The Monuments Project started as a local project at the American School of Paris in France. The conception and design of the project started in the fall of 2016 with a collaborative conversation between a Middle School and an institution in its community. 8th grade Social Studies Teacher at the American School of Paris (ASP), Thomas Neville met with Gerald Lowe of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). ABMC maintains American military cemeteries abroad, taking care of cemeteries around the world. Sharing an interest in Project-Based Learning, Lowe and Neville began to discuss local possibilities that Neville’s students might research, including both the Suresnes American Cemetery and the Lafayette Escadrilles Memorial, both just down the road from ASP. Suresnes presented the more intriguing possibility as it had more individuals whose stories were less well known. The need to tell these stories presented an authentic, local problem with which to start a project and an institutional partner to drive its meaning for our students. Our project blog and the work documented there testifies to the level of engagement and investment this has yielded from our students.
Neville used a PBL design and planning process developed through work with his THATClass colleague, Patrick Cronin. The process involved starting with the real problem presented by ABMC and Suresnes, then anticipating what the students might Need to Know in order to address that problem. The best way to anticipate and plan for such Need to Knows was to do it himself, to simulate the process. Neville and ASP colleagues visited Suresnes and gathered names from headstones. Neville was then joined in this research process by ASP Theater teacher, Gillian Lynch. Both found fascinating breadcrumbs about their respective soldiers and also hit plenty of walls along the way. Such research entailed not just the use of online databases but outreach to remotely situated archives as well. Together they were sharing successes and failures, insights to what students would experience. By doing this simulation and reflection Neville could begin to design and build the website and the instructional materials in the Briefcase tailored to these Need to Knows, which students would have access to as they undertook the work. The Briefcase would ultimately include not just models, tools, and tips for research but materials for reflection, feedback, and planning as well. The idea was to model methods and mindset and give students space for their own approach to and interpretation of the research (and the mistakes that come in tow). The materials have evolved throughout the project to accommodate evolving notices and needs, with tips and reflections from students in the midst of their work, from colleagues listed below, and also from Neville himself, who has continued, with the usual ups and downs of research, his own pursuit of Homer Ward's story.
Neville’s colleagues in ASP’s Technology, French, and English departments also joined in this iterative stage of planning. Lynch has since been working with a group of her high school students on a verbatim theater piece that they will write about our middle school students researching for this project. Our French teachers will have their students demonstrate their growth in French by using the research they’ve done to write day-in-the-life pieces that give insight into their soldier’s time in France. Our English teacher will allow students to choose a form of writing that is of interest to them for their final assessment, including options like journalistic essays, graphic novels, or conventional histories. Some students from our Upper School App Design class will compete to see who can create a better tool for using location-aware technology and storytelling in cemeteries like Suresnes. And all along the way, our Technology Integrator, Claude Lord has been present to help push the project further in every aspect.
As the second semester started and the project continued to take form Neville read an article posted on the History Relevance Campaign website, highlighting a project sharing similar motivations on connecting students with their communities, researching locally, and sharing it globally with new forms of mapping technology. The article focused on Anthony Rovente, a teacher at Lopez Island Middle High School and his collaborator, Tim Fry. It highlighted their use of technology in teaching history, namely that they started with the world around them and the history that their students wanted to uncover therein. They went so far as to rent an RV and drive around Washington State, having their students research places of interest and then gather them for inclusion on a mobile app. The app allows you to collect points for visiting the locations researched and written about by Lopez students and then use those points for reduced admission to Washington State history museums.
Neville reached out to Rovente and Fry by email. Digitally mapping Suresnes was promising but doing it with an app like the one they used added another dimension. Neville wrote to explore the possibility of collaborating, of merging their respective efforts and approaches. They got back within days. Along with Claude Lord, they Skyped to discuss possibilities for using their respective projects and skills to to push the Monuments Project further. A few things arose from these conversations. First, a collaborative, trans-Atlantic research model took place. Students from ASP are now working alongside students from Lopez to research the 29 Washingtonians buried in Suresnes. Another group from Stuyvesant High School in New York just joined in late spring in an effort to tell the stories of the 291 New Yorkers buried in Suresnes. They are also coordinating with ASP students to research these stories. Additional contributions have been made from independent researchers in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and by a grand-niece of one Suresnes soldier based in Illinois. This collaborative, crowdsourced research process grew beyond Paris quickly and the model has room to grow further.
Another result of this collaboration was the creation of the Monuments Project app. The stories pieced together so far are available on the Monuments Project website and app updated as new evidence is gathered. By exploring those stories at the Suresnes American Cemetery users of the app will be able to collect rewards for engaging with these soldiers’ stories. Claude Lord coordinated with the Musée de la Grande Guerre in Meaux, France to arrange a partnership, which allows those that use our app at Suresnes to enjoy discounted entrance to this museum and its broad collection of history and artifacts from the war.
The Monuments Project started with a real problem, a partnership between a local school and institution in France, and the empowerment of students to take part in addressing that problem accordingly. We are using technology to get students more engaged in their surroundings and for broader collaboration, research, and storytelling, providing them with the opportunity to engage in real work with a lasting, meaningful impact on what we know about the past.
Neville used a PBL design and planning process developed through work with his THATClass colleague, Patrick Cronin. The process involved starting with the real problem presented by ABMC and Suresnes, then anticipating what the students might Need to Know in order to address that problem. The best way to anticipate and plan for such Need to Knows was to do it himself, to simulate the process. Neville and ASP colleagues visited Suresnes and gathered names from headstones. Neville was then joined in this research process by ASP Theater teacher, Gillian Lynch. Both found fascinating breadcrumbs about their respective soldiers and also hit plenty of walls along the way. Such research entailed not just the use of online databases but outreach to remotely situated archives as well. Together they were sharing successes and failures, insights to what students would experience. By doing this simulation and reflection Neville could begin to design and build the website and the instructional materials in the Briefcase tailored to these Need to Knows, which students would have access to as they undertook the work. The Briefcase would ultimately include not just models, tools, and tips for research but materials for reflection, feedback, and planning as well. The idea was to model methods and mindset and give students space for their own approach to and interpretation of the research (and the mistakes that come in tow). The materials have evolved throughout the project to accommodate evolving notices and needs, with tips and reflections from students in the midst of their work, from colleagues listed below, and also from Neville himself, who has continued, with the usual ups and downs of research, his own pursuit of Homer Ward's story.
Neville’s colleagues in ASP’s Technology, French, and English departments also joined in this iterative stage of planning. Lynch has since been working with a group of her high school students on a verbatim theater piece that they will write about our middle school students researching for this project. Our French teachers will have their students demonstrate their growth in French by using the research they’ve done to write day-in-the-life pieces that give insight into their soldier’s time in France. Our English teacher will allow students to choose a form of writing that is of interest to them for their final assessment, including options like journalistic essays, graphic novels, or conventional histories. Some students from our Upper School App Design class will compete to see who can create a better tool for using location-aware technology and storytelling in cemeteries like Suresnes. And all along the way, our Technology Integrator, Claude Lord has been present to help push the project further in every aspect.
As the second semester started and the project continued to take form Neville read an article posted on the History Relevance Campaign website, highlighting a project sharing similar motivations on connecting students with their communities, researching locally, and sharing it globally with new forms of mapping technology. The article focused on Anthony Rovente, a teacher at Lopez Island Middle High School and his collaborator, Tim Fry. It highlighted their use of technology in teaching history, namely that they started with the world around them and the history that their students wanted to uncover therein. They went so far as to rent an RV and drive around Washington State, having their students research places of interest and then gather them for inclusion on a mobile app. The app allows you to collect points for visiting the locations researched and written about by Lopez students and then use those points for reduced admission to Washington State history museums.
Neville reached out to Rovente and Fry by email. Digitally mapping Suresnes was promising but doing it with an app like the one they used added another dimension. Neville wrote to explore the possibility of collaborating, of merging their respective efforts and approaches. They got back within days. Along with Claude Lord, they Skyped to discuss possibilities for using their respective projects and skills to to push the Monuments Project further. A few things arose from these conversations. First, a collaborative, trans-Atlantic research model took place. Students from ASP are now working alongside students from Lopez to research the 29 Washingtonians buried in Suresnes. Another group from Stuyvesant High School in New York just joined in late spring in an effort to tell the stories of the 291 New Yorkers buried in Suresnes. They are also coordinating with ASP students to research these stories. Additional contributions have been made from independent researchers in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and by a grand-niece of one Suresnes soldier based in Illinois. This collaborative, crowdsourced research process grew beyond Paris quickly and the model has room to grow further.
Another result of this collaboration was the creation of the Monuments Project app. The stories pieced together so far are available on the Monuments Project website and app updated as new evidence is gathered. By exploring those stories at the Suresnes American Cemetery users of the app will be able to collect rewards for engaging with these soldiers’ stories. Claude Lord coordinated with the Musée de la Grande Guerre in Meaux, France to arrange a partnership, which allows those that use our app at Suresnes to enjoy discounted entrance to this museum and its broad collection of history and artifacts from the war.
The Monuments Project started with a real problem, a partnership between a local school and institution in France, and the empowerment of students to take part in addressing that problem accordingly. We are using technology to get students more engaged in their surroundings and for broader collaboration, research, and storytelling, providing them with the opportunity to engage in real work with a lasting, meaningful impact on what we know about the past.