Kathryn Walbert
Kathryn Walbert holds a Ph.D. in United States History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She directs LEARN NC’s efforts to develop instructor-led and self-guided materials for professional development in a range of topics in United States and North Carolina history. She has developed and taught online courses on “The Civil Rights Movement in Context” and “North Carolina American Indians.” She is also the author of several articles for LEARN NC, including a series on using oral history in the K-12 classroom and “Beyond Black History Month.”
A long-time associate of the Southern Oral History Program, Walbert has been using oral history in her own research and training others in the craft for over ten years. Her doctoral research focused on Southern women, both black and white, who became teachers after the Civil War, and the role of teaching in shaping their identities. From 2001 to 2003, she was an academic skills instructor at Duke University. She now serves as a consultant on U.S. history, oral history, and academic skills to LEARN NC and other organizations.
Resources created by Kathryn Walbert
Records 1–20 of 29 displayed: go to page 1, 2
- The 2004 presidential election in historical context
- Historian William E. Leuchtenburg talks about past presidential elections and how the 2004 election fits or defies precedents.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Alternative discussion formats
- In Alternative discussion formats, page 1
- Formal debates and question-and-answer discussions are great, but these alternative discussion formats will liven up your classroom and get students really thinking.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Alternative discussion formats: A public relations campaign
- By creating a PR campaign for a historial or literary figure, students can practice a wide range of thinking skills.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Alternative discussion formats: History and literature on trial
- Putting historical or literary figures on trial makes a lively and challenging alternative to a class debate.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Alternative discussion formats: Monuments and memorials
- Creating monuments or memorials for historical and literary figures encourages students to think creatively and provides a lively structure for an in-class discussion.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Alternative discussion formats: Museum exhibit design
- Designing museum exhibits encourages students to think creatively and to use a wide range of thinking skills.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Alternative discussion formats: The talk show
- The talk show is a format with which students are already familiar, and it provides the structure for a great discussion.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Beyond Black History Month
- Go beyond approaches that marginalize African American history by "shifting the lens" to look at events from new perspectives.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Common grackle
- This grackle is perched in a dogwood tree. From the side, its yellow eye is visible, and its iridescent blue head feathers and purple wing feathers stand out against the black.
- Format: image/photograph
- Common grackle
- This grackle, black with its metallic blue head feathers barely visible, is perched in a dogwood tree. Its mouth is open, calling.
- Format: image/photograph
- Eastern gray squirrel
- Format: image/photograph
- "A female raid" in 1863: Using newspaper coverage to learn about North Carolina's Civil War homefront
- In this lesson plan, students will use original newspaper coverage to learn about a raid on local stores by Confederate soldier's wives in March 1863 in Salisbury, North Carolina, and use that historical moment to explore conscription, life on the homefront, economic issues facing North Carolina merchants, the challenges of wartime politics, and the role of newspaper editors in shaping public opinion.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 and 11 Social Studies)
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- "For What Is a Mother Responsible?" -- Idealized motherhood vs. the realities of motherhood in antebellum North Carolina
- In this lesson for grade 8, students analyze a newspaper article about motherhood from a North Carolina newspaper in 1845 and compare it to descriptions of motherhood from other contemporary sources. Students will also compare these antebellum descriptions to the modern debates over mothers' roles in American society.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Incorporating oral history into the K–12 curriculum
- Oral history techniques for use with students at all levels, from kindergarten through high school.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Mountain dialect: Reading between the spoken lines
- This lesson plan uses Chapter 13 of Our Southern Highlanders (available online) as a jumping-off point to help students achieve social studies and English language arts objectives while developing an appreciation of the uniqueness of regional speech patterns, the complexities of ethnographic encounter, and the need to interrogate primary sources carefully to identify potential biases and misinformation in them. Historical content includes American slavery, the turn-of-the-century, and the Great Depression.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- The North Carolina mountains in the early 1900s through the writing and photography of Horace Kephart
- Students will develop an understanding of daily life and culture in the mountains of North Carolina during the early 20th century through photographs and written sources; practice visual literacy skills and gain experience analyzing visual and written sources of historical information; and learn to revise their early analyses of historical sources and to synthesize the information found in different kinds of primary documents by planning a museum exhibit.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Oral history and student learning
- Oral history enriches historical knowledge; enhances research, writing, thinking, and interpersonal skills; gives students a connection to the community; and helps all students feel included.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Oral history links and resources
- Guides, tips, lesson plans, and examples of student projects on the web.
- Format: article
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Reading newspapers: Advertisements
- A learner's guide to reading and understanding advertisements in historical newspapers.
- Format: article/learner's guide
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Reading newspapers: Editorial and opinion pieces
- A learner's guide to identifying, reading, and understanding editorial and opinion pieces in historical newspapers.
- Format: article/learner's guide
- By Kathryn Walbert.
