My Brother Sam is Dead Google Map

Just posted an update Google Map showing and explaining locations relating to My Brother Sam is Dead.

This is the looooooooooong link is anyone what to link to it:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=107420212148602668064.00044a37cf9951628b5a8&ll=41.321976,-73.376741&spn=0.040932,0.090723&z=14


The Complete Guide to the Novel is now available in Word Format: My Brother Sam is Dead Guide 

Upcoming Events

TEACHERHOSTEL™ - 2009

The British Invasion of 1777: The Ride of Sybil Ludington™

Date: May 16-17, 2009
Location: Danbury, Ridgefield, Westport
Contact Hours: 15
Cutoff Date: April 16, 2009
Cost: $145

Relive the ride of the teenage girl (Sybil Ludington)who succeeded during a dark and stormy night to rally the militia to assembly at the home of her father after the British burning of Danbury in 1777. Participants will retrace the steps of the invasion from the landing in Westport, to the burning of Danbury, to the ride of Sybil, to the battle at Ridgefield. The story will be told from the English and American perspectives along with the effort to uncover the truth that had been hidden among primary source documents for so long while false statements were copied from one erroneous report to another. Her story will entertain you as it informs you. Includes one book, one map, one T-shirt and curriculum materials.

Saturday (9:00-5:00) Westport and Fairfield
Westport Town Hall
9:00 Welcome and Program Overview: Peter Feinman, IHARE
9:15 The British Are Coming: British Strategy to Reconquer the Colonies: Ray Raymond, USMA and SUNY
10:30 Westport Walking Tour, Susan Gold, Westport Historical Society and Allen Raymond, Westport Municipal Historian

Westport Historical Society
11:30 The British Are Coming: A Reader’s Theater Experience, Hilary Gibson, Education Director, Westport Historical Society
12:30 Lunch
1:30 The British Invasion Bus Tour: Allen Raymond
3:00 The British Are Coming: The Fairfield Experience, Walter Matis, Educator, Fairfield Museum and History Center

Sunday (9:00-5:00)
Danbury Historical Society
9:00 The Burning of Danbury, Brigid Guertin, Danbury Historical Society
11:00 The Ride of Sybil Ludington, Vin Dacquino, author of Sybil Ludington: Call to Arms
12:00 General Tryon Danbury to Ridgefield Self Guided Drive

Ridgefield
12:30 Lunch: Dimitri’s Diner
1:30 Museum in the Streets Walking Tour, Kay Ables, Ridgefield Town Historian
2:30 The Battle of Ridgefield: George Hancock, Keeler Tavern Museum Tour
3:30 Tom Castrovinci, Re-enactor Connecticut 5th
4:00 My Brother Sam Is Dead: Teaching the British Invasion of 1777 - Brent Colley, Redding historic tours

For further information contact IHARE at 914-933-0440 or email us at: info@ihare.org

Using Historical Fiction in the Classroom Teaching Programs

Using Historical Fiction in the Classroom Teaching Programs

This Spring/Summer I will be hosting a number of My Brother Sam is Dead Teaching Programs in Southwestern Connecticut. In these programs I will be providing information about the topics and issues My Brother Sam is Dead explores and how both teachers and students can benefit from its usage in the classroom. CD's containing all my material, maps and photos will be available at these events.

Event #1:

TEACHERHOSTEL™ - 2009
The British Invasion of 1777: The Ride of Sybil Ludington™ Date: May 16-17, 2009
Location: Danbury, Ridgefield, Westport
Cutoff Date for Registration: April 14, 2009
Cost: $145

My portion of the program is at 4PM in Ridgefield's Keeler Tavern Museum:
4:00PM My Brother Sam Is Dead: Teaching the British Invasion of 1777

Event #2:

Putnam Park School Days- May, 2009
My Brother Sam is Dead, Fact vs. Fiction
Date: May 18-21, 2009
Location: Putnam State Park, Redding, CT
Cutoff Date for Registration: April 14, 2009


9:30 AM to 2:00PM My Brother Sam Is Dead: Fact vs. Fiction, learn about the real events that were fictionalized in the novel. This event is for students and teachers. In addition to this presentation we will have camp activities, re-enactors and craftsman on hand all day to educate schools about the park and the time period it was occupied.

Contact Nancy Cowles for information and sign-up.

Event #3:

Putnam Park Filmfest- Summer 2009
See the Film Version of My Brother Sam is Dead at Putnam Park
Date: TBA
Location: Putnam State Park, Redding, CT
Cutoff Date for Registration: TBA


Come watch the film, My Brother Sam is Dead, under the stars at Putnam Park! A very unique opportunity to view this rare film at the very encampment General Putnam's troops were stationed.

Contact Brent Colley if you are interested in signing-up. We have not set a date for this yet and are open to suggestions.

Teaching with My Brother Sam is Dead

Using Primary Sources to highlight events and issues in the novel.

My Brother Sam is Dead, Chapter 12:

Tim narrating: "He looked thin and tired. There were black circles under his eyes and his uniform was torn in about six places. He'd lost his belt and was wearing a piece of rope around his waist, and his hat wasn't an army hat but just an ordinary fur cap."

The description of Sam is an accurate portrayal of a Patriot soldier in the fall of 1778; Each soldier was supposed to be provided with one uniform for the entire year and thus after twelve months of marching and fighting these uniforms were well worn and raggedy.

In 1778, the troops from Connecticut, did not receive uniforms (nor blankets!) prior to their arrival in Redding.

Petition of the Connecticut Soldiers in the Revolutionary Army, to His Excellency, Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut. Captain Nathaniel Webb's Orderly Book, Camp Reading, Dec. 27, 1778.

"They have may it please your Excellency been promised a Blanket, & other Clothing annually from ye Continent & a Blanket from ye State every year, for each non-commissioned Officer & Soldier, those Promises have not been complied with, so far from it, that although we have not, one half ye Quota of Men this State was to raise, we assure you not less than four hundred are to this Day totally destitute, & no one has received two Blankets according to Contract, nor has more than one half of the Clothing promises ever been received or any compensation made for ye deficiency, that when they have Coats they are without Breeches, & when they are supplied with Shoes, they have neither Stockings nor Shirts, & at this Inclement Season many of our Men are suffering for want of Blankets, Shirts, Breeches, Shoes & Stockings, & some are destitute of Coats & Waistcoats."

Using Primary Sources you can really bring these issues to life for students and spark their interest in finding more examples of what is factual in this and other historical fiction novels.

For example, by exploring the year 1778 you will find it was a pivotal point in the Revolution:

In Congress, 27th May, 1778 : Establishment of the American Army. This new Army was made official in November of 1778...the same month Sam Meeker and his Regiment arrive in Redding. View primary source on this topic: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/bdsdcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(bdsdcc04901))
In addition, France and America Become Allies in 1778. France and America formed an alliance, negotiated by Benjamin Franklin, stating that each would consider the other a "most favored nation" for trade and friendship; France would be obligated to fight for American independence; and America would be obligated to stand by France if war should occur between France and Great Britain. Within four months, France and Great Britain were at war. Spain would join France a year later. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/alliance.html

These alliances were very important to the success of the Patriots in their fight for independence. The alliances gave the American Army- soldiers, clothing, weapons, ammunition, naval support, etc... A great angle to explore this topic is researching Jean Baptiste Rochambeau's involvement in the war. http://www.americanrevolution.com/JeanBaptisteRochambeau.htm The Library of Congress Rochambeau map collection is amazing: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/rochambeau-maps/ Rochambeau's troops marched from Rhode Island to Eastern New York where they met Washington and his troops...they all then marched to Virginia!! That in itself is amazing when you consider it takes 12+ hours in a car to drive that distance.

Classroom Activities:
View a timeline of events and key developments during the time period My Brother Sam is Dead covers (1775-1779): http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/continental/timelin2.html

Using the Library of Congress you can show students examples from each year of the war. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/NewNation.html

These Library of Congress documents allow you to highlight key events and key people involved in the Revolution. I would suggest going one step further and exploring local sources (if you live on the East Coast) to bring the war down to a more personal level. Soldiers diaries are a great source, town records recorded in that period are another. If you don't live in an area directly related to the Revolution, I'd suggest reading Joseph Martin Plumb "Yankee Doodle Boy" edited by George F. Scheer.

Also, having just finished 1776 by David McCullough, I'd highly recommend reading it or listening to it. It is a great book that highlights the time period most of My Brother Sam is Dead focuses on. A must read for teachers in my opinion.

Using Historical Fiction in the Classroom

This week while sorting and categorizing my "favorites list" I found a link to an article I had saved years ago that contains a wealth of information about Historical Fiction and how it can help you excite students about history.

This is a great article that explains what Historical Fiction is and how it can be used in the Classroom. Below I've posted tid-bits that stood out to me, below that is a link to the full article:

The writer of good historical fiction recreates the past with an immediacy neither expository history nor pure fiction can achieve alone. Good historical fiction must not only be good history, but must also be good literature. The historical novelist presents the reader with characters caught up in a conflict and builds his narrative from historical details. As the reader becomes involved with the characters and story line, he begins to absorb the historical data and begins to recognize the many human qualities of the character . Gradually the characters become real to the reader and the reader begins to “root” for this character if he or she is being treated unjustly. The reader might question in his own mind the need for law or government to protect this character’s individual rights.

And, at this moment, the reader is unconsciously using his cognitive ability to sort and group these historical details; he compares them to his own society, and begins to discern the differences in the historical period he is reading about and to compare it to his society today. If the historical novelist accomplishes this kind of reader involvement, he has made some impact on the reader’s conscience. He has made the reader think, consider, discover, and, most important, begin to realize the importance and usefulness of studying history. He has, of course, as his central purpose, also described and explained some significant historical tendency.

The writer of good historical fiction is aware of the various interpretations of the same period of history and, if he is sophisticated about the historiographic view, he will integrate historiography in his novel. James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, authors of My Brother Sam Is Dead, attempt to deal with the histoiographic dimension in this novel. They include the Whig, Progressive, and Imperialist interpretations of the American Revolution within the framework of the novel. The Whig interpretation is that the American Revolution was justified because of the tyranny of George III against the colonists. The Americans were patriots who organized to fight for freedom. This historiographic view is expressed through the character of Sam, the hero of the novel...

When the history teacher brings this kind of fiction into the classroom he is providing the student with another understanding of the past. The historical novel uses imaginative and figurative language to entice students into a historical exploration. The character and drama interact with past events in such a way as to involve the student in a study of the past on an emotional level as well aa a cognitive level. This student involvement is a logical reason why history teachers should be persuaded to use historical fiction.

Once students become immersed in the novel’s setting, character, plot and theme, they become interested and stimulated by the novel’s story. They begin to draw inferences while reading the novel, about geography, governmental organization, religious beliefs, social attitudes manner of dress, types of food, size of towns or cities, modes of transportation, distribution of wealth, social classes, and laws. They begin to absorb the historical details in the novel without even realizing they are being instructed. In contrast, if these same historical facts were presented in a textbook and the teacher asked the students to memorize or know them, it is likely that little information would be retained by many students.

The events become more significant because the students must understand them in order to understand the novel. Students retain the historical information more easily because it has been understood within the context of the plot, character, setting and theme of the novel. Students begin to consider the relevancy of this segment of the past in relation to the society they live in. The students begin to see how a study of the past helps them to understand the present.

The impact of a historical novel on students cannot be minimized. The range of their imagination and understanding can be broadened. If they respond to a good historical novel, they might be motivated to research the novelist’s use of historical data. They begin to discern the novelist’s biases and they might decide to search for historical data to support or contradict the point of view expressed by the author...

Most students like a good story, a story with excitement, adventure and challenge; if a historical novel is well written, it includes these elements and more. The “more” is historical accuracy in detail and theme, the necessary elements of a meaningful historical exploration through fiction. The conflicts of men and women in history become real to the student because these men and women can be presented in their human dimension. They are mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, who are caught up in a particular event. Their defeats and successes evoke an emotional response from readers. This response is the draws students into the world of the past and embues his perspective with an historical dimension. The historical figures emerge as human beings responding to a human condition in the context of history.

The history teacher can devise numerous strategies and techniques for sifting the fact and the fiction. The historical clues may be picked out by students who see textbook history spring to life in historical fiction. Students can become experts or “nitpickers” about the writer’s use of historical data and the exercise can be stimulating for class discussion. Reference sources for checking the accuracy of historical data include encyclopedias, almanacs, biographical dictionaries, dictionaries of history, serious local and national histories, and numerous other readily available sources. Students may check school and town libraries as well as local historical societies and the state library. Primary source materials are often available locally in church records, deeds, wills, probate records in town halls, local cemeteries, local tax lists, federal census, town meeting records, old maps, letters and diaries, sermons, industrial records, local newspapers and elders who have resided in a community for a long time...

Read the Full article which includes Guidelines and Strategies for using Historical Fiction in the Classroom. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/cthistory/81.ch.10.x.html

My Brother Sam is Dead Web Site

As we enter the new year I'm happy to announce I've created a sub-directory site at the History of Redding focused on helping teachers and students better understand the novel, My Brother Sam is Dead. My hope is that more school systems (country-wide) will add it to their curriculums in 2009.

Over the holidays, I realized I had so much My Brother Sam is Dead information wedged in between my Redding history pages that it was becoming difficult to navigate the My Brother Sam is Dead pages. The new format should solve that and will allow me to add more information in a more organized fashion.

http://mybrothersamisdead.historyofredding.com

Constructive comments and feedback are welcome.
Brent