History and Social Studies Network

Here are the notes and other resources from the conference.

Flyers: http://bit.ly/1TnJaWP

Notes: http://bit.ly/1ShFmYj

Seminars and Conferences: http://bit.ly/1VqYhlX

 

 

 

This video will explain some of the fundamental concepts, structures, and strategies that can support effective thinking, reading, and writing in History and Social Studies.

• History and social science teachers!  Don’t miss out on this terrific professional learning opportunity.  CSUN is holding an Open Institute, Connecting with History: Making History Personal for Students, for 6-12 grade history and social science educators interested in learning strategies for engaging students and connecting them to course content.  Join like-minded colleagues to explore techniques that develop creative and independent thinkers.  Bring history alive using CCSS based instruction.  The Open Institute will be held  June 23-25, 2015, from 9 am to noon.  The $225 fee ($150 for Writing Project Teacher Consultants or participants with a valid CSUN ID) includes a Continental breakfast and all materials including a professional book from Heinemann publishers.  www.csun.edu/writingproject
• Registration is now open for a Summer PD with the Stanford History Education Group-SHEG.  RLH Secondary Training

To go along with the video below, I have included links to several documents that would be useful in supporting your colleagues.  Please let me know if you would like more resources. DOKsocialDOK Levelsstudies_KH08 dok_question_stems cognitive_rigor_matrix_reading_writing descrip_social_studies Hess_Cognitive_RigorDOK Levels

I highly recommend this video that explains Depth of Knowledge.  There are even examples of how different DoK questions and tasks would apply to a History and Social Studies classroom!

Some teachers have asked me about some of the partnerships that I have used and/or recommend to link your instruction plan to experts outside of your school.  I am attaching a list of contacts that you may use to support your culminating tasks and have them result in a shared instructional experience between your school and a university, museum, or other non-profit.  Please let me know if you have any questions and if I can facilitate any possible partnerships.

Community Engagement Resources copy

If you have had a chance to attend one of our trainings, hopefully this video will bring back some memories.

The sign of a great teacher is one that is a continuous learner.  Here are some wonderful books that I highly recommend in order to continually sharpen your saw and improve your craft as a History and Social Studies teacher.

• Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts (Charting the Future of Teaching the Past (Critical Perspectives On The Past) by Sam Wineburg
• Be Excellent at Anything: The Four Keys To Transforming the Way We Work and Live by Tony Schwartz
• The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Tony Schwartz
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Dr. Carol Dweck
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath
• Reading, Thinking, and Writing About History: Teaching Argument Writing to Diverse Learners in the Common Core Classroom Grades 6-12
• Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding by Jay McTighe
• Reading Like a Historian: Teaching Literacy in Middle and High School History Classrooms by Sam Wineburg

I am often asked about additional books and/or materials that could be used by students and which facilitate the inquiry driven classroom.  Here are some that I have used and which are great sources to foster a document based lesson approach to History and Social Studies.

• Ordinary Americans: U.S. History Through the Eyes of Everyday People by Linda R. Monk
• Don’t Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned by Kenneth Davis
• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
• A Young People’s History of the United States-Howard Zinn, Student Version
• Guns, Germs, and Steel by Dr. Jerod Diamond
• SpringBoard
• Universal Design for Learning

It is always important to have methods of including student voice and discussion.  I recommend these as options that make use of technology.  These are even accessible through handheld devices.

• http://www.polleverywhere.com: Student/participant response and survey site
• http://answergarden.ch: online word and question grouping and surveys
• https://getkahoot.com: Questions, Games, Surveys, Quizes
• http://www.wordle.net: word bundles
• https://todaysmeet.com: online comments to be shared with a whole group
• http://poll.pollcode.com: more polling options