We're ready to round out Marking Period 1 next week. Just like that, a quarter of the school year is behind us. The second marking period is loaded with opportunities for us to practice this process of learning history through questions, gathering and evaluating evidence, and interpretation. Under significant guidance, we will apply this foundation to topics like the creation of the Constitution, putting that experimental government into practice, and a very shaky election year in 1800.
Before you read any further. We worked on two essential assignments this week. Both should be completed by all students before returning Monday:
- Chapter 6 Reading Guide: The Declaration of Independence
- Chapter 7 Reading Guide: The American Revolution
At this point in the year, it is helpful for me to introduce you to the guiding framework for why I lead students this way through History. For me it's been a process that has developed over the last 11 years since graduating from CMU. While CMU provided the right tools to be an effective teacher, it was later that I developed a truly effective practice for teaching history.
It began with a Federal "Teaching American History" grant that the Battle Creek Consortium received that they opened up to all Calhoun ISD schools. While at Union City, that included me - it was AWESOME. I worked with a small group of 8th grade teachers from the Calhoun ISD as well as historians and professors from MSU to build lessons and units. This effort gave us understanding into what history instruction could be. Part of this included an project called "Thinking Like a Historian" created by two historians from Wisconsin. Their framework has been my foundation. Since then, I have gotten further ideas from a book titled Why Won't You Just Tell Us the Answer by Bruce Lesh. His application of very similar methods gave me more strategies to employ. Finally, a project by Sam Wineburg, a renowned professor from Stanford, called "Historical Thinking Matters" has guided me to help students critically analyze primary and secondary sources.
What's more important is that in the last two years, Michigan has taken steps toward making this approach to teaching social studies a more concrete reality. Michigan sent a number of representatives to be a part of a group from several states to develop an instructional approach that can guide teachers in how to teach content standards. Content is what is taught and learned: topics. The C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards defines how social studies should be taught. It fits with how I teach perfectly. The link I included above takes you to a page on my website where I have listed just the C3 Standards. Attached is the PDF document of the Framework in its entirety. The introduction is an excellent read if you are interested.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I would describe what I do in Extension class for those of you who have or will have students in that class. I encourage you to take a peek at www.codeavengers.com (see video below). This website is one of a few resources for learning how to code. My particular emphasis is learning to create for the web, which includes two languages: HTML and CSS. Students take an introductory course and then the hope is to apply what they learn to create a personal site of their own before the 12 week rotation is up. Nowhere else in their public education are these skills provided except in these exploratory classes. Of all of the visual content they have consumed as a user of the web and web based mobile applications, it is essential that they learn about how to produce and create. Across the nation right now there are hundreds of thousands of jobs in the high-tech sector that go unfilled because there are no applicants available. It starts here. It's also incredibly challenging and helps to define academic character.
Until next week,
Mr. Bruce
Intro to Code Avengers:
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