Humanities II

The American government incarcerated Kim Ima's father when he was 4 years old, despite the fact that he was an American citizen who had not committed any crime. Kenji Ima was one of 120,000 Japanese Americans locked away in America's concentration camps during World War II simply because of his ancestry. "Imagine what it would be like," Kim Ima says as she introduces the play she is about to perform to a history class at the Bronx High School for Writing and the Creative Arts. Black, Hispanic and Arab American students, jammed in a semi-circle of chairs in a worn classroom, nod and furrow their brows as they are quickly transported back to 1940s America. Kim Ima is one of several actors working for Living Voices, a Seattle theater company that puts performers in classrooms and corporate offices, inviting audiences to view history from the perspective of a character who experienced significant historical events.

Summer PD opportunities

Tom, Darrell and Mary -- Let's go to DC

Developed over three years and completed in time for the 10th anniversary of the attacks, the curriculum is called "Learning from the Challenges of Our Times: Global Security, Terrorism and 9/11 in the Classroom." The material includes lesson plans on teaching the events of that day itself, but also delves into topics ranging from the "Impact of Hateful Words," for elementary students to "What is Terrorism?" in middle school and "Reaction to and from the Muslim and Arab Communities" for high school students. Also included are lessons on "acts of kindness" that occurred on 9/11, and ideas for students to help their town, community and the world.

The American equivalent is the Salem Witch Trials. One poor woman named Sarah Good was accused of witchcraft for "rejecting the puritanical expectations of self-control and discipline." This was evident when she chose to "scorn children instead of leading them toward the path of salvation." The Cayce Anthony trial's connection to the Salem Witch Trials.

n honor of Independence Day, The New York Times visualized America's would-be Facebook profile in its Op-Art section, translating the history of the U.S. into Facebook's iconic narrative structure. The piece (below), "Like It or Unfriend It?" was created by novelist Teddy Wayne, Vanity Fair staffer Mike Sacks and designer Thomas Ng. The graphic recalls a similar piece published by Slate's Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson in May, which chronicles recent U.S. events in an imaginary Barack Obama Facebook feed.

Lesson plan for WWII Homefront video we use.

A Virginia Tech graduate student hit save on her overview of the state workers' compensation commission one spring day, but before her professor could take a look at it, someone else began deleting entire sections, calling them trivial and promotional. It wasn't a teaching assistant on a power trip - it was a Wikipedia editor known only as "Mean as custard." "I had worked on it for almost an entire day," said Amy Pearson, a public administration master's student. "It was kind of shocking." This school year, dozens of professors from across the country gave students an unexpected assignment: Write Wikipedia entries about public policy issues.

Facebook page and video for Cold War Sci-Fi Project

Since the time of Trinity -- the first nuclear explosion in 1945 -- nearly 2,000 nuclear tests have been performed, with the majority taking place during the 1960s and 1970s. When the technology was new, tests were frequent and often spectacular, and led to the development of newer, more deadly weapons.

AP Practice exercises for The Crucible

Between 1935 and 1943, top-caliber photographers such as Marjory Collins, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Jack Delano, working under the direction of Roy Stryker produced the well-known photographic survey of America during the Depression for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which became the Office of War Information (OWI). During WWII the OWI recorded homefront activities that supported the war effort. In this image, photographer Collins documented workers trying to keep up with orders at the Annin Flag Company in Verona, New Jersey. And like many of the photographs produced under government auspices, Collins's series at the Annin Flag Company promoted the story of nation-wide mobilization.

In 2011, it is virtually impossible for a major Republican politician to succeed without citing Reagan as a role model. But much of what today's voters think they know about the 40th president is more myth than reality, misconceptions resulting from the passage of time or from calculated attempts to rebuild or remake Reagan's legacy. So, what are we getting wrong about the Gipper?

If you don't want to do the research, perhaps you should think twice about writing historical fiction. If you're so absorbed in the history that you aren't really gripped by your characters, perhaps you should be writing non-fiction. But if you want to achieve that balancing act that is a good historical novel, then you need to know what history to put in and what to leave out.