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The Mark Twain Museum is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Mark Twain Creative Teaching Awards: Grand Prize: Dana Thompson, New Smyrna Beach Middle School, New Smyrna Beach, FL
Mark Twain: His Life and Works (School-wide Unit) 1st Prize, Elementary: Laurie Robinett and Susan J. Snyder, Cary Junior High School, Cary, IL
The Prince and the Pauper (Unit suitable for elementary and middle/junior high levels) 1st Prize, Middle: Barbara Adair, New Smyrna Beach Middle School, New Smyrna Beach, FL
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Unit suitable for middle/junior high and elementary school levels) 1st Prize, High School: Clark Beim-Esche, The Principia School, St. Louis, MO
The Mark Twain Project (AP Literature and Composition) Honorable Mention, Scott J. Peters, Gifted Education Resource Institute, Purdue University, West Lafatette, IN
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Unit suitable for multiple grade levels) The grand and first prize winners are invited to Hannibal, Missouri to accept their awards during National Tom Sawyer Days. Thank you to everyone for submitting lesson plans for consideration. And it's not too early to begin thinking about the 2009 Mark Twain Creative Teaching Awards! New!
Planning a field trip to the museum properties? We have designed a hands-on, minds-on Scavenger Hunt of knowledge for your students. This scavenger hunt provides an opportunity for your students to collaborate on teams as they interact with exhibits and artifacts to learn about the life and works of Samuel Clemens. Kid-tested and teacher-approved! (Teachers, print and bring enough for your students. Answer keys are available on site.) 3rd Annual Teachers Workshops - Register Today!! The mission of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum is to promote awareness and appreciation of the life and works of Mark Twain and to demonstrate the relevance of his stories and ideas to citizens of the world. To realize this mission the Museum will be offering three Teachers Workshops for teachers and media specialists in grades three through high school to help them bring Twain's writings into the classroom. We hope that you will join us for this unique opportunity. The week-long teachers workshops have several goals: To provide teachers with background on works by Twain, to experience the town that served as the fictionalized setting for his best known books, and to provide a forum for discussion and creative thinking about how to approach Twain’s writings in the classroom. We want to make Mark Twain accessible to you, the teachers, so you can make Mark Twain accessible to your students. The museum has assembled a distinguished faculty of Mark Twain scholars who, with Museum staff, will conduct this exciting and inspiring course with content knowledge as well as new strategies for teaching Twain’s works, including ready-to-use lesson plans, and innovative ways to use technology to teach Mark Twain. During the workshop participants will experience a taste of Twain's world. They will visit the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum and other historic sites, follow a guided tour through Mark Twain Cave, ride a Mississippi Riverboat, and journey to Twain’s birthplace in Florida, Missouri. We invite you to come to Hannibal. Remember - the stories started here! The Mark Twain Home Foundation is sponsoring this program in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. There will be three workshops offered in 2008. Each will focus on two books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In addition, introductions will be given to many short stories and other works for the classroom. Workshop Dates: Week 1: June 16-20 (space available)
Week 2: July 14-18 (THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL)
Week 3: July 28-August 1 (WORKSHOP IS FULL)
For more information, and to fill out a registration form, please click the link below. 2008 Teacher's Workshops And, speaking of workshops, our Summer 2007 teacher workshops brought 51 educators from around the country to discover Hannibal, explore Samuel Clemens' family history, and collaborate on ideas for taking "the Lincoln of our literature" back to their classrooms. Our first week focused on The Prince and the Pauper for elementary and middle school teachers, and our second week focused on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The workshops were co-taught by Henry Sweets, the museum's Curator, and Cindy Lovell, the museum's Education Coordinator. Other Twain scholars presented on various topics that teachers could apply in their classrooms. The result of these two weeks was a collection of creative and engaging lesson plans that we invite you to adapt for your own classroom use. Our Lesson Plans Page also features lessons on several of Mark Twain's short stories. These lessons were developed by teachers during our 2006 teacher workshops.
Questions about teaching Mark Twain? Email us at: Education@MarkTwainMuseum.org See the smiles from the 2006 Teachers Workshop... click here to access our photo gallery.
TEACHER RESOURCES The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum is working on creating easy to use resources for teaching Mark Twain and his works in the classroom. Below are some useful links for basic classroom questions. Timeline
Mark Twain's Genealogy
Mark Twain's Publishing Career
Link to School Tours
Teacher Resource Guide (12 pages of activities, ideas, and handouts) Need Resources?
Teachers, did you know that you can purchase books and other educational materials from the museum store at a 10% discount? Sales from the museum gift shops help to maintain the museum properties and support our education programs. We appreciate your business and want to support YOU in your classroom! Simply call the museum directly at 573-221-9010 to place your order, and by providing verification that you are a teacher, 10% will be deducted from your purchase of books and other educational materials. Thank you for supporting us with your purchases! (Note: Please call between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm Central Time to place your order.)
Lesson Plans
We are also developing lesson plans to go along with some of Mark Twain's books and short stories. Do you have a great lesson plan you'd like to share? Consider sending it to us for the Mark Twain Creative Teaching Award (due March 15 each year)!
If you would like information about booking a field trip to the museum, please click here. You can also view a Virtual Tour of the museum created by students. (Teachers, this is a great way to ensure that your field trips will be interactive. Have your students create a virtual tour!)
Other resources you might find helpful: Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT
This is the home where Sam and Livy Clemens raised their children.
Mark Twain Quotes
Thousands of quotes by Mark Twain are organized alphabetically by topic.
Kennedy Center - 4 Lessons on "Mark Twain, the Lincoln of Our Literature"
Library of Congress Lesson Plans about Mark Twain
Mark Twain Papers & Project at the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
Mark Twain's Writings Searchable E-Text and Memory Builder Game
National Geographic Lesson Plan - Mark Twain Cave
PBS Mark Twain Interactive Scrapbook and Classroom Activities
If, as a teacher,you are facing resistance by your school in teaching either The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you will find the completed rationales below helpful. These rationales are copyright 2007 by the National Council for Teachers of English. They are posted with permission. http://www.ncte.org/ Rationales for teaching The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Rationales for teaching Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Sign up for our free e-newsletter!
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