The 2021 TCR History Camp is an intensive online workshop in historical research and writing for secondary students. In each 2-week session, 2 experienced instructors will coach students, all working remotely, to compose a first draft of an historical research paper on a topic of their choice.

• choosing a topic,
• procuring (either buying or borrowing) at least 3-5 books on that topic (many if not all of which the student should read before the start of "camp"), and
• arranging for online access to other primary and secondary sources on digital databases (e.g., JSTOR, eLibrary, Gale, EBSCO, Congressional Quarterly, etc.).

Instructors work one-on-one with students, coaching them through the research and writing process: formulating productive research questions; finding and making discerning use of primary and secondary sources; taking accurate notes; analyzing evidence, formulating a provisional narrative and testing it with more research; marshaling evidence to support one's position or narrative; puzzling together a narrative structure for one's essay; documenting evidence with University of Chicago-style source citations; writing and rewriting.  

Each weekday morning begins with a virtual meeting, via Zoom, of all students and instructors, devoted to instruction on methods required for the historian's craft. Students then spend the better part of each day, and the middle weekend, exercising those methods in their own research and writing. Each student has a daily one-on-one conference with an instructor. Each day concludes in the late afternoon with another full-class Zoom session.

TCR Summer Programs are intensive workshops in history, research, and writing that offer high school students an advisory structure in which to work on historical research projects on topics of their own choosing. Students arrive at the program with a research topic in hand that they then develop over the course of two weeks, with the end goal of writing a publication-worthy essay. They are given the opportunity to formulate productive research questions, to find and use primary and secondary sources, to take effective notes, to examine model historical essays, to pursue various analytical and narrative writing strategies, to confront problems of structure and organization, and to contemplate the larger philosophical dilemmas associated with studying the past; they are also given individualized sessions with instructors as well as ample study time on their own in the context of a fully-equipped research library.

Program location: Boston or Weston, MA | Exact location TBA in March, 2022.

Class size: 12

Instructor:Student ratio: 1:6

TCR Summer Programs are intensive workshops in history, research, and writing that offer high school students an advisory structure in which to work on historical research projects on topics of their own choosing. Students arrive at the program with a research topic in hand that they then develop over the course of two weeks, with the end goal of writing a publication-worthy essay. They are given the opportunity to formulate productive research questions, to find and use primary and secondary sources, to take effective notes, to examine model historical essays, to pursue various analytical and narrative writing strategies, to confront problems of structure and organization, and to contemplate the larger philosophical dilemmas associated with studying the past; they are also given individualized sessions with instructors as well as ample study time on their own in the context of a fully-equipped research library.

Program location: TBD