Ask a Historian: Bennett Sherry

Bennett Sherry , thanks for fielding our questions! 

I love a good "maptivity." Can you give us any insight on what the future might hold for activities that blend history and geography?

Anne Koschmider Thanks for posting my favorite sort of question! And the good news is, there's lots of exciting stuff lined up for OER Project maps in the coming year. 

In the short term, we have a Maps and Geography topic page that will be loaded very soon. This will be your one-stop shop for all things OER Project and geography. You can see the other topic pages here: https://www.oerproject.com/Topics 

We also have 10 new global political maps ready and in the process of being added to the site. These cover some important years, including 476, 1789, 1815, 1920, and 1939.

In the mid-term, we're working on a totally new collection of thematic regional maps that we think will be especially useful integrations to our lesson. (So, as always, feel free to chime in with any requests!)

In the longer term--maptivities. We removed these in response to teacher feedback about their complexity. We're working on a plan for replacing these sorts of geography activities with sleeker, more manageable materials. In the meantime, however, I'm working on collecting all the old maptivities into a single, easily accessible pdf, which will be posted on the new Maps and Geography page. Until then, teachers can still access all the old maptivities in the first and last lessons of each unit in our Google Drive course archive:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xpOAj-fqhEDtO9CSjEhe46bw82srEEGj

And of course, while you wait, you should definitely check out the new geography activity progression in Big History, many of which could easily work in a world history classroom! 

Bennett Sherry I’m glad to see that maps will play a stronger role in learning history, as historical events are deeply influenced by geography, and geography is often shaped by those events in turn.

I would love to see refugee stories included in our courses—is that one of the goals for the future? I also wonder about human rights, particularly in connection with colonization, imperialism, decolonization, and neocolonialism. Are there plans to incorporate these themes as well?

This is a great question, Laura! I will say that we're thinking about the Unit 9s of OER Project: World History a little differently these days. We want to make sure that this unit in particular is flexible and responsive to what students are seeing in the world around them. This is the key unit, in some ways, for all flavors of world history. It's the unit where we hope to drive home the idea of usable history--that all the stuff about Romans and Mongols and revolutions can help them understand the present and prepare for the future. So, the idea is that we will routinely update and rework the materials in this unit to help students make those connections. 

For human rights, keep an eye on the community, our blog, and our social media channels in May, when we'll be featuring some new content. But May is a long time away. For now, lesson 9.5 "Global Communities" provides an overview of the ways that globalization, rights, and international communities have intersected in the last century.

And your callout on refugees is a good one. Our AP Unit 9.6 "Globalized Culture after 1900" does a good job introducing refugees and migration. But I think you're right that we need to do a much better job of covering issues of forced migration, economic migration, and environmental refugees in our content for Unit 9. These issues are only going to become more prominent in the coming years and decades. For now, we do have an article on refugee history and two graphic biographies that are relevant here.

And please, don't hesitate to reach out with any requests or recommendations. I would love to hear any and all ideas about how we can make content around migration and human rights relevant to your students!

Bennett Sherry I’m excited about the plans, they look excellent. I’ll be exploring the unit on Globalized Culture to see what changes I might add for Big History.

I’d also like to share with you and the community that I’ve used the graphic biography on Islam Alhashel during student trips to both Jordan and Greece. In each case, I incorporated the issue of refugees and used the biography in both before and during the trip. While in Jordan, we interviewed a Syrian refugee I’ve stayed in touch with. My students even organized fundraising events (bake sales and jewelry making) which they sold at the school fair and online to support her.

I also interviewed her via Zoom for my AP Human Geography class and for a club I sponsor.

These stories are always powerful, but they become especially meaningful when students can connect real case studies to the content they learn in school. Here are some photos to illustrate.

 Laura Massa This is so cool! Have you written about this experience in the community? I want to hear more about student responses to this project! Becca Horowitz This might be a cool story to highlight in May in the lead-up to the Samuel Moyn event. 

 Bennett SherryI mentioned something earlier in this thread, but I also traveled with my students to other countries where we connected with refugees and organizations addressing the refugee crisis. For example, in Greece we held a session with an NGO and several experts on migration and geopolitics. Back to my school, I lead a women's empowerment club, and my students organized events to raise money for one of the refugees as well as for indigenous girls in Guatemala, a school we visited and built relationships with their community.

Anne Koschmider I wanted to let you know that the Geography and Maps Topic Page is now up! https://www.oerproject.com/topics/maps 

Excellent, thank you!

I could use a lesson/map /video for Israel in unit 9.  Seems like that would fit into the list you and Laura discussed.  Any expertise in that arena?