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= Welcome to Our Teaching American History Professional Learning Group =

Background
The [|U.S. Department of Education] began awarding grants in 2001 to educational organizations intended to increase the understanding and efficacy of American history. Our group is part of the award received by the [|Battle Creek Schools Consortium] working in coordination with Michigan State University. According to the [|Dept. of Education website]: > // "The program is designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge and understanding of and appreciation for traditional U.S. history. Grant awards will assist LEAs, in partnership with entities that have content expertise, to develop, document, evaluate, and disseminate innovative and cohesive models of professional development. By helping teachers to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of U.S. history as a separate subject matter within the core curriculum, these programs will improve instruction and raise student achievement." //

We began in March 2008 and spent a week together in June focusing on the questions and problems related to Southern Secession. Prior to our first summer institute, we read //Men of Secession// by James Abrahamson. Upon the close of the institute each member of our professional learning group committed to reading a biography of a character directly related to the secession crisis. We have since discussed the role of the individuals as a collective biography to more deeply understand the time period that we have chosen as our turning point.

Our current position is the product of identifying a grade level content expectation ([|GLCE]) that envelops our turning point. We have turned that [|GLCE] into a question that demands inquiry in our quest to create a unit that combines all the elements we have been using — biography, collective biography, and primary document- and inquiry-based learning. Take a look at Our Turning Point page to see our work as we struggle through our goals.