Preserve the Baltimore Uprising Internship Blog #1

My name is George Lewis and I am a second-year Historical Studies graduate student at UMBC. This semester I am interning with Dr. Meringolo on the Preserve the Baltimore Uprising Project. The goal of this project is to to preserve and disseminate oral histories surrounding the Baltimore Uprising events of 2015. The events that transpired after the death of Freddie Gray in April of that year made national headlines. Many citizens of Baltimore City who observed and participated in the protest, demonstrations, and other activities associated with the uprising longed to preserve their accounts of the event and its aftermath. Dr. Meringolo began this project this past fall (2018) by reaching out to several local Baltimore city high schools. The goal was to work with 3 to 4 local city schools. In the end the project went forward working with 2 local schools: Baltimore Polytechnic High School and City College High School.

 Dr. Meringolo reached out to these two schools to conduct an oral history project with the high school students. The students were tasked with completing formal oral history training and developing interview questions. Armed with their new-found knowledge on oral histories and persevered memory the students headed out into the community to interview people who witnessed any aspect of the events following the death of Freddie Gray. These interviews and following projects the student create from them are the focus of the showcase in April 10^th, 2019 at the Maryland Historical Society The goal of this showcase is to celebrate the efforts and achievements of these students and the numerous community members who took part, not only in the current project, but the previous on-going task of preserving the Baltimore Uprising. Along with the students work there will be presentation by Danielle Drakes, a screening of a documentary by Lee Boot. This event is open to the public.

As a history graduate student and a teacher for Baltimore County Public Schools, my involvement with this project consists of creating usable classroom lessons for teacher of local, state and even national school to implement. Along with the lessons I will be creating, the interns this semester are tasked with helping with the showcase in April. My goal throughout this internship is to create a series of lesson plans utilizable in the classroom setting. Pat Brynes, another high school teacher in the Carroll county area, will work with me to develop a comprehensive set of lessons for Social Studies teachers at various levels. Incorporating the Maryland Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for high school students, these lessons will teach the principles of oral history. By teaching students what oral history is, as well as its importance to the historical record, these lessons will enable students to conduct and analyze interviews independently. The students will also understand the efforts put forth in conducting a proper interview.

Pat and I are currently unsure of how many lesson plans we will create, or they would constitute an entire unit plan. Currently, we are modeling our initial ideas from Park City Museum and their Oral History Step by Step Guide found at http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html. Also included in this plan are several online examples from educational institutions such as the Rutgers Oral History Archive, the American Memory program at the Library of Congress, and oral history collections from the Archives of American Art.

In this stage of development, the lessons will be designed with high school students in mind. Our goal is for them to be adaptable for middle school use. Keeping in mind that both Pat and I are high school social studies teachers and that the initial project started with high school students it only seems fitting to plan the lessons accordingly. By breaking the project into five manageable parts, students will learn to do the following:

1. Students will be able to learn what oral history is and consist of.

2. Students will be able to examine the significance of oral history to creating and preserving historical record.

3. Students will be able to pinpoint a specific event to study through the lens of oral history

4. Students will be able to conduct oral history interviews using questions they've developed

5. Students will be able to analyze and reflect on their process, including potential errors made during the process

We would like, if time and resources allows, to create some lessons revolving around the events of the Baltimore Uprising. Perserve the Baltimore Uprising 2015 (baltimoreuprising2015.org) has done a tremendous job of gathering materials on the events and is a crucial partner in the initial project head by Mr. Meringolo. A set of lessons detailing the events from both a media and community perspective/narrative would be highly educational and influential.

UMBC Special Collections Internship #1

Hi my name is Jeanette Richardson and I'm a junior undergraduate History major with a Public History minor. This semester I am doing an internship at UMBC'S Special Collections/Archive. I started at the end of January and have been acquainting myself with the Past Perfect database and search engine UMBC uses for its collection. My main project is to create tutorials for other students, faculty, and the general public to view in order to learn and understand how they themselves can search the collection. To someone unfamiliar, or even someone with some experience, the search engine in Special Collections can be tricky to navigate. I am also learning how to use the screen cast software Panopto which I will use to film and edit my tutorial. I have done research in Past Perfect and first am focusing on creating a tutorial for the photo collections. Since I have a lot of experience with Civil War history I am using the collection's vast Civil War collection for my example. I have had to write a script and storyboard my project and have it edited and approved by my supervisor. I have so far finished my second draft on this first tutorial project, after more edits and approval I will film and edit the video. The video will then be uploaded to the UMBC Library YouTube channel and library website. I also have plans to make more tutorials including using and navigating a finding aid, which will involve some mild coding, and conducting archival searches. I have also done many readings about archives and how they function, how researchers use them, and how information can be organized. I also will be learning more functions of an academic library and the role of archives and special collections.

Preserve the Baltimore Uprising Internship Blog #1

My name is Pat Brynes, a second-year graduate student at UMBC. This semester, my internship is with Dr. Denise Meringolo, working to preserve and disseminate oral histories surrounding the Baltimore Uprising events of 2015. Following the death of Freddie Gray in April 2015, several observers and participants longed to preserve their accounts of the event and its aftermath. My involvement with this project revolves around the creation of lesson plans and resources usable to classroom teachers.

 Beginning in the fall of 2018, Dr. Meringolo connected with Baltimore Polytechnic High School and City College High School to develop interview questions with a dedicated group of high school students. Furthermore, these students completed formal oral history training to take their efforts out into the community. From there, they will collect and preserve oral histories from community members who can personally attest to the events of Freddie Gray's death and those that followed. Collecting these oral histories throughout January and February 2019, the students will participate at a public event hosted by the Maryland Historical Society on April 10th. This event will celebrate the efforts of these students and other community members while showcasing the project as it comes to fruition. The evening's program will include the screening of Lee Boot's documentary of the program's efforts, a presentation by Danielle Drakes, as well as a formal exhibition of the oral histories preserved by the high school students.

As a high school teacher, my goal throughout this internship is to create a series of lesson plans utilizable in the classroom setting. George Lewis, another high school teacher in the Baltimore area, will work with me to develop a comprehensive set of lessons for Social Studies teachers at various levels. Incorporating the Maryland Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for high school students, these lessons will teach the principles of oral history. By teaching students what oral history actually is, as well as its importance to the historical record, these lessons will enable students to conduct and analyze interviews independently.

I am currently unsure of how many lesson plans will account for this series, or if it will even be large enough to constitute a unit plan. Currently, I'm modeling my initial ideas off of Park City Museum and their Oral History Step by Step Guide found at http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html.

Also included in this plan are several online examples from educational institutions such as the Rutgers Oral History Archive, the American Memory program at the Library of Congress, and oral history collections from the Archives of American Art.

In this stage of development, I am also not certain of the appropriate grade level for these oral history lessons. In my research of other online examples, it appears that these lessons can be modified to fit any grade level, from elementary to high school students. Nevertheless, the modifications required to fit these lessons into any classroom will not change the process. By breaking the project into four-to-five manageable parts, students will learn to do the following:

1. Students will learn what oral history actually is

2. Students will examine the significance of oral history to the historical record

3. Students will pinpoint a specific event to study through the lens of oral history

4. Students will conduct oral history interviews using questions they've developed

5. Students will analyze and reflect on their process, including potential errors made during the process.