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Todd
Langworthy
08
Project
Summary
Forestville Central School
Historical topics with greatest depth of
expertise: Civil War, World War I, local history
Cushing
Memorial Civil War Camp Project
1. General Overview of the Proposed
Project:
This project is a Civil War
Reenactor Camp, held at Fredonia High School and open to students in
grades 7,8,11 as space is available. This is the 4th
year for the camp, which has seen visits by students from Cassadaga,
Jamestown, Randolph, Fredonia, Forestville, Clymer, Sherman and
Ripley school districts. Each school has a complete schedule for the
day, which includes the students visiting 6-8 stations at the camp.
Schools that attend the camp also receive a Civil War Teaching kit,
which includes the videos “Gettysburg” and “The Most Daring Mission
of the Civil War” as well as a large assortment of Civil War related
activities on a CD-ROM. The TAH funding is used for the supplies for
the kits, as well as a stipend to conduct the camp and prepare the
kits.
2. Clear Purpose and Objective:
The purpose of the camp is
to provide students with a chance to experience a real Civil War
reenactor camp, where they can interact with both soldiers and
civilians to learn more about the war. Teachers will be able to
explain the various stations to their students after the visit and
use the provided kit to help explain the war in a different light.
3. Stakeholders: grade level, who will
benefit, who will participate in this project.
Both students and teachers will
benefit from the visit to the camp. Students will get a hands-on
experience to examine artifacts at each station and interact with
reenactors. Teachers will learn more details about the war at each
station and learn how to use the provided teaching kit to enhance
their curriculum related to the war.
4. U.S. History Content Area
Pre-Civil War Period, the War
Years and Reconstruction
5. Outline Describing Content
1. Circumstances leading to the war – both
sides
2. The outbreak of war and its
meaning to individuals
3. The life of a soldier during
the war
4. Life at home during the war –
civilians
5. Returning home after the war
6. The country after the war
6. Software to be used, internet
materials, contacts, etc.
Materials to be used are included
in the teaching kit as described above.
7. Level of Student Involvement
Students are directly involved by
visiting the camp and interacting with the reenactors. Students will
also be involved by being able to utilize materials in the teaching
kit afterwards.
8. Evaluation process (include students
when possible)
Teachers will be given a survey to
complete regarding their visit to the camp, asking for positives and
negatives of their visit. This will be used to add to the stations
based on what the students and teachers want.
9. Timeline: how you envision the
project being carried out between start up and conclusion
Jan-Feb: Register schools that wish to attend
with students.
Feb-Apr: Gather info from schools who will
attend regarding number of students, arrival and departure times and
any special needs.
May: Send out camp schedule to each school for
their visit – address any changes that may need to be made.
10. Comments or Questions:
This is the fourth year for
the camp, which has grown each year. It is a wonderful opportunity
for students to learn from experts in a particular area and teachers
to gain a wider understanding of the Civil War period. The teaching
kit also provides teachers with a wonderful resource that they may
use to enhance their teaching of the war and better serve the needs
of the students.
Cushing Memorial Civil War Camp
June 5, 2009
Hosted by: Fredonia High School
Todd Langworthy – Camp Coordinator
Report
The camp was attended by students
from four school districts including: Jamestown, Forestville,
Cassadaga and Randolph. The total number of students visiting the
stations for the day was approximately 435. All of the schools that
attended this year have attended in the past, so we did not need to
prepare any new teaching kits for attendees.
The eight stations that were
visited by students were: 1) Artillery, 2) Life of a Soldier, 3)
Women of the Civil War Era, 4) Civil War Medicine and 5) Alonzo
Cushing of Fredonia, 6) Abolitionists, 7) The Confederacy and 8)
Civil War Music. The presenters at the stations were Cushing’s
Battery Reenactment Group, Reenactor Joe Bolivard and Pomfret Town
Historian Todd Langworthy. Students spent 30 minutes at each
station to hear the presentation and ask questions. Presenters at
the stations focused on explaining how their information fit into
the overall scheme of the war.
Schools began arriving at 8:15 AM,
with the schedule for each school ending between 1:00 and 2:00 PM to
allow for travel back to their district for dismissal. Schools were
also given the choice to take their lunch break and eat on the
school grounds with a bag lunch they brought, or visit one of the
many fast food restaurants in the immediate area.
This year we focused on Middle
School students, which seems to be a much better age group for our
camp. The change saw an increase in the enthusiasm of the students,
which resulted in livelier discussions between the students and the
reenactors. We also added new stations based on the interests
described by teachers in the past: Abolitionists and Music. We plan
to continue to add to the number of stations available based on the
feedback we receive from teachers every year. It is our goal to have
a continuously evolving group of stations that make students
anticipate coming to the camp and seeing something new that others
have not seen in the past. The artillery station is a constant, as
every student seems to enjoy the firing demonstration !
The camp was a major success,
based on feedback from the schools involved this year. We plan to
continue to focus on Middle School students, as we believe we have
found our best audience. We’d love to attract more students, but we
are not sure what more can be done to contact area teachers. We have
sent out numerous emails through TAH, as well as individual schools
in an attempt to bring more students in. Hopefully, the word will
spread and we will have even more students attend next year.
Respectfully submitted,
Todd Langworthy
Camp Coordinator
The 3rd Annual Cushing Memorial Civil War Camp will be held on
Friday June 6th in Fredonia
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