CHARLES REDD CENTER TEACHING WESTERN HISTORY AWARD
The Western History Association and the Charles Redd Center are sponsoring four K-12 Teaching awards that will provide teachers the opportunity to attend and present at the Western History Association Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, October 23-27, 2024. Selected teachers will share their lesson plans and teaching strategies at panels during the conference.
The Award includes the following: conference registration, award ceremony ticket, ticket to the opening reception, and $1,000 towards conference-related costs. An added benefit is the opportunity to be in conversation with leading scholars in the field of Western history, with your lesson ideas and pedagogical expertise adding significantly to the field.
Application materials must include the following (please email to each committee member listed below):
One-page resume
Short statement (one page) of how winning the award will benefit you and your students
Lesson Plan (any grade level K-12) on the North American West pertaining to the 2024 conference theme, “Free Soil? Migration, Dispossession, and Rising Up on Contested Ground.” (We consider the North American West to include northern Mexico and western Canada as well as the western United States.)
-2024 Awards Cycle opens January 15, 2024
-2024 Award Submission Deadline: August 1, 2024
The WHA office sends notifications to selected award recipients at the end of August.
Conference Theme:
The WHA 2024 conference theme is “Free Soil? Migration, Dispossession, and Rising Up on Contested Ground.”
As you consider lesson plan development you may consider what preconceived notions students bring to the study of western history, how you challenge and complicate student thinking on these subjects, and what innovative approaches can best be employed to encourage students to look at western history in new ways.
How do you present the North American West to your students and strive to reflect the broad horizons that encompass the histories of the region? What teaching strategies are most effective when teaching the American West? What primary sources work well in your lessons?
The lesson plan must include examples of Active Learning and Assessment and be factually correct. Include a bibliography of materials and sources used to create the lesson and reference any historical scholarship upon which the lesson is based.
*All applicants for the award consent to the Western History Association and the Charles Redd Center posting winning lessons on their websites and other publications. Your work will remain your own and you will be given credit in any digital or print reproductions of your work.
CHARLES REDD CENTER TEACHING WESTERN HISTORY AWARD
2023
Molly Dettmann, Norman Public Schools
Emma Dudrick, University of Notre Dame Alliance for Catholic Education Teaching Fellows
Kathleen Miller, St. Turibius School
2022 Liam Concannon, Notre Dame Academy Matthew Todd Gragg, Capitol Hill High School
2021 Colleena Bibeau, Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Collin Gortner, St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School Sean James, Gesu Catholic School Taylor Still, St. Therese Catholic School
2020
Katie Ward, St. John Paul II Catholic School
Sandra Garcia, Theodore Roosevelt Middle School
Alexander Hernandez, Cristo Rey High School
Katherine Wiedenhoft, Annunciation Catholic School
2019
Alex Barr, Connelly School of the Holy Child
Laura Fenerty, Holy Trinity School
Sandra Garcia, Theodore Roosevelt Middle School
Noël Ingram, DaVinci Communications High School
2018
Joshua Dempsey, St. John the Baptist Catholic School, Milpitas, California
Jonathan Shulman, La Jolla Country Day School, La Jolla, California
Carol Warren, Gila River Community Public Schools, Sacaton, Arizona
Cherry Whipple, Austin High School, Austin, Texas
2017
Liam Concannon,Saint Martin de Porres Academy, New Haven, Connecticut
Kelly Griffith, Guadalupe Regional Middle School, Brownsville, Texas
Porsia Tunzi, La Reina High School and Middle School, Thousand Oaks, California
Helen M. Vassilou, Adena Elementary School, West Chester Township, Ohio
2016
Brendan Bell, Cristo Rey High School, Sacramento, California
Ruth Ferris, Washington Elementary School, Billings, Montana
Donna Moore and Dalton Savage, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma
2015
Peter Prindiville, St. Patrick Catholic High School, Biloxi, Mississippi
2014
Heather Penrod and Diane Wilson, Reseda High School, Los Angeles
Michael Kennedy, Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School, Montebello, Los Angeles
Mitch Askew, Flagstaff High School, Flagstaff, Arizona, and Molly Golden, Alpine Leadership Academy at Mount Elden Middle School, Flagstaff, Arizona
2013
Edel Mooney
Mark Johnson, Concordia International School Shanghai
Heather Penrod and Diane Wilson, Reseda High School, Los Angeles
Daniel Thele
2012
Meaghan Crowley, St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy, Rockaway Beach, New York, "Native Americans: An Integrated Elementary Lesson"
Mark Johnson, Concordia International School Shanghai, "'His Death Avenged!:' Empowering Students as Historians to Understand the Chinese Experience in the American West"
Kevin Kimberly, Holy Names of Jesus and Mary Catholic School, Memphis, Tennessee, "America Expands West: Development or Intrusion?"
Karie Lynch, Westlake High School, Westlake Village, California, "Women of the 19th Century Prairie"
The WHA is located in the Department of History at the University of Kansas. The WHA is grateful to KU's History Department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for their generous support!