First Curriculum Based on Primary Sources

Callan WellsIn the Special Collections department at Georgia State University, we appreciate the value of primary source materials as tools for teaching – not just our own students, but also those in K-12 classrooms. We regularly employ graduate students to create lesson plans that can be freely used and adapted by teachers across the state and beyond.

In the fall of 2012, Callan Wells became the first Graduate Research Assistant to be hired from the School of Education to create curricula for the Women and Gender Collections. Her initial curriculum, “Silenced Voices: Understanding Domestic Violence Through Primary Sources,” was designed for 9th and 10th graders. It challenges students to think about a difficult issue, while at the same time teaching them about civic life and empowerment. The collections that Callan used to support the curriculum included the Power of Women Clothesline Project, and the records of the Georgia Commission on Family Violence. Callan graduated in 2014 and she currently works for Georgia Legal Services Program (GLSP).

silenced-voices

Other curriculum can be found at our department’s Lesson Plan portal: http://library.gsu.edu/search-collections/lesson-plans/.

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