Freedom and Unity: The Struggle for Independence on the Vermont Frontier, Labrador, Summer 2020

Note: TUITION FOR THIS COURSE IS PAYABLE TO the Vermont Archaeological Society.

Course Description

In the summer of 2020, 72 educators will have the chance to immerse themselves in Vermont’s unique Revolutionary War history while gaining hands-on experience in the benefits of place-based education. This workshop will feature an integrated program of place-based and participatory learning activities related to the events and personalities of the American Revolution at seven partnering historic sites in Vermont’s Champlain Valley. Workshop participants will follow a route, on land and water, from a yeoman Vermonter’s 18th century homestead to war, and back again. Along the way, they will encounter the landscapes, artifacts, sites, and primary sources that allow students to engage with the multiple stories and competing worldviews of frontier Vermont—and to relate them to the persisting tensions between rural and urban communities across contemporary America.

Using the backdrop of the area’s Revolutionary War Sites, teachers from a range of disciplines and grade levels (although focused primarily on grades 6-12) will delve deeply into place-based education. While on board the life-sized replica of Benedict Arnold’s USS Philadelphia gunboat and exploring the nation’s best-preserved Revolutionary War archaeological site at Mount Independence, teachers will learn firsthand the potential of place-based education at historic sites: to provide personally resonant experiences that serve as a foundation for understanding contemporary issues of regional, national, or global importance.

Additionally, participants will discover practical assignments and lesson plans for use in their own classrooms. During the week, participants will use the Vermont sites as a lens, looking back at their own schools and home areas to find the undiscovered gems in their own local histories.

 Audience: This workshop has been designed principally for full-time or part-time teachers and librarians in public, charter, independent, and religiously affiliated schools, as well as home schooling parents. Museum educators and other K-12 school system personnel – such as administrators, substitute teachers, and curriculum developers – are also eligible to participate. Workshop content will be of most direct value to educators of 6-12 grade students in history, social studies, environmental sciences, as well as teachers who participate in team teaching with colleagues in these subjects.

Course Objectives

Course Goals:

• Participants will learn different ways of engaging students in the process of historical inquiry with primary and secondary source documents.
• Participants will explore how to utilize historic site resources such as interpretive walking trails, living history exhibits, and museum collections in their existing curricula to meet relevant CCSS and C3 standards.
• Participants will learn about the advantages and how to mitigate the challenges of historic place-based education.
• Participants will understand how to tie local history topics to broader historical themes and contemporary social issues.
• Participants will discover opportunities for team teaching “across” the curriculum with local history subjects and historical inquiry.
• Participants will make lasting collegial relationships and pursue mutual peer mentoring partnerships within their workshop cohort.

 Course Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

• Identify local historical sites and sources that can be integrated into existing curricula.
• Critically analyze primary and secondary sources to identify possible (explicit and implicit) historical biases.
• Develop place-based curricular units and lessons that meet CCSS/C3 standards.
• Teach historical and archaeological inquiry using primary sources, artifacts, and/or historic places.
• Relate current events and media to historical events and sources.
• Communicate with historic site staff, archivists, reference librarians, and their school’s administration in order to effectively coordinate educational opportunities and access resources.
• Collaborate with colleagues to exchange ideas and develop interdisciplinary lessons and assignments for their students.
• Apply the Understanding by Design and Universal Design for Learning Guidelines when developing teaching units.

Required Readings/Texts:

Chapter 3, “The Lure of the Land: 1763-1807,” from Sherman, Michael, Gene Sessions, and P. Jeffrey Potash. 2004. Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont. Barre, Vt: Vermont Historical Society.

Selections from Martin, Joseph Plumb. 1962. Private Yankee Doodle Being a Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier. First Edition. Boston: Little Brown & Co.

Chapter 2 from Bennett, David. 2014. A Few Lawless Vagabonds: Ethan Allen, the Republic of Vermont, and the American Revolution. Havertown, PA: Casemate.

Champlain: The Lake Between documentary film, Vermont PBS Documentaries. https://www.pbs.org/video/vermont-public-television-documentaries-champlain-the-lake-between, accessed February 21, 2019.

Part IV “Revolutionary War” from Bellico, Russell P. 1999. Chronicles of Lake Champlain: Journeys in War and Peace. Fleischmanns, N.Y: Purple Mountain Pr. Quebec

Excerpts from Gabriel, Michael P., and S. Pascale Vergereau-Dewey, eds. 2005. Quebec During the American Invasion, 1775-1776: The Journal of Francois Baby, Gabriel Taschereau, and Jenkin Williams. Annotated edition. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

Excerpts from Lefkowitz, Arthur S. 2008. Benedict Arnold’s Army: The 1775 American Invasion of Canada During the Revolutionary War. New York, NY ; El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie.

Tale of Two Gunboats video, viewable at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

Chapters 7 and 9 from Bellico, Russell P. 2001. Sails and Steam in the Mountains: A Maritime and Military History of Lake George and Lake Champlain. Revised edition. Fleischmanns, N.Y: Purple Mountain Pr Ltd.

Excerpts from Nelson, James L. 2006. Benedict Arnold’s Navy : The Ragtag Fleet That Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain but Won the American Revolution. Camden, Maine : International Marine/McGraw-Hill.

Starbuck, D. 1994. “Archaeology at Mount Independence: An Introduction,” The Journal of Vermont Archaeology. 1(115-126).

Wickman, Donald H., and Gary Zaboly. 2017. Strong Ground: Mount Independence and the American Revolution. Orwell, Vt.: Mount Independence Coalition.

Williams, John. 2002. The Battle of Hubbardton: The American Rebels Stem the Tide. 2nd ed. Rutland: The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation.

Duling, Ennis. 2010. “Thomas Anburey at the Battle of Hubbardton: How a Fraudulent Source Misled Historians.” Vermont History 78 (1): 1–14.

Chapters 14 and 15 from Randall, Willard Sterne. 2012. Ethan Allen: His Life and Times. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

Excerpts from Searls, Paul M. 2006. Two Vermonts: Geography and Identity, 1865-1910. UPNE.

Hendricks, N. 1966. A New Look at the Ratification of the Vermont Constitution, 1777. Vermont Historical Society Journal, 136-140.

Excerpts from Sheinkin, Steve. 2013. The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery. Reprint edition. Square Fish. 

For additional course, registration and payment information

Angela M. Labrador
(413) 325.5548

Register online now!