Feeling a bit uneasy about how to respond to the Common Core Literacy Standards for History / Government? Struggling with what that looks like? Need a few ideas and suggestions for integrating reading and writing into your social studies instruction?
Here ya go! Continue reading Literacy strategies and book sites
Travis Hardenburger is a seventh grade Kansas history and geography teacher at Wamego Middle School. He is working on a great presentation for the Kansas Council for History Education’s annual meeting on November 10 and 11 at Derby High School. You are already registered, right?
I don’t want to steal his thunder (he ok’d that I share this) but he developed a creative way to kill a lot of birds with one stone. Don’t turn me in to PETA. Continue reading Five Standards, Three Birds, and One Great Lesson
Don Gifford, KSDE Social Studies Content Specialist, has been kind enough to provide a guest commentary on the C3 Framework published by NCSS this week. You can find a link to the Framework here.
NCSS Publishes New Help for Social Studies Educators by Don Gifford, KSDE
The National Council for the Social Studies has just released a framework for enhancing the rigor of Social Studies education. Over the past several years the Kansas Department of Education (KSDE) and a couple of Kansas teachers have been involved in crafting and reviewing this work. The September edition of Social Education, a publication of NCSS, has several articles about the process and content of this framework. The intent of my writing today is to demonstrate the alignment with the Kansas History, Government, and Social Studies Standards and encourage the use of this document writing curriculum and designing units of study. Continue reading Guest Post: NCSS Publishes New Help for Social Studies Educators
With the new law being passed in Kansas turning Constitution Day into a week long event, I have struggled with ideas of how to celebrate Freedom Week in my geography classroom and still fit the lessons into my content. Luckily, the week coincided with my 5 Themes unit and is a great opportunity for me to give students a first hand experience with the human geography that is an aspect of the theme Place. Continue reading Celebrate Freedom Week
Today, we are fortunate to have a guest blog post. Dr. Tim Fry from Washburn University has contributed an interesting post dealing with Multiple Perspectives. Dr. Fry is currently an Associate Professor at Washburn University in their Department of Education and is also a board member of KCSS. Enjoy!
“Seized!” or “Reunited!”—Multiple Perspectives: An essential concept in Social Studies by Timothy S. Fry, PhD
One Sunday morning, after filling my mandatory morning cup of coffee, I sat down at the dining room table at my parents’ house to read the Sunday paper. I was visiting my parents in my hometown of Hutchinson, Kansas. It had been a while since I had been home and was looking forward to reading my old hometown paper, the Hutchinson News. However on Sundays, my folks also subscribed to the larger Wichita Eagle. Both papers had been opened and I just happened to sit closest to the Wichita paper, so I grabbed it first. The headline was huge, one word filled an entire line across the paper—“Seized!” Continue reading Multiple Perspectives: An essential concept in Social Studies