Today was interesting.  I was in a group that was discussing the Common Core Standards.  We discussed how the things that we have been learning and doing with our students will really benefit us during the next few years as we move to Common Core ELA Standards. My students have done more writing than ever this year, and much of it has been focused on history.  It has been great to see them develop their writing skills as they also learn about our country's history.  They especially enjoyed writing informative essays.   I am looking forward to teaching more social studies in the classroom because the new reading and writing standards lend themselves so well to this.  The group talked about how even SPEC fits well into the standards.  I am looking forward to the change.

Progress of Writing Assignment

So far, my students have been involved in researching for their persuasive writing assignment.  They have read about and taken notes on the New England, Middle and Southern Colonies.  I have divided my class into groups of 3 or 4, and I have assigned a colony to each group.  Each group has students with a range of reading levels and language proficiencies.  Some of the research will be done with a partner.  When they begin to identify their reasons and supporting details, I will have them discuss these in their research groups.  This will provide more support to my students who are not performing at grade level.  When they begin their writing, I will work with my EL and RSP students in small group to help support them in completing their graphic organizers for their persuasive essay.  They have already written a number of persuasive essays, but as a class, we will review the content and organization of a persuasive essay.

The Historical Method

The historical thinking method that I think would be one of the more practical to implement at the 5th grade level given the time constraints that I am faced with would be Seeing the Larger View of History.  I think that when the emphasis of history instruction is on disconnected events and dates, students do not get the relevance of why they need to learn about history.  Eventhough our textbooks don't really do a good job of helping students see the larger view of history, it would be possible to use the textbooks we have and emphasize the big picture rather than the details.  As for establishing time, scope, and sequence in which the events of an era take place, this could be done with a large classroom timeline, and important events could be placed on the line as covered.  It would also be interesting to have a parallel timeline and place important events in world history on that timeline.

Anthony Fitzpatrick's Sherlock Holmes Strategy

Anthony's Sherlock Holmes strategy reminded me of a book that I read this summer, Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning.  In his book, Mike Schmoker encourages close reading in social studies, in which students research and formulate answers to a central, standards related question.  It also incorporates writing and discussion.  This was something that I was planning to try to do this year, and the Sherlock Holmes strategy will help me to do that.

Dr. Denenberg's Hero's Quilt

I thought that this was a great idea that would be relatively easy to put together.  Also, it could be changed easily throughout the year as students studied other American heroes.  I think that reading biographies of important people in America's history could easily lend itself to a response to literature which could also become part of the quilt.

Fran Macko's Building Prior Knowledge in History

I have had the same experience with KWL charts as Fran described in her presentation on August 19.  They have always seemed to be a waste of time because the students don't have enough background knowledge to make the charts useful.  I thought that the BKWLQ strategy was a great way to remedy my student's lack of knowledge in social studies.  I look forward to using this strategy, especially using some of the reading materials suggested by Fran.