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Of special interest to: Teachers looking for new resources or strategies
Re: Social Studies FIELD GUIDE, National September 11 Memorial and Museum materials, TeachRock.org, and The Right Question Institute
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I had the great privilege of attending the NCHE conference a few weeks ago.
I heard Glenn Wiebe talk about his new book, The Social Studies FIELD Guide: Strategies and Tools to Captivate Students, Cultivate Critical Thinking, and Create Engaged Citizens. His presentation reminded me how cool "hexagonal thinking" is. And I also learned how to make collaborative maps using Google My Maps.
Another strategy that I picked up from this conference (with apologies, because I didn't write down who shared them!):
- After students read a nonfiction book, have them ask these three questions:
- What surprised me?
- What did the author think I already knew?
- What challenged, changed, or confirmed what I knew?
- HIPPY is an acronym that students can use to analyze sources:
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Historical context
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Intended audience
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Purpose
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Perspective
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Y this matters
I also learned about some organizations that have created great resources:
- The National September 11 Memorial and Museum offers virtual fieldtrips and lesson plans, including a three-part high school lesson Muslims in America after 9/11.
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TeachRock has free lessons on using music (and related primary sources, like concert posters) to teach history. Note: It's not just rock music--they have a unit on post-Civil War America. As the presenters noted, one exciting aspect of using music as an avenue to study history is that it gets you away from a "great man/woman" framework, providing a "people's perspective" on historical events. The unit they presented focused on performer Josephine Baker's "homecoming" to St. Louis--and highlighted the on-the-ground fight for school desegregation that was happening there, two years before Brown v. Board of Education.
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RetroReport is an "independent nonprofit newsroom" that creates short documentaries and lesson plans that teachers can use for FREE (with registration).
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The Fred Korematsu Institute offers lesson plans and other educational materials focused on Japanese American incarceration during World War II.
And I met some old friends, including the folks at the Right Question Institute, which focuses on teaching students how to ask their own questions.
All and all, it was a very successful conference!
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Teaching Montana History is edited (and mostly written) by MTHS Outreach and Interpretation Program Manager Martha Kohl. |
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