Working with the Short-handled hoe: Organizing Farmworkers after World War II
Welcome to the Teaching Materials and Resources for the Short-Handled Hoe Object Lesson. In this portion of the site, you will find a lesson plan and annotated links to other online resources.
In thinking about teaching with the Short-Handled Hoe Object Lesson, it is useful to note some organizational characteristics of the main portion of the Web site. First, the Object Lesson is divided into four areas:
- Introduction: a brief contextual movie that deals with the short-handled hoe, and agricultural work in the the Southwest, and a QuickTime Virtual Reality representation of the Chavez family's short-handled hoe.
- Explore: a collection of primary sources and curator interviews designed to focus on the short-handled hoe as an object, in historical context, and within the museum. This portion of the site allows students to browse content and explore their own interests.
- Tours: primary sources and curator interviews from the Explore section organized into two thematic tours. The Brief tour deals with the battle to ban the hoe. The Extended tour deals with farmworkers and their struggle for social justice.
- Resources: annotated links to other online resources that are related to farm workers, Cesar Chavez and the themes highlighted on the site.
All of these materials are available to prepare students to partake of the interactive portions of the site. A close examination of the primary sources and curators interviews should enable students to submit thoughtful questions for the Forums with curators and historians. Similarly, students should be able to organize their knowledge of the material into a virtual exhibit that they can describe and annotate in the Activity section.
