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Civic Engagement in Any Subject:
Engage your students in their communities to learn and care more about where they're from
Engage your students in their communities to learn and care more about where they're from
by integrating local primary sources from the Library of Congress or local sources
by integrating local primary sources from the Library of Congress or local sources
into interdisciplinary projects and lessons that already exist or are newly developed!
into interdisciplinary projects and lessons that already exist or are newly developed!
Free summer workshop
July 23, 2025 9:30-3:30 at Mohawk Trail Regional School in Shelburne Falls
Work with area teachers to learn more about our local history and ways to use primary sources in the classroom. You'll identify a curricular connection, explore local resources, and plan a lesson/unit/activity for your own classroom. Participants who finish* the course will receive a $300 stipend and up to $300 for classroom materials to carry out your work!
*Finished projects must be completed by August 20, 2025.
Register HERE, share our FLYER or email cglennon@mtrsd.org for more info!
Project Background
Our project, Civic Engagement in Any Subject: Integrating Local History Across the Curriculum, was developed under the Library of Congress Eastern Regional Grant program. Our focus is to engage teachers, and by extension their students, across grade levels and subject areas, in elements of our local story that are relevant to their subject areas.
Image: Mohawk Trail teachers explore the Buckland Historical Society
Our grant period began in February 2024 with an all-school Professional Development workshop. As a group, we completed inventories of our local history and community assets to find curricular connections, and learned about benefits and methods of working with primary sources.
From there, we identified four educator-led projects across the District and worked together as a cohort through the process of creating activities for our classrooms over the Spring and into Fall 2025. Teachers created projects in an elementary Library class, an 8th grade Science class, and high school History and ELA courses. Examples of teacher work can be found on our Sample Projects sheet. Teachers appreciated the freedom offered by our funding from the TPS Eastern Region, which allowed them to work together on projects of their choosing to create unique experiences for their students. The projects created a buzz around the building because the teachers were talking about their collaboration, and students were very curious about the work and how excited their teachers were.
Image: Mohawk Trail teachers explore the Buckland Historical Society
The course ran again from February to April, hosted by the Collaborative for Educational Services, a local educational organization, and was offered for Professional Development and graduate credit from Westfield State University. Three projects were completed after this second round of work, one about Shays’ Rebellion, one of the most famous historical moments in Western Massachusetts, one on the Cuban Missile Crisis through the local lens, and one building on the town’s version of Monopoly (Daltonopoly) introducing students to places chosen in the game.
On July 23, we’ll be hosting our last event of the grant cycle, an in person course at Mohawk Trail Regional. There are still spaces available and registration details are available on the above!
Want to try this work in your own school and classroom?
Here are some materials to help you think about your own local area and the curriculum connections that can be made!
This activity is sponsored in part
by the Library of Congress
Teaching with Primary Sources
Eastern Region Program,
coordinated by Waynesburg University.
This activity is sponsored in part
by the Library of Congress
Teaching with Primary Sources
Eastern Region Program,
coordinated by Waynesburg University.
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