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
Tag Archives: common core
Literacy strategies and book sites
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
Primary source lessons aligned to the Common Core
There’s an elephant in the room. We all know it. Somebody needs to say something. So . . . here goes.
School starts soon. There. I said it.
For a lot of you, you’re just a few weeks away and excited about getting back in the classroom again. You’ve had a few months to relax, read, research, to re-charge a bit. And now with school start dates just around the corner, you’re looking for handy resources.
How about some sweet primary source lesson plans aligned to the Common Core? Well . . . the National Archives has got you covered.
Seriously. If you haven’t made it over to the National Archives Education page, you are missing out. Lesson plans. Professional development stuff. Handy graphic organizers. It’s one of those sites that is non-negotiable for social studies people. If you’re not taking advantage of all of that goodness, you’re not as good a teacher as you could be. It’s just that simple.
But NARA has lots of other goodies out there.
DocsTeach is one of the those. Continue reading Primary source lessons aligned to the Common Core
EDSITEment, ThinkFinity, and sweet literacy resources
Okay.
Raise of hands. How many of you use EDSITEment? How about ThinkFinity?
When I ask teachers around the country this question, I often get a bunch of blank stares. If you do use these two sites, sweet. If you don’t, you need to jump on board. Cause they’re both awesome sites for teachers. Continue reading EDSITEment, ThinkFinity, and sweet literacy resources
HGSS + KCCRS = Integrated Lessons
I spent last Friday at a workshop in Salina with a group of fifty dedicated teachers learning how to implement the new History, Government, and Social Studies standards in their districts. It was “training the trainers” as districts look at writing curriculum and implementing best practices, literacy expectations, standards and benchmarks. Continue reading HGSS + KCCRS = Integrated Lessons
