I have a love/hate relationship with professional development conferences. I hate, HATE to be gone from class. However, I love to collaborate with other social studies teachers and learn new strategies to use in the classroom.
Workshops that end up being successful in my eyes are the ones where I can walk away and implement a new strategy or activity right away.
February provided just that!
High School History Teachers, Paul Kitchen and Tiffany Houle, from Wichita Public Schools presented about using History Labs in their classrooms. Their presentation rocked and gave me a great new idea to add to my unit assessments. In fact, I did. I added it the next day...to the test kids were going to take at the end of the week.
I call it Making Connections. (I don't remember if that's what they called it).
Here is is... (formatting may look a little weird...I just copied it directly from my test)
Making Connections:
All of
these events listed occurred between 1860 and 1925 however; one
event in each group does not fit with the other events three. highlight the THREE events that fit together. Then complete the writing prompt below.
|
Group 1
|
Group 2
|
Group 3
|
|
·
Temperance Movement
·
Cattle Drives
·
18th Amendment
·
Carry A. Nation
|
·
Susan B. Anthony
·
Women’s Suffrage
·
The Civil War
·
19th Amendment
|
·
Swat the Fly Campaign
·
Dr. Samuel Crumbine
·
Public Drinking Cub
·
Industrial Revolution
|
Writing Prompt:
Choose one of the
above groups (1, 2, or 3) of
events. Explain how the events that are highlighted
are related
to each other. Explain your
answer with at least two details discussed in
class. You need to have at
least
4 sentences.
My 7th graders were completed this task and did an excellent job for the first attempt. I also included a rubric to help in the scoring of this task...
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X2 Content: Part 1 – 10pts
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||||||
|
5
|
3
|
1
|
||||
|
·
Each event highlighted is mentioned.
·
Used at least TWO specific details from class to explain how each
event is connected.
·
Stated things clearly.
·
Info was correct.
|
·
One event that was highlighted is left out.
·
Used at one specific detail from class to explain how each event is
connected.
·
Stated things somewhat clearly.
·
Info has one error.
|
·
More than one event that was highlighted is left out.
·
OR incorrect event highlighted.
·
No specific details from class.
·
Not clear.
·
Info has more than one error.
|
||||
|
conventions (cap use, complete sentence use, ending pun’t., spelling,) (5 pts)
|
||||||
|
5
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
||
|
all correct
|
only
1-2 errors
|
3-4-5
errors total
|
6-7-8
errors total
|
9-10-11
errors : (>11= 0)
|
||
I loved how this made the students think critically and connect important events together, and at the same time they got to choose which of the three topics they knew the best to write about.
This is definitely a keeper!
PS...There were many presentations that had great material for teachers to use. If you want more ideas, click HERE for a link to the conference materials from different presentations!
