In a soliloquy from Henry V, the title character announces “the game is afoot” in encouraging his men to battle. That is how I oft feel about my teaching repertoire. One of the things that I absolutely love in my teaching is the use of games and simulations to immerse students in the context and experience of social studies content. What is better to teach students about the areas of our content by having them do it. With games, I find it more efficient and more interesting to have them play a game to find out about an event, rather than a dry lecture or textbook worksheet.. Fortunately, I stumbled across a site for fellow game-junkies that has high-quality online games for you to utilize in your classroom. Continue reading The Game Is Afoot!
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Reflecting on Technology
For my students, any time they can get their hands on technology, or I let them play on the SmartBoard, they are as happy as can be. For most of them, an iPad is more comfortable to use than paper and pencil, so any lesson that I can alter to use technology is going to be more successful in my classroom. Continue reading Reflecting on Technology
How I use “Discrepant Event Inquiry” in my classroom
A few years ago, I was introduced to “Discrepant Event Inquiry” from Glenn Wiebe. (Here is another post about it from his History Tech blog). The idea is that you take an image and only reveal a little bit at a time. As I reveal a little bit of the picture, the students must guess Who is in the picture, What is happening, When was the photograph taken, and Where is this taking place. This encourages students to think outside the box and it also does WONDERS with questioning and how to ask the right questions. Naturally, I turned this into a competition. Continue reading How I use “Discrepant Event Inquiry” in my classroom
Graphic notes, primary sources, and literacy skills
It seems like every social studies teacher I talk to asks about reading and writing strategies. Everyone is freaking about Common Core ELA literacy skills for history / government. And I suppose that’s a good thing. Good social studies instruction should always include reading and writing activities.
But I believe that we sometimes over-think the whole process. Give kids engaging questions, provide some interesting evidence, and step out of the way. An easy way to focus on document analysis and support writing skills is something I call Graphic Notes. I posted this on History Tech several weeks ago but I like it so much, I decided to post here as well!)
A Graphic Note is a lot like a Thought Bubble but takes it a bit further. So you can use it as a hook activity or even as a type of assessment.
1. Start by Continue reading Graphic notes, primary sources, and literacy skills
When One of Your Heroes is a Bad Person…
I must confess that as a history junkie I consistently became a “fan” of some of the historical figures that I have studied. While not a professional historian, I realize that this can be a no-no when you get into the research of one of these individuals. As has happened many a time, I was heartbroken the more I found out about these individual’s unsavory habits: William T. Sherman thoughts on the African-American, Churchill’s drinking more than what should have been humanly possible, LBJ’s “locker-room” behavior.
All of these things brought the startling reality of these humans being in reality, humans. While still disappointed in the behavior of historical heroes, it added a depth of complexity and dare I say aesthetic pleasure to my historical study than I have ever enjoyed before. In the remainder of this point, I want to share an activity with you that may paint a picture you did not know about Albert Einstein. Continue reading When One of Your Heroes is a Bad Person…