Week 3 in Mr. Bruce's History

Parents and students,

After another great week with your kids, I am energized by the way they have taken to the beginnings of the study of the past. Here's what we've done this week to make me feel this way.

We didn't start all that awesome. Monday was the pre-test. This is essentially the final exam that they will take in June. They didn't take too well to it because it asked them to do things they didn't understand. And that's quite the point, that there's much to learn this year! Tuesday/Wednesday, we explored why this is such a valuable course of study and what it provides us as students, as well as members of a large civic body. Consider asking your son/daughter "why history"?

We finished the week by exploring that first step toward what makes "history" history: Questions. All history (that is the study of the past - an active discipline) begins with good questions. And good questions allow us an opportunity to dig deeper and truly understand the past, as opposed to settling for superficial trivia. We also explored categories of inquiry to help guide us toward the kinds of questions to ask of the past. For example, as them which question is better and why:

• Were people killed as a result of the “Boston Massacre?” 
• Were the British soldiers justified in firing on the colonists the night of the “Boston Massacre?” 

All this leads us toward building a better inquiry, a way to discover the past.

And because I brought up the idea of assessment, I might as well introduce you to the three main criteria I will ask them to demonstrate, and progressively improve on, through the year. I have attached the Historical Process Rubric. The three categories are what we will focus on into next week as we move through the three steps of this process: Questions, Evidence, and Interpretation.

Next week we will use what we learned about good questions to consider what it means to gather and evaluate the evidence needed to begin to answer our questions. This is step 2 in our process and it is, by far, the most difficult part. It requires deep text analysis and reading in a way that is altogether new. We will do this by jumping into content for the first time. I think we're ready...

Thanks for taking the time to come with on this "journey." Stay in touch. Keep me motivated to continue these updates :)

See you at the game tonight! Go QMS Band!!!
Mr. Bruce

Historical Process Rubric

Week 2 in Mr. Bruce's History

Parents and students,

Each of us took a piece of a puzzle
and attempted to put it together. 

I would have thought our first 5-day week of this school year to have felt a little longer than it did. Rather, it blew by...! At this rate it will be Thanksgiving before we know it.

We began with the follow-up presentation from the "My Three Artifacts" assignment that went home last weekend. These 60-second presentations allowed students a chance to share a piece of themselves to their classmates and what that object says about them. While this is a task directly aimed at making them see embedded into the study of history, it also allows us to build community.

This aspect of community is essential to learning history by "doing" history. We ended this week with our first glimpse into what history really is: the study of the past through questions, analysis of evidence, and constructing an interpretation of what we find. In order to introduce this extended definition of history, we use the puzzle as an analogy and each piece as an artifact. If puzzle pieces are scattered around in the possession of many individuals/owners, we must be able to communicate and collaborate in order to put artifacts together and construct the bigger picture. Consider discussing these questions at home:

• How is history like a puzzle? 
• What does each puzzle piece represent? 
• What do you think historians do when there are puzzle pieces missing (see the attached image)? 
• Is it possible to force a puzzle piece where it doesn't actually belong? What if a historian does this? 
• If history is like a puzzle, what makes a good historian? 

Next week we are going to extend this conversation and dip our toes in the water. That is, after we take a pre-test. Nothing to prepare for - just a way to create a baseline of data to compare students to themselves at the end of the year. We will be deep into doing history and ready to apply some new skills by the end of the month. Next week I'll be sharing more about what this process looks like on paper and how I will be assessing it. From there, you'll learn more about what content we will learn through this process.

Have you subscribed to Remind yet? Has your son/daughter? If so, awesome. If not, take literally 30 seconds and text @qms-ushist to 81010 and follow the instructions. Curious about the benefits? See Resources for Parents.

Shaping up to be a fantastic year!
Mr. Bruce

Week 1 in Mr. Bruce's History

Parents and students,

What a way to start the year! I am quite certain that this is going to be the best year ever and the evidence is in the 8th grade class that I have gotten to know this week.

We started with two days of "Boot Camp" where we re-familiarize ourselves with building norms, procedures, and expectations. But we also kicked off the year with some awesome guest speakers who helped us understand our building quote: "If you can dream it, you can achieve it; if you can imagine it, you can become it." Please ask your son or daughter about Zack and Gregory when you get a chance.

By Thursday, we were (I was) definitely ready to get started in to U.S. History. I have taught U.S.History for 9 years (7 in Union City). My pursuit with you and your son/daughter is to instill in them more than just an understanding about what happened in our past, but to actually become a young student historian. In this way, they will learn the processes of using sources to develop an interpretation of the past and compare that with what others have developed. Through this process, we will be building or constructing our understanding of our past in a community of learners, collaborating for collective success.

This process requires patience to get started... we begin with the basics. For this reason, I start with connecting students to history personally through the My Three Artifacts assignment. Please ask your student about this assignment which was sent home today to be completed no later than Tuesday. The assignment culminates in a 60 second live presentation or, alternatively, a video recording in which the student displays an artifact in their life and what that artifact tells a "finder" about them. I have attached the assignment sheet for your reference.For more, see the My Three Artifacts Lesson. I look forward to sharing some of these presentations for you at Open House this upcoming Tuesday evening.

Also, we are working to take some ownership in the classroom. Groups of students are collaborating to decorate the classroom walls and bulletin boards in a way that makes the room their U.S. History classroom. I look forward to seeing how that all turns out...

Finally, as I mentioned above, Tuesday is our Open House. Please come on in and see what we've got going on here at QMS.

Please consider staying connected with Mr. Bruce's History using Remind. Both parents and students are encouraged to sign up. This is a way for me to send updates and information via text without managing or collecting phone numbers. Super simple - super effective! See the image attached to this email for 30 second instructions. Again, it's best if both students and parents sign up to receive updates.

Well, that's enough for this week. Stay tuned for more. Much more. Have a great weekend!

Yours,
Mr. Bruce