Northern Complicity in Slavery & Racial Identity Development:

How to Teach Our Complex History

A Workshop for Rhode Island Middle and High School Educators

Founded in 2009, the Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery builds on the work of Ebb Pod Productions, which produced the award-winning documentary film, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North.  This fall the Tracing Center presents a series of special workshops for Rhode Island educators on the role of the North in slavery. Aligned with the state’s Civic Standards, the workshops’ content knowledge about Rhode Island’s, and the region’s, complicity in slavery and the slave trade, as well as tools for how to effectively and sensitively teach the subject matter to students of all backgrounds. The teaching of slavery is an opportunity to work with all students in their racial identity formation, their race relations in schools & neighborhoods, and their leadership/civic skills development.

Participants will leave the workshop with new resources in two areas:

1)      New historical content:

2)      New pedagogical strategies that will help students:

The workshops are conveniently located in three counties to make them more accessible to all Rhode Island teachers.  All workshops will cover the same content information, but include a visit to a different local historic site (except Kent County workshop, which will be supplemented with the presentation of additional primary sources).  Attendees can earn Professional Development Credits through the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The workshops align with the following GSEs for the teaching of Civics/Government and Historical Perspectives/Rhode Island History: C&G 2 (9-12) 2.c;  C&G 5 (7-8) 2.b; C&G 5 (7-8) 1.a; HP 1 (7-8) 1.b; HP 1 (9-12) 1.a, 1.b, 1.c; HP 2 (7-8) 1.c; HP 2 (7-8) 2.b; and HP 3 (7-8) 2.b.

The workshops are offered free of charge, lunch included.  You may attend the one in your county, or choose one in another region to explore new resources.

Fall 2010 Rhode Island Teacher Workshops:

October 23: North Kingstown Free Library/Smith’s Castle, N. Kingstown, 9:30am-4:30pm

November 6: Aldrich House/Brown House, RI Historical Society, Providence, 9:30am-4:30pm

November 13: Rogers Free Library and Linden Place, Bristol, 9:30am-4:30pm

(Bristol County, Massachusetts educators are welcome to join the November 13th workshop in Bristol, R.I.)

(Please note the new date for the Bristol workshop.)

Register Now.

Send registration forms and questions to Kristin Gallas at .

Funded by Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, 2010 Humanities Grant for Civics Education Workshop presented in partnership with the Rhode Island Historical Society.


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