Current Events

As a history teacher, there is nothing more important then tying the material we are learning to what is going on in the world today. One thing I started doing is Freedom Fridays. This is where the students bring in current events and lead the class in discussion. Some of our best discussions have come on these days. The students feel more relaxed, and often they bring up information from the past on their own. I also find that having them read one news article a week, and answering some basic questions really adds to some great discussions. I pick these articles based on stuff that means something to high schools, free speech, food and education usually, and then of course the odd, sensational story too. With the articles that are online, I have them use a blackboard type discussion format where they are under the protection of a code name to answer. They are able to speak freely, without worrying about what their classmates will think about their opinions. It is also good practice for the students for the future when they are commenting on online news stories. I make sure they are appropriate and that they are practicing grammar and spelling techniques that are important in the classroom. I also pose repsonse questions to them, so that they are pushed to think critically about their responses. The greatest compliment I received was from a former student who said that he still goes on and reads the articles I post for homework since they are so interesting and that is where he is getting his news from. As a teacher, I am striving for that lasting impression in all my lessons.

Preview a Chapter

I have had the chance to go to many great in services and conferences and learn different pre-reading strategies. I think these are the hardest to develop and some of the most important things there are for students to learn. My favorites are the stem starters and the word sort. Stem starters are a series of questions, such as How did ____adapt to the environment? What circumstances led to the changes in the lives of ____? What contributed most to ______? What waas the status of ____ before/after the ____? The students can go through the book and find words to fill in the blanks and then answer the questions. Word sort is where you find the important terms from the chapter and have the students sort them into any groups they want, and then justify why they did that. I have them repeat this a few times, using different categories. From there, I have them create a visual of the words and categories, such as a wordle.

Music and History

Personally, I can't think of a better way to learn about American History than by using music of the times. I have done this with many different parts of American History. I just recently did this with the Vietnam War. I introduced the material by handing out the lyrics to Blowin in the Wind, Born in the USA, Travelin Soldier, Draft Dodger Rag, Fortunate Son, For What it's Worth, Ohio, Master's of War, What's Goin On and Fightin Side of Me. By going through the lyrics and listening to the songs the students get a great picture of the time. The students enjoy the lyrics and then I have them put their own spin on the songs. What would they do different with the music? What did they like? I also like having them find songs from today that would match up with the music. Another new twist on this is having them create YouTube videos with the songs, lyrics, and pictures to publish for the classmates to see. Enjoy!