Curriculum: Learning Through Places
October 10, 2018
Learning Through Places Lesson: The Connecticut State Capitol
October 10, 2018

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About
Where I Live:
Connecticut

In 2017 Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, launched Where I Live: Connecticut, an exciting 80+ page book and website that provide teachers and students a fresh way to learn about Connecticut’s geography, history, economy, and civic life.

Developed in conjunction with teachers and curriculum specialists, Where I Live Connecticut and this website support the Connecticut Social Studies Frameworks adopted in 2015 for third grade, “Our State and Our City/Town: Yesterday and Today.”

Now used in more than half of the state’s third- or fourth-grade classrooms, Where I Live Connecticut is a tool to teach the social studies while building students’ pride in their home state, an interest in history, and a commitment to civic engagement.

About Learning Through Places Lesson Plans

In 2018 Connecticut Explored received funding from the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office to create lesson plans that inform and strengthen students’ connections to their neighborhood, town, and state.

These 10 lesson plans are based on the National Park Service’s successful program, “Teaching with Historic Places.”

Each lesson plan will help students to notice and understand the world around them. They will learn to be detectives and to find clues that will tell them part of the story of their neighborhood, their city, and their state. They will, for example, better understand what that green space is in the center of their town, and its colonial roots as a town green, or why their city is on a river and what the mill buildings tell them about where they live.

Each lesson plan includes an objective, connections to the state frameworks, links to background reading for teachers, a focused reading written at the third-grade reading level, primary sources, maps, and activities about places listed on the National Register of Historic Places including selected sites on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.

Six types of communities are represented (find links below):
– Capitol City and Connecticut’s State Capitol
– Neighborhood Subdivision
– Mill town
– Rural town
– Maritime village
– Transportation hub

and four historic places with special stories to tell
– Family farms
– Women’s history
– Engineering
– Native American places 

Based on teacher and student feedback, more plans could be developed that highlight, for example, industry, labor, immigration, the arts, or examples from civic and residential architecture. 

Developed in conjunction with teachers and curriculum specialists, Where I Live Connecticut and this website support the Connecticut Social Studies Frameworks adopted in 2015 for third grade, “Our State and Our City/Town: Yesterday and Today.”

Now used in more than half of the state’s third- or fourth-grade classrooms, Where I Live Connecticut is a tool to teach the social studies while building students’ pride in their home state, an interest in history, and a commitment to civic engagement.

Tips for Using the Lesson Plans

Each plan includes several components designed to provide everything you need but also to provide some flexibility to tailor the lesson to your class's needs. Each lesson is tied to a section of Where I Live: Connecticut and it is recommended that the students read that section before proceeding with the lesson.

The lessons begin with a pre-lesson discussion to set the stage and anticipate what the students will be learning. The next step is a focused reading with images and primary documents. Questions are provided with the first image to get the students looking closely and to begin applying what was discussed in the pre-lesson discussion.

After reading the remainder of the focused reading, there is a classroom activity and three to five suggested enrichment activities ("On Your Own") to deepen students' understanding of core concepts and make connections to their lives and the place they live today. 

Build a Word Wall: As students read or the class reads the material together, you may wish to have them identify new vocabulary words and include defining those words as part of the lesson. 

NEW! Multi-media Component

Two lesson plans now include songs written by Sally Rogers and used by permission. "Haying the Lebanon Green" was written with 4th graders in Lebanon as they studied the Lebanon Green. The other song, "Pay As You Go" fits with the "Transportation Hub: Litchfield" lesson about turnpikes. 

Links to Lesson Plans

Introduction to 
Learning Through 
Places

Introduce students to Learning Through Places with this introductory essay

What Type of Place Do You Live In?

Chapter 2: First Peoples

Chapter 5: Notable 
Connecticans

Additional Resources About Teaching Historic Preservation

Balaban, Richard C. and St. Clair, Alison Igo. The Mystery Tour Exploring the Designed Environment with Children. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1976.

Connecticut Explored's issues devoted to historic preservation stories
Volume 1 #2 Built It/Razed It
Volume 4 #1 Build It/Razed It II
Volume 8 #1 Modern Architecture
Volume 11 #2 Next Wave of Historic Preservation
Volume 12 #3 History Underground
Volume 13 #3 Historic Preservation—Not Just Buildings!

Volume 16 #2 Preservation Detective Stories
Volume 18 #2 Historic Preservation Outside the Box

National Register of Historic Places, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Teaching with Historic Places

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/teachingwithhistoricplaces/index.htm

National Trust for Historic Preservation, Saving Places

10 Ways to Get Kids Excited about Preservation

https://savingplaces.org/stories/10-on-tuesday-10-ways-to-get-kids-excited-about-preservation/#.W41uNJNKi7g

Preservation Books for Children and Teens

https://savingplaces.org/stories/preservation-books-for-children-and-teens#.W41vSpNKi7g

How to Explore Architecture with Kids

https://savingplaces.org/stories/preservation-tips-tools-explore-architecture-kids#.W41vppNKi7g

Utah Museum of Fine Arts. The Built Environment, Lesson Plans for Educators. Salt Lake City: UT, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2012.

https://umfa.utah.edu/sites/default/files/2017-10/Built-Environment.pdf

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