Primary Sources

1. Lecturing is boring and passive.

2. Real historians don't listen to lectures.

3. To create more authentic learning environments, we must involve students in activities that professionals participate in.

And so,

4. Read more primary sources.

Real historians use a combination of primary sources and other historians' books to triangulate new knowledge or a new view on old knowledge. This requires critical reading, thinking, writing, and talking skills. We should do this in our classrooms.

But primary sources are hard to read and are more likely to have bias than a textbook, so students must be taught how to read primary sources.

Day 1: Introduce the idea of primary sources

*To do this, you will need 3 short primary sources related to the same topic such as three accounts of the Kent State shooting or 2 opinions on and a selection from the Constitution--whatever you are learning about in history. Remember literature, like poems and short stories, is also a primary source.

*Ask students where they think historians get their information fromRefer to (or maybe even show short clips of movies) such as National Treasure (not my favorite, but it works) or others (I'm drawing a blank) where people/historians/investigators are shown in dark rooms shifting through piles of information. This is what historians do. They don't just go to a textbook and get the information; they must search it out.

*Ask students to list places or things historians could get information. Divide the list into 2 parts--primary and secondary sources and write them on the board. Include items like journals, diaries, newspapers, pictures, bank statements, government forms and documents, other books. Anything that a person leaves behind is a primary sources, so even a ticket stub from a movie.

*Explain/discuss why primary sources are good sources of information and why they are not completely credible--people only get one side of the story, etc.

*Explain that when reading primary sources we can get a lot of information but we need to be careful to watch for bias.

*Pass out a short newspaper clipping or journal article or other primary source. Read it out loud to the class. Think aloud as you answer the following questions about the primary source

1. Who wrote the document?

2. When was the document written?

3. What is the main idea or a short summary of the document?

4. What things does the author assume you know?

5. What things does the author leave out?

6. What sort of bias might the author have?

7. Why did the author write this document?

8. What did the author want you to learn from reading this?

*Now give the students a chance to try. Pass out a second primary source and read it as a class. Answer the following questions as a class and have students think aloud as they answer questions.

*I'm thinking that about here you'll be running out of time, but if not, read one more primary source, but this time have students read it in partners or in groups of 3 or 4 and answer the questions. Bring the whole class back together and review the answers to the questions.

*If you still have time, discuss what you've learned about the event that all 3 primary sources were about. Write down a few key facts. Discuss the similarities and differences between the 3 sources. Why were they different? What made them different? How did the similarities and differences help you to create a picture of what happened at Kent State (or the March on Washington or the Battle of Gettysburg)? How does reading and using primary sources differ from reading a textbook?

*And bell. This will only be the first of many days dealing with primary sources, because for the rest of the year, you'll supplement textbook readings with primary sources.

The Take-Five Model

I just recently read that students should be reading in class every day. Reading in class every day. When I was teaching, I liked to use reading for homework, but the more I think about, the more it makes sense to have students reading in class. This allows you, as the teacher, to better monitor comprehension; to guide the reading; to work with struggling readers; reduces homework load for students; motivates students to continue reading at home; and by using the jigsaw method, allows students to read few things in greater depth. So read in class every day.

Here's a strategy from Jeanne R. Paratone and Rachel L. McCormack's "Grouping in Middle and Secondary Grades: Advancing Content and Literacy Knowledge" in Literacy Instruction for Adolescents: Research-Based Practice ed. Karen D. Wood and William E. Blanton, Guilford Press, New York, 2009.

The Take-Five Model has five daily components: get ready, read, reread, respond, and react.

Getting Ready includes doing any of the following

*review previous work

*activate/build background knowledge

*develop vocabulary

*make predictions

*question

* mini lesson

*introduce/implement graphic organizer

*comprehension monitoring

Reading can be done in various groups such as pairs, teams, individual, or whole class and includes

*read with a focus

*main idea

Rereading can also be done in any of the various groups mentioned above and includes

*reading with a different focus

*for detail

*to identity areas of confusion

*verbalize/think aloud

*talk/discuss

*skim

*complete graphic organizers

*KWL

*answer questions in text orally

Responding is also done in various groupings and includes

*response journals

* dialog journals

*arts

*learning logs

*convert graphic organizer to connected text

Reacting is genearlly the whole class but can be done in various groupings and includes

*sharing journal entries

*teacher-led or peer-led discussions

*sharing responses or graphic organizers

I like this model because it is formed around groups and discussions and can be used in any content area. It prevents reading from becoming an isolated activity of students reading on their own and then doing nothing with the reading. It forces students to read, do something with the reading and then read it again. Reading then is an active, involved process where the reading is important now and is use in authentic conversation and not just to answer right there questions.

Children's Books

My new favorite children's books:

The Pigeon books by Mo Willems

I love the interaction of the pigeon with the audience and the text with the pictures and the use of text to to convey tone.

Great books.

Constitution Test

As a more authenic form of testing on the Constitution, why not give groups (or individuals, but groups I think would work better) of students real Supreme Court cases, but without the decision. Have them debate the cases in their groups--like the real Supreme Court--and then have them write a decision. Depending on your time available to grade tests, have students each write their own opinion on the case or have the group come up with one opinion. Keep in mind, however, that the real Supreme Court does not have to unanimous. Decisions, or at least recent decisions, have frequently been 5 to 4. Maybe have the students in each group vote and then write only two decisions. It depends on how much individual work you want the students to do, but I would have them write their decisions as a group. Require that students make at least 3 direct references to the Constitution and correctly explain how the section being referenced applies to the case in addition to what the section says in real language.

After students have written their decisions, give them the official decisions and have them discuss the differences between their decisions and that of the Court. Emphasize that the Court is not infalliable, and although more educated, the Court has been wrong in the past (Plessy v. Ferguson, for example). Have students either revise their decision or further support their decision, again by pulling directly from the Constitution and from the official Court decision.

Step three, have students individually reflect on their experience. What did they learn? What do they still want to learn?

Lastly, have each group present the facts, their decision and the official decision with accompanying explaination to the class.

I think this would take 2-3 days to complete between the amount of time needed to debate, write, re-debate, revise, reflect, and present, but I think the time would be well worth the effort as students actively involved in their education.

A few things to remember:

*Put a minimum time on the debates--my students rush through discussions to get to the important part, the part that's graded without focusing on the other really important part--the discussion.

*No internet. Because these are real court cases it would be all too easy for students to look up the Court's opinion and just copy that without doing any of the critical thinking themselves.

*Emphasize the importance of the discussion over the correctness of the answer. There is no right answer--again take the Plessy v. Ferguson case and the Brown v. Board of Education case. Students' grades will depend on their depth of thought, thoroughness of explanation, and ability to apply the Constitution, not their ability to match the Court's decision.

*Use court cases that the students will encounter later in the year such as Marberry v. Madison, Brown v. Board of Education, State of Tennessee v. Scopes, or whatever else is in your curriculum.

*Try the following websites for Court Case descriptions:

http://www.streetlaw.org/en/landmark.aspx

http://library.thinkquest.org/11572/cc/

Sequencing

I recently heard tell of a teacher struggling to teach sequencing of a story, so I, with few suggestions from fellow teachers, thought up this one:

Objective: Students will define sequencing and describe why the sequence of events is important to the outcome of story.

The sequence of a story is the order in which events occur--write that on the board.

Discuss why sequencing is important and how knowing the order in which events occur effect the outcome of a story.

Get out some of your favorite children's books, those without words will work the best. I made a list of my favorites in a previous post, click here for the link. Make color copies of the pictures and cut them out comic strip style. Make enough copies so that each group of 3 or 4 students can have a book, but they don't all have to be the same book. Make a larger copy for you to model the assignment for the class. I would make this a different book from those you give to the students.

Model for the class: using the larger copy of a book, put each picture on the board and think out-loud as you put the story in the correct order. Make sure to explain to students why you are ordering the pictures the way you are. Write the story as you have ordered the pictures with approximately 1 sentence per picture.

Pass out the copies of the picture books made for the students and give them about 10-15 minutes to correctly order the story and then write the story with approximately 1 sentence per picture. Students need only write 1 story per group.

Have a few groups share their stories and tell of 1 of the major problems they had in sequencing their stories. Ask other groups for suggestions on how they approached and solved that problem.

Now, rearrange the pictures on the board--switch 4 or 5 pictures around. Rewrite your story according to the new order. How does this change the outcome of the story? What impact does just changing one picture have?

Allow the students7-8 minutes to rearrange 4-5 of their pictures and rewrite their stories. Have a few groups share their revised stories. Did they gain any new insight on the importance sequencing?

What have students learned about sequencing? Why is it important to a story?

And bell.

Concise descriptive writing--a game

This game/activity can take 5 minutes or an entire class period. Use it when the lesson falls short and you have a few minutes at the end of a period so as not to waste any valuable class time.

1. Have each student get out a piece of paper and quickly write a 15 word sentence on the paper.

2. Have the students pass their paper to the person behind them and the person in the very back give his or hers to the person in the front. Students read the sentence on the paper in front of them and have 20 seconds to draw a picture of the sentence. Students fold the sentence over so that it can't be seen but the picture can be and pass the paper to the person behind them.

3. Students look at the picture in front of them and write a 10 word sentence. Students fold the paper so that only their sentence is showing. Students pass the paper again.

4. Students read the sentence in front of them and have 20 seconds to draw a picture of the sentence. Students fold that paper and pass it back.

5. Students look at the picture and write a 5 word sentence describing the picture in front of them, fold the paper, and pass it back for one final drawing.

6. Continue this reducing the number of words the sentence can be until...well until you're ready for it to be over. I wouldn't go much passed what I've described above: students get bored.

7. Have students unveil their drawings and sentences. The group with final picture that most closely resembles the oringinal sentence wins!

Children's Books

Where's the Cake Now? by T.T. Khing

Leaf by Stephen Michael King

Tuesday by David Weisner

These are 3 of my new favorite children's books. All three tell amazingly complex stories without a single word, which makes them great for a writing assignment.

Using these three books, and other pictures books with no words, have students write the words to the story. This could be a single isolated writing activity to have on hand for a cancelled field trip or to allow for some creative writing in the midst of a research paper or to add excitement to the unit described here.

You could leave it at that or give a bit more direction, depending on the needs of the class, the amount of time available, the amount creativity you'd like to employ, and all the other if, ands, and buts of education.

Here are some ideas to give more direction if needed.

*Before beginning, discuss how some pictures books use the pictures to retell the story that the words are saying, while others use the picture to add depth and meaning to the words, such as highlighting irony or adding emotion to the characters' spoken words. Challenge students to not just rewrite the story the pictures tell but to use the written words to add irony.

*Have the students practice writing to different audiences. Have them rewrite the story for an adult, for an infant, for a 5th grader, or for themselves. Discuss the different needs of the audience in each situation.

*Practice writing dialog by having students rewrite the story entirely as dialog.

*Best yet, just say "You have 1 class period to create a final draft of this story. Write the words to the story." And leave it at that. Sometimes kids will surprise you.