POL and History Classes

Part I:

Relevance and Connections with the Present

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Here are some US History examples.

Unit 1:

Race

Unit 2:

Presidential Decision Making

Unit 3: The Economy and American Life

Culmination

Final exam= letter to President; after length discussion (with historical parallels to Vietnam especially) Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Resources and connections–key words, word webs, etc:

Time, NYT become great resources (click for example) (here is another)

Find connections to recent past first:

Here is a key piece from the Time article linked above, example #2.

This lead to a discussion of Malcolm X–I used Spike Lee’s movie (you could hear a pin droop in the classroom). Lee places Malcolm in a larger context (his rivalry early on with King, his parents as Garvey supporters, etc.). See handout “Cluster/Word Web” =jump off point for research groups and class presentations.

Part II:

Real-world tools, interactive

ALL OF THIS IS A WAY TO RESPOND TO POL–THE SECOND ISSUE IS ONE OF THE ACTIVE LEARNER, REAL-WORLD TOOLS, ETC. (CLICK HERE). THE BLOG YOU ABOUT TO LOOK AT WAS CREATED BY THE STUDENTS.

Go to pages on Social Sciences.

Portfolio Data, Complexity–Sep 26th Meeting, 6-12

A continuation of the discussion we had regarding our portfolio findings today (Wed 26 Sep.) might be perfect for the department blog. Links to the specific reports, agenda, etc. can be found on the department web site. If you look on the right side of the blog page, under “History Links,” the department page is there.

Points made in the meeting:

1. Complexity could consist of introducing students to historiography (ie. John Lewis Gaddis says the Cold War began because of x, y and z, William Appleman Williams disagrees—he claims a and b were the most important causes)

2. It could also consist of weighing many factors and ordering them or grouping them (this is a requirement by the way on both the AP World and AP European College Board exams)

3. Which gets more weight? It depends on teacher style, particular courses (U.S. History is probably the easier place to bring in historiography), and grade level (Middle School teachers explained how they weave some of it in in 7th and 8th grade)

I think continuing along these lines makes sense–in other words if we look at the department standards and benchmarks and the curriculum maps, can we find evidence of a building process around the complexities of history? Do we consistently come back to this point 6-12? ( I will start looking at that data, unless someone else would like to compile that information.)

4. The mission alignment committee should look at our department standards. Does “think like a social scientist” belong at the top of the list? Can “understand major events” be folded in to “think like a social scientist? (all committees will meet next time, on Oct 31 at 7:30 AM, I’ll post the list once I get it from Steve)

Again, see department standards on the department web site. A link appears to the left under “History Links.”

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PLEASE ADD YOUR THOUGHTS to this blog posting. It maybe frustrating to have 4 or 5 outstanding questions hovering around us; but I think it is a prudent approach: As we discussed at our first meeting, each committee will work on specific sets of proposals. I will work on a separate proposal to rectify the problem(s) we found in/with the portfolio data (unless there are any volunteers). We should get these together by December; I will work on setting up a “pullout day” in late January (probably at the Crown Plaza again). We will discuss all proposals then and vote them up or down. If time permits, we can develop an action plan (or a time table) for making the various changes to our 6-12 program. The second half of the year will be devoted to making sure the changes are ready to hit the ground next September (some may be possible earlier, of course; some may become longterm projects or concerns in need of more study etc.).

Thanks for a great meeting. I look forward to seeing all of your thoughts here soon.

John.

A Video on Globalism

This video, a TED presentation, provides a good explanation about globalization, income distribution, and life expectancy.

YouTube and Education

This is a podcast episode on Digital Campus, a website sponsored by The Center for History and New Media Studies and George Mason University. The podcast is dealing with how YouTube can be used in an educational setting. It also reexamines their look at the Wikipedia debate.

Developing Paper Topics by Using a Blog

I was reading a blog that I subscribe to and I thought the following entry was extremely relevant. It discusses the use of blogs as students create paper topics. Through peer review on blogs students have the potential to assist each other in defining a well crafted topic. This is a simple way to introduce technology into the classroom and can create a dialog between the students. This method can produce better topics as well as a better understanding of how to formulate a stronger topic. Hope everyone is enjoying their break.

Communist Manifesto illustrated by Cartoons

Essential Questions and Teaching

Folks:
My wife subscribes to various newsletters. And although she is a 4th grade teacher, many of the techniques she uses (and reads about) can be applied to other grade levels. The article linked below is about open-ended questions. As I read through it I thought of the parallels with the idea of “essential questions” that we included as part of mapping. I personally have found this variation on the Socratic method very useful. This week, for example, I felt as though I finally connected modern art, music, changes in philosophy and science and culture to the First and Second World Wars, along with anti-colonial movements (such as Gandhi’s); I did so with one overarching question: What led to the collapse of the European world order? With such a question to anchor what can seem like a whirlwind of material, I feel like I conducted my best classes (Monday and Tuesday of this week) in my decade and half of teaching. I felt good and the students seemed engaged, curious, and focused. There was excitement as we compared and contrast the opening scenes of the ballets Swan Lake and Firebird Suite and then leapt into Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Always tying back to the big question, the essential question, student were able to see where the various pieces fit. I cannot wait to pick up the discussion in class on Wednesday. Anyway, I thought others might find this useful.

http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/newsletter/19_1nl_1.asp

John Aloisi’s new website

Here is a link to John’s new page.

Welcome to the WA History Blog

This is our first post.  This blog is an opportunity for you to post any comments or concerns.

Here is an article that you may find interesting.