Flushing, New York—A grant to Queens College will help the Godwin-Ternbach Museum (GTM) continue to support curriculum priorities in middle and high schools. Awarded by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program, the grant funds use of the museum collections to develop interdisciplinary lesson plans aimed at teaching “hard history.” The two-year, $20,000 grant was secured by project leaders Maria Pio (museum co-director) and Jay Shuttleworth, David Gerwin, and Susan McCullough (faculty in the School of Education).
Based on the enormous holdings of cultural institutions around the country, such as the GTM, the Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium has built a library of primary source sets and innovative lesson plans. These lessons introduce complex historical subjects from multiple angles, teaching students how to interpret original historical materials and think critically about past events, culture, and causation.
“The Godwin-Ternbach Museum is not only an important exhibition space, but also an excellent teaching museum used by our School of Education and by classrooms throughout the city,” says Queens College President Frank H. Wu. “This grant will help us continue to respond to the evolving needs of teachers and students—especially by helping them to more effectively address historical subjects related to social justice.”
The grant to Queens College will fund work by both faculty and students. The four-person project team will attend Library of Congress training in TPS instruction and also redesign an advanced course in the School of Education that teaches an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum development. The goal is to reshape the course to model how best to use primary-source lesson plans; the pilot course was introduced this spring by Susan McCullough.
Students enrolled in the revised course may apply for a summer opportunity in conjunction with this grant to be offered this and next summer. The Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Grant and Godwin-Ternbach Museum Curriculum Fellowship will fund two student interns each year who will develop curriculum guides using the permanent collections of the museum and the Library of Congress. Those curriculum guides will be featured on the GTM website and shared with the college’s K–12 school partners.
The GTM collections are well suited to interdisciplinary studies of history. Encompassing over 7,000 pieces representing global art history from antiquity to the present—paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, ethnographic arts, and decorative arts, they include numerous items that can enrich lessons on complicated topics in U.S. history, with highlights including works by African American artist Hale Woodruff, legendary photographer Walker Evans, and ornithologist John James Audubon.
Well before its establishment as a museum in 1981, GTM began as a teaching collection of art, and many faculty and students rely on its holdings for their research. In addition, it is heavily used by School of Education faculty and students, for whom it is an important resource for acquiring skills in arts, social science, and interdisciplinary education. Undergraduate and graduate Queens College students are eligible for museum internships during fall and spring semesters in collaboration with department faculty. Each year GTM also offers education programs, family day workshops, and field trips for public schools. Its partnerships with PS201Q, PS62Q, and Townsend-Harris High School, and an after-school program for elementary school students, are important to its wider work with metropolitan teachers and students.
The TPS grant is expected to have long-lasting results. Students who complete the revised graduate coursework will acquire “ambassadorial” skills in teaching TPS goals and methods to others. They will also be encouraged to work with other cultural institutions in the New York area, such as the Queens Memory Project and the Urban Archive, to develop and share lesson plans that incorporate the many locally held collections of art and historical resources.
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