Making Americans, Making America (MAMA)

Community, Citizenship, and the Constitution

Local and regional narratives of indigenous peoples and successive waves of immigrants collectively constitute the grand narratives of our shared national past. They reveal and instruct how pioneers and refugees become citizens, how citizens create communities, and how communities are governed by constitutions that give voice to the people’s political will. They make American History of vital relevance to students who learn to build connections between the histories of their pioneering ancestors and those of our founding fathers, between the creation of their local communities and of our modern American democracy.

"Making Americans, Making America" helps teachers and their students master traditional American history by bringing together the histories of the original inhabitants and the many immigrant groups of Wisconsin with the study of citizenship, community and their connections to the Wisconsin and U.S. Constitution. “Making Americans, Making America” incorporates the professional development guidelines of The Center for Education Policy by focusing on: a) mastery of content aligned to the standards; b) collective work; c) active learning; and d) the development of ongoing support and resources. At the core of this program are over 40 teachers, grades 4-12, from eight Cooperative Educational Service Agencies [CESAs] covering Northern and Western Wisconsin. They commit to a three-year fellowship program. During this three-year program, these mentor teachers:

• Earn up to 15 graduate credits by taking three intensive summer institutes, each focused on different groups and eras in Wisconsin and American history in alignment with WI History Standards;
• Create project-based lesson plans to implement in their classrooms;
• Receive training from historians and museum professionals in how to identify and interpret primary sources in their own districts;
• Work collectively to organize graduate-level regional workshops during the school year to mentor their colleagues, thereby disseminating the content they master in the program;
• Participate in a program assessment that evaluates its efficacy through the use of quasi-experimental design.

Additional teachers in grades 4-12 participate each year in regional workshops (2 weekend workshops per series) held in the individual CESAs during the school year. These regional workshops disseminate the content covered in the preceding summer institutes, develop educational networks to meet teachers’ specific needs in that region, and promote active learning strategies using primary sources and local historical resources.

“Making Americans, Making America” has been created by a consortium of eight across northern and western Wisconsin (incorporating 227 districts with a combined enrollment of 304,371 students) working in collaboration with the following partners:

• The History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UW-EC)
• The UW-EC Center for History Teaching and Learning
• The Chippewa Valley Museum

Although “Making Americans, Making America” is designed to address the specific needs of Wisconsin’s teachers and their students, its approach could easily be adapted by educators in a variety of settings.

[The contents of this web site were developed under a grant from the Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.]