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 forgot to add that I'm experimenting with gadgets this week on blogger.com. I added a Google search bar and an easy email signup.
ReplyDeleteI did a search in the Lesson Plan Gateway for Eugene Debs, a Socialist candidate for President in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920. I learned about him very briefly in a high school history course. He was quickly mentioned in our textbook as a "fringe" candidate who often ran unsuccessful campaigns. The authors were brazen enough to juxtapose him with Bob Dole and Ralph Nader (yikes!) and I was happy to find there was more to the story.
ReplyDeleteThe lesson plan (found at http://www.cesa6.k12.wi.us/newsfile4041_1.pdf)
places Debs in the context of World War I under a subtopic of freedoms that were restricted in wartime. Debs was incarcerated for violating the Espionage Act of 1917. The lesson plan involves breaking students into different groups and analyzing a number of primary documents. It is very similar to Thomas Becker's Andrew Jackson lesson plan in Chapter 3 of VanSledright.
This approach is definitely something I would want to try with my students one day. The investigating and probing of history and its sources can lead to great discussions and debate.
I'm glad I read Leah's and Matt's posts because otherwise I would never have found that "Lesson Plan Gateway." Without it, I feel like the site is unnavigable. It has some good ideas but little of practical value that can be immediately put to use in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteIn a search for Theodore Roosevelt, I ran across a lesson plan from the Gilder Lehrman Institute on TR & Conservation--my topic for Monday's class. There are some good activators and framing questions in it that I will likely steal to frame my discussion about conservation and preservation as democratic ideals.
Thanks for sharing.
Sam
I found a lesson plan on the Lesson Plan Gateway introducing The Progressive Era because I am going to be doing a lesson in my pre-practicum on it. It brought up a lot of questions to ask the students and talked about comparing the problems that American society had in the early 20th century and comparing it to problems today. It also talked about asking how people go about solving problems. I thought that the questions to ask students were very helpful in forming my own lesson plan.
ReplyDeleteThe Lesson Plan Gateway is pretty helpful. Like Sam said it is a little difficult to navigate but with a little time and effort I figured it out. I too, looked at the Progressive Era and found that it was especially helpful in 1) refreshing my memory of it, 2) Giving me materials to look at and 3) make comparisons to day and 4) If I were teaching this, it would be very helpful.
ReplyDeleteI also found the Lesson Plan Gateway difficult to navigate. Similarly, I find the time periods in the Reviewed section restricting. It goes along with our theme of American-centric lessons; all of the eras in which one can search are time periods of American exploration, settlement, and development.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem I foresee with using others' lesson plans is that often the intent of the lesson can be very different. Last Friday, for example, I was doing a small lesson on Nationalism. All of the resources I found on this website had to do with Nationalism before World War I, but my lesson was about the 19th century. I was leading up to revolutions of 1848 and I could not seem to refine my search enough or find lessons which were not about the 20th century.
I would rather create my own lesson plans or use ones recommended to me by close colleagues who will understand my intent rather than trying to find and mold an inexact plan.