|
Explore the people, places, and stories that shaped historic Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is much more than a modern metropolis. Its history stretches from the Indigenous communities that lived in the region long before European colonization through the Spanish and Mexican eras, American expansion, immigration, cultural change, and the development of one of the world’s most influential cities. For teachers, Los Angeles provides an extraordinary collection of people, historic places, museums, primary sources, literature, photographs, and stories that can help bring California history into the classroom.
Learn California History Through People and Place
One of the most powerful ways to teach history is to connect large historical events to individual people and actual places. A biography can help students see history through the experiences, decisions, accomplishments, and challenges of a real person, while historic sites provide physical evidence of the world in which those people lived. SOC 903 encourages educators to make those connections while exploring the rich and diverse heritage of Los Angeles.
Biography as a Catalyst for Learning History
Biographies can give students an accessible entry point into historical study. Instead of encountering history only as dates and events, students can examine the lives of people who experienced, influenced, documented, or challenged the world around them. Teachers can use biography to build historical context, develop research skills, analyze perspective, encourage inquiry, and connect individual stories to larger themes in California and American history.
Three Places to Explore
Los Angeles offers countless opportunities for place-based historical learning. Three locations provide especially interesting connections to the themes explored in SOC 903.
La Brea Tar Pits & Museum
The La Brea Tar Pits provide an unusual opportunity to connect Los Angeles history with science, paleontology, geography, environmental change, museums, literature, and research. The site has preserved evidence of Ice Age life beneath the modern city and continues to provide opportunities for scientific investigation.
El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument
Located near the site of Los Angeles’s early pueblo, El Pueblo preserves places and stories connected to the city’s development. Its historic district provides opportunities to examine Indigenous history, the founding of Los Angeles, Spanish and Mexican California, immigration, architecture, commerce, and the diverse communities that contributed to the city.
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
Founded in 1771, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel provides another important connection to the history of the Los Angeles region. Studying the Mission gives educators opportunities to examine Spanish colonization, Indigenous communities, religion, agriculture, migration, cultural encounters, and the relationships between the Mission and the later development of Los Angeles.
Connect History With Digital Learning
Studying history can also provide an opportunity to strengthen the ways students research, organize, interpret, and present information. Digital tools allow teachers and students to combine historical content with images, primary sources, maps, timelines, videos, biographies, and other forms of storytelling. Rather than focusing on technology for its own sake, the goal is to select tools that help students investigate and communicate historical understanding.
Research
Locate reliable historical information, primary sources, photographs, maps, and digital collections.
Curate
Organize books, websites, videos, images, and resources into meaningful collections for teaching and learning.
Create
Transform historical research into biographies, lessons, digital presentations, narratives, and classroom resources.
Questions That Can Drive Inquiry
Who lived in the Los Angeles region before the modern city existed?
How did Spanish, Mexican, and American rule change Los Angeles?
How have immigration and cultural diversity shaped the city?
What can biographies reveal about larger historical events?
How can historic sites, photographs, primary sources, and artifacts help us interpret Los Angeles’s past?
SOC 903
Historic Los Angeles: Reflections on Its Heritage
SOC 903 gives educators an opportunity to explore the people, places, stories, and diverse heritage of Los Angeles while developing instructional resources that can be used with students. The course is completed online through a flexible independent-study format and provides three graduate-level professional development credits through Fresno Pacific University’s Center for Professional Development.
Flexible Independent Study
Complete the course on a schedule that works for you while exploring Los Angeles history and creating meaningful resources for your own classroom.
SAVE $15 ON MY COURSES • USE CODE: WINTER45
Discover the Stories Behind Los Angeles
From Indigenous history and the Spanish mission era to the growth of a diverse modern city, Los Angeles offers countless opportunities for historical inquiry. Connecting biographies, historic places, primary sources, literature, and digital resources can help students see California history as the story of real people living in real places.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Jeromy Winter
Learn more about the History of California by signing up for one of my courses at Fresno Pacific University. 
CategoriesArchives |
RSS Feed