National Humanities Center – Toolbox Library

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• Learn more about African Americans, American history, art, inquiry learning, and literature.

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“The National Humanities Center’s Toolbox Library provides free access to historical documents, literary texts, works of art, discussion questions, and teaching strategies online. Teachers, collaborating with local college or university professors, can use these resources to create their own interdisciplinary summer seminars in American history and literature. The toolboxes are built around content common to standards across the country. Easy to organize and cost-effective, toolbox seminars fit into crowded calendars and tight budgets.Teachers and professors custom design a seminar syllabus by choosing texts from toolbox resources and by contributing their own selections. Once the syllabus is complete, the participants access readings through the toolbox and explore them in a seminar that combines content study with the development of teaching strategies.”

K-12 teachers, collaborating with local college or university professors, can create their own interdisciplinary summer seminars in American history and literature. Together, they will build a seminar syllabus by choosing texts from a toolbox’s resource menus and may also contribute their own text selections. Seminar participants access their readings through the toolbox and explore them in a local five-day program that combines seminar study with the development of teaching strategies. “The use of these toolboxes is intended to enrich existing unit plans by increasing the amount of primary document analysis in them. They are also designed to promote seminar-style, inquiry-based teaching.”

The Toolbox Library currently has 11 selections from which to choose:American Beginnings: The European Presence in North America, 1492-1690, The Making of African American Identity: Volume I, 1500-1865, Becoming American:The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763, Making the Revolution: America, 1763-1789, Living the Revolution: America, 1789-1820, The Triumphof Nationalism/The House Dividing: America, 1815-1850, The Unresolved Crisis: America, 1850-1870, The Making of African American Identity: Volume II, 1865-1917, The Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870-1912, The Making of African American Identity: Volume III, 1917-1968, Becoming Modern: America, 1918-1929.

Each toolbox is divided into topics. For instance, the toolbox “Living the Revolution: America, 1789-1820″ is divided into five topic areas: Predicaments in Early Republican Life, Religion, Politics, Expansion, and Equality. Each of these have topic framing questions which help direct a discussion. Online resources and reading guides are provided which support each topic. All of these elements help the educator decide what they want to include in their seminar syllabus. In addition, a timeline of the period, a checklist of suggested texts, and seminar suggestions are provided.