The APUSH Student-Produced Local History Blog Post

One way to get students to learn about their local history and better understand how that local history connects to the history taught in their US History course.

A few years ago, at a National Social Studies Teachers Conference (NCSS), I heard about the book Teaching Local History in Grades 6–12.

In this book, the author, social studies teacher Robert Stevens, claims that “there is a renaissance occurring in American history classrooms: teachers have discovered that local history offers students not only far richer content and more enjoyable learning experiences, but also a unique insight into our national character. And they can even address social studies standards.”

Though I have no way of knowing whether Stevens’ “renaissance” claim is accurate, I believe that the teaching of local history can provide students with several wonderful learning opportunities.

One way that I, since hearing about Professor Stevens’ book, have tried to get my students to learn about their local history is to increasingly call upon my students to produce a 750–1000 word Local History Blog Post.

STEP #1

I teach the course chronologically. Then, I periodically provide my students with several Local History Blog templates . . . five of which can be found below . . . with the title of each template appearing in bold and with that titled-template embedded with a link to the template:

The Inkwell (Santa Monica’s Segregated Beach)
For this Local History Blog Post, the students begin with a description of what they have learned in class about the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality.”

Then the students describe “The Inkwell,” a popular and segregated beach for African Americans located twenty-nine miles from the students’ school. The blog post closes out with a description of how the city of San Monica, on February 7, 2008, officially recognized the “Inkwell.”

The Mission San Gabriel Uprising of 1785
For this Local History Blog Post, the students begin by detailing what they have learned in class about the Pueblo Revolt.

Then the students describe the Mission San Gabriel Uprising of 1785, a Tongva (Native American) led uprising the took place two miles from the students’ school. The blog post closes out with a description of the 2020 San Gabriel Mission Fire, a massive fire that destroyed the mission’s 249-year-old wooden roof and much of its interior.

The Angels Flight Railroad
For this Local History Blog Post, the students begin by detailing what they have learned in class about the Golden Age of Railroad (1869–1910).

Then the students describe the Angels Flight Railroad, a narrow-gauge cable-operated (funicular) railroad built-in 1901 during the Age of Railroad, serviced the Bunker Hill district of Downtown Los Angeles, and was located fourteen miles from the students’ school. The blog post closes out with a description of the Angels Flight Railroad today.

The DTLA Ford Factory
For this Local History Blog Post, the students begin with a description of what they have learned in class about the Ford Model T . . . the first affordable automobile.

Then the students describe the Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) Ford Factory, a Ford Model T making factory built in 1913 and located thirteen miles from the students’ school. The blog post closes out with a description of how Warner Music in 2019 turned this former Ford assembly plant into a “music factory.”

The Tongva of the San Gabriel Valley
For this Local History Blog Post, the students begin with a description of what they have learned in class about the Wampanoag, a loose confederation of several Native American tribes that lived in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island at the time of first contact with the English colonists.

Then the students describe the “Tongva,” a Native American people who lived in 50 to 100 settlements throughout present-day Los Angeles and Orange counties at the time of first contact with the Spanish, with one Tongva village having been located less than two miles from where the students’ go to school. The blog post closes out with a description of the Tongva today, with this description based on what the students have learned while interviewing a Whittier College history professor and expert on the Tongva.

STEP #2

I tell my students that they need not work with any of the templates I provide. In other words, they may go off on their own, and in fact, over the course of the past year, they have, with a few good examples appearing below:

• The Role that JPL Played in the Creation of America’s First Satellite (after having learned about the Cold War)
• Knott’s Berry Farm: California’s First Amusement Park: (after having learned about the urbanization of America in the 1920s)
• The 1871 Chinese Massacre — The Worst Lynching in U.S. History (after having learned about anti-Chinese sentiment in America during the 1800s)
• The First-Ever Los Angeles Dodger Home Game (after having learned about the Golden Age of Baseball)
• The Santa Anita Train Station (after having learned about the American Golden Age of Railroad)
• The Huntington Mansion (after having learned about the Gilded Age)
• The Construction of the Griffith Park Observatory (after having learned about the Works Project Administration of the Great Depression)
• Bootlegging and Rum Running in the South Bay (after having learned about Prohibition)

STEP #3

I provide students with time in class to produce their blog posts. I also periodically assess the students’ progress, giving them chance after chance to improve the quality of the work.

CONCLUSION

Generally speaking, my students have much enjoyed working on this project. They also seem to have learned much about history, both local history and North America's history as a whole. But with this assignment, more than anything, they’ve increasingly come to understand how their local history connects to the history taught in my US History course.

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Standards for the English Language Arts

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization and analysis of relevant content.
• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
• Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

• Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reExplain how information and experiences may be interpreted by people from diverse cultures, perspectives, and frames of reference.
• Analyze and explain the ways groups, societies, and cultures address human needs and concerns