STAR SPANGLED WRITING IN SOCIAL STUDIES Banner waving ways to teach it all JoAnn Wood, Literacy/Social Studies Consultant

Our EQ’s today: How can we stitch together the three text types in writing with what we need to learn in social studies? How can primary sources make thinking and writing deeper and more authentic?

All artifact images were found at: The excellent site on the Star-Spangled Banner at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History includes all of the images used today AND much more of the history of the battle, the flag, and the national anthem. There are features here that you could use with students from grades K-5. Hope you find something useful!!! NOTE: The artifact pictures slides have been removed from this ppt so cut the memory demands. All of those images may be found at the site above.

How do you fit these into your day? Common Core Writing Standards Social Studies Standards

Examine the artifacts and think about how writing tasks could be fashioned around them. Opinion Informative/explanatory Narrative

Making the Flag In the summer of 1813, Mary Pickersgill (1776–1857) was contracted to sew two flags for Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. The one that became the Star-Spangled Banner was a 30 x 42–foot garrison flag; the other was a 17 x 25–foot storm flag for use in inclement weather. Pickersgill, a thirty-seven-year-old widow, was an experienced maker of ships’ colors and signal flags. She filled orders for many of the military and merchant ships that sailed into Baltimore’s busy port. Helping Pickersgill make the flags were her thirteen-year-old daughter Caroline; nieces Eliza Young (thirteen) and Margaret Young (fifteen); and a thirteen-year-old African American indentured servant, Grace Wisher. Pickersgill’s elderly mother, Rebecca Young, from whom she had learned flagmaking, may have helped as well. Pickersgill and her assistants spent about seven weeks making the two flags. They assembled the blue canton and the red and white stripes of the flag by piecing together strips of loosely woven English wool bunting that were only 12 or 18 inches wide.

The earliest known manuscript of Francis Scott Key’s song, written in September 14 – 16, Francis Scott Key was a gifted amateur poet. Inspired by the sight of the American flag flying over Fort McHenry the morning after the bombardment, he scribbled the initial verse of his song on the back of a letter. Back in Baltimore, he completed the four verses and copied them onto a sheet of paper, probably making more than one copy. A local printer issued the new song as a broadside. Shortly afterward, two Baltimore newspapers published it, and by mid-October it had appeared in at least seventeen other papers in cities up and down the East Coast.

Amelia Fowler and Team Preserving the Flag in the Smithsonian Castle In 1914 the Smithsonian hired Amelia Fowler, a professional flag restorer, to preserve the flag. With a team of needlewomen, she sewed the flag to a linen backing using a uniform network of stitches.

National Museum of American History, 1989 When the new Museum of History and Technology (now NMAH) opened in 1964, the Star-Spangled Banner was featured in the central Flag Hall where it remained for over 30 years.

In order to remove the linen backing, the conservators first removed the web of approximately 1.7 million stitches that had held it in place since They used tweezers to grasp each stitch and small clippers to cut the thread where it pierced the flag. Then, lifting the released end of the stitch, they clipped the other end. They then lifted the clipped stitch away.

The conservation team began treating the flag by removing the linen support backing that was attached in Over the years, this support had weakened and become soiled.

The flag was moved to a new specially-built conservation lab Museum visitors observed the conservation process through a 50-foot (15.2-m)- long glass wall. A moveable bridge (gantry) gave the conservation team a working surface above the flag. The lab was equipped with its own heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC) that kept the air free of contaminants and maintained a steady temperature and humidity.

O say can you see…there are MANY ways to integrate writing into Social Studies? There are also MANY opportunities to use primary sources in our teaching and learning. So here’s a quick refresher on primary sources

A primary source is: Raw material of history – original documents and objects written or created at the time under study May be objects or documents Helps students develop historical understanding Promotes critical thinking and analysis. Gives them something real about which to write Using a primary source:

Possible primary sources... Photographs, drawings, or paintings Documents Coins or paper money Artifacts Flags Maps Journals

Today we are going to draft a writing task that: * includes one or more social studies standards. * includes a writing standard –narrative, informative, or opinion writing. * suggests a primary source that might connect with the task.

Writing Task Directions Step 1: Pick a Social Studies standard to work with and read it thoroughly. Talk about what the standard is asking students to know, understand, and be able to do. Step 2: Read through the writing standards and brainstorm with your partner/group at least one way to connect each type of writing to the Social Studies standard in Step 1. Choose one to elaborate on if you have time. Step 3: Brainstorm one or more primary sources you might be able to blend into the task you thought of in step 2. Step 4: Be ready to share your ideas.

Our flag is ordered to fly 24/7 at Ft. McHenry today, and is changed out every afternoon. Hope you’ve flagged some great ideas for writing in social studies today.

Give me a star and a stripe: On the index card: Star – Something you learned or an idea sparked by today’s workshop so far. Stripe – Any other feedback for me.