Category: Apush

Five For Friday

2/20/2015

Hi everyone! Greg and I are going to share the Five For Friday post this week and give you a peek into what we've been up to!

Urban got his second set of ear tubes on President's Day. I was pleasantly surprised at how much better he did this time! The procedure was very quick, and by 9AM he was ready to eat a donut! We spent the rest of the day cuddling on the couch watching Caillou, since he had become pretty moody from the anesthesia and developed a fever. By the next morning he was back to his old self again!

Greg here. I’ve been making a big push away from content and towards skills-based instruction. Whether it be assessments or thinking activities, content has been backseat to how I’m asking students to develop ideas and thoughts. I ask students to create original arguments about the content, but always have a difficult time showing them what that looks like. The above idea came to me early one morning this week (you know, those mornings where you wake up with ideas already sprinting through your head), so I pulled it together rather quick. Please feel free to download and use it with your own students. Let me know if you think modifications would help.

Class Couple - Historical Argumentation
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I ask students to analyze information in a wide variety of ways, so they looked at me funny when I assigned sketchnotes this week. For those of you that haven’t heard of sketchnotes, it’s an interesting way that students visually connect pieces of content to (hopefully) demonstrate a deeper understanding. The students were a bit hesitant, but the end results turned out quite well!

I was given the opportunity to be a guest blogger for GoNoodle this week! I wrote about an opinion writing challenge we did using GoNoodle brain breaks! My first graders loved it! You can check out my post here, and you can get the freebie here!

Fellow blogger Kristin from My Carolina Classroom is celebrating her Blogiversary! Be sure to check out her blog and enter to win one of these awesome bundles packed full of fantastic products! Our Primary Sources Football Edition is part of the 3-5 Bundle!

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to check out what everyone else was up to this week!

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The BUCKET list

11/6/2014

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Greg here - and it's my return to the blog! Becky has dominated the posts recently (for which I am greatly appreciative), but I insisted on contributing this week.

No, this is not an IMDB review of the popular 2007 film The Bucket List. Although meeting Jack Nicholson or Morgan Freeman is certainly on my extended list of things to do before I kick the bucket. I'm referring to a new project I started this year with my AP US History class.

For those of you unfamiliar with the CollegeBoard or Advanced Placement courses, they made a concerted effort to shift the emphasis away from content and to historical thinking skills. Although I integrated long-term projects in to my AP curriculum for the past several years, the AP course revisions afforded me an unique opportunity to experiment with new ideas.

I wanted students to do research and writing on a regular basis. I also wanted students to see the value and potential experiences that exist in our community (before they leave for college). The bucket list project combined the two and reinforced a litany of standards from the Common Core, PDE, and the CollegeBoard.

Common core

PDE

collegeboard

The result is a blog that highlights the students work with weekly contributors and links that push out to each of the students' sites. (Check out the about section for a full description of the project.)

The students embraced the concept and have checked off a variety of items from their list. Some of the most interesting are a visit to the Shoe House, volunteering for a local organization, and praying at an abortion clinic. I am humbled by their efforts and am considering items that I need to check off my own list.

Have a great weekend!
Greg

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AP US HISTORY FOR 1st Graders

9/12/2014

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Greg here! I hope everyone is doing well!

Over the past few weeks, Becky and I invested some time in creating a new Columbus activity set for 1st - 3rd graders. Surprisingly, there are over 466 Christopher Columbus resources on TPT for 1st and 2nd grade alone.

When developing the activities, we kept two things in mind: 1. age appropriateness and 2. rigorous historical thinking. I turned to the newly developed historical thinking skills set forth by the College Board for AP US History to help build my framework.

The result is a set of activities that target some of the same skills I reinforce with students in 10th and 11th grade. For example, the craftivity (highlighted in the top photo) asks students to utilize an adjective to describe Columbus's voyage. Students are then required to back up their "conclusion" with two reasons. This is a simplified version of skill 6: historical argumentation. This approach will pay dividends in the students' writing and discussion skills.

The sequencing activity (seen below) reinforces the basic components of chronological reasoning (skill 1).

And the "What's your view?" activity requires students to synthesize (skill 9) the information to draw and write about a perspective of the voyage. Although guidance will probably be necessary, students will have fun thinking about an event from a different standpoint. Let their creativity run wild but also help build a context of the realities of the situation.

There are also several primary sources in the document (with accompanying questions) that supports multiple perspectives of the voyage (skill 7 - appropriate use of historical evidence).

I am convinced that good social studies skills are simply good critical thinking skills. These activities provide foundational historical thinking skills that will help students in both ELA and future social studies classes. Ultimately, we need to create engaging opportunities for students to understand that social studies is relevant and interesting.

Best.
Greg

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Five For Friday

The BUCKET list

Common core

PDE

collegeboard

AP US HISTORY FOR 1st Graders

Mr. & Mrs.

the library

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