Promoting U.S. History

Project SMASH (Striving to Make All Students Historians) will focus on intensive and extensive professional development for 40 elementary, middle, and high school teachers in 14 low-income, rural districts in Oklahoma. 

The goals of Project SMASH are to improve the quality and results of teaching American history as a separate subject matter in the 14 rural districts; to improve 40 grade 5, 8, and high school teachers' skills in integrating content knowledge of American history with effective, engaging teaching strategies; to increase teachers' application of Oklahoma's PASS and national standards to classroom teaching; and to develop and disseminate a sustainable and effective model for collaboration in improving the teaching of traditional American history as a separate subject. 

This SMASH Web Site provides numerous, unique services which will move the SMASH Project forward to successful completion, including continous professional development support and dissemination beyond the life of the grant. Following is a description of these web-based services.  

The Planning SMASH Section provides access to:

• Real-time calendar of SMASH events. Events may include PD schedules, due dates for content, or events with linked curriculum activities for students to conduct on specific dates to facilitate comparison of local historical resources such as narratives, photographs, or videos.
• Discussion board in which participating teachers from the 14 school districts and the facilitators from the collaborating institutions can discuss concerns, share resources, and build community across the project.
• List of contact information for all participants including teachers and facilitators.  

The Data Section provides teacher access to their respective district's:

• State-mandated student testing data 2005 through 2008. Additional years will be available as the data becomes available. This data is available in the form of dynamically generated tables, charts, and reports based on desired disaggregated fields in a matter of seconds. At any given moment throughout the project, teachers have access to these reports allowing them to make grounded data-driven decisions on curriculum development and focused application of their PD experiences.

The SMASH PD Section provides teachers and facilitators real-time access to:

• Focused PD resources including calendars, curriculum, images, video, and multimedia files.
• Workshop materials upon completion of the PD activities.
• Workshop evaluations or surveys by teachers.
• Showcase materials developed by teachers or facilitators.

The American Lessons Section provides teachers and facilitators real-time access to:

• American History curriculum lessons and lesson plans developed online in ALCA's form-based curriculum development environment.