Guests – Page 2 – Ed Methods

November 3, 2013

Class 10: Role-Playing – Beyond Manifest Destiny: America Enters the Age of Imperialism

Students took part in a role play developed by the Choices Program. The program’s curriculum units draw upon multiple primary source documents and culminate in a rigorous student-centered role-playing activity. Students took part in a Choices lesson entitled: Beyond Manifest Destiny: America Enters the Age of Imperialism. Working cooperatively, students will advocate for one of the three options the United States considered toward Spain’s former colonies. Students draw upon primary sources and take into consideration the views of fictional townspeople to recreate this critical moment in history.

The goal of this class is to experience the role-play as teaching method. Students will be introduced to (and receive) a hands-on curriculum that uses primary sources, case studies, videos, and role-play simulations to engage students in an exploration of the concept of human rights and the challenges of international enforcement. The curriculum also introduces students to various human rights actors, and examines the current debate on U.S. human rights policy. Emphasis is placed on helping students develop the skills and habits needed for active citizenship.

The lesson was delivered by guest teacher – Tim Graham. Tim is currently a teacher at Cleveland High School in Portland, OR. He has taught social studies for 11 years in the Portland Public Schools district, working at Roosevelt, Benson, and Franklin high schools in addition to his current placement at Cleveland. He has attended teaching seminars with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. He is currently a Choices Teaching Fellow. Tim maintains two class blogs – Modern World History and IB HOTA.

Image credit: 2nd Virginia Volunteers playing with a rattlesnake. Volunteers were poised for war with Spain and stationed in Pablo Beach, Florida prior to assault on Cuba. 1898
State Library and Archives of Florida call number: N041287

September 30, 2013

Oregon Council of the Social Studies Fall Conference

Hello fellow Social Studies educators,

For those of you who have not met me, my name is John Zingale and I am a former UP MAT grad from this past year. While on my journey to become a Social Studies teacher I had the pleasure to meet Peter Pappas through my Methods teacher and a couple of EdCampPDX’s.

I am currently teaching Social Studies and Language Arts at iTech Prep Middle School in Vancouver, Washington. I am teaching Social Studies in a STEM & project-based environment. I am also a member of the Oregon Council of the Social Studies (OCSS) and I am here to promote our fall conference which is this next Saturday, October 5th. At the conference I am presenting the research that I conducted while at University of Portland last year. My topic is iHistory and integrating Digital Storytelling and Apple iPads into Social Studies classrooms.

I hope that you might be able to come and enjoy a day of exploring different Social Studies content and networking. You can find out more information here. Attached is a PDF with info on the fall conference as well.

2013-Fall-OCSS-Conf-Program-FINAL

Thanks for your time,

– John M. Zingale

Class 5: Exploring Project Based Learning

Henry Sakamoto
For video interviews and more go to Densho Digital Archive. Use free guest login.
The Densho Digital Archive holds a wealth of visual history interviews and other materials that broadly document the Japanese American experience. These unique primary sources cover a span of history from immigration in the early 1900s through redress in the 1980s with a particular focus on the World War II mass incarceration.

Students explore their world with an expectation of choice and control that redefines traditional notions of learning and literacy. Increasingly educators are discovering that they can motivate students with a project (or problem) based approach that engages their students with the opportunity to think like professionals while solving real-world problems.

Here’s 6 reasons why PBL works:

Traditional instruction is based on “teaching as telling.” PBL creates learning more immersive experiences.
A new information “culture” demands a new literacy. PBL can build those skills
We need to increase the rigor in the classroom. PBL moves students to higher levels of Blooms.
PBL makes learning relevant – student take responsibility for their progress.
Usually the audience for thinking is the teacher – PBL shifts the focus to real world application.
PBL can gain added impact by inspiring and empowering student as change agents in their community.

Instead of simply talking about PBL, our class will be undertaking a PBL project that embodies all the elements above. We will be serving as curriculum consultants to the Portland’s Nikkei Legacy Center. The center is dedicated to “Sharing and preserving Japanese American history and culture in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood, where Japantown once thrived.”

Our task to is to use our instructional design skills to assist the Center in creating curriculum material. At this point we are considering three possible projects:

Self-guided instructional activities for middle school museum visitors.
A teacher’s curriculum / activity guide to accompany a historic document filled suitcase that goes out on loan to the classroom.
Selecting historic materials for inclusion in an iPhone App tour of Portland’s historic Japantown neighborhood.

A PBL experience always needs a good kick-off entry event to get students engaged in the task. We will begin our project with a classroom visit by Henry Sakamoto, who grew up in Japantown and was attending high school at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. Henry and his family were subjected to FBI search, transfer to the Portland Assembly Center and eventually interred at Mindoka Concentration Camp in Idaho.

Henry will be introduced by Kim Blair, education manager of the Nikkei Legacy Center. Next week’s class will be held at the Center where we will be able to tour the museum and work with Kim and Todd Mayberry, Director of Collections.

Update: Unfortunately Mr Sakamoto could not make it to our class. We discussed our project work with Kim Blair, education manager of the Nikkei Legacy Center.

Then we did a bit of “speed dating” of our ideas for the DBQ Assignment. Students formed two lines and had 2 minutes to pitch their DBQ design idea to each other and share some feedback. Then one line shifted and we repeated the pitch exchange. In all students pitched their idea three times.