Celebrate Revolutionary women throughout Women's History Month this March at the Museum. Plan Your Visit

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Upcoming Free Workshops

The Museum is pleased to offer a rotating series of free workshops for educators to support their work in the classroom. Stay tuned for more upcoming 2024 workshops!

A Museum curator views a document on a lightboard with while looking through a large magnifying glass.
Mar 27
 

Signs and Symbols of the American Revolution Teacher Workshop

March 27, 2024, from 7-8:30 p.m.
In this free professional development workshop, educators will encounter specific examples of 18th-century imagery and consider how signs and symbols can be used both as a pathway to historical content and a bridge to the contemporary era.
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Teaching Slavery in the Age of Revolution

A partnership between the Museum and Balliol College (University of Oxford, U.K.)

Balliol College Teaching Transatlantic Slave Trade Teacher Institute Dsc4838

A Multi-Year Professional Development Program

The Museum and Balliol College offered a multi-year teacher professional development program to support educators in the United States and United Kingdom in teaching the significance and impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The program drew upon Balliol College’s 2021 exhibit, Slavery in the Age of Revolution, and the Museum’s rich collection of Revolutionary-era artifacts and educational resources to explore the role of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the industrialization of the West, to uplift the stories of resistance by enslaved people, and to consider the various meanings of freedom and liberty in an age of Enlightenment and political, social, and scientific revolutions.

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Stand-Alone Workshops

The following workshops can be scheduled for your school or district, and can take place on-site at the Museum or at your location. In-museum workshops include access to the core exhibit. Virtual workshops are also available.

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Museum of the American Revolution 

Signs and Symbols of the American Revolution

Students encounters signs and symbols hundreds of times a day; visual imagery is constantly used to communicate ideas, create in-groups and sell products. The same was true in the Revolutionary Era. Through analysis of the images and objects of this time, students can see signs, symbols and other imagery as a language that can be read to understand mid-to-late 18th-century America, while practicing close looking skills, making inferences, substantiating arguments and evaluating multiple perspectives. In this session, educators will encounter specific examples of 18th century imagery and consider how signs and symbols can be used both as a pathway to historical content and a bridge to the contemporary era.

The Deborah and London Tableau figure at the Finding Freedom interactive in the galleries.
 

African Americans in the American Revolution

On the eve of the American Revolution, one-fifth of British North America’s residents were people of African descent. What did their lives look like during the Revolutionary Era, how were they impacted by the Revolution, and how did they themselves shape how the new nation came into being? Teachers will leave this session with both an overview of African American lives during the Revolutionary Era as well as specific resources for incorporating these stories into their classrooms.

A visitor looks at a tableau scene depicting George Washington breaking up a fight among his troops in Harvard Yard.
 

Making the Revolution Relevant

We can all agree that the American Revolution is important for students to learn about, but how do we make the events and ideas of two centuries ago feel relevant in the modern world? Participants in this workshop will engage in targeted exploration of museum galleries or replica artifacts and images, analysis of primary sources and discussion with their peers and museum staff to come up with classroom-focused ideas for meaningfully tying the revolution to the present day.

Customize Your Workshop

With adequate time, we can work with you to design a new workshop that best meets your educators’ needs. For more information, email [email protected].

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Teacher Resource Guides

Use our modular materials – including thematic units, high-quality images, contemporary connections, and provocative questions – to round out your students’ visit.
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Mini Lesson Plans

The Museum offers a growing list of free, downloadable lesson plans that explore topics including the role of museums, types of revolutions, and the people, causes, events, and repercussions of the American Revolution.
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Child and adult browsing the virtual museum tour on their laptop
 

Virtual Distance Learning Programs

Explore the Museum's new and exciting virtual distance learning programs for the new school year and learn how to book yours today.
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