Category Archives: literacy

Hexagons? In History?

historical thinking, Kori Green, literacy, strategies, writing, , , , , , ,
Students in Ms. Green's class using hexagons to refresh their memories and make connections to the curriculum.
Students in Ms. Green’s class using hexagons to refresh their memories and make connections.

I am trying to be more mindful of pulling my students’ learning through this year. You know, revisiting what they’ve already learned so it doesn’t fly out of their brains never to return (at least not to return until their high school American History teacher says they should have learned this in 8th grade and have to review it…).

I tried out a neat tool this week with my students that Glenn Wiebe showed the KCSS Executive Board over the summer. The ClassTools.net Hexagon Generator allows you to select up to 30 terms that will then be placed on little hexagons which you will then have the pleasure of cutting apart (good task for a student aide with time on her hands, wish I had one).

With only three days this week due to Parent-Teacher Conferences I didn’t want to jump into something new before their long weekend, so I decided to roll out the hexagons. I used a mix of ideas, people and events that we’ve covered since the beginning of the year. Each table got a set and my directions – if the terms on their hexagon have a connection they can touch, but for each side that touches there has to be a connection. Continue reading Hexagons? In History? →

Summer reading list 2015

books, Glenn Wiebe, literacy, professional development, reading, ,

beach reading

It’s a Wiebe tradition.

The annual summer reading list.

For as long as I’ve been in education, I’ve had a summer reading list. Several of my early mentors suggested that the summer is a perfect time for personal professional learning.Develop a list of professional and fun books. Commit to reading them. Talk about the content with others. I eventually came around to the idea and learned to love it.

My wife, also an educator, started doing it. Later, we passed on the idea to our kids. The cool thing is that we’re all still committed to it. The best summer was the year my wife and I took a tech naked trip to the beach. Without the internet, there’s was nothing to do but sit in the sand and read. Awesome.

Of course, in all of the years that I’ve been doing it, I’ve never actually finished the original list. Schedules change. Books aren’t as good as I had hoped. It’s easy to get sidetracked. Work. Travel. Family stuff. But the idea is still a good one. It makes us better educators. And isn’t that part of the job?

So even though I’m pretty sure I won’t finish it, I still make the list. Cause one of these years, it’s gonna happen. All the books, all the way through. Really. I’m serious. This year for sure.

The 2015 Summer Reading List

Continue reading Summer reading list 2015 →

Get the KCSS fall update. And try out Smore

literacy, social media, strategies, technology, web 2.0, , , ,

KCSS is giving an online tool called Smore a test drive for publishing our quarterly newsletter. First things first. Head over and get the newsletter here.

But I also think that Smore is a handy tool for teachers and students for creating all sorts of products and projects. It seems very easy to use and has some cool sharing tools.

Create a free account and Continue reading Get the KCSS fall update. And try out Smore →

Using elementary Evidence-Based Terms in social studies classrooms

best practice, C4, common core, Glenn Wiebe, graphic organizer, historical thinking, literacy, primary sources, reading, strategies, , , , , ,

evidence-based-terms2As we move into a social studies world that is asking kids to collect evidence, organize evidence, create products, and communicate results, writing skills are becoming more and more important.

But for the last ten years or so, at least in the state of Kansas, we’ve asked kids to focus instead on memorizing content. So now when we’re asking our middle school and high school students to not just write more but to use evidence while proving assertions, we get a lot of blank stares.

My suggestion?

Steal a practice used by a lot of elementary teachers and start training your secondary kids to use evidence-based terms while writing.

Evidence-based terms are simple phrases that support the use of, well . . . evidence. So if we ask kids to look a couple of primary source documents and develop a thesis from their analysis, they have some scaffolding to help them do that.

Examples of evidence-based terms? Continue reading Using elementary Evidence-Based Terms in social studies classrooms →

“It’s Been A While…”

Brad Burenheide, history, literacy, Music, resources, strategies, Uncategorized

The title for this post is from the song of the same name from the band Staind.  A great rock ballad from a good rock band.  But I digress.  Now that I am back in the swing of things, I am ready to share some more great social studies information!  Today’s post is about the using of music in social studies education.

A good colleague of mine is Dr. Chris Goering from the University of Arkansas (and graduate of Kansas State University) has a wonderful website titled “Lit Tunes” where he talks about using music in language arts instruction.  As we know about the College and Career Readiness standards, we need to look at how we can incorporate language arts into our instruction.  I would greatly encourage you to look at Dr. Goering’s Soundtrack of Your Life assignment on the website.   Continue reading “It’s Been A While…” →