Tag Archives: instructional strategies

7 triggers that guarantee student engagement

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fascinate1Okay . . . guarantee is a strong word.

Encourage might be better, maybe stimulate. Jump start?

But it doesn’t really matter what word we decide on.

I think using some of the ideas that Sally Hogshead pushes can help increase the chances for grabbing and keeping the attention of our kids.

Sally wrote a book called Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation that came out several years ago. What she talks about in the book are the powerful strategies that are used to influence thinking and decision making. Fascinate is targeted at marketers and ad folks but the ideas seem to be exactly what stressed-out teachers are looking for.

Economists have always said that to get people to do something, you have to provide incentives.

So . . . imagine a middle school teacher trying to elicit engagement and excitement about the Compromise of 1850 with 13 year-olds. What to do? Sally has some suggestions . . . seven to be exact. She calls them triggers. A trigger is “a deeply-rooted means of arousing intense interest.”

Sally says it just a matter of picking, choosing and combining the right triggers and your kids will be eating out of your hand.

So what do these triggers look like? Continue reading 7 triggers that guarantee student engagement →

Trading Cards, ReadWriteThink, and the Common Core

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trading card 1We’ve always asked our kids to read. Informational text. Primary sources. Non-fiction. Fiction. Poetry. We’ve always asked our kids to write. Summaries. Research. Reviews. Reaction papers.

At least, that’s been the theory. Good social studies and history instruction has always included these things but I think that sometimes we can forget how critical reading and writing skills are to what we do. The Common Core, for better or worse, has been a good reminder for us. We need to have our kids read, write, and communicate much more.

The problem for many of us?

Uh . . . what does that look like again?

Continue reading Trading Cards, ReadWriteThink, and the Common Core →

Interactive maps compare current cities to 19th century versions

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dc-spyglass-viewI love the Smithsonian magazine. Both the print and online versions. The articles are incredibly cool and range all over the place, from why we incorrectly believe that carrots help us see better to what people snacked on during the 1963 March on Washington.

During a recent run through their online history articles, I ran across a very cool interactive activity that lets you look at past and present maps of six major US cities. The magazine recently dipped into David Rumsey‘s collection of over 150,000 maps to find some of the best representations of American cities over the past couple hundred years. With some simple programming, they were able to overlay images of vintage maps of some major cities onto satellite images from today. Continue reading Interactive maps compare current cities to 19th century versions →

5 Easy Back to School Ideas for Social Studies Teachers

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I know that some of you are already on the ground with kids, doing point of the spear stuff. But for many, school starts this week or next. And you may already have your entire week planned out, ready to go.

But if you’re still struggling with what to do or maybe just looking for a few fresh ideas, here’s five easy activities that you can use right away without a lot of prep time. Continue reading 5 Easy Back to School Ideas for Social Studies Teachers →