News You Can Use
HCPS Social Studies
National Teacher of the Year Award
The Virginia Department of Education, in cooperation with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, HISTORY™ (The History Channel), and Preserve America, announces the annual National History Teacher of the Year Award. This award honors exceptional teachers of American history across the country. One finalist from each state, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense schools, and the U.S. territories is selected annually. From these finalists, a national winner is recognized as the National History Teacher of the Year.
Pictured is Katie Blomquist, the Virginia winner in 2013 from Fairfax County.
For more information, click here.
How Rigorous are the SOL Tests?
- 6th Grade: 45% of the test is application and analyzing
- 7th Grade: 63% of the test is application and analyzing
- 8th Grade: 36% of the test is application and analyzing
- World One: 44% of the test is application and analyzing
- World Two: 84% of the test is application, analyzing, and evaluative
- US History: 70% of the test is application and analyzing
So what's the takeaway? No one wants to teach to a test, but in this case, it may mean making sure your US History class is 70% application and analyzing is important.
Using Mandela to Teach Historical Thinking
Drop-a-Thon
In Semester Two, we'll have a second Drop-a-Thon, but if you want to see what's there and drop something now, the link is www.dropbox.com. Email me for a username and password.
But, right now, there is a lot of material that you can use. Here is some info I sent on the Nov. 26 email announcing the Drop-a-Thon:
What to share:
· Power Points
· Flip Charts
· Worksheets
· Notes
· Exam View files
· Project ideas
General Rules:
· If you use anything from the dropbox, please give back to the dropbox
· If you already see 3 Power Points for SOL VUS.4a, you don’t need to add a 4th VUS.4a power point
· If you’re putting something in the dropbox, you know people may alter it to fit their own needs
· Always give credit for someone else’s work when possible
· If you borrowed from someone, and you know who’s it is (maybe their name is on the Power Point), email them a Thank You!
Opportunities
12.11.1936
12.12.1787
12.14.1911
Instructional Ideas
Resources
Furthermore, I link to online textbooks and other web resources at your disposal. There are also links to the Dropbox for activities and lessons.
Soon, there will be links to in-depth content via Diigo starting with US History.
I'm keeping the links in School Space right now, because I don't know how open I want these to parents and such.
If you have any questions about these things, let me know.
Help Students with Reading
The photo is called, "groupyay."
Student Choice
One thing that motivates students a lot is choice: letting them choose a topic, type of project, etc... The challenge is making sure the choices you offer students are acceptable. I saw this activity in a book called, "Differentiating Instruction with Menus." It's called a 20-50-80 Menu:
- Students choose 2 activities out of 6-8 choices, however many you can come up with that are acceptable.
- You create activities that range up the Bloom's scale: Knowledge and Understanding (20 points each), Apply and Analyze (50 points each), and Evaluate and Create (80 points each). So maybe you have two activities in each category.
- Students have to choose 2 that add up to 100 points. They can pick one 80 and one 20, two 50s. Whatever. You can make one 50 point choice a student "Free Choice," where with your help, they create their own idea not listed.
For example: Economics
20 points: design a poster that explains capitalism and socialism (Include three example of each on your poster) OR, create a worksheet that would help your classmates distinguish capitalism from socialism.
50 points: design a song that teaches the advantages and disadvantages of both socialism and capitalism. Or, look through magazines or online for advertisements for products that have been impacted significantly by supply and demand. Make a collage out of these ads and include a brief statement on the back that explains how each item was impacted. Or, create a class game that tests your classmates knowledge of socialism and capitalism and how each philosophy can affect a country.
80 points: Any age group can affect supply and demand. Determine two products on which you and your classmates have had a direct impact. Create a news report that interviews a classmate about your peers' impact on the process of supply and demand. Or, design a product that you think will fill a need for people your age. Create the product and write a newspaper article about why it will be in demand by your peers.
This obviously can translate to any content area, but this gives you the idea.
Also, here are two student made games turned into a history lesson: Apples to Apples and Headbandz. (50 point examples).
Trivia and Other Balderdash
Trivia: Teachers- 7 and Mike- 2
This week: In Electoral history, what do #6 and #32 have in common?
Emma Update
There are many sites that will test this for you, but here's a new one I found at Idealog12.
Contact Information
Email: mjhasley@henrico.k12.va.us
Website: blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/mjhasley
Location: 3820 Nine Mile Road, Richmond, VA, United States
Phone: 804 652-3752
Twitter: @MikeHasley