Weave the excitement of baseball into your school curriculum and enjoy an experience that opens eyes, touches hearts, and deepens connections to American history and culture.
Organized into three units according to grade level, the educational programs for Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American offer K-12 educators a unique opportunity to examine a variety of history and social studies topics through the lens of our nation’s pastime, and to encourage a close examination of historical objects, group work, and self-reflection. We offer downloadable comprehensive teacher kits with lesson plans and additional resources for each unit, which can be used to support a visit to the exhibition or as independent learning experiences.
To learn more about each unit and how it supplements social studies and U.S. history curricula from the Civil War to present day, please choose from the following list:
The Home Team: Baseball, Teamwork, and Community
This unit is aimed at students in kindergarten through 3rd grade and focuses on the themes of community, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Special attention is given to literacy and art-based activities as well as the development of social skills.
The Four Sides of a Baseball Diamond: Identity, Diversity, Integration, and Community
This unit has been created for students in grades 4-7 and relates to such topics as immigration, identity, and cultural diversity.
Breaking Barriers: Baseball, Social Change, and Civil Rights
This unit is most appropriate for students in grades 8-12. This unit explores themes of discrimination, inequality, civil rights, social justice, and social change.
All lessons and Museum activities are correlated with Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Common Core Standards, including:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3-12.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade appropriate topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7 Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
Additional Relevant National Learning Standards:
Civics. Standard 11. Level II [Grade: 3-5], Level III [Grade: 6-8], Level IV [Grade: 9-12] Understands the role of diversity in American life and the importance of shared values, political beliefs, and civic beliefs in an increasingly diverse American society.
United States History. Standard 29. Level IV [Grade: 9-12] Understands the struggle for racial and gender equality and for the extension of civil liberties.
United States History. Standard 31. Level IV [Grade: 9-12] Understands economic, social, and cultural developments in the contemporary United States.
For information about our curriculum, please contact us at 215-923-3811 x 158 or education@nmajh.org