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 41–59 of 59 displayed: go to page 1, 2, 3
- The Indian Removal Act of 1830
- In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 10.5
- Act of Congress, passed in 1830, authorizing President Andrew Jackson to transfer Eastern Indian tribes to the territories west of the Mississippi River. Includes historical commentary.
- Format: legislation
- Commentary and sidebar notes by Kathryn Walbert, L. Maren Wood, and David Walbert.
- Life in the mill villages
- In North Carolina in the New South, page 3.3
- By 1900, more than nine-tenths of textile workers lived in villages owned by the companies that employed them. Mill villages included stores, churches, and schools, but workers found ways to avoid too much dependence on their employers.
- Format: article
- By James Leloudis and Kathryn Walbert.
- Life on the land: The Piedmont before industrialization
- In North Carolina in the New South, page 1.1
- In the decades after the Civil War, commercial agriculture and industry made their way into the North Carolina Piedmont, requiring subsistence farmers to adapt their farms and their ways of life to new economic realities.
- Format: article
- By James Leloudis and Kathryn Walbert.
- Mountain dialect: Reading between the spoken lines
- This lesson plan uses Chapter 13 of Our Southern Highlanders 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
- In Oral history in the classroom, page 2
- 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
- In Oral history in the classroom, page 6
- 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.
- Reading newspapers: Factual reporting
- This learner's guide introduces students to the use of historical newspapers as primary sources and provides key questions for reading them.
- Format: article/learner's guide
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Reading newspapers: Reader contributions
- A learner's guide to reading letters to the editor and other reader contributions in historical newspapers.
- Format: article/learner's guide
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Reading primary sources: An introduction for students
- A step-by-step guide for students examining primary sources, with specific questions divided into five layers of questioning.
- Format: article/learner's guide
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Teaching about slavery through newspaper advertisements
- In this lesson for grades 8 and 11, students will analyze a selection of advertisements related to slavery from an 1837 newspaper in order to enhance their understanding of antebellum North Carolina, U.S. history, and the history of American slavery.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 and 11 Social Studies)
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Teaching about Thanksgiving
- Resources and activities to help you bring historical accuracy, cultural sensitivity, and a broader context to discussions about the quintessentially American holiday.
- Format: article
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Ten questions for planning an oral history project
- In Oral history in the classroom, page 4
- Plan ahead to avoid frustration and to ensure that your students get as much as possible out of an oral history project.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- The value of oral history
- In Oral history in the classroom, page 1
- Why use oral history with your students? Oral history has benefits that no other historical source provides.
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- White-throated sparrow
- This white-throated sparrow is perched on a small branch of a tree.
- Format: image/photograph
- White-throated sparrow
- This white-throated sparrow is perched on a small branch of a tree. The white and yellow feathers on the side of its head, as well as its white throat and belly, are visible.
- Format: image/photograph
- Work in a textile mill
- In North Carolina in the New South, page 3.1
- Article describes the various kinds of work in a textile mill, the experiences of millhands in and out of the mills, and what various workers earned.
- Format: article
- By James Leloudis and Kathryn Walbert.
