Program of Study

For those interested in taking the course for 3 graduate credits, you may enroll through Castleton University for a fee of $375. Learn more here.

Participants will learn different ways of engaging students in the process of historical inquiry with primary and secondary source documents.
Participants will explore how to utilize historic site resources such as interpretive walking trails, living history exhibits, and museum collections in their existing curricula to meet relevant CCSS and C3 standards.
Participants will learn about the advantages and how to mitigate the challenges of historic place-based education.
Participants will understand how to tie local history topics to broader historical themes and contemporary social issues.
Participants will discover opportunities for team teaching “across” the curriculum with local history subjects and historical inquiry.
Participants will make lasting collegial relationships and pursue mutual peer mentoring partnerships within their workshop cohort.

How do the seemingly contradictory terms of “Freedom and Unity” relate to the Vermont experience during the late 1700s and to the general American experience in 2021?
How do different value systems contribute to social conflicts?
How do we identify the causes and effects of complex historical events?
How should we study and evaluate the past actions of a historical actor?
How can we learn about the everyday experiences of the ordinary person from the past?
What are the processes of historical and archaeological inquiry and how are they related?
How can teachers use place as a learning tool in their classes?
What can be learned by visiting historic sites?
What can we learn from primary and secondary source documents? How do researchers evaluate them?
Why are historic places important to us today?

What is the difference between a rebellion and a revolution?
Who had the right to vote in Colonial American and on what issues? How does this differ from our current voting system?
What was the impact of social conditions and local politics on the choice of “side” during the American Revolution?
Who was Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys and what were their roles in the lead up to the American Revolution?

Chapter 3, “The Lure of the Land: 1763-1807,” from Sherman, Michael, Gene Sessions, and P. Jeffrey Potash. 2004. Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont. Barre, Vt: Vermont Historical Society.
Selections from Martin, Joseph Plumb. 1962. Private Yankee Doodle Being a Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier. First Edition. Boston: Little Brown & Co.
Chapter 2 from Bennett, David. 2014. A Few Lawless Vagabonds: Ethan Allen, the Republic of Vermont, and the American Revolution. Havertown, PA: Casemate.

What makes certain places strategically important at different historic moments?
What can we learn by visiting a historic place or accessing a museum collection?
Why does some history go untaught – and how can we teach “difficult” history?
Who was Benedict Arnold and how did he clash with the Green Mountain Boys?
What were the northern and naval theaters of the Revolutionary War?

Champlain: The Lake Between documentary
Part IV “Revolutionary War” from Bellico, Russell P. 1999. Chronicles of Lake Champlain: Journeys in War and Peace. Fleischmanns, N.Y: Purple Mountain Pr. Quebec
Excerpts from Gabriel, Michael P., and S. Pascale Vergereau-Dewey, eds. 2005. Quebec During the American Invasion, 1775-1776: The Journal of Francois Baby, Gabriel Taschereau, and Jenkin Williams. Annotated edition edition. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
Excerpts from Lefkowitz, Arthur S. 2008. Benedict Arnold’s Army: The 1775 American Invasion of Canada During the Revolutionary War. New York, NY ; El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie.

Tale of Two Gunboats video
Chapters 7 and 9 from Bellico, Russell P. 2001. Sails and Steam in the Mountains: A Maritime and Military History of Lake George and Lake Champlain. Revised edition. Fleischmanns, N.Y: Purple Mountain Pr Ltd.
Sample Teacher Guide (provided by LCMM to participants)
Excerpts from Nelson, James L. 2006. Benedict Arnold’s Navy : The Ragtag Fleet That Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain but Won the American Revolution. Camden, Maine : International Marine/McGraw-Hill.

What was the significance of Mount Independence to the war?
What were soldiers’ lives like while living at Mount Independence?
How can archaeological inquiry complement historical research?
How do historians apply critical thinking skills to assess primary sources and eyewitness reports of historic events?
Why is it important to protect historic sites like Mount Independence and the Hubbardton Battlefield?

Starbuck, D. 1994. “Archaeology at Mount Independence: An Introduction,” The Journal of Vermont Archaeology. 1(115-126).
Wickman, Donald H., and Gary Zaboly. 2017. Strong Ground: Mount Independence and the American Revolution. Orwell, Vt.: Mount Independence Coalition.
Williams, John. 2002. The Battle of Hubbardton: The American Rebels Stem the Tide. 2nd ed. Rutland: The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation.
Duling, Ennis. 2010. “Thomas Anburey at the Battle of Hubbardton: How a Fraudulent Source Misled Historians.” Vermont History 78 (1): 1–14.

Chapters 14 and 15 from Randall, Willard Sterne. 2012. Ethan Allen: His Life and Times. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
Excerpts from Searls, Paul M. 2006. Two Vermonts: Geography and Identity, 1865-1910. UPNE.
Hendricks, N. 1966. A New Look at the Ratification of the Vermont Constitution, 1777. Vermont Historical Society Journal, 136-140.
Excerpts from Sheinkin, Steve. 2013. The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery. Reprint edition. Square Fish.