Let’s Talk Social Studies Has Moved!

Let’s Talk Social Studies has moved, but not far!  Visit us soon at http://communities.ohiorc.org/lets-talk-social-studies/.

4 Step Reading Process for Middle Level Students and Primary Documents

A recent post to teachinghistory offers a four step process for teachers to use with middle school students in their analysis of primary documents. It offers an approach that highlights the more complex historical thinking skills found at the middle school level.

In the illustration provided, students analyze the texts of four speeches given by President Jackson around the time of the Indian Removal Act. Each text, along with its accompanying key questions, is included.

Students begin by focusing only on the top and bottom sections of the document and the source information that appears there to establish perspective and setting. During the second read, students focus on the main body of the text to identify the main idea and underline the phrase that best supports that idea. The third read involves students identifying supporting details (assertions, evidence, or examples) for the main argument. As students read the fourth time, they refer back to the sourcing information that they identified in the first step and write responses to the key questions in the document margins.

The process can be applied as students investigate various topics and primary documents during the school year, giving them opportunities to practice and build on historical thinking skills.

Geography for Life – Second Edition announced!

 

The National Council for Geography Education released Geography for Life – Second Edition. In a recent webinar,  Susan Gallagher Heffron described the standards as promoting an emphasis on “doing Geography”.

The 8″ x 11.5″ wire-bound second edition is available for purchase at the NCGE website: http://ncge.org/geography-for-life for a modest price and portions of it are viewable online. The three-column publication, organized by grade band ( K-4, 5-8 and 9-12) includes knowledge statements and performance statements. Two of the original eighteen standards have been updated to reflect 21st century learning: Standard #1, regarding the use of maps and other geographic representations now includes geospatial technologies and spatial thinking. Standard #8  Ecosystems have been expanded to include biomes. Performance statements and illustrative examples were also updated.

Apparently, as the writing team looked at the scaffolding of geography skills across grade bands, their eyes were opened to gaps, which they were able to address. In addition to the expanded glossary there are examples of data sources as well as photos and images, all provided by educators. Classroom vignettes offer models of doing geography in the classroom. This emphasis on doing geography involves students looking at geography from a variety of perspectives, investigating the world around them and asking and answering geographic questions.

The original Five Themes of Geography are included within the 6 Essential Elements, which are more comprehensive and detail the way we get to the application of geography skills.

National Geographic’s supporting website: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/?ar_a=1 will ultimately include the revised standards tabbed by grade level and it will be more interactive.

 

10 strategies to begin the school year…

The Teaching with the Library of Congress blog has once again demonstrated why it should be on every social studies teacher’s list of favorite resources. A recent post: Ten Tips to Start the New Year with Primary Documents merits your immediate attention.

The August 23rd post offers ten strategies to help get students started with historical inquiry and using primary sources. I especially like idea #4 where students bring five primary sources from home, draw a conclusion about what the sources reveal and support their conclusion with evidence.

By practicing the inquiry process at the beginning of the school year, students are ready to practice those skills as they engage with other topics.

Struggling with primary sources?

Thinkfinity has posted a very thorough piece on “Engaging Students with Primary Sources”. From the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Kenneth E. Behring Center, this 64 page document provides a very thorough look at the use of primary sources in the classroom. I believe it will prove useful for social studies teachers at all grade levels.

Here you can find information about learning styles and multiple Intelligences, strengths and limitations of documents, photographs, advertisements, oral histories and objects, tips for analyzing the sources, suggestions on where to find them and exemplar activities. Engaging Students with Primary Sources is available for download at http://historyexplorer.si.edu/PrimarySources.pdf

Thinkfinity  has recently combined their community and main site: Visit http://thinkfinity.org/welcome. Access is free, but you will need to register. Thinkfinity offers a plethora of resources for teachers, including discussion groups, online professional development, lesson plans and resources.

Fantastic resource for teachers of American History!

The last time I got this excited about a social studies resource it was National Geographic’s Beta Education site at http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/?ar_a=1

Well, recently I found an equally awesome resource; it’s the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History site at http://www.gilderlehrman.org/multimedia#56431.

This site provides numerous resources for the history teacher, and many of you may already know about it, but what really caught my eye the last time I visited was the multimedia section. Here you can access lectures on a wide variety of historical topics. The video segments, searchable by era or theme, run anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes in length. The mini lectures are presented by well-respected historians, including OSU’s Dr. David Staley!

As Ohio teachers are heading back to school and trying to integrate content from the 2010 standards, this professional development resource is a real winner! Simply select an era, theme or topic that you need help with and gain quick access to a historian who knows all about it!  Many of the videos will also work for students.  Lehrman offers a free subscription if you are a K-12 educator or student, and there’s information on becoming an  Affiliate School, which gives you even more benefits.

Let me know how you plan to use these resources!

Virginia

Spatial Thinking

I’ve just completed an ORC-ON on the topic of Spatial Thinking. I explain how the skills build  K-12, address student misconceptions, suggest content to pair the skills with and offer instructional resources to help you.

You can check it out at : http://ohiorc.org/orcon/spatialthinking/58.aspx

Grades 5 and 6 social studies in Ohio: Dilemma or Opportunity?

Grades 5 and 6 Social Studies in Ohio: Dilemma or Opportunity?

What instructional approach are you considering using with grades 5 and 6 social studies? It appears teachers and school districts alike are struggling with this.

I think a great place to start would be to identify skills statements within each of the four strands, and then pair them with content you deem most appropriate. Don’t forget to check out the Expectations for Learning for each of the statements to find out what your students need to know and be able to do.

Here’s one idea:

Grade 5: Regions and People of the Western Hemisphere

Spatial Thinking and Skills

Content Statement 4: Globes and other geographic tools can be used to gather, process and report information about people, places and environments. Cartographers decide which information to include on maps.

Expectation for Learning: Use appropriate maps, globes and geographic tools to gather, process and report information about people, place and environments.

Places and Regions

Content Statement 6: Regions can be determined using various criteria (e.g., landform, climate, population, cultural or economic).

 

Expectation for Learning: Identify and describe regions within the Western Hemisphere using criteria related to landform, climate, population, culture and economics.

In this pairing, students use globes and other geographic tools to gather and report information about people, places and environments in the Western Hemisphere and use specific criteria to identify and describe them.

Grade 6: Regions and People of the Eastern Hemisphere

Spatial Thinking and Skills

Content Statement 3: Globes and other geographic tools can be used to gather, process and report information about people, places and environments. Cartographers decide which information to include and how it is to be displayed.

 

Expectation for Learning:

• Use appropriate maps, globes and geographic tools to gather, process and report information about people, place and environments.
• Understand that maps were created for specific purposes and represent the context in which they were created.

 

Places and Regions

Content Statement 5: Globes and other geographic tools can be used to gather, process and report information about people, places and environments. Cartographers decide which information to include and how it is to be displayed.

 

Expectation for Learning: Use various criteria to describe, classify and compare regions within the Eastern Hemisphere.

In this pairing, students use globes and other geographic tools to gather and report about people, places and environments in the Eastern Hemisphere and use various criteria to describe, classify and compare these regions. As they work with these tools, students begin to understand that maps are created for specific purposes and that the role of the mapmaker is to select the information to display and decide how it is displayed.

This content might be most appropriate for early in the year when students are being introduced to the hemispheres. Have students use maps, globes, diagrams and aerial or other photographs and provide them opportunities to practice using these tools to gather, process and report information about each region. Building skills with these specific tools prepares them well for work with GIS, GPS and RS in later grades and they are representative of some of the 21^st century tools for geography.

I know of three resources you will find very useful as you consider these themes and others:

http://www.gapminder.org/

Gapminder is used in classrooms around the world to build a fact-based worldview. With this resource, data related to world trends can be charted, compared and analyzed. Students and teachers can use Gapminder World without the Internet by installing the Gapminder Desktop, which updates automatically. Graphs can also be created and saved.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, and transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The site features maps of major world regions, flags of the world, physical and political maps and a standard time zone world map.

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/?ar_a=1

The new beta site for National Geographic Education features teacher resources, abundant multimedia, mapping applications, reference and news resources and educational programs for both teachers and students.

While you’re on the National Geographic site be sure to check out this introduction to geographic literacy.

Do let me know if you’re able to use this framework in your classroom or want to share other strategies. I’d love to hear!

Virginia

Founding Documents: Northwest Ordinance and U.S. Bill of Rights

Foundational Documents: reading activities for grades 4 and 8 and the Northwest Ordinance and the Bill of Rights

With the Ohio General Assembly’s recent passage of Amended Substitute Senate Bill 165, content related to the original texts of the Declaration of Independence, the Northwest Ordinance, the Constitution of the United States and its amendments, (emphasizing the Bill of Rights) and the Ohio Constitution is now included in grades 4-12 social studies. Concomitantly, Appendix B: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies grades 6-12 include content related to reading and suggests that ” students must be able to read complex informational texts in these fields with independence and confidence because the vast majority of reading in college and workforce training programs will be sophisticated nonfiction”. ELA common core standards documents note that these standards are intended to complement and not replace specific content within the social studies discipline. They also explain that K-5 reading and writing standards are integrated within the ELA standards at those grade levels.

Social studies teachers across Ohio are wondering about the implications for instruction. Are students in grades 4 and 8 capable of understanding what’s written in documents that were written two hundred years ago? Understanding the language found in documents from this time period does represent a significant challenge for students. Are there specific teaching strategies that can help?

Neil Duke and P. David Pearson suggest “good readers try to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts in the text…” and that they “construct, revise and question the meanings they make as they read”. The two unit plans that appear below address those skills. It’s important to point out that the plans were drafted from the perspective of the social studies discipline with careful consideration of the social studies content.

Common Core ELA standards include a core unit entitled: A Close Reading of the Gettysburg Address for high school students. The writers felt that this particular speech was the perfect text for close reading. Ohio’s legislatively mandated reading of the foundational documents may not be ideal texts for the close reading process, but I chose to modify the process somewhat for use with the Northwest Ordinance in Grade 4 and the Bill of Rights in Grade 8. Notice that in both plans the social studies content is paired with Reading Informational Text standards from Common Core ELA.

Let’s begin with grade 4, considering content statement 5:

The Northwest Ordinance established a process for the creation of new states and specified democratic ideals to be incorporated in the states of the Northwest Territory.

Fourth grade students need to be able to explain the process by which Ohio progressed from territory to statehood and how the Northwest Ordinance influenced the inclusion of democratic ideals in the states formed from the Northwest Territory. While students in grade four would be hard pressed to understand the entire document, excerpts from the original text can help students understand the process of becoming a new state as well as the democratic processes it promoted. The review of the original text of the Northwest Ordinance reveals that Section 14, Articles 1,3,5 and 6 relate to that content.

Below is a unit plan that features a modified close- reading of the Northwest Ordinance. The News Flash assessment aligns with the Expectation for Learning for content statement 5, that requires students to explain how Ohio progressed from territory to statehood and how the Northwest Ordinance influenced the incorporation of democratic ideals in the states that were formed from the Northwest Territory.

For grade 8, let’s consider content statement 21:

The U.S. Constitution protects citizens’ rights by limiting the powers of government.

As students examine the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the Bill of Rights) its important that they understand the rights it guarantees citizens as well as the limitations that were placed on the government. Students will undoubtedly encounter unfamiliar words as they read through the amendments, so once again, the unit incorporates students constructing, revising and questioning the meaning of words as they read.

The unit plan below features a middle school modified close reading activity with the Bill of Rights. Notice the scaffolding of skills involved in the process and also the variety of ways that the students interact with the text. Notice also that the assessment, the Rights Poster, aligns with the expectation for learning for the content statement.

Resources:

Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension, Neil K. Duke and P. David Pearson, Scholastic Red 2002.

Common Core English Language Arts Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies