Student Visits
Visit us at the Center with your students to explore our partners’ collections and get hands-on experience working with primary sources. We are happy to work with you on preparing a visit that would accommodate specific needs and interests of your students. Email us your syllabus at education@cjh.org and let’s take it from there!
We also offer student visits and activities centered on the topics presented below. All class visits for schools address and develop skills found in the Common Core Learning Standards for K-12 classes through the use of primary sources.
Our educators work with teachers and faculty to define student learning objectives as well as teach students to build strong content knowledge, comprehend as well as critique, value evidence, and demonstrate independence.
Offered by: Leo Baeck Institute and Center for Jewish History
Age: grades 6-12
Duration: 90 minutes
CCSS: Close Reading of Complex Texts,Citing Specific Textual Evidence, Determine Central Ideas, Analyze a Series of Events Described in a Text, Evaluate Various Explanations for Actions or Events Based on Textual Evidence.
In this workshop students will work with different collections of personal documents and create a background of “Big History” to see how the individual and the collective narratives inform and enrich one another.
#Visual Literacy #Critical Thinking #Object-based Learning #World History #Immigration
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Offered by: American Jewish Historical Society
Age: grades 5 and up
Duration: 60-90 minutes, depending on the group size and age
CCSS: Close Reading; Citing Specific Textual Evidence; Determine Central Ideas; Analyze a Series of Events Described in a Text; Describe How a Text Presents Information; Identify Textual Evidence of Author’s Point of View or Purpose.
Students will learn about Emma Lazarus and her times—a turning point in American and Jewish history. This workshop elevates freedom of religion, immigration, and Antisemitism as core issues in Emma’s time and in our own, and will stimulate discussion of a richer engagement with civic challenges. If you could write a poem (or spoken word) for the Statue of Liberty today, what would it say?
#Human Rights and Civil Rights #Visual Literacy #Media Literacy #Critical Thinking #Object-based Learning #World History #New York History #Immigration #Antisemitism
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Offered by: the Center for Jewish History and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Age: grades 4-12
Duration: 90-120 minutes
CCSS: Understand Other Perspectives and Cultures; Build Strong Content Knowledge; Describe How a Text Presents Information; Integrate Visual Information; Analyze the Relationship Between a Primary and Secondary Source; Determine Central Ideas of a Primary Source; Integrate and Evaluate Multiple Sources of Information Presented in Diverse Formats and Media.
Students will learn about the creation of an extensive network of zamlers (collectors) who were ordinary people turned archivists as a result of a popular call to collect data about their local communities, language, and culture— what later became the kernel of the collection of YIVO. We will explore primary documents, discuss the role of oral history and of ethnographic research methods in preserving culture. Students will create a toolkit for a “Zamler of the 21st century” and hopefully become ones!
#Visual Literacy #Media Literacy #Critical Thinking #Object-based Learning #World History #New York History
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Offered by: the Center for Jewish History
Age: grades 3-12, undergraduate students
Duration: 60-90 minutes
CCSS: Determine Central Ideas of a Primary Source; Evaluate an Author’s Premises, Claims, and Evidence; Cite Specific Textual Evidence to Support Analysis of Primary Sources; Integrate and Evaluate Multiple Sources of Information Presented in Diverse Formats and Media.
Students will get oriented in the rules of archival research and will spend time on group hands-on assignments with collections of primary sources, to discuss the potentials and limitations in using primary sources to understand the past.
#Visual Literacy #Media Literacy #Critical Thinking #Object-based Learning #World History #New York History #Immigration
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Offered by: Ackman and Ziff Genealogy Institute
Age: grades 6-12
Duration: 60 minutes
CCSS: Integrate and Evaluate Multiple Sources of Information Presented in Diverse Formats and Media; Textual Evidence to Support Analysis of Primary Sources; Determine the Meaning of Words and Phrases as They are Used in a Primary Source; Integrate Quantitative Data or Technical Analysis with Qualitative Analysis.
Students will get their feet wet with the basis of genealogical research, learning about a variety of hints history offers genealogists; by the end of the workshop students will start their own genealogical trees.
#Human Rights and Civil Rights #Visual Literacy #Media Literacy #Critical Thinking #Object-based Learning #World History #New York History #Immigration
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Offered by: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Institute for Jewish Research, Leo Baeck Institute, and the Center for Jewish History
Age: grades 8-12
Duration: 60-90 minutes
CCSS: Describe How a Text Presents Information; Integrate Visual Information; Analyze the Relationship Between a Primary and Secondary Source; Determine Central Ideas of a Primary Source; Integrate and Evaluate Multiple Sources of Information Presented in Diverse Formats and Media.
Students will follow personal stories of displacement from three periods: the beginning of 20th century, the Holocaust, and the Communism. The workshop will stimulate the discussions about “the short 20th century,” and the role of microhistory and “history from below” in gaining a nuanced understanding of big historical phenomena.
#Human Rights and Civil Rights #Visual Literacy #Media Literacy #Critical Thinking #Object-based Learning #World History #Immigration
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For inquiries, to discuss details of your school visit, to request a workshop, etc, please email us at education@cjh.org.