I will be out for Maternity leave so while I am writing this in February, it will appear in March. My students will be completing a 1920's project while I am out. They are creating posters of an assigned person from 1920's culture. They have to find someone that is like that person today, find examples of their work, have an image for the poster. They have to create a poster in a creative way (i.e. Louis Armstrong = in the shape of a trumpet, make it look like a facebook page, etc.).
The reason I have them finding a person similar to that person today is because one of the many questions I ALWAYS hear in my history classes is "Why do we have to learn this?" or "What does this have to do today?". By having them conduct this project I bring forth the point that we didn't all just magically appear here one day acting one specific way. We have developed as a society, as a world over the course of time, there are things in our past that have influenced the foundations of society whether politically, socially, economically, etc. This allows them to find connections on the social component of life from then to today. As long as the posters are still in my room when I return in May I will post some examples.
A digital version of this could be awesome if you wanted to use Thinglink or a Prezi, just to throw ideas out there. This one we will be going old school with the iPad for research, but not for creation. Apps need updating and such and don't always work right with the iPads and it will just be easier to allow students to use traditional supplies to create their end product than to have it backfire when I'm not here to troubleshoot.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Thursday, February 25, 2016
February - Gilded Age Projects
This is the second year that I have done the Gilded Age Project with a presentation with no words on the content slides. This year went better than the first in regards to warning students and discussing the point. More groups were prepared and managed to balance facts. It was interesting to see how the facts were divided up. Some were talking all of their facts and then their partner would go, while others shared facts every other.
My standard classes were allowed to have note cards with their facts. My honor's class was only allowed to have one note card for their group and no more than four words per line. It made sure that they remembered some of the facts for their own.
The point of the project is multi-tiered: group work = group communication, evaluation thinking about their contributions to the group versus other members of the group, presentation skills (working on getting over their public speaking fears), and then content - listening to the presentations and seeing more pictures, which are not the teacher seems to help resound the information further. The matching section on the test went well in regards to the people that were used for the project. The only flaw is that the presentations from the other classes were then mixed up and confused because they didn't have that additional retention in addition to the notes.
Basic Set Up:
-First Slide: Name of Person, Group Members Names, Picture of the Person
-Second Slide: "Upbringing" to label the slide, Standard - 3 pictures; Honor - 5 pictures
-Third Slide: "Adulthood" to label the slide, Standard - 3 pictures; Honor - 5 pictures
-Fourth Slide: "Gilded Age" to label the slide, Standard - 3 pictures; Honor - 5 pictures
-Sources
Now one thing to keep in mind, if they had a muckraker or someone that started off on a lower socioeconomic bracket may not have pictures from their childhood. Students needed to find pictures that REPRESENTED things in their lives and not necessarily actual pictures.
My standard classes were allowed to have note cards with their facts. My honor's class was only allowed to have one note card for their group and no more than four words per line. It made sure that they remembered some of the facts for their own.
The point of the project is multi-tiered: group work = group communication, evaluation thinking about their contributions to the group versus other members of the group, presentation skills (working on getting over their public speaking fears), and then content - listening to the presentations and seeing more pictures, which are not the teacher seems to help resound the information further. The matching section on the test went well in regards to the people that were used for the project. The only flaw is that the presentations from the other classes were then mixed up and confused because they didn't have that additional retention in addition to the notes.
Basic Set Up:
-First Slide: Name of Person, Group Members Names, Picture of the Person
-Second Slide: "Upbringing" to label the slide, Standard - 3 pictures; Honor - 5 pictures
-Third Slide: "Adulthood" to label the slide, Standard - 3 pictures; Honor - 5 pictures
-Fourth Slide: "Gilded Age" to label the slide, Standard - 3 pictures; Honor - 5 pictures
-Sources
Now one thing to keep in mind, if they had a muckraker or someone that started off on a lower socioeconomic bracket may not have pictures from their childhood. Students needed to find pictures that REPRESENTED things in their lives and not necessarily actual pictures.
Monday, January 11, 2016
For and Against - December Post
Ever have one of those days that you think you've completed something only to realize you didn't post it? Well looking at my list I see that I've posted everything, but this... so now it is out of order... "Best laid plans of mice and men..."
This month we are working on our "For and Against" projects - students were assigned a topic from the list compiled - they could also give suggestions of topics. They had to take a survey to see what their stances were before they were assigned. If a student chose neutral they could be switched to being "For" or "Against" based on their classmates stances and groupings.
Here was the form for their topics:
-Abortion
-Gay Marriage
-Minimum Wage - Increase
-Raising the Debt Ceiling
-Euthanasia/Physician Assisted Suicide
-Vaccine for Kids
-Gun Control
-Medical Marijuana
-Animal Testing
-Video Games and Violence for Youth
-Death Penalty
-Drinking Age
-Cell Phones
-Illegal Immigration
-Concealed Handgun Permits
-Legalization of Marijuana
-E-Cigarettes
-Social Media in Schools
-Felons and Voting
-The Gold Standard
-Standardized Tests
-Tax Exempt Organizations
-Corporate Tax Rate
-Drones - Domestic
-Drones - International
-Electoral College
-Vocational Education
-Welfare
-Social Security
-Military Spending
-Domestic Violence
-Gambling
-Medicating Children
-Vaccinating Children
-Religion in Schools
-Police Brutality
-Discrimination/Affirmative Action
Students had to provide a historical overview of their topic in an unbiased faction. The main bulk of their paper is their persuasive portion where they focused on being for or against the topic and explaining why.
Next month, we will have them create short presentations where they introduce their main arguments to their classmates and then have open discussions about the topic. This project is working on the research component of their standards, group communication, public speaking, and presenting information.
Review Games - January Post
End of the Semester Review is very important because students typically don't remember what we studied in August/September. For review games this year, I have created a few new things simply because the new Smart Board in my room does not allow you to throw things at it, like the old boards did; this issue has rendered my Bulls Eye game and Basketball game worthless because you can't score when the board doesn't pick up the ball.
Quizizz.com - review game that allows multiple choice questions - students may go at their own pace, but can be timed (mine have 30 seconds to answer their questions), but it allows them to answer questions and then see what they got wrong.
Flippity - Jeopardy and it does the MATH for you!!! Allows you to set up your boards, you must publish it to the web and then attach the link on the second tab. You then can play with your students and it allows you to keep track of points just by clicking the "x" and check mark.
Baseball - took the terms for the final exam and broke them into singles, doubles, and triples. Students are then asked a question at random (drawn from a bag)
Otherwise I have kept my standard reviews of History (Bingo), Square Game, and Bazinga, but those have been talked about at some point or another so I am not going to beat a dead horse. Review games should be interactive and keep students engaged, but also review the content.
Quizizz.com - review game that allows multiple choice questions - students may go at their own pace, but can be timed (mine have 30 seconds to answer their questions), but it allows them to answer questions and then see what they got wrong.
Flippity - Jeopardy and it does the MATH for you!!! Allows you to set up your boards, you must publish it to the web and then attach the link on the second tab. You then can play with your students and it allows you to keep track of points just by clicking the "x" and check mark.
Baseball - took the terms for the final exam and broke them into singles, doubles, and triples. Students are then asked a question at random (drawn from a bag)
Otherwise I have kept my standard reviews of History (Bingo), Square Game, and Bazinga, but those have been talked about at some point or another so I am not going to beat a dead horse. Review games should be interactive and keep students engaged, but also review the content.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Oregon Trail - November Post
The Oregon Trail is the first portion of the westward migration that occurs under the concept of Manifest Destiny. I have done a simulation for the event, but have been adding and tweaking it every year. Even this year I have spent the weeks after the fact digitizing the sheets for the assignment. It will make it even easier because students will just change one number and it'll do all the calculations for them in the coming years. This year we were still doing it by hand, which them and their calculators (phones) is the most time consuming part of the project.
Couples are chosen ahead of time so students are not with the same people every project.
First Step: Students choose whether they are the husband or wife out of the couple. Husband Students identify which profession they have (Popsicle sticks have professions written on it and they draw it from the cup). Mostly the boys of the groups are husbands, but we have some same gender groupings due to class numbers and some girls who refuse to be the wife that are husbands.
Second Step: Wives roll a dice to see how many children they have - 1-2 = 4 kids; 3-4 = 6 kids; 5-6 = 8 kids.
Third Step: Name all the children, given them a gender, and an age. (this will impact the weekly consumption of the family)
Fourth Step: Begin Shopping - on day two they are given an estimate of needed resources for a family of four to survive (since no one has a family of four no one can claim favoritism)
Fifth Step: Begin the Journey
Sixth Step: Starting on week three we start rolling a twenty sided die to see if they were attacked by Native Americans and also start choosing fate cards - rivers, floods, tornadoes, snakes, etc. Plus each week we deduct from their resources their weekly resources. When they no longer have resources for their family members they begin to die off.
All of the standard students died this semester. In the one classes defense they were hit by a tornado and no one rolled where they got to safety before hand. Some of the Honors students were successful in their endeavor, potentially. We did not get in as far with the Honors because they had a primary document to complete that the regular students did not have. Next year with the digital form for the calculations should make this possible still in the Honors class.
Couples are chosen ahead of time so students are not with the same people every project.
First Step: Students choose whether they are the husband or wife out of the couple. Husband Students identify which profession they have (Popsicle sticks have professions written on it and they draw it from the cup). Mostly the boys of the groups are husbands, but we have some same gender groupings due to class numbers and some girls who refuse to be the wife that are husbands.
Second Step: Wives roll a dice to see how many children they have - 1-2 = 4 kids; 3-4 = 6 kids; 5-6 = 8 kids.
Third Step: Name all the children, given them a gender, and an age. (this will impact the weekly consumption of the family)
Fourth Step: Begin Shopping - on day two they are given an estimate of needed resources for a family of four to survive (since no one has a family of four no one can claim favoritism)
Fifth Step: Begin the Journey
Sixth Step: Starting on week three we start rolling a twenty sided die to see if they were attacked by Native Americans and also start choosing fate cards - rivers, floods, tornadoes, snakes, etc. Plus each week we deduct from their resources their weekly resources. When they no longer have resources for their family members they begin to die off.
All of the standard students died this semester. In the one classes defense they were hit by a tornado and no one rolled where they got to safety before hand. Some of the Honors students were successful in their endeavor, potentially. We did not get in as far with the Honors because they had a primary document to complete that the regular students did not have. Next year with the digital form for the calculations should make this possible still in the Honors class.
Lewis and Clark - October Post
Students have done time line on Lewis and Clark and have watched a documentary on it. At this point we are looking for something that they can create that will show they understand what they have studied and seen. This year we decided to do journal entries. Students were broken into groups of three, each person in the group had to choose a different person from the expedition and three different events. Students then had time to research their specific events and write their journal entries. Honors had to write three entries with seven sentences each. Regulars had to write three entries with five sentences each. The qualifications for Honors were more stringent in regards to details and personal characteristics in their entries that could identify the person without seeing who signed the entry.
Here is an example of an entry:
Overall I would consider the project a success. There was an issue in having all the students turn in their projects (here we are in November and I am still waiting for six projects to be turned in). The reviews went over well with students. The only major issue they faced was in putting their final product together in chronological order. The use of Google Docs for the document definitely assisted in letting everyone work on their portion at the same time. It also helps them in regards to spell check and grammar.
Here is an example of an entry:
June 19, 1803;
I have just sent out the proposal letter to my dear friend William Clark requesting his assistance in my upcoming expedition. The amount of anticipation for the answer to my request is unbearable. I have presented him with all of the information that was given to me, in the best hopes that he will agree to assist me on this fabulous journey. I provided Clark that I have had the choice to indict soldiers, whom of which cannot be commissioned officers, and exceeding no more than twelve, along with any other men that I so believe will be an aid to this journey. I have the highest of hopes.
Meriwether Lewis.Overall I would consider the project a success. There was an issue in having all the students turn in their projects (here we are in November and I am still waiting for six projects to be turned in). The reviews went over well with students. The only major issue they faced was in putting their final product together in chronological order. The use of Google Docs for the document definitely assisted in letting everyone work on their portion at the same time. It also helps them in regards to spell check and grammar.
Time Line You - September's Project
Ever have one of those moments where you think "it's okay I can do that later" and then you realize you still haven't done it. Well that's me and my project posts. I've spent so much time creating, grading, reading evaluations of students, etc. for these projects that I forgot to post descriptions and examples from them. So I apologize profoundly, but here is my September Post (in November). I will attempt to be more diligent in the coming months.
The first big project of the year was checking to see if student's understand the difference between primary and secondary sources, as well as chronological thinking. In years past I've had them take their life events and compare them with others life events and make one large time line. This year I had them focus solely on themselves and then find Primary Documents and Secondary Documents to use as reference for those events.
Overall the project was a success, but there were multiple students who found the sourcing component of this difficult. This also led us into the Ordeal by Cheque Activity in which they had to create a story based on a primary documents (checks) about the life of the person. We also then talked about Historical Perspectives and Interpretations and how people with the same set of primary evidence could come to different conclusions.
Here are examples of the finished products: (You'll notice that the major primary source for most of the students was pictures) Names, Dates, and Pictures have been blurred/erased for the safety of my students.
The first big project of the year was checking to see if student's understand the difference between primary and secondary sources, as well as chronological thinking. In years past I've had them take their life events and compare them with others life events and make one large time line. This year I had them focus solely on themselves and then find Primary Documents and Secondary Documents to use as reference for those events.
Overall the project was a success, but there were multiple students who found the sourcing component of this difficult. This also led us into the Ordeal by Cheque Activity in which they had to create a story based on a primary documents (checks) about the life of the person. We also then talked about Historical Perspectives and Interpretations and how people with the same set of primary evidence could come to different conclusions.
Here are examples of the finished products: (You'll notice that the major primary source for most of the students was pictures) Names, Dates, and Pictures have been blurred/erased for the safety of my students.
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