Category: Fall-17

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Exploring History Vol V: Six Document Based Lessons

Exploring History: Vol V

We’re very pleased to share a new multi-touch iBook just published by our Social Studies Methods class. Exploring History: Vol V was our PBL capstone and is available free at iTunes in 51 countries around the world. It features these World and US History lessons:

  1. WWII Propaganda: Close Reading by Nancy Guidry
  2. The Limits of Leadership by Paxton Deuel
  3. African Imperialism by Kelly Sutton
  4. The Harlem Renaissance by Taran Schwartz
  5. Western Expansion Text Set by James Bayless
  6. An Account of The Red Summer by David Grabin

This book is the fifth in a series of “Exploring History” titles designed by  UP preservice social studies teachers. The books have been very popular – with over 30,000 downloads from nearly two dozen countries. Writing for an authentic and global audience has been one of the prime motivators in this on going publishing project.

Interactive iBook version ~ Free at iTunes
Download Static PDF version (10 MB)

It features six engaging questions and historic documents that empower students to be the historian in the classroom. The units draw from a fascinating collection of text and multimedia content – documents, posters, photographs, audio, video, letter and other ephemera. “Stop-and-think” prompts based on CCSS skills guide students through analysis of the primary and secondary sources. Essential questions foster critical thinking. All documents include links back to the original source material so readers can remix the content into their own curated collections.

All of my student’s wrote for a public audience on our class blog and pursued three class goals:

  • Learn to think like a historian.
  • Become a skillful instructional designer
  • Develop technical skills for production, reflection, growth and professional networking.

The lesson design process began early in the semester when students designed lessons in historical thinking skills based on the work of Sam Wineburg and the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG). They focussed on three key skills – Sourcing, Contextualizing and Corroborating. Then students identified essential questions worth answering and gathered documents to explore the question.

Here’s a post (from fall ’13 class) that describes our project workflow (including how we utilized iBooks Author). The Exploring History includes four additional volume

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Class 15: Finishing Up – Design Lab II

This week we will finalize our lessons for inclusion into our collaborative iBook. You will also have some class time to transfer your contribution to our Holocaust Memorial Project into your final blog post. It could include the material you created or your reaction to the PBL approach. Don’t forget to add a link to the Memorial project site so visitor can be directed to the site

Here’s a good example of combining the content with a brief explanation of your intent.  It even includes a nice header image. Remember this is your digital portfolio!

Please note if you used an HTML snippet to embed content in the Memorial project site, you will need to create another HTML snippet at edmethods.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

The iBooks will be designed using iBooks Author in the digital lab in the library. Students will bring digital versions of their project content – including all image and sound files, text files, citations and URLs. Here’s a quick guide to managing your files to get ready for iBooks Author: edMethods Teachers’s Tool Kit: iBooks Author

I’ve created a YouTube channel with some short tutorials that students may wish to refer to. See iBooks Author Tips.

END OF SEMESTER CHECKLIST
  1. Complete course assessment at SmartEvals
  2. All blog posts completed – see list here. Don’t forget your Memorial post.
  3. Finished iBook Author file uploaded to our shared Google Drive
  4. When in iBooks Author you can create a PDF version – Select Share / Export / Then choose PDF. Then take your PDF and upload to TaskStream for final assessment.

Featured image credit: Adobe Spark

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Class 14: Design Lab I

Design Lab I

Digital technologies have put us in charge of the information we access, store, analyze and share.  Creating an iBook harnesses those motivational factors into an engaging learning experience. The ease of distribution across the world (via iTunes) means students can communicate with a broader, and more authentic audience than just their teacher and class peers.

This week we will wrap up our first drafts of our historical thinking skill lessons for inclusion into our collaborative iBook. We’ll be working in the Digital Lab at Clark Library. This will be the fifth multi-touch iBook published by our EdMethods students.

Technical aspects
The iBooks will be designed using iBooks Author in the Mac lab. Students will bring digital versions of their DBQs to the lab – including all image and sound files, text files, citations and URLs. Here’s a quick guide to managing your files to get ready for iBooks Author: edMethods Teachers’ Tool Kit: iBooks Author

I’ve created a YouTube channel with some short tutorials that students may wish to refer to. See iBooks Author Tips

Holocaust Memorial Project

We’ll also use this session to put finishing touches on our web-based curriculum design project at Oregon Holocaust Memorial

Image credit: Adobe Spark

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Class 13: Teaching Lab II

Teaching Lab II

Today’s class is the first of two classes featuring historical thinking skills lessons delivered by our peers.

Students have prepared a 20-30 minute lesson designed to feature one or more historical thinking skills. Students are invited to  use a variety of instructional techniques of their choice with the lesson – for example flipped learning or student discussion groups.

The rest of the class will serve as participants / observers and provide feedback on lesson design, delivery, workflow and timing. Hopefully we can serve as a test group for a future lesson that can be used in our placements.

This week’s lessons by David Grabin, Taran Schwartz, Kelly Sutton and James Bayless

Image credit: Adobe Spark