The Miami Beach Art Deco District: Using Buildings to Tell Stories National Endowment for the Humanities: Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for Teachers June 26-30 and July 10-14, 2006 Landmarks of American History and Culture workshops, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, provide the opportunity for K-12 educators to engage in intensive study and discussion of important topics in American history. These one-week academies give participants direct experiences in the interpretation of significant historical sites and the use of archival and other primary historical evidence. Landmarks workshops present the best scholarship on a specific landmark or related cluster of landmarks, enabling participants to gain a sense of the importance of historical places, to make connections between what they learn in the workshop and what they teach, and to develop enhanced teaching materials for their classrooms. The Miami Beach Art Deco District: Using Buildings to Tell Stories summer workshops for teachers will utilize the Miami Beach Architectural District, a national historic landmark, to explore the following questions and prepare teachers to use new strategies and new historical content in their classrooms and home communities. How could a place widely known for sun and fun also be well-suited to study the ways in which Americans coped with the Great Depression and World War II; how American design changed from romanticism to modernism in the twentieth century; and how historic preservation can revitalize a deteriorating community? The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, a museum of art and design located in the heart of the Art Deco District and its partner, the Miami Design Preservation League, will serve as the primary indoor sites for all workshop activities. The workshop is designed to take a multidisciplinary approach that will certainly benefit teachers of American history, especially those in middle and high school settings. Teachers of literature, art, geography, social studies, American studies, and other fields will also find information to enrich their teaching and understanding of how buildings can become "readers" providing individual and national stories.