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Making a Difference: Individuals in Connecticut History

Published on January 4, 2022

by Rebecca Furer for Teach It

TEACHER'S SNAPSHOT

Topics:
African Americans, Art, Asian Americans, Children, Civil Rights, Education, Environment, Health & Medicine, Historic Preservation, Individuals in History, Migration, Native/Indigenous Peoples, Politics & Government, Puerto Ricans, Slavery & Abolition, Social Movements, Voting & Suffrage, Women

Themes:
Cultural Diversity and Connecticut State Identity

Town:
Canaan, Hartford, Norfolk, Old Lyme, Uncasville, West Hartford

Grade:
Grade 3


Historical Background

How can one person change their community, their state, their country, or the world for the better? This activity explores this question and the significance of Connecticut’s contribution to America’s story through mini biographies of eight individuals from Connecticut history. Because these are not the “most famous” people from Connecticut’s history, this activity gives students the chance to think about how “regular” people can make a difference and why some people are remembered while others are not. In order of birth date, the individuals highlighted are:

  • Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851, Educator)
  • James Mars (1790-1880, Writer & Community Leader)
  • Yung Wing (1828-1912, Educator)
  • Caroline Maria Hewins (1846-1926, Librarian)
  • Mary Townsend Seymour (1873-1957, Community Leader & Suffragist)
  • Gladys Tantaquidgeon (1899-2005, Medicine Woman & Cultural Preservationist)
  • Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996, Artist & Conservationist)
  • Maria Colón Sánchez (1926-1989, Community Leader & Politician)

D1: Potential Compelling Question

What is the significance of Connecticut’s contribution to America’s story?

D1: POTENTIAL SUPPORTING QUESTIONS

  • How can one person change their community, their state, their country, or the world for the better?
  • In what ways are people remembered/celebrated in our community or state?
  • Why are some people remembered and others not?

D2: TOOL KIT

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet Biography

Image courtesy: University of Toronto Library, digitized by the Internet Archive

View Biography

James Mars Biography

Image courtesy: Connecticut Historical Society

View Biography

Yung Wing Biography

Image courtesy: Connecticut Historical Society

View Biography

Caroline Maria Hewins Biography

Image courtesy: Hartford Public Library

View Biography

Mary Townsend Seymour Biography

Image courtesy: Hartford Courant Sunday Magazine, Sunday, September 14, 1952

 

View Biography

Gladys Tantaquidgeon Biography

Image courtesy: National Museum of the American Indian

View Biography

Roger Tory Peterson Biography

Image courtesy: David Hosking/FLPA

View Biography

Maria Colón Sánchez Biography

Image courtesy: Hartford Public Library

View Biography

D3: INQUIRY ACTIVITY

1. As a class, discuss ways that individuals can contribute in a positive way to their community or the larger world. Compile a list. What are some things students can do to make a difference?

2. Explain that students will be reading short biographies of people from Connecticut’s past who worked to make things better in their communities and beyond. Review the key elements of a biography, if that is something you have been exploring in class.

3. Decide if you want to break the class into small groups and assign one biography to each, or if you would like the students to read several or all of the biographies over several days.

4. As students read the biographies, encourage them to circle, underline, or highlight unfamiliar vocabulary words and then look up their definitions or try to figure out their meanings from context clues. As they read, students should pull out details about each individual:

  • When and where did this person live?
  • What, if anything, do we know about this person’s childhood?
  • What kind of work did this person do?
  • What words would best describe this person?
  • How did this person make a positive change in their community?

5. If students are working in groups, have them discuss their findings together and then share with the other groups. If students are all reading the same biographies, discuss their findings as a class.

6. Discuss some ways that people are honored or remembered in our community or in our state. How would students suggest honoring or remembering each of these individuals from Connecticut’s past?

D4: COMMUNICATING CONCLUSIONS

  • Students will research a person from their own community (or from Connecticut in general) and create a poster or presentation including some background information and highlighting the type of positive change this person made in their community/state/nation/world. Teachers can decide whether to focus on historical or living/contemporary individuals. For some suggestions for historic figures, visit the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame website: cwhf.org/explore-inductees or ConnecticutHistory.org: connecticuthistory.org/people/.
  • Students will design a monument/memorial to one of the people highlighted in this activity and then write a paragraph explaining why it looks the way it does, what different elements represent, etc.
  • Students will complete a graphic organizer of your choice (Venn diagram, double bubble, etc.) comparing and contrasting two or more of the individuals studied.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Place to GO

Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme

Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Hartford

Hempsted Houses, New London

Mark Twain House, Hartford

Nathan Hale Homestead, Coventry

Prudence Crandall Museum, Canterbury

Strong-Howard House, Windsor Historical Society

Site of one of Connecticut’s “Witness Stones”

Sites on the Connecticut Freedom Trail


Things To DO

Have students compile a list of streets, buildings, parks, etc. in their own town that are named after people. How many of these people are familiar to them (e.g. George Washington)? How many more can they identify with additional research?


Websites to VISIT

Witness Stones Project

Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame

Mary & Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community


Articles to READ

ConnecticutHistory.org:

  • “Gallaudet’s Vision Advances Deaf Education” by Emily E. Gifford
  • “James Mars’ Words Illuminate the Cruelty of Slavery in New England” by Peter P. Hinks
  • “Yung Wing’s Dream: The Chinese Educational Mission, 1872-1881” by Barbara Austen
  • “The Public Library Movement: Caroline Hewins Makes Room for Young Readers” by Susan Aller
  • “Medicine Woman Gladys Tantaquidgeon and Mohegan Cultural Renewal”
  • “Artist Roger Tory Peterson, a Champion for the Natural World” by Steve Grant
  • “Maria Sánchez, State Representative and Community Advocate”

“Audacious Alliance: Mary Townsend Seymour” by Mark H. Jones. Connecticut Explored, Summer 2003.


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