brings masterpieces of American art into classrooms and libraries nationwide. Through this innovative program, students and citizens will gain a deeper appreciation of our country’s history and character through the study and understanding of its art. The nation’s artistic heritage—our paintings, sculpture, architecture, fine crafts, and photography—offers unique insights into the character, ideals, and aspirations of our country.
Picturing United States History: An Interactive Resource for Teaching with Visual Evidence is an NEH-funded digital project based on the belief that visual materials are vital to understanding the American past. This website provides online “Lessons in Looking,” a guide to Web resources, forums, essays, reviews, and classroom activities to help teachers incorporate visual evidence into their classrooms. The Picturing U.S. History site also serves as a clearinghouse for teachers interested in incorporating visual documents into their U.S. history, American studies, American literature, or other humanities courses.
American Music History Made in August
Celebrate the first commercial recording of country music with the Picturing America lesson plan Thomas Hart Benton—The Sources of Country Music. Benton conceived The Sources of Country Music as an action-filled stage upon which the history of an important genre of American music comes to life. His painting is both controversial and personal. The controversy stems from Benton’s rejection of the trappings of the modern art world while simultaneously developing his own unique modern style. The personal is a product of his many travels and sketches of rural American life and music. In his trips down country roads, Benton documented American life and the history of its folk music. These American journeys are a focal point of Benton’s art.
Recommended History Websites
Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives inspires your students to read, see, and think about classical literature and how it influences modern life. Themes include Rites of Passage, Stranger in a Strange Land, Homecoming, and From Homer to Hip Hop. You can also watch a video, listen to a podcast, and read an essay.
Join Gilder Lehrman’s NEH-funded nationwide network of schools and connect teachers and students to valuable resources in American History. The Affiliate School Program is a unique gateway to education resources, events, and tools designed to bring American history to life in the classroom.
The automobile’s impact on American life is everywhere, for the car is much more than a means of traveling from one place to another. The Automobile in American Life and Societywebsite explores some of that vast impact. It is designed primarily with college students and faculty in mind, but students and educators at other levels, as well as the general public, will find it of interest.
