The Palmetto Program will educate 40-50 teachers per year: 20-25 teachers from grades four and five will be selected to participate in an elementary cohort, and 20-25 teachers from grades eight and eleven will be selected to participate in a middle/high cohort. Teachers will be provided with stipends for attending project activities to provide incentive for participation. Teachers will be identified and selected by need, as determined by the school leadership. Each year, cohort teachers will participate in the following three project activities:
Four colloquia days per year. Elementary and middle/high cohorts will come together for two-day colloquiums in Fall and Spring of each year, scheduled to make use of teacher furlough days. These workshops will involve presentation and discussion of historical content by eminent historians, offering opportunities for teachers to delve deeply into the topics.
Ongoing instructional planning/support. Teachers develop and disperse lesson plans based on colloquia content and discussion and share with colleagues at their schools and online. Master teachers will be available to support teachers with lesson planning, as needed.
Summer institute. Teachers will participate in intensive summer institutes that combine historical content, pedagogy, and field studies at historical sites in South Carolina and across the United States. The elementary and middle/high cohorts will each have the opportunity to spend one week per summer learning historical content and instructional methods that are grade level appropriate at local historical sites, while both cohorts will come together for travel study at historical sites outside of South Carolina.
§ Week One: Elementary cohort participates in local summer institute at historic South Carolina sites.
§ Week Two: Elementary and middle/high cohorts participate in field studies outside of South Carolina.
§ Week Three: Middle/high cohort participates in local summer institute at historic South Carolina sites.
Local institutes will be split into morning and afternoon sessions. During morning sessions, historians will present content and facilitate discussion. During the afternoon, specialists from historical sites will guide teachers through the sites and provide resources, and master teachers will offer pedagogy instruction and modeling. By visiting a historical site in the Charleston region each day, The Palmetto Project will introduce teachers to the wealth of local history resources in the local area, provide guidance on how to maximize local history resources, and encourage teachers to take their students on field trips.
Travel studies will be immersive five-day experiences outside of the South Carolina area, coordinated by the Gilder Lehrman Institute. Distinguished historians will present lectures and workshops on topics under study, contextualizing the content within South Carolina’s standards to ensure that teachers can easily connect historical knowledge with what they must teach. Master educators will model how to apply this content in the classroom using effective methods, including primary documents, artifact research, incorporating literature to help young students grasp historical complexity, and learning/digital technologies. Field trips to historic sites, museums and landmarks will supplement teacher learning.
An overview of historical content, sites, and historians for each year is shown below (years four and five are appended). The Palmetto Program will kick off with colloquia that focus on exploring the sesquicentennial observance of the American Civil War to provide teachers with critical historical content and classroom support in a timely and relevant manner. All subsequent content is presented in a chronological format.
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