Open Letter to Educators Regarding Changes to the Memorial's Curriculum-based Education Program Offerings for the 2010-2011 School Year.
September 1, 2010
Dear Educator,
In 2009, the Northeast Regional (NER) Office of the National Park Service presented Roger Williams National Memorial with the opportunity to revise Travels with Roger, a classroom-based education program that had been offered by the park for over 20 years. Working with Maryann Zujewski, a park ranger at Lowell National Historical Park and the Tsongas Industrial History Center, a partner of Lowell National Historical Park, under the direction of Elizabeth Hoermann, NER Program Manager for Partnerships and Program Development, the memorial’s interpretation and education staff created a new interactive, classroom-based program about Roger Williams that is rooted in current framework standards and in line with National Park Service (NPS) standards for curriculum-based education programs.
Launching in January of 2011, the new Rhode Island GSE- and GLE-based education program, Roger Williams: Champion of Religious Freedom, will introduce 4th grade students to Roger Williams and his struggles in early Colonial New England to establish a refuge for religious freedom. The interactive, hands-on program includes objects, visual materials, and a unit of student activities integrating historical fiction and language arts skills with history and social studies content.
Also being rolled out in 2011 is another new education program, Postcards from Your National Parks, which introduces 2nd and 3rd graders to over 150 units in the National Park system. In the Postcards program, developed by now-retired Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor park ranger Suzanne Buchanan, students become “history detectives” by using primary resources to learn about the various NPS designations, each park’s natural and/or cultural resources, and what each park offers in terms of a visitor experience.
Reservations for the Travels with Roger program will only be taken for the fall of 2010. You may book this program by calling the park starting September 1st. In December of 2010, we will begin accepting reservations for the Roger Williams: Champion of Religious Freedom program and the Postcards from Your National Parks program for the remainder of the 2010-2011 school year. If you have any questions regarding these two new programs and how they fit into your classroom curriculum, I am be happy to schedule an appointment to meet with you. I can be reached by telephone at 401-521-7266 or by email at sparkle_bryant@nps.gov.
Sincerely,
Sparkle Bryant
Park Ranger/Education Program Coordinator
