Tag: Primary sources

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Class 3: Historical Thinking Skills

Historical thinking skills lesson

Our class begins with a review of the Sam Wineburg reading and TEDEd flipped lesson Who is the historian in your classroom? (That will also provide a chance to discuss the efficacy of flipping content.  What are the challenges and opportunities for that approach?)

Today we begin our study of historical thinking skills based on the work of Sam Wineburg and the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG). We will focus on three key historical thinking skills – Sourcing, Contextualization, Corroboration. See Historical Thinking Chart  (pdf in English and Spanish at SHEG).

We will get inspired by some SHEG lessons from their collections Reading Like a Historian and Beyond the Bubble.

Here’s what a Google From looks like: Photograph – Zulu Chief
Here are some student designed SHEG-inspired lessons that are delivered using Google Forms
  1. Reconstruction Cartoon – Thomas Nast
  2. Photograph – “War is Hell”
  3. Film clip – Charlie Chaplin film clip
  4. Political Cartoon – Votes for Women
In class Practice
Click image to go to curated collection of historical sources to practice using Google Forms | Source
Assignment 3 | Completed Posts 19A-3

Design a mini lesson based on one of the historical thinking skills in a Google Form and embed into your next post.

Google form lesson should include:

  1. Title
  2. Document to be considered – image or video (or short text passage)
  3. Archival source of document (be sure it’s in public domain)
  4. One or more questions for user to answer.
  5. Instructional goal

Then get embed the Google form in post (more instructions below). Be sure your blog post has:

  1. Title for your mini-lesson. Why not make it catchy?
  2. Featured image (could be created with your archival photo)
  3. Embedded Google form
  4. Brief reflection on the mini lesson, historical skill or use of Google form in classroom
Tech resources for lesson

More tips on using Google forms here

How to get an embed code for your Google form

How to HTML Snippets to embed your Google form into WordPress post. Note in this example I begin by getting the embed code from a Padlet. Once you have the any embed code on your “clipboard” you can use HTML Snippets in WordPress

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Class 1: Teachers

Timken Roller Bearing Co., calendar, September 1950, teacher at desk

CLASS 1 OVERVIEW

As an ice breaker, I’ll give students an activity to design a great history teacher-  a variation of “Tool 13: Brainstorm, Group, Label” from my Literacy Strategies Tool Kit (free PDF)

  • Ask them to brainstorm all the words or phrases they can associate with “a great history teacher.”
  • Give them Post-Its and asked them to write one associated word or phrase on each sheet.
  • Put them in groups and ask them to share their Post-its and thinking. Then design an illustration that captured their collective thinking. And be prepared to share that with the class.
  • Working in fours synthesize their individual brainstorming into a collective vision on large paper, then take turns sharing and responding to questions.
pappas-rookie

I’m giving my students a copy of my 1971 student teaching evaluation (2 page pdf) Quite a relic – Why did I save it?  We’ll examine it as an historic document with a critical eye for answering a number of questions: Who created it and why? Historic context? Point-of-view? What could we learn from it? What other sources might we need to collaborate?

We will explore what it tells us about NYS teacher preparation programs in 1971.

ASSIGNment FOR CLASS 2:

Read

  1. Snapshot of a Modern Learner Mike Fisher in SmartBlog on Education
  2. The Reflective Student: A Taxonomy of Reflection (Part 2) Peter Pappas in Copy / Paste

Think about “Santos” from Snapshot of a Modern Learner

  • What do you know about him?
  • How does he best learn?
  • How should he be taught?

Reflect about yourself as a learner. Use the same 3 prompts we used with Santos. Create a brief “selfie” of yourself as a learner that you can share with a classmate in our next session.

  1. It does not need to use an edtech perspective (as Santos’s snapshot did), unless that’s how you learn.
  2. It’s not actually a selfie. But, like Santos – it’s a Snapshot of a Learner – You
  3. It can take any form you choose – written narrative, cartoon, diagram, Powerpoint, Webcam video, Pinterest. (it doesn’t have to be digital). Think about “Reflective reading” above. That’s why I’m letting you choose the product format.  
  4. It  should be something you can share with a classmate at our next class. Key point to consider – Will make sense to someone else without you having to explain it?

In class 2 you will share your “learner selfie” and we’ll take it from there.

Based on edTPA

HSS2: How does the candidate use knowledge of his/her students to target support for students to develop understandings of facts, concepts, and interpretations or analyses to build arguments about historical events, a topic/theme, or social studies phenomenon?

HSS3: How does the candidate use knowledge of his/her students to justify instructional plans?

Image credit: George Eastman House
Timken Roller Bearing Co., calendar, September 1950, teacher at desk
Accession Number: 1976:0240:0019
Maker: Victor Keppler (1904-1987)
Date: Dec-1948

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Class 1: Teachers

Timken Roller Bearing Co., calendar, September 1950, teacher at desk

Class 1 Overview

As an ice breaker, I’ll give students an activity to design a great history teacher-  a variation of “Tool 13: Brainstorm, Group, Label” from my Literacy Strategies Tool Kit (free PDF)

  • Ask them to brainstorm all the words or phrases they can associate with “a great history teacher.”
  • Give them Post-Its and asked them to write one associated word or phrase on each sheet.
  • Put them in groups and ask them to share their Post-its and thinking. Then design an illustration that captured their collective thinking. And be prepared to share that with the class.
  • Working in fours synthesize their individual brainstorming into a collective vision on large paper, then take turns sharing and responding to questions. Click to enlarge posters.

diagramEmoji

recipespell teacher

I’m giving my students a copy of my 1971 student teaching evaluation (2 page pdf) Quite a relic – Why did I save it?  We’ll examine it as an historic document with a critical eye for answering a number of questions: Who created it and why? Historic context? Point-of-view? What could we learn from it? What other sources might we need to collaborate?

We will explore what it tells us about NYS teacher preparation programs in 1971.

We will take a tech survey using LearningCatalytics

Assigned Readings for Class 2:

  1. Snapshot of a Modern Learner Mike Fisher in SmartBlog on Education
  2. How to Motivate Students: Researched-Based Strategies Peter Pappas in Copy / Paste
  3. A Taxonomy of Reflection: Critical Thinking For Students, Teachers, Principals Peter Pappas in Copy / Paste

Assignment for Class 2:

Think about “Santos” from Snapshot of a Modern Learner 

  1. What do you know about him? 
  2. How does he  best learn?
  3. How should he be taught?

Think about yourself as a learner. Use the same 3 prompts we used with Santos. Create a brief “selfie” of yourself as a learner that you can share with a classmate in our next session.

  1. It does not need to use an edtech perspective (as Santos’s snapshot did), unless that’s how you learn.
  2. It’s not actually a selfie. But, like Santos – it’s a Snapshot of a Learner – You
  3. It can take any form you choose – written narrative, cartoon, diagram, Powerpoint, Webcam video, Pinterest. (it doesn’t have to be digital). Think about “Reading 2” above. That’s why I’m letting you choose the product format.  
  4. It  should be something you can share with a classmate at our next class. Key point to consider – Will make sense to someone else without you having to explain it?

In class 2 you will share your “selfie” snapshot and we’ll take it from there. 

Based on edTPA

HSS2: How does the candidate use knowledge of his/her students to target support for students to develop understandings of facts, concepts, and interpretations or analyses to build arguments about historical events, a topic/theme, or social studies phenomenon?

HSS3: How does the candidate use knowledge of his/her students to justify instructional plans?

Image credit: George Eastman House
Timken Roller Bearing Co., calendar, September 1950, teacher at desk
Accession Number: 1976:0240:0019
Maker: Victor Keppler (1904-1987)
Date: Dec-1948

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Class 14: Proofing Our DBQs

Exploring history-2
This is the final activity in our DBQ design project. It began with exploring historic thinking skills and ends with students designing their own DBQs for inclusion in a class published iBook.

During the last few classes we have had 45 min sessions in the Mac lab (only a few students have their own Macs with iBooks Author). Students have arrived with their prewritten text, source material, images and YouTube video links. They used a total of about 2 hours of lab time to complete rough drafts their chapters. They shared their chapter files with me and following class, I compiled their chapters into a single iBook. Link to a PDF version 27MB pdf.

I’ve arranged to have the iBooks draft file loaded on to iPads for the students to use. In Class 14 we will proof and peer review our chapters and take one last trip to the Mac lab to use iBooks Author to do a final version. After the final edits, I’ll upload to iTunes. Net result – a student publication in just a few hours of lab time (with all research and writing done in advance)

Update Exploring History: Vol II is now available free at iTunes

Exploring historyii