A Gathering of Symbols. Texas History in the Hall of State

Dallas, TX: Dallas Historical Society Hall of State, 1986. Second printing. Spiral bound. VG (cover sunned all else excellent). Purple plastic spiral binding with monochrome illustration on cover. 96 pp. Bw illustrations. Ephemera laid-in. Designed for history teachers of students in grades 4-7 and for museum educators, this teacher's manual interprets art and objects in the Hall of State (Dallas) within the context of the Texas history curriculum. Although the guide focuses specifically on Texas history and the Hall of State, it can be used as a model for museum and school educators in other states. The manual is based on positive findings from a 1982-83 research project in which a collaboration of school and museum educators demonstrated that children learn to a significant degree during a museum field-study experience when it is planned as an integral part of a curriculum unit. Following an abstract of the research project, an interpretative narrative explains the architecture and murals in the Hall of State. Pre- and post-visit learning activities, correlating with "State Board of Education Rules for Curriculum," include a number of reproducible games, crossword puzzles, data retrieval worksheets, and fact sheets. Five interdisciplinary lesson plans for students in grades 4-5 focus on vocabulary development, map skills, data retrieval, oral language development, and interpretation of visual images. Instructional activities for grade 7 focus on symbols, people in Texas history, geographic areas, events that influence the course of history, and heroes and heroines. Three reproducible student handouts, "Texarcana Smith in the Temple of Mysteries, ""Archaeological Dig Discovery Game," and "Lone Star Trivia," are followed by an answer key and bibliography.