Facilitator’s Handbook

This is a draft handbook that can be used by a facilitator to turn this website into a four-week class. This guide is based extensively on the P2PU Learning Circles Facilitator Handbook.

Overview

Supplies for class

• Name tags
• Power strips
• Extra notepads and pens
• Extra laptops
• Snacks

On the Friday before each class

• Send out a reminder email
  • What is the main subject matter we plan on covering this week?
  • How does this week relate to the major goals of the course?
  • What activities this week can be done as a group?

At the beginning of each class

• Share a resource or article that relates to the course content

During each class

• Check-in: The first ten minutes are spent reviewing the past week and sharing goals for the day.
• Activity: Incorporate a 10-15 minute activities that you can facilitate before or after the coursework. These are designed to foster community, build learner confidence, and help to bridge the course content and real life. We recommend you explain the activity to learners and then decide as a group if you’d like to do it. Feel free to come up with your own!
• Coursework: The majority of each session is devoted to working through the coursework for the class.
• Plus/delta: The last five minutes are spent sharing one thing that went well and one thing that learners hope to improve next week.

At the end of each class

“A good facilitator empowers learners to take charge of their own learning, making the role of the facilitator smaller and smaller over time.”

Ask a volunteer to:

• Send a wrap-up email afterwards reflecting on the day’s class

Week 1

1: Before class

• Share readings/videos
• Ask participants to install Zotero

1: Introduction (10 minutes)

• Discuss some of the specific themes of your course, what the learning goals are, what kind of work participants can expect to be doing.
• There are few prerequisites for taking this course: basic digital literacy, a desire to learn, and willingness to work together with your peers.
• We will meet at this time, for 2 hours, for the next 4 weeks. Each week I will send you a reminder about our next meeting and a summary of what we did the week before.
• As a group we can decide if we want to work on the course material outside of the weekly session. (The more work we do, the more progress we will make!)
• There is no one right way to do local history.

1: Questions (5 minutes)

Open the floor to questions from participants.

1: Getting to know each other (15 minutes)

1. Ask: Why did you come to the class? What is an example of an experience when you learned about a historic place in Baltimore or elsewhere? How did that experience affect you?
2. Next: Model an introduction by re-introducing yourself to start. Ask each person to follow with an introduction.
3. Finally: Summarize the experiences and share how you think their experiences contribute to the creation of an inclusive learning community.

1: Understanding the Research Process (45 minutes)

• A draft presentation is available here.

1: Break (10 minutes)

1: Evaluating Sources (25 minutes)

• A draft presentation is available here.

1: Setting expectations (10 minutes)

• Do you want to spend time working on activities as a group? Or working independently?
• Do you want to commit to doing work outside of the weekly session?

1: Plus/Delta (5 minutes)

Ask learners to share one thing that went well for them today, and one thing that they would like to change for next week.

Question: Is this a good place to use Poll Everywhere?

• More on Plus/Delta

Week 2

2: Before class

• Bring an example of writing (your or someone else)
• Install Hypothesis
• Readings?

2: Check-in (10 minutes)

• Recap plus/delta from class 1
• Ask learners to share “what I worked on last week, what I am working on this week, and what I’ll need help on.” (Does this work with larger class sizes?)

2: Goal Setting (20 minutes)

• See p. 31 from the P2PU Learning Circles Facilitator Handbook

2: Writing Past and Place (40 minutes)

• Write a caption activity?

2: Break (10 minutes)

2: Writing Process (35 minutes)

• Should cover:
  • Outline
  • Draft
  • Revise

2: Plus/Delta (5 minutes)

Ask learners to share one thing that went well for them today, and one thing that they would like to change for next week.

Week 3

3: Before class

• Readings:
  •  Clean Up Your Mess: A Guide to Visual Design for Everyone by @nonrecrusive
  • A handy guide to making awesome photos from NPR Editorial Training
• Activity: Find a memory group on social media, share a picture

2: Check-in (10 minutes)

3: Making the Invisible Visible

3: Break (10 minutes)

3: Old Photos, New Photos, and Maps

• Activity with StoryMap

3: Plus/Delta (5 minutes)

Ask learners to share one thing that went well for them today, and one thing that they would like to change for next week.

Week 4

4: Before class

Q: Should the participants get to decide whether this session takes place in the classroom or outside?

4: Check-in (10 minutes)

4: Outreach Online (40 minutes)

4: Break ( 10 minutes)

4: Outreach In-Person (35 minutes)

• Walking Tour

4: Reflection Activity (15 minutes)

When you reach a good stopping point, convene in a circle to share your work and debrief about the experience.

• First: Go around the room and share a victory they’ve achieved. This could be by showing an example of their work or sharing an anecdote.
• Next: Ask learners if there is anything they’d like to keep learning now that the class is over. It could be to continue with coursework they didn’t finish, sign up for a new course in a different subject, or a personal goal like explore new job opportunities in the field.
• Finally: Brainstorm ways to help learners find ways to reach their goals, by continuing to meet with each other, finding new resources, etc.

4: Plus/Delta (5 minutes)

This week is meta — ask learners to share one thing that went well for them over the past 6 weeks, and one thing that they would like to change for the next iteration of Explore Baltimore Heritage 101.

Additional ideas for readings/videos for each week

1: Research

• Why do Old Places Matter? History
• Making Sense of Evidence

2: Writing

• History – The Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill 
• A Brief Guide to Writing the History Paper
• Writing on History at Queens College

3: Visuals

• The Non-Designer’s Design Book (4th Edition) 4th Edition by Robin Williams

4: Outreach

• 9 Types of Local Stories that Cause Engagement

Sample correspondence with participants

Before class 1

In our first class, we are learning more about historical research by considering three big questions:

• How do you ask good research questions?
• How do you search for sources?
• How make sense of the evidence you find?

A few things to watch or read before class

Here are a few optional readings that can help you start thinking about the questions we will tackle together next week:

• What Does It Mean to Think Historically? (2007): A short article on the what Thomas Andrews and Flannery Burke call the ”five C’s of historical thinking”—change over time, causality, context, complexity, and contingency—and how these concepts can help you understand the past. (10 minute read)
• How to Frame a Researchable Question: Putting Boundaries on Your Research (2009): One of a series of useful guides to the research process from a website on Learning Historical Research created by award-winning historian William Cronon and a team of students. (15 minute read)
• The Story of the Sanborn Mapping Company (2008): A short video introduction to the history of Sanborn fire insurance maps and how they are used by historians. Historians always think about who created the sources they are using, how they were created, and why. (6 minute watch)
• Making

Setting up a reference management tool

During class next week, you are going to use your web browser to access to online databases available through the Enoch Pratt Free Library. You can also access many of the same databases through the DC Public Library or Baltimore County Public Library. We put together a list of useful sources in You can also start exploring what sources are available for local history research in Baltimore with our Digital Sources for Local History Directory. You can also find more specialized databases available to patrons at local university libraries or at the National Archives.

Working with online databases is much easier when you use a reference management tool. Reference management tools (also known as citation management tools) can be difficult to learn at first but they it make it much easier to collect and organize sources you find online and offline.

At Baltimore Heritage, we use a free tool called Zotero. Here is how you set it up:

1. Visit zotero.org/download.
2. Download and install Zotero Standalone. Read the Zotero installation instructions for more information.
3. Download and install a Zotero browser extension. Extensions are available for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox web browsers.
4. Register for a free Zotero user account. After you register, update your preferences for Zotero Standalone with your new user name and password to sync your references online.
5. Join the Explore Baltimore Heritage 101 group. Groups are an easy way to share references. You can find readings and other resources in this group.

For a more detailed guide to setting up Zotero, try this getting started guide from Harvard University Library. If you do not like Zotero, one popular free alternative is Mendeley. You can explore other alternatives using this comparison of reference management software on Wikipedia.

---