Writing Lesson Reflection

To develop and differentiate our writing lesson, we decided to have our students write their persuasive letter in partners as this will be their first attempt at persuasive writing. It has been exciting planning and implementing this lesson because it truly is tying together so many different skills. Our students are practicing their research skills through the lens of SPEC + G in order to figure out the benefits of living in their colony. Then, they are writing a persuasive letter to a relative back home enticing them to come and join them in their colony. It has required a true collaboration of writing and social studies skills.

Explorer Wordle

This wordle shows the two words "historical" and "students", which I thought was very interesting. The entire focus of this assignment was for the students to use the historical information they have learned about explorers to write narratives. The word "stronger" was also large, and that is interesting to me as well, because this was the 5th narrative my students wrote, and we really focused on using stronger word choice and advanced writing strategies like flashbacks to continue to extend their learning about the narrative genre.

Method- Tier 2

In Del Mar, we have been getting professional development on empowering our students to meet the needs of the ever changing job market-i.e. learning the "21st century skills". I think the second tier of the historical method, lends itself to the creation of activities that require students to prepare those higher level thinking skills. In particular, I've been trying to do more of the following: "

Analyzing Causation and Consequence
o Studying the differences between single-causation and multi-causation of the events of the past
o Impact of the consequences of events and decisions of the past, including those that were desired, and those that were unintended

With explorers and early English settlements, this has been the perfect time to use some of the activities (i.e. the graphing of the different explorations/colonizations timeline/chart) that we have learned during this grant to have my students analyze information more instead of it being handed to them or through having them regurgitate facts from the textbook. By graphing when the different explorers and settlers came, and their impacts (both positive and negative), the students are analyzing the effects of exploration and how our country was first discovered and settled.

Lesson

We have decided to do a lesson that will tie in with our narrative unit. Students will be writing a narrative essay from the perspective of an explorer. This will tie together both narrative writing and social studies curriculum. I plan to use the picture book, Encounter, by Jane Yolen, as well as Christopher Columbus's diary entry which is in our Harcourt S.S. textbook to provide background knowledge and "voice" for this lesson. Also, we will be completing the history alive units that focus on exploration as well to ensure the students understand the curriculum. SPECS will be used to help them to pull out reasons to explore which will be helpful when they then write a story from an explorer's perspective.

Entries for Summer Inservice

Hooray for Heroes

The presentation on heroes was a good reminder to me that we are responsible for making sure that our students remember the heroes of the past. I especially enjoyed learning about heroes that were not familiar to me. After the presentation, I went home and had dinner with my family and relayed the pharmacist story where the pharmacist didn't know Johnnas Salk. My father, both a doctor and a polio survivor, was shocked by the fact that an adult working in that field would have forgotten such an important person in history. I like the idea that when talking about heroes, "you can't take them out of their time period". I.E. the Mr. Hershey story where he was prejudice because he lived during segregation. It's important part of their life/history to discuss, but it doesn't make it ok (heroes have flaws). My favorite line was to emphasize that history....is hi-STORY. Just reminded me to tell history through real stories to make the connection stronger.

Some of the activities I will use in my classroom from this presentation include the table mottos, the ziploc bag quilt (bulletin board idea), the cereal boxes, and some of the stories of the heroes. I also really like the idea of having the year start with students sharing their unsung heroes. This to me seems like a great way to both learn about students and who's important in their lives, as well as treat them about traits at the beginning of the year. Lastly, I really enjoyed the "hero hat" idea where students pull a hero and trace their outline of their body so that they can make a lifesize hero that they will then help me teach about when it comes up in that part of history.

Solve for Y and Viewfinder

These two strategies are definitely tools that I would like to try out this year. The level of thinking that students have to do in order to complete these activities takes them higher up on the Bloom's taxonomy in terms of thinking. Solve for Y especially grabbed my interest because it can be used with multiple media. Next year, I'm going to try to incorporate new technology into my classroom as much as possible, and this would be a great way for them to research information to make connections with history and it's long-term effect/repetition in current media.

The viewfinder is a great way to compare and contrast primary resources to draw conclusions about historical events/time periods etc. We created a viewfinder that combined the artist strategy and the Boston Massacre artifacts that we have learned about. I'm excited to have the students really think more about the perspective of the authors of these artifacts and tell how they affect what is being relayed about the massacre. They always want to know more about this event, and I feel like this activity will really help this topic come alive.

Making Permanent North American Settlements I

I really enjoyed the historical context that was given in this presentation. When teaching about the triangle trade route, we often mention sugar and tobacco etc., but I've never really truly understood how/why these products and the people who grew them ended up being there/making it successful. To me, the history is such an important part of this foundations grant because even if I don't remember everything that is taught, the presentations are making me think about the history in different ways. I feel more knowledgeable which will help me to dive deeper into the history with my students instead of giving the basic information which is provided to us in the textbooks.