Rating System for Evaluating Public History Web Sites

By Debra DeRuyver, Jennifer Evans, James Melzer, and Emma Wilmer
(Written and Mounted April 30, 2000)

Regular visitors to public history Web sites include historians and non-historians; academic and non-academic publics. Oft times, Web sites are used as the sole source of historical information on particular topics, particularly by K-12 and undergraduate students. Therefore, critical analysis of these sites is of the utmost importance. We as public historians have a responsibility to critique and evaluate these online resources, both to help improve the specific sites under review and to raise the bar for the entire field of public history. Site analyses provide benefits to several different groups:

• The user gains an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of a site and the validity and reliability of the information contained therein.
• The reviewed site benefits from a constructive outside appraisal.
• Un-reviewed public history sites benefit from having models of best practices and common pitfalls.
• Critical site analyses encourage better scholarship and more engaging presentations of public history.
• Ultimately, the historical record is served by site analyses; site reviews provide traces of presentations of public history on the Web during its first decade of existence.

Table of Contents:

Re-membering the Past

(UNB - January 26, 2010)

“We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.”
(Anaïs Nin, 1903-1977)

Objective: To familiarize students with links between 6 concepts of Benchmarks of Historical Thinking, community-based research, and project-based learning as reflected through Heritage Fairs;To understand the dynamics of personal, collective and historical memory in action.

Target Audience: Grade 9 (Canadian Identity)

Subject Focus: Canada and New Brunswick in the 1960’s

1. Conceptual Framework:

My Canada Includes the Atlantic Provinces (Margaret Conrad, 2001)

Personal Memory/Collective Memory/Historical Memory

Canada in the 1960's:

Marshall McLuhan - Explorations - 05-18-1960 -The World is a Global Village

2. Historical Memory: Historiography
Begin with the textbook ...

"Then and Now" activity

3. Collective Memory: Community-based Project Learning:

Develop a research question
Analyze the evidence:
Analyzing the secondary sources - "Analyzing the Account"
Analyzing the documents - "Analyzing Additional Documents"
Analyzing the images - "Interpreting Images"
Analyzing the artifacts - "Analyzing Traces"
Analyzing the discourses - "Analyzing Propaganda"
Using the concepts of Historical Thinking to reach a conclusion - "Historical Inquiry Checklist"

"Re-membering" the past - creative writing activity

4. Personal Memory - Identity: Creating a Heritage Fair Project - "Finding your Place in History"

Visualizing historical thinking - "Heritage Fair Project Storyboard"Conducting oral interviews - Interviews with Our Grandparents

5. On-line Resources:

Teaching Historical Thinking:

• Benchmarks of Historical Thinking

• History Matters

• Nine Habits for Success in Teaching History

Heritage Fairs in New Brunswick:

• NB Heritage Fairs

• NB Heritage Week

Warm-up Activities:

• Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History

• The Virtual Historian

Primary and Secondary Resources:

• CBC Archives – Les Archives de Radio-Canada

• Library and Archives Canada Learning Centre

• Youtube

• Flickr

• McCord Museum - Keys to History

• Virtual Museum of Canada

• Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

• Centre d'études acadiennes

• Ancestry.ca

• This Week in NB History

6. Bibliography:
Mike Denos and Roland Case. Teaching about Historical Thinking: Tools for Historical Understanding. Vancouver: The Critical Thinking Consortium, 2006.

Mike Bowman et al. Exemplars in Historical Thinking: 20th Century Canada. Vancouver: The Critical Thinking Consortium, 2008.

Thom Markham. Project Based Learning Handbook: A Guide to Standards-Focused Project Based Learning for Middle and High School Teachers. Novato: Buck Institute for Education, 2003.

Ian Hundey. 9 Habits for Success in Teaching History. Toronto: Edmond Montgomery Publications Limited, 2007.

Avis Fitton. Canadian Identity: Teacher's Resource. Toronto: Thomson Nelson, 2007

NB Heritage Fairs – Empowering Students to Re-Think History

(District 14 - Curriculum Delivery Workshop - January 4, 2010)

“We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.”
(Anaïs Nin, 1903-1977)

Objective: To familiarize students with links between 6 concepts of Benchmarks of Historical Thinking, community-based research, and project-based learning as reflected through Heritage Fairs;

To understand the dynamics of personal, collective and historical memory in action.

Target Audience: Grade 9 (Canadian Identity)

Subject Focus: Canada and New Brunswick in the 1960’s

1. Conceptual Framework:

• Starting points for “History” (2004)
• Personal Memory/Collective Memory/Historical Memory
• Thinking like a Historian (Benchmarks of Historical Thinking)
• Heritage Fairs in New Brunswick

Marshall McLuhan - Explorations - 05-18-1960 -
The World is a Global Village

2. Historical Memory: Historiography – the fundamentals of history research

• “Re-writing the book” activity (source: Exemplars in Historical Thinking) - "Analyzing the Account"

3. Collective Memory: Community-based Project Learning:

• Canada in the 1960’s
• Begin with the textbook
• Develop a research question
• Analyze the evidence:
• Analyzing the secondary sources - "Analyzing the Account"
• Analyzing the documents - "Analyzing Additional Documents"
• Analyzing the images - "Interpreting Images"
• Analyzing the artifacts - "Analyzing Traces"
• Analyzing the discourses - "Analyzing Propaganda"
• Using the concepts of Historical Thinking to reach a conclusion - "Historical Inquiry Checklist"
• Community heritage resource brainstorming

4. Personal Memory - Identity: Creating a Heritage Fair Project Storyboard - "PBL Designing Your Project"

• New Brunswick in the 1960’s
• Visualizing historical thinking - "Heritage Fair Project Storyboard"
• Conducting oral interviews
• Reaching conclusions @ moral judgment (teachings) and significance to the present

5. On-line Resources:

Teaching Historical Thinking:• Benchmarks of Historical Thinking
• Online Teaching Resources for Social Studies in Alberta
• History Matters
• Nine Habits for Success in Teaching History

Heritage Fairs in New Brunswick:• NB Heritage Fairs
• NB Heritage Week

Warm-up Activities:• Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History
• The Virtual Historian

Primary and Secondary Resources:• CBC Archives – Les Archives de Radio-Canada
• Library and Archives Canada Learning Centre
• Youtube
• Flickr
• McCord Museum - Keys to History
• Virtual Museum of Canada
• Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
• Centre d'études acadiennes
• Ancestry.ca


Handouts:• Presentation Overview
• Heritage Week 2010 planning kit
• Heritage Fairs funding application
• Events in New Brunswick – 1960’s (This Week in NB History)
• Self-directed Project Learning Rubric
• Exemplars in Historical Thinking blacklines
• Writing about an Artifact activity
• NB Heritage Education resource list
• Project-based storyboard outline (with Benchmark concepts)

Additional material:• Variety of discontinued textbooks
• Collective Memory suitcase (classroom artifact collection)
• 1960’s Newspaper Activity
• Posters etc.
6. Bibliography:

• Mike Denos and Roland Case. Teaching about Historical Thinking: Tools for Historical Understanding. Vancouver: The Critical Thinking Consortium, 2006.
• Mike Bowman et al. Exemplars in Historical Thinking: 20th Century Canada. Vancouver: The Critical Thinking Consortium, 2008.
• Thom Markham. Project Based Learning Handbook: A Guide to Standards-Focused Project Based Learning for Middle and High School Teachers. Novato: Buck Institute for Education, 2003.
• Ian Hundey. 9 Habits for Success in Teaching History. Toronto: Edmond Montgomery Publications Limited, 2007.
• Avis Fitton. Canadian Identity: Teacher's Resource. Toronto: Thomson Nelson, 2007.