One of the reasons I named this blog "Not Your Father's Social Studies Class" is because that is exactly what I set out to do in teaching history. It was not going to be learning names and dates and regurgitating them back to me in an essay or on a test and then flushing them to learn the next set. I wanted my students to think, to question, to recreate history given many sources. I wanted them to practice listening and empathy. I wanted them to be historians.
All of this involves historical thinking.
How do you do this?
Start here with this amazing video of a historian thinks through resources around the Battle of Lexington in 1775.
You can continue on using resources from this site - or any site or materials that give you multiple perspectives on an event. (HINT: In NYS this is pretty easy as it is exactly what the Document Based Question was intended to do!)
And be sure to register to get this free classroom resource to hang in your classroom.
I'll keep trying to provide resources and questions and opportunities on this site.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The beginning of modern warfare
On this day in 1914, the first trenches were dug on the Western Front. While the trenches were extremely brutal ways to live, they actually saved many lives with the advent of modern warfare. This 6 minute video is a good way to introduce students to the realities of trench warfare during World War I.
How does this compare to the ways in which war is waged today?
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The last photograph of the late President McKinley.
Taken as he was ascending the steps of the Temple of Music, September 6, 1901
On this day in 1901, President William McKinley died after being shot while attending the Pan-Am exposition in Buffalo, NY. The first president of the 20th century a glimpse into documents from that time period helps students to understand the dramatic shifts the United States was undergoing.
A fantastic resource for documents surrounding the assassination and the time period can be located at McKinley Assassination Ink.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Why the Supreme Court rests upon the support of the people!
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer met with Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News today and shared his view on what exactly the public needs to know and understand to support the Supreme Court. His views on what is important are much the way I framed the importance of details in my social studies class. My students needed to know two dates in American History: July 4, 1776 and January 12, 19??*. Everything else was relative.
* It took them a while to figure out the latter was my birthday!
To Collage or Not to Collage
Teaching middle school students - it was important to me to engage my students in multiple ways to represent their learning. They loved to make posters and collages and I found them to be a critical way to have them represent their learning in non-visual ways.
The drawback? Not everyone is crafty or artistic (aka ME!) and I had to impose what I called the "Dollar Store Rule." If you didn't purchase it at the dollar store - you shouldn't be using it on your poster. I wanted to prevent the "I bought something more glitzy than you so I should get a higher grade mentality." (NOTE: At no time did presentation or artistic ability outweigh the content aspects of the project on my rubrics!)
Glogster seems to have leveled the playing field for students by allowing them to create electronically. See this fabulous example from a sixth grade student. AND NOW - if you use wikispaces or edmodo, you don't even have to leave the site to create a poster!
Be sure to check out Glogster EDU to see the options available to educators and check out the social studies related Glogs under categories.
The drawback? Not everyone is crafty or artistic (aka ME!) and I had to impose what I called the "Dollar Store Rule." If you didn't purchase it at the dollar store - you shouldn't be using it on your poster. I wanted to prevent the "I bought something more glitzy than you so I should get a higher grade mentality." (NOTE: At no time did presentation or artistic ability outweigh the content aspects of the project on my rubrics!)
Glogster seems to have leveled the playing field for students by allowing them to create electronically. See this fabulous example from a sixth grade student. AND NOW - if you use wikispaces or edmodo, you don't even have to leave the site to create a poster!
Be sure to check out Glogster EDU to see the options available to educators and check out the social studies related Glogs under categories.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Those darn kids!!
Cave painting of a dun horse at Lascaux (via wikipedia)
Four teenagers wandering around looking for their dog, Robot, and they stumble upon a cave. Not just any cave - a cave in pristine condition housing amazing pre-historic art.
What can art tell us about history?
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