Dear Educators,

We are pleased to present this adventurous and rich online curriculum to accompany “The Making of Milwaukee” (MOM) produced by Milwaukee Public Television. This curriculum is for use at in grades 5-12 and is especially flexible.

The MOM curriculum is organized within six historical themes that align with “The Making of Milwaukee” Video Chapter Series. Each historical theme includes numerous learning activities that can be used as single lessons or as part of an ongoing investigation of Milwaukee History. John Gurda’s book by the same title is the primary print reference for the curriculum.

Learning activities within each theme include:

• Invitational Activities: Stimulate student thinking, curiosity, and imagination about themes in the chapter lessons before viewing the Making of Milwaukee Video Chapter(s).
• Essential Questions: Overarching questions that connect the learning activities to “BIG Ideas,” or larger questions of history and the human experience.
• Key Concepts and Vocabulary: Investigate key ideas in the historical curriculum and help students place new vocabulary in an historical context.
• DVD Response Activities: Provide a variety of activities to engage students in exploring and learning the content after viewing the Video Chapter(s).
• Then and Now Activities: Make a direct link between history and students’ current lives. Encourage them to explore connections between the past and present.
• Learning Outside the Classroom Activities: Connect classroom learning to learning opportunities in the Milwaukee community.
• Milwaukee Trivia Activities: Quickly check student knowledge about Milwaukee facts and knowledge.
• Timeline Activities: Help students contextualize the lessons into the larger timeframe of Milwaukee History.
• Discussion Questions: Probe students’ understanding about the content of the Video Chapter.
• Wisconsin Model Academic Standards: Quickly identify the pertinent standards taught in each lesson.

This web site also presents resources for student involvement:

Click here to explore a detailed Milwaukee Time Line, engaging interactive Newspaper and Scrapbook Writing activities, Maps, Milwaukee Trivia, Who am I?, and Then and Now activities.

The Image Library takes you to an extensive collection of Milwaukee photos for use in Interactive Lessons and other activities.

We are pleased to present these lessons to teachers who seek flexible, classroom-tested curriculum materials about Milwaukee’s colorful history. We hope that you will find this curriculum creative, useful and relevant to what you teach, and to the way that you teach.

Original Making of Milwaukee Curriculum Committee: (2006-2007)
Beverly Cross, Curriculum Committee Chair, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Glen Allen, Milwaukee Public Schools
John DeRose, Whitefish Bay Schools Linda Tiezzi Waldera, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee