History by Design: Home

History by Design will continue to be offered this school year to middle school teachers who have previously participated in the program. The structure of the program has been tweaked to accommodate remote and blended learning. Through History by Design, teachers will learn how to create an online club, engage local cultural institutions in a meaningful way, facilitate experiential learning opportunities for their students, and cultivate critical thinking and individual voice within their students. Field trips and professional learning will happen remotely and teachers may choose whether to hold their Curator Crew meetings in person or remotely. As part of History by Design, students will:

• learn to see themselves, and insert themselves into history. They will learn about history from experts in the field through primary sources, art, artifacts, and historical figures;
• use critical thinking skills to broaden dominate narratives, investigate history from multiple perspectives, and gain exposure to a wide variety of cultural institutions;
• brainstorm, research, plan, and create an exhibit based on a topic of their choosing, and inspired by virtual field trips;
• gain experience in working as a group on a long-term project designed to make social studies, the arts, and history come to life by making it accessible and relevant to their day-to-day lives; and
• present their work as a team and view the work of other Curator Crews at the virtual Culminating Exhibition in winter 2021.

The program is a virtual club for students in grades 6-8 that meets weekly. Each club or ‘Curator Crew’ will investigate a topic in history of their choosing through one of four critical lenses. Within each lens, Curator Crews will choose a pathway to focus on.

• Art That Inspires Change

1. A picture's worth a thousand words: Protest art
2. The role of political advertisements and cartoons in changing hearts and minds

• NYC’s Changing Landscape
  1. What's old is new: The story of immigration and demographic shifts in New York City
  2. New York City's infrastructure: The buildings, bridges, parks, and public transportation that make our city run
• Evolving Roles of Wo/men
  1. The Women's Suffrage Movement and its legacy today
  2. Women who break down barriers
• What Makes a Leader
  1. Leaders who overcame adversity
  2. How leaders have been portrayed in art: Paintings, sculpture, monuments, and statues

Throughout the program, Curator Crews will go on virtual field trips to cultural institutions, virtually meet with artists in their studios, have calls with experts from cultural institutions throughout the city, and engage in lots of other fun, dynamic activities with their peers. Students will conduct research throughout the year on a topic of their choosing and that will inspire the creation of their end-of-year culminating project, designing an exhibit. Participating teachers will attend four online professional learning sessions where they will be eligible to receive CTLE credit and several small group learning opportunities. 

Art That Inspires Change

This lens is all about examining art’s role in evoking societal change. Art has played a major role in most social movements from the graffiti art on the Berlin Wall to the hope poster created for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Art has a unique power to change public opinion, get people to think differently/more critically, and inspire them to take action.

• Sample mediums to explore include: protest posters, graffiti, murals, documentary photography, anti-war songs, banned books, public art, and wearable art (ex: pink hats associated with the Women’s March on Washington)
• Sample project topics include: The graffiti art of Banksy that calls attention to the greed of capitalism or Keith Herring’s art that brought awareness and attention to the AIDS crisis at a time when it was largely being ignored.

Evolving Roles of Wo/men

Gender roles are constantly changing. How has society responded? How has a change in women’s roles affected the role men play and vice versa?

• Sample mediums to explore include: historical photos, oral histories, court cases, artifacts, or gender representation in media.
• Sample project topics include: the women’s suffrage movement, women who have broken down barriers, exclusionary practices, the wage gap, a historical look at gender and sexuality, the history of the LBGTQ movement or the role of government intervention in gender expression.

NYC’s Changing Landscapes

Explore how the people, environment, jobs, transportation, culture, housing, neighborhoods, demographics, food, politics, and/or economy of New York City have changed over time.

• Sample mediums to explore include: maps, official records, historical photos, oral histories, depictions of life at the time through artworks, and architecture.
• Sample project topics include: an exploration of the neighborhood your school is located in or a historical look at immigration policies and how it contributes to demographics today.  

What Makes a Leader

How do you define a leader? What are some leadership qualities? Whose voices are we not hearing in history and why? Are there any leaders in your community?

• Sample mediums to explore include: historical documents, oral histories, paintings, photographs, diaries, and other primary sources.
• Sample project topics include: Retelling a historical event from the perspective of lesser known leaders, local leaders who have made an impact on the lives of your students, or exploring different types and styles of leadership.