After our trip to the VMFA yesterday, I’m reminded of some of the wonderful resources at the National Portrait Gallery for interpreting works of art. You will find the downloadable teacher’s guide entitled “Reading Portraiture” to be particularly helpful.

So you stayed up late on Sunday to see the final winners of the Oscars. If you haven’t seen Green Book, you may not know what a Green Book is. Here’s a description.

First published in 1937 by Victor H. Green & Company, The Negro Motorist Green Book provided African American travelers with a national guidebook for navigating segregated facilities on US highways, including hotels, restaurants, and gas stations. The Green Book (later renamed The Negro Travelers’ Green Book) became an essential reference for African Americans to travel more safely and comfortably during the Jim Crow era, when black travelers were regularly denied services, treated with hostility, and threatened with physical harm simply for seeking accommodations, food, or gas from white providers. The guidebook included recommendations and warnings for every state, highlighting the fact that racism made travel dangerous across the country, not just in the segregated south. The last guidebook was published in 1966.

You can view a Green Book at the Digital Public Library of America.

Here’s a good piece from the NYTimes.
The Open Road Wasn’t Quite Open to All

Here’s a great post you may find useful.
Pairing Picture Books and Primary Sources: Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey

In commenting on blogs this week, I mentioned single point rubrics to a number of folks who commented that analytic rubrics with lots of categories and criteria seemed confusing. I like single point rubrics because they focus students only on the expected performance for grade-level.

Today, one of the bloggers I follow wrote about using single point rubrics in her class. I thought you might be interested, as she refers to the article I shared in several of my comments.

Using the Single Point Rubric for Better Assessment Conversations

1919 marks 400 years since the first enslaved Africans were brought to North America. Our history is forever entwined with this event. The history of slavery is the history of America. Much of this nation was built on the backs of slaves.

Read this piece for a bit of history.
1619: 400 years ago, a ship arrived in Virginia, bearing human cargo

While many institutions around VA are recognizing this anniversary, the University of Richmond has chosen to focus on 1919 and the legacies of race.

On March 1st and 2nd, UR will host a conference entitled 1919 And Its Legacies: Race, Nation, and Conflict. On Friday there will be panel sessions on the topics of Suppression & Surveillance and Revolutions, Global & Local. The day will culminate in a keynote speech delivered by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Professor of History and International Relations and Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. On Saturday, there will be a free teacher institute.  The Teacher Institute aims to provide Richmond-area high school social studies teachers with both content and pedagogy focused on how to use the events of 1919 as a way of deepening and internationalizing their teaching of World War I and the Civil Rights Movement—and making connections between events in Richmond and the wider world.

Even though the institute is aimed at middle and high school teachers, anyone with an interest in history and social studies teaching will benefit.

See this link to learn more and/or register.
https://as.richmond.edu/about-school/programs/community/themed-years/1919-conference.html

Lynne and I are both excited to embark on our semester-long study of teaching social studies with you. We have much to share and hope you are ready to engage in thinking about and reflecting on what it means to teach social studies using pedagogical approaches that encourage critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication, and creativity.