Take a minute to read the response to the reader question and I would encourage you to explore the link they've included on adapting historical documents for the classroom.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Teaching History for Lower Level Learners
While browsing the website this week, a particular "Ask a Master Teacher" question caught my eye - "Lower Level Learners: Teaching Their Way." I know I am always looking for ways to reach the struggling students in my classes and I thought it was pretty topical considering all the conversations we've had recently in class.
Take a minute to read the response to the reader question and I would encourage you to explore the link they've included on adapting historical documents for the classroom.
Take a minute to read the response to the reader question and I would encourage you to explore the link they've included on adapting historical documents for the classroom.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
TAH on teachinghistory.org!
One part of the site that I have been meaning to comb through is the section on TAH projects. The small link is at the top of the page, right next to the orange "Site at a Glance" button. In general, the section appears to offer featured lesson plans produced through the program and lessons learned.
For those of you who have not had the pleasure of being part of the TAH program, I'll give you some background. TAH is a grant program through the U.S. Department of Education. It was created with the idea that student achievement, especially in U.S. History, could be raised by teaching teachers to prepare meaningful lesson plans, while essentially doing graduate-level work in history (to increase their knowledge base). In the last grant program, here at Fitchburg State, I took classes on America and the Atlantic World, Democracy in America, Immigration, Civil Rights, etc. I loved that the materials I produced in the classes have continued to be very useable as I've taught USI and USII over the past five years.
Anyway, I would urge to explore this part of the website as it contains numerous great ideas for teaching the standards in American history classes. You can also link to various institutions' programs. Here is the Fitchburg State site, which includes many resources on the last set of projects for immigration.
The video above is a ten minute clip from a TAH Declaration of Independence lesson.
For those of you who have not had the pleasure of being part of the TAH program, I'll give you some background. TAH is a grant program through the U.S. Department of Education. It was created with the idea that student achievement, especially in U.S. History, could be raised by teaching teachers to prepare meaningful lesson plans, while essentially doing graduate-level work in history (to increase their knowledge base). In the last grant program, here at Fitchburg State, I took classes on America and the Atlantic World, Democracy in America, Immigration, Civil Rights, etc. I loved that the materials I produced in the classes have continued to be very useable as I've taught USI and USII over the past five years.
Anyway, I would urge to explore this part of the website as it contains numerous great ideas for teaching the standards in American history classes. You can also link to various institutions' programs. Here is the Fitchburg State site, which includes many resources on the last set of projects for immigration.
The video above is a ten minute clip from a TAH Declaration of Independence lesson.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Helpful Websites
For this week, I updated my Helpful Website page using teachinghistory.org. I would invite to look through the list I created and suggest others you might want to see there. I could've gone on forever with the list for Museum Sites...
Monday, October 17, 2011
Searching Through History Content
Aside from some really great lesson plans, I've found what might be the best part of teachinghistory.org. The search engine on the History Content page of the site is an invitation to explore basically everything we talked about during the technology portion of class last night. Even better, it combs through the vast collections of material for you when you type in a topic. I performed a topic search for "slavery" in Historical and Museum Sites and was given a list of of online exhibits from all over the country, along with brief descriptions of the information they contained. You can further refine your search to include or exclude certain regions of the country or specific states.
The same type of search can be completed in the Multimedia, Website Review, and History Gateway sections. I especially like how the multimedia section allows you to search for things like dramatic readings or podcasts.
This section is like having a personal assistant make sense of all things related to your topic on the web!
What do you think?
Monday, October 10, 2011
Exploring: Best Practices
As I perused the last major part of the teachinghistory.org website, I noticed that there is quite a bit of overlap within all of the sections, which frustrated me a bit as I felt like I was browsing through the same stuff from the past couple weeks. Not quite sure why they organized the site like this?
It seems the focus of the Best Practices section is primary sources - how they encourage historical thinking and how to incorporate them into your classroom.
One piece I particularly liked was a link to the Historical Thinking Matters website, which contained a video of a high school student doing a close reading of Huey Long's "Share the Wealth" speech. Thinking aloud and active reading skills are something I am trying to promote in my classes this year, and I've found that students struggle with exactly what it should look/sound like. This brief clip would be a great model for what I am hoping to see them do. Watch Lori Read Aloud
The video also made me want to explore the Historical Thinking Matters website further. Does anyone have any experience with it?
It seems the focus of the Best Practices section is primary sources - how they encourage historical thinking and how to incorporate them into your classroom.
One piece I particularly liked was a link to the Historical Thinking Matters website, which contained a video of a high school student doing a close reading of Huey Long's "Share the Wealth" speech. Thinking aloud and active reading skills are something I am trying to promote in my classes this year, and I've found that students struggle with exactly what it should look/sound like. This brief clip would be a great model for what I am hoping to see them do. Watch Lori Read Aloud
The video also made me want to explore the Historical Thinking Matters website further. Does anyone have any experience with it?
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Exploring: History Content
I moved onto the Historical Content section of the website this week. This section is designed to give you the research and information you need to build your lesson plans. As Van Sledright suggested, we should be experts in field in order to teach history effectively, and this is the part of the website that will help us confirm and expand our knowledge.
You may browse website reviews, weekly history quizzes (for you or the students), national resources, and specifically chosen examples where textbooks fall short. I particularly enjoyed the last one. "Beyond the textbook" is a collection of eleven examples where textbook narratives fall short. I thought this would be a great place for teachers to start incorporating a degree of "textbook questioning" into their classes if they previously were wondering where to specifically fit in information of this nature. I also really enjoyed the Weekly quizzes. They are fairly short and would make excellent warm-up, or bellwork, assignments.
Finally, aside from perusing the History Content section of the site and letting me know what you think, I'd love for you to read the following question "For a Master Teacher": Changes in History. What do you think the biggest transformation in history education has been? How much differently will your classroom be run vs. what you experienced in school?
You may browse website reviews, weekly history quizzes (for you or the students), national resources, and specifically chosen examples where textbooks fall short. I particularly enjoyed the last one. "Beyond the textbook" is a collection of eleven examples where textbook narratives fall short. I thought this would be a great place for teachers to start incorporating a degree of "textbook questioning" into their classes if they previously were wondering where to specifically fit in information of this nature. I also really enjoyed the Weekly quizzes. They are fairly short and would make excellent warm-up, or bellwork, assignments.
Finally, aside from perusing the History Content section of the site and letting me know what you think, I'd love for you to read the following question "For a Master Teacher": Changes in History. What do you think the biggest transformation in history education has been? How much differently will your classroom be run vs. what you experienced in school?
Monday, September 26, 2011
Exploring: Lesson Plans
This week, I decided to explore the "Teaching Materials" section of teachinghistory.org. This section includes a lesson plan search engine and lesson plan reviews, commentary on new teaching methods and approaches, and a spot where you can email questions to a master teacher (as well as browse questions already asked).
I thought lesson plans would be a great place to start since they are the blueprints of the classroom. A click on the "view all" button led me to a page where I could browse selected plans or filter for subject, time period, and/or grade level. First, I tried fine-tuning for Westward Expansion (as this is my current unit with the sophomores). No hits. At first frustrated, I then realized that these were only the plans that had been reviewed and the Lesson Plan Gateway was designed to search the web for anything not readily available on teachinghistory.org.
On my way to search through the gateway, I saw a lesson plan review that caught my eye. This plan, called "Examining the Korean War," encouraged students to explore multiple viewpoints. Here is the plan:
OUT: Examining the Korean War
I was really excited by what I read. The plan challenges students to "open up the textbook" much like we did for Christopher Columbus. I have struggled with ways of presenting challenges to textbook authority along with content, and this integrates the two perfectly. The review is also very helpful for teachers who are still learning to incorporate all the characteristics of an appropriate and dynamic plan into one lesson.
My question for all of you is do you see any lessons that you would love to try out with students? Do any of them seem unrealistic based on the resources you may or may not have available to you?
Also, please explore the "Ask a Master Teacher" section. Did any of the topics create questions of your own? Is there something we would like to "ask a master teacher" from the site?
I thought lesson plans would be a great place to start since they are the blueprints of the classroom. A click on the "view all" button led me to a page where I could browse selected plans or filter for subject, time period, and/or grade level. First, I tried fine-tuning for Westward Expansion (as this is my current unit with the sophomores). No hits. At first frustrated, I then realized that these were only the plans that had been reviewed and the Lesson Plan Gateway was designed to search the web for anything not readily available on teachinghistory.org.
On my way to search through the gateway, I saw a lesson plan review that caught my eye. This plan, called "Examining the Korean War," encouraged students to explore multiple viewpoints. Here is the plan:
OUT: Examining the Korean War
I was really excited by what I read. The plan challenges students to "open up the textbook" much like we did for Christopher Columbus. I have struggled with ways of presenting challenges to textbook authority along with content, and this integrates the two perfectly. The review is also very helpful for teachers who are still learning to incorporate all the characteristics of an appropriate and dynamic plan into one lesson.
My question for all of you is do you see any lessons that you would love to try out with students? Do any of them seem unrealistic based on the resources you may or may not have available to you?
Also, please explore the "Ask a Master Teacher" section. Did any of the topics create questions of your own? Is there something we would like to "ask a master teacher" from the site?
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Exploring: Introductory Videos
With all the options presented on the homepage for this website, I had a difficult time choosing where to start my exploration. Then, I found the introductory videos! I believe these might be a new addition to the site this week and I think they will be the perfect way to get acquainted with teachinghistory.org.
I would urge all of you to watch the following two videos:
I would urge all of you to watch the following two videos:
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| What is Historical Thinking? |
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| Digital Classroom |
In addition to these videos, please watch the other video that applies to you (elementary, middle school, and high school). Each segment discusses how the site will help you navigate all of its features. What do you think? Would you find this site helpful? Do you like to create your own original lesson plans or will you adapt the resources this site provides you? How comfortable are you, at this point, with incorporating primary sources into your classroom?
Thursday, September 15, 2011
An Introduction to Teachinghistory.org
Welcome to my experiment with blogger.com! Throughout our semester, I will be using this blog to help you explore all of the great resources available on teachinghistory.org!
Teachinghistory.org, sponsored by the National History Education Clearinghouse, is a fantastic resource for elementary, middle, and high school teachers of history. It is designed to aid teachers in developing quality lesson plans, finding historical content, and using best practices. Upon first impression, the site is a little overwhelming, but they do try make it navigable. Search engines are featured for various types of content and tabs are included at the top so that you can easily shift to the specific type of material you'd like to browse.
Each week, I will explore a different element of the website and try to discuss how I might use it in my own classes. Feel free to comment throughout the semester on both teachinghistory.org and my use of blogger.com :)
I'm hoping teachinghistory.org is going to help us keep our history classrooms from looking like this:
Bad History!
Teachinghistory.org, sponsored by the National History Education Clearinghouse, is a fantastic resource for elementary, middle, and high school teachers of history. It is designed to aid teachers in developing quality lesson plans, finding historical content, and using best practices. Upon first impression, the site is a little overwhelming, but they do try make it navigable. Search engines are featured for various types of content and tabs are included at the top so that you can easily shift to the specific type of material you'd like to browse.
Each week, I will explore a different element of the website and try to discuss how I might use it in my own classes. Feel free to comment throughout the semester on both teachinghistory.org and my use of blogger.com :)
I'm hoping teachinghistory.org is going to help us keep our history classrooms from looking like this:
Bad History!
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