Professional Development Workshops for Teachers and Educators

The Newseum’s workshops for teachers present the First Amendment, history and journalism from a fresh, multi-disciplinary perspective and provide resources and strategies so participants can take what they learn into their own classrooms. The standard workshop length is an hour and a half, but groups can also arrange longer programs including interaction with an archivist and/or guided gallery exploration. Expanded resource bags are also available. For more details on options and pricing, or to book a workshop, please call the education reservation line at 202/292-6650 or write to educationprograms@newseum.org.

• Teaching American History Workshops
• Journalism Workshops
• Workshop Components and Costs
• Customized Workshops

Teaching American History Workshops 

Making a Change: The First Amendment and the Civil Rights Movement

This workshop revisits a time period and movement that educators already know well, but poses new questions: How did civil rights activists use the First Amendment to achieve their goals? How did Martin Luther King Jr. harness the power of the news media? Participants view a Newseum-made documentary based on primary sources that invites them to look at the civil rights movement from a different angle and tackle an activity that bridges the gap between social movements then and now. Teachers also receive resources and strategies to bring their new knowledge back to their students.

Teacher grade level: Middle-High School
Capacity: 36 participants in the Learning Center or 50 in the Documentary Theater

Revolutionary Freedoms: The Free Press and the Founding of Our Nation

You think today’s media is partisan and mean-spirited? This workshop travels back to the days before the First Amendment became law to explore the role – and rancor – of the press in colonial America, throughout the Revolutionary War and during the debates over the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Participants look at early American history from a new angle, learning about early conceptions of freedom of press and individual founding fathers’ contributions to the Bill of Rights. They then participate in a hands-on debate over the first significant challenge to the First Amendment: the Alien and Sedition Acts. The workshop ends with the presentation of strategies and resources educators can use in their own classrooms.

Teacher grade level: Middle-High School
Capacity: 36 participants in the Learning Center

The Photographic Revolution: The Ethics and Impact of Seeing the Story

From the horror of the battlefield to the squalor of nineteenth-century New York City, a new witness saw all: the camera. Focusing on the examples of Civil War battlefield photography and Jacob Riis’ investigation into New York tenement conditions, this workshop introduces participants to the logistical and ethical implications created by new technologies and reporting from conflict zones. Educators learn about the guiding principles of ethical journalism, the early history of photography, and the origins of modern war reporting and investigative reporting. Through real life case studies, participants connect historical topics to contemporary issues. They also learn about strategies and resources for teaching with historical newspapers and photographs in their classrooms.

Teacher grade level: Middle-High School
Capacity: 36 participants in the Learning Center or 50 in the Documentary Theater

The First Amendment, Freedom of Press and the Women’s Suffrage Movement

What do you do when the media is ignoring the issues you think are important? When the mainstream press ridiculed or disregarded women fighting for the right to vote, they put their freedom of press into action and started their own newspapers. This workshop provides an overview of the women’s suffrage movement, then looks in depth at examples of three suffrage newspapers. Participants will also analyze how the women’s suffrage movement pioneered our modern concepts of how to exercise the other four First Amendment freedoms. A discussion of strategies and resources gives teachers the tools they need to introduce their students to a new perspective on this movement.

Teacher grade level: Middle-High School
Capacity: 36 participants in the Learning Center

The Press, the Presidency and Political Cartoons

How “real” is the media’s depiction of our nation’s leaders? What tools do presidents use to shape their image? Are political cartoons journalism? In this session, educators will explore how the media shapes our perceptions of the presidency – and how presidents have shaped the message. Participants also debate the role of political cartoons in the media and society and analyze cartoons from throughout this nation’s history, then receive strategies and resources for bringing these topics into their own classrooms.

Teacher grade level: Middle-High School
Capacity: 36 participants in the Learning Center

Reporting the Civil War

See the Civil War through the eyes of the reporters who covered it. As the first American-involved conflict covered by professional journalists, the Civil War marked the birth of modern American war reporting, forever changing the nation’s expectations for wartime news. This workshop explores the technological advances — and corresponding challenges — that shaped the era’s reporting. Discover how the lightning speed of the telegraph revolutionized newspaper coverage of battlefield action and magnified tensions between the press and the military. Learn about the tedious techniques battlefield photographers had to master to capture now-iconic images, and draw connections to modern-day issues as you debate the ethical implications of racing to print the latest scoop on troop positions and strategies. The workshop includes a discussion of resources and strategies for bringing this material into your classrooms. All attendees will receive the Newseum’s Civil War front page battlefield map poster to use with their students.

Teacher grade level: Middle-High School
Capacity: 36 participants in the Learning Center or 50 in the Documentary Theater

Journalism Workshops 

Media Ethics

The press may be free, but is it a free-for-all? Is it OK to clean up a quote or digitally manipulate a photograph? This workshop teaches educators the key principles of ethical journalism. Using real-life case studies, participants debate how to apply these rules, experiencing first-hand the decision-making process that goes on behind-the-scenes in journalism. They receive tools and strategies that will allow them to take these topics back to their students, helping them become more informed media consumers.

Teacher grade level: Middle - High School
Capacity: 36 participants

Judging Fact, Fiction and Everything in Between: Teaching Media Literacy to “Digital Natives”

Is it ever okay to cite Wikipedia? Is plagiarism still wrong if everybody’s doing it? Does it matter who took that photo? From research papers to Facebook profiles, today’s students face questions about the origins, reliability, and attribution of information everywhere they turn. As “digital natives” who’ve been online their whole lives, they have a unique perspective on these issues, but they still need guidance to ask the right questions and find the answers. This workshop introduces teachers to tools they can share with their students to deconstruct the information they encounter online, in print, or on TV. Participants will learn about specific strategies and resources they can bring to their classrooms to foster increased media literacy across subject matters.

Teacher grade level: Elementary - High School
Capacity: 36 participants

Workshop Components and Costs 

Customized Workshops 

Our curriculum developers can work with you to create a customized professional development program to address your specific content and objectives.  Through our unique prisms of learning we are able to address any point in American history or journalism thoroughly and interactively.

To request a customized program, register for a workshop or for more information, please call the education reservation line at 202/292-6650 or write to educationprograms@newseum.org.