Chapter 14 - Educator Resources

Inspired by reading specialist Tammy Elser, who was in turn inspired by SKC graduate Taylor Crawford, we've created a "Takeaway" bookmark for every chapter of Montana: Stories of the Land. Before starting a chapter, print and cut out these bookmarks and distribute them to your students. Ask them to use the Takeaway to summarize the GIST of what they learn from reading assigned sections of the chapter. Remind them that they don't have much room, so they'll need to think before they write down the most important idea they want to take away from the section. Learn a little more about the GIST strategy.
Even though we've created Takeaways for every chapter, we don't recommend you have your students complete a Takeaway for every section of every chapter they read. That would be exceedingly tedious. However, used appropriately, they can be a useful tool for encouraging reflection and teaching students how to summarize information.

Websites and Online Lesson Plans

The Montana Historical Society has posted "A Guide to Researching Your Historic Property."
Camp to Capitol: Step into Helena's Past uses historical photographs to trace Helena's development. Use the booklet to explore Helena - or as a model for creating a similar project in your own community.
The Place Names Project/Building World Views Using Traditonal Cultures and Google Earth is a bi-cultural curriculum exploring Indians' (particularly Salish) and non-Indians' sense of place and introduces students to the idea of "seasonal round," which frames a Salish and Pend d'Oreille worldview.
Exploring Community through Local History: Oral Stories, Landmarks, and Traditions is a lesson plan from the Library of Congress.
Check here or with your local chamber of commerce to see if preservationists have created a walking tour brochure for historic districts in a town near you. If there is not a walking tour yet, consider creating one as a class project.
Montana The Magazine of Western History created a discussion guide for "More than the Glory: Preserving the Gold Rush and Its Outcome at Virginia City," by Ellen Baumler, an article exploring the preservation of Virginia City.
"Helena As She Was" offers a remarkable collection of images of Montana's state capitol.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has begun a campaign, called This Place Matters, to help people call attention to special places in their community before they are endangered.
National Register nominations from your community are a great source for local history research. Find out what properties have been registered here. Many properties also have National Register historic signs; you can read over 1,800 the sign texts, and find links to the site's National Register nominations, at HistoricMT.org.