Ning

Image
What is it?

What is it?

Ning, invites users to "create your own social network for anything." The Ning Blog is full of examples of responses to that invitation. (In fact, use the blog search function to explore the variety of subjects, groups, and uses of Ning.) Among the range of answers, several are specific to educators and address the use of technology in the classroom. Ning users can create public or password-protected private networks and determine who can view or join. Members of a social network can upload photos and videos, chat and establish discussion forums, create their own blogs, establish RSS feeds, display calendars, and create subgroups within the social network.

At the basic level, Ning is $25/month.  The "basic" account allows 2 admins and up to 1,000 members.  It should be noted that even though this is the "basic" account, it has almost all of the features of the "Performance" and "Ultimate" accounts; the only difference is the amount of storage offered (1GB for "basic" accounts).

Getting Started

Creating a Ning network is as simple as signing up, providing your name, an email address, and selecting a password. Then, you'll be invited to create a network and to name, subtitle, and describe your Ning network. You can choose whether it's private or public, layout and appearance, and then, once that network is created, begin posting and invite others to join. Photos, videos, blogs, events, and personal pages are among the options of a Ning Network. Why You'll Love Ning describes some of the possibilities. How Can We Help You answers basic how-to questions.

Examples

The Ning website is full of examples of social networks using this open-source program. Teachers find Ning useful for professional sharing and as a classroom management tool. The majority of class or course Ning projects are password protected; therefore, not publicly viewable. Teachers, however, can link multiple classes via a single Ning, and post assignments, course materials such as handouts, videos, photos, and maps. Students can create their own member pages for assignments, discussion, and blog posts. Ning, like any tool, can be useful if well-managed; perplexing if not; and one question about its use rests with whether the tool is convenient to you, as the teacher. Sample sites, Ning in Education and Classroom 2.0 offer discussions about Ning and resources for educators interested in collaborative technologies in education. They're good places for asking how other teachers are using Ning and about the pros and cons. Ning in Education is particularly for teachers who want to set up their own Ning Networks internal to their classrooms.

A blogpost on Classroom 2.0, for example, features teachers discussing various social networking open-source programs in the classroom, including safety and privacy issues. "Online Social Networking for Educators," an article drawn from the National Education Association (NEA), emphasizes the value of social networking for teachers: it's an excellent communication mechanism within a school or district. A Minnesota literature teacher states, "What I like about social networking is that I can stay in touch with other teaching professionals to share materials, ideas, teaching stories, and sometimes even my gripe of the day."

Exploring Historical Texts in a Discussion-Based Class

Article Body

Learning from Others: Learning in a Social Context from Annenberg Media is a video made up of two sections, the second half of which documents the practice of Avram Barlowe, a high school history teacher at the Urban Academy in New York City. (Go to Session 7 and view video from 13:58–25:55.) This video provides examples of two promising practices:

  • Helping students use textual evidence to support their claims
  • Leading a productive discussion in the history classroom by asking open-ended questions and restating student answers
Black Codes

The subject for the class discussion is a set of discriminatory Southern laws known as Black Codes. The laws were passed by Southern state legislatures in the wake of the Civil War and reflected the efforts of former Confederates to reassert control over the recently emancipated black population.

Returning Students to the Text

The classroom discussion is grounded in primary sources. Students are asked to look at examples of Black Codes and answer the following questions:

  • What were the laws designed to do?
  • How might such laws be defended by the people who wrote them?

Having asked students to form interpretations based on these texts, the instructor is diligent about reminding students to return to the texts during their discussion. "Let's look at what the law says," he instructs at one point, reinforcing his desire that they work with the evidence to develop their ideas.

Leading Discussion

A major part of managing a successful class discussion, this video makes clear, is asking open-ended questions that students can answer in a variety of ways. This approach makes the class discussion more accessible for all students and can engage them in using evidence to support their claims. The instructor in this classroom also works to put students in conversation with each other. He does this by restating and clarifying the claims made by students, as well as by pointing out areas of agreement and disagreement in their comments.

What's Notable?

Discussions are a common feature in many history classrooms. What makes this class unique, though, is the approach taken by the instructor. First, the video documents the practice of consistently returning students to the text in discussions, asking them to use evidence to support their claims. Second, it reveals a successful approach to promoting deeper historical understanding by asking open-ended questions and restating student answers.

Teaching Historical Interpretation through Planning Documentary Films

Image
Article Body

*Please note that this video is no longer hosted by the Teachers TV website. It may be hosted on a different site and found through doing an internet search on the video's title.

Interpretation in Action examines a mixed-ability 9th-grade class working with documentary films. This video shows students working to plan, write, and organize their own documentaries about World War I. In this video, students create an account of the Battle of the Somme and, in so doing, practice evaluating historical evidence and constructing interpretations. This video provides examples of two promising practices:

  • Engaging students in creating their own historical interpretations through the scripting of their own documentary films; and
  • Structuring instruction so students move back and forth between historical evidence and their interpretations of what that evidence means.
World War I and the Battle of the Somme

Before beginning work on their films, students spent a week developing deeper understandings of World War I, particularly the Battle of the Somme, the subject of the documentary film that students viewed in the first part of this two-part video. Students then spend time collecting accounts of the battle that they will use for their projects.

Constructing a Historical Interpretation

According to the instructor of this class, creating their own documentaries helps students understand that history is a result of evidence-based interpretation. The task turns the process of doing history inside-out, asking students to construct narratives rather than simply learning them. It also makes transparent the dual purposes of documentary historical film: providing a credible record of the past and entertaining a target audience.

Using Historical Evidence

In this assignment, students create historical interpretations as if they were planning a documentary film. To do so, they are told, requires careful use of evidence. Consequently, the students' first task is to examine primary sources regarding World War I and the Battle of the Somme. After asking questions about the reliability of sources and comparing them against each other, students begin to piece together narratives. Then, having constructed initial interpretations, students are asked to return to the evidence to carefully select images and words, which they then sequence in a documentary-style narrative. By having students move back and forth between evidence and interpretation, the instructor helps them understand a complicated process.

Exemplary Practices

Many teachers use documentary film in the classroom, but few use it to teach about historical interpretation. This lesson takes this concept a step further by having students plan their own documentary films. Consequently, the lesson directly engages students in the work that historians do and helps them develop skills that they will continue to use throughout their history coursework.

The Debate in the United States over the League of Nations

Teaser

Documents and audio files explain the range of early political viewpoints on the League of Nations.

lesson_image
Website
EDSITEment
Description

Students read and listen to a range of political positions related to the proposed entry of the U.S. into the League of Nations following World War I.

Article Body

This lesson provides a model of how to examine evidence and analyze diverse opinions about a public policy issue. Of particular value is the idea that politicians took a range of positions on the issue of the League, rather than simply being for or against it.

Some nice features of this lesson are that speeches and public testimony are provided both as transcribed texts and as archived audio recordings. In addition, students receive a structured worksheet to record their thinking. These features make the texts more approachable, but many students will still have difficulty with the language and rhetorical style. We, therefore, suggest that classes investigate at least the first few sources as a whole-class activity. Teachers can model how to highlight the key points and focus on revealing passages as the class completes the worksheet.

The recommended assessment activity in which students categorize hypothetical position statements is engaging, but we suggest that students also complete the alternative assessment in which they write about the various political positions they have studied. Writing such an essay encourages students to articulate their own interpretations of the material.

Topic
League of Nations, World War I
Time Estimate
2-3 class sessions
flexibility_scale
4
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes Speeches are from the archive of the American Memory project of the Library of Congress.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

No Prior knowledge about WWI and the purposes of the League of Nations is required. Numerous links to primary source and background information are provided for teachers and students.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes The alternative assessment requires students to select and defend a selected position in an essay. Students will need reminders and requirements to use evidence in this essay.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes Close reading and sourcing constitute the central purpose of this lesson.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes Readings and speeches are difficult. Teachers will need to guide student note taking and analysis.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes The worksheet is useful for organizing the data, but not enough space is provided for answers—additional sheets of paper will be needed.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

Yes The first assessment activity reinforces the concepts of the lesson. The alternative written assignment is better for final assessment. There are no assessment criteria.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes The directions are clear and comprehensive.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

No We recommend that the final activity—Discussion of Wilson's Final Campaign—be conducted after the assessment portion of this lesson as it does not clearly fit chronologically or topically with the rest of the lesson.

Three Perspectives on Native American Removal and Westward Expansion

Teaser

Check out this lesson on arguments surrounding the 1830 forced removal of the Cherokee peoples from their homeland.

lesson_image
Website
Teach US History
Description

In small groups students study the arguments for and against the forced removal of the Cherokee peoples from their homeland in the 1830s.

Article Body

The two features that we like best about this lesson are the interesting primary source materials and the framework that is provided for group work related to the texts. The readings are presented as a packet of letters, documents, stories, and speeches that have been edited to make them easier for students to read. The group guidelines establish clearly defined roles within the groups. These roles compel students to look at specific features of the texts like source, context, and audience. Thus the group-work guidelines make it easier for students to see what they need to pay attention to when looking at primary sources.

The focus questions for each document which are provided at the end of the document package are also helpful. These questions help to ensure that students understand the documents, but teachers will likely want to add additional questions to meet their specific learning objectives.

The two lessons in this unit use the same basic packet of 10 readings, but neither lesson provides detailed instructions about how the materials should be used. Teachers are encouraged to select readings and questions to meet the needs of their students. Finally while neither lesson requires writing, there are a variety of opportunities to insert meaningful writing tasks into the lessons, particularly in the final assessment of the second lesson.

Topic
Native American Removal; Manifest Destiny; Antebellum South
Time Estimate
1-2 class sessions
flexibility_scale
2
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

No Background information is provided for teachers but not for students.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

No The lesson requires close reading of documents, but little to no writing. We recommend that teachers use the guiding and focus questions to create their own writing assignments.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes The Audience, Connector, and Time Researcher roles in the group task require students to search documents for evidence and interpret the significance of what they read.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes Only limited information about where resources come from can be found in the edited documents. Fuller information about the sources can be found in the Resources section of the unit.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes The lesson is flexible to meet the needs of a wide range of students.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes Tasks within the group-work structure are arranged in order of difficulty—teachers can select the appropriate level of challenge for their students. No support is provided to structure student note-taking on group presentations, however.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

Yes We recommend the suggested assessment activity where students respond in writing to one or both of the initial guiding questions. No explicit assessment criteria are provided.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

No Very few directions are provided. Teachers need to select among the materials to meet the needs of their own students and classrooms.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes The learning objectives are clearly stated, but teachers will likely want to focus on just one or two of the four objectives.

Civil Rights and Incarceration

Teaser

What were the consequences of and motivations for Japanese American removal during World War II?

lesson_image
Website
Densho Learning Center
Description

Students analyze the consequences of the removal of Japanese Americans in the western United States to relocation centers during World War II.

Article Body

In this lesson students view and take notes on a 10-minute newsreel describing the evacuation and relocation of Japanese Americans from western states during World War II. Students analyze the movie using a handout. Questions focus students' attention on analyzing the government's case for the necessity of the incarceration. This newsreel activity and a set of introductory readings, pictures, and interviews make up the recommended core of the lesson. Most of the remaining eight activities, by contrast, illustrate the Japanese American perspective on the incarceration. Each activity is organized around a different type of primary source, including photographs, diaries, autobiographies, poetry, and theater. Classroom activities range from analyzing textual and visual sources to performing scripted dramatic readings. Some activities include potentially challenging reading material, but teachers can tailor the lesson to the needs of their students by choosing from the many options available. We think that teachers will appreciate the diversity, high quality, clear presentation, and emotional resonance of the materials provided by this lesson.

Topic
Japanese American Internment; World War II; Civil Rights
Time Estimate
1-6 class sessions (or longer)
flexibility_scale
5
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes Materials used in the lesson have been well researched. Content and materials on the Densho site are very thorough. Check out other resources and causes of incarceration.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes Students are required to study an introductory section, The Incarceration Years, before beginning film analysis.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes Newsreel activity requires students write a film review. Optional activities may include reading primary sources and offer additional writing assignments.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes Constructing interpretations and evidence-based judgments about the incarceration is central to most of the activities.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes Each activity is organized around a different type of source. Much of the lesson encourages students to think critically about what can be learned from different source materials.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes The basic newsreel and introductory activities would be appropriate for any high school class. Other activities range in difficulty, including some that would challenge Advanced Placement history students.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes A variety of worksheets and suggested discussion questions are provided to scaffold student thinking.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No Not all activities include assessment strategies.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes The lesson provides clear directions. Detailed advice on how to use the lesson in any classroom is provided on the site.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes Learning objectives are explicitly stated.

Feature on
Section splash

Abraham Lincoln

Teaser

This lesson leads students to see how Lincoln's life in Springfield influenced important national issues.

lesson_image
Website
National Park Service: Teaching with Historic Place
Description

Students analyze Abraham Lincoln's adult life in Springfield, Illinois, and its influence on his political thinking.

Article Body

This lesson provides an opportunity for students to see how Lincoln's home and life in Springfield influenced the way he thought about the important issues of the time. Students answer questions about photographs and maps to develop a context for thinking about documents related to Lincoln and the Civil War. An engaging set of vintage photographs and maps shows Lincoln's world and helps students better understand the spirit of the times. But the real strength of this lesson is in the excellent text resources and accompanying questions provided for students. We especially like the carefully excerpted passages from key speeches by Abraham Lincoln that are provided in the readings section of the resources. We suggest that teachers use this excellent set of materials to design their own final writing assignment. We would love to see something that has students make explicit their understanding of how Lincoln's political ideas were influenced by the place and time in which he lived and died. Students could use evidence from both the visual and print media they have studied to write an essay on this topic. Another approach would be to assign separate essays relating to specific texts such as Lincoln's Farewell Address to Springfield. The suggested activities, listed in the Putting it All Together section of the lesson plan, unfortunately do not focus on helping students do this kind of synthesis.

Topic
Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Civil War
Time Estimate
1-2 class sessions
flexibility_scale
3
thumbnail
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

The supplementary resources for teachers are excellent.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes Background readings are provided for students.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes Students read primary and secondary sources and answer questions about them. Teachers can be selective about which questions to feature. We recommend requiring written answers.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes Guided questions are included to help students analyze the resource materials. We particularly like the questions that ask students to compare different sources to create their answer. However, the lesson lacks a culminating activity that requires students to interpret and synthesize the set of materials. Teachers will need to devise a task that requires this.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes The lesson uses a variety of sources. However, students may need reminders to pay close attention to the date and location of the source's origin as there are no explicit questions that help them do so.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes Students at lower skill levels may require additional guidance from the teacher.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes Significant portions of texts are excerpted or highlighted to make reading easier. In addition a structured photo analysis worksheet is provided to help students learn to interpret visual evidence.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No No assessment strategies or criteria are included.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes Directions are clear and the materials are suitable for all classrooms. Specific instructions on how to use historic sites to teach history are provided.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

No Several different learning goals are attainable with these materials. We suggest that teachers make use of the strong visual component in this lesson to highlight how non-textual sources of evidence can help us understand how Lincoln developed and expressed his political ideas.

Declaration of Independence: Rough Draft to Proclamation

Teaser

How did the final version of the Declaration differ from Jefferson's draft?

lesson_image
Website
Library of Congress
Description

Using carefully prepared excerpts, students compare and analyze differences between Jefferson's original rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and the final version of the document. They read closely and gain experience in document analysis.

Article Body

We love the way this lesson challenges students to closely read and analyze the two versions of the Declaration of Independence. The two versions of the opening paragraphs of the Declaration are placed side-by-side, in small, manageable chunks of text. Even if a teacher were not using this particular lesson plan, this presentation would be especially useful in helping all students access an otherwise difficult text. Other reading and analysis supports include guiding questions and a step where the teacher models the process of comparing the juxtaposed texts.

The lesson begins with students looking at the first pages of the original documents and answering questions that get at the historical context of the documents, before doing careful analysis of the transcribed prose. These procedures potentially convey the necessity of slowing down to read, question, and understand primary sources. And they do so using the Declaration of Independence, a document that all students SHOULD read!

As it stands, the lesson has plenty of opportunity for reading and discussion, but requires very little writing. Teachers may want to enhance the writing component of this lesson by having students write responses to some or all of the discussion questions. There is also an engaging extension activity that could be enhanced by requiring written responses.

Topic
Declaration of Independence, American Revolution
Time Estimate
One day
flexibility_scale
4
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes The lesson includes links to background information on the writing of the Declaration of Independence, but it assumes some familiarity with the political events of the time leading up to the Declaration.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes This lesson focuses almost entirely on closely reading the two versions of the document. It calls for some student writing, but there are many points in the lesson at which teachers could easily insert additional writing tasks. For example, students could write responses to most of the lesson's discussion questions.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes This occurs primarily in the final task, where students suggest possible reasons for the changes between the rough and final drafts. Given sufficient background information, it could also occur as part of the discussion in step three regarding historical context.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes Discussion questions are structured so students must read both versions of the Declaration closely and carefully in order to answer them.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes Some vocabulary may be challenging for some students, but it is well scaffolded: students have an opportunity to identify and define difficult vocabulary before analyzing the document itself, and the text is presented in small, manageable chunks.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes This lesson includes excellent discussion questions to support students' analysis of the documents, and the documents themselves are presented in an accessible format. Also, the teacher models the process of comparing the two versions of the document before students do it on their own.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No The final task at the end of step five could be used as a closing assessment, but no assessment criteria are provided.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes The text on this site is very small; teachers will want to adjust computer or browser display settings to enlarge it for easier reading.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes

Causes of World War I

Image
Article Body

*Please note that this video is no longer hosted by the Teachers TV website. It may be hosted on a different site and found through doing an internet search on the video's title.

This video shows a 9th-grade history class applying new knowledge about causal reasoning to the question of whether two bullets were, in fact, responsible for the start of World War I. The instructor builds on the previous lesson on historical causality to help his mixed-ability students (categorized as Gifted and Talented) examine their previous understandings of the origins of World War I. (See the the classroom video.) The students make diagrams representing the causes of the war, using specific vocabulary to describe historical change. Ultimately, they come to rich and complex historical understandings of multiple causality and why WWI happened. The video provides examples of two promising practices:

  • Using concrete instructional strategies to help students to consider different kinds of historical causes and the relationships among them
  • Developing students' repertoire of change-related vocabulary to support more sophisticated understandings of historical change
Transferring Knowledge

The lesson begins with the instructor recalling the story of Alphonse the Camel that served as the focal point of the previous lesson. He asks students to draw diagrams of how specific causes came together to cause the camel's death. After completing this task, students are asked to apply this same sort of thinking to the causes of World War I.

Rethinking the Origins of the War

Each group of students gets two sets of note cards. One set contains specific change-oriented words that help describe the relationships among historical causes (for example, provoked, accelerated, contributed). Another set contains the various causes of World War I (for example, nationalism, Austria-Hungary attacks Serbia). Students are then asked to arrange their cards on the table in a way that explains the origins of the war. Previously, students have written essays analyzing whether the assassination of Franz Ferdinand caused the war. By revisiting the war's outbreak after the lesson in multiple causality, the teacher hopes that students will construct more sophisticated explanations than they were able to do while writing their essays.

What's New?

By asking students to create diagrams representing the interplay between multiple causes, this lesson goes beyond generating simple lists of historical causes. Further, by providing them with particular vocabulary for discriminating between historical causes, it helps students construct and comprehend sophisticated, nuanced narratives describing the origins of World War I.

Causal Reasoning

Article Body

*Please note that this video is no longer hosted by the Teachers TV website. It may be hosted on a different site and found through doing an internet search on the video's title.

This video shows a 9th-grade history teacher teaching a lesson on causal reasoning to a mixed-ability class (though it is labeled Gifted and Talented). The instructor presents students with the fictional story of Alphonse the Camel, whose back is ultimately broken by his owner's addition of a single straw. Through group work based on this accessible, engaging example, students learn how multiple causes of an event interact. The video is punctuated by student and teacher interviews, which provide the viewer with additional insight into student learning. The video provides examples of two promising practices:

  • Exploring why things happen through an accessible, fictional example and then applying the same approach to an historical problem
  • Using concrete instructional strategies to push students to consider different kinds of historical causes and the relationships among them

Alphonse the Camel The teacher introduces students to the story of Alphonse during their study of the causes of World War I. The students discover that there are a number of factors that ultimately lead to the camel's demise, which is finally brought about by a straw thrown on his back. The fictional story challenges students to think beyond single factors and simple lists when exploring causality. Students identify and analyze the causes implicit in the story. Using note cards with change-related words on them, students pair each word with a cause in order to identify the kind of change the particular cause brought about. For example, they are asked to distinguish between causes that initiate change and causes that exacerbate change.

Applying Knowledge in New Contexts

After students discuss their work identifying various causes and the relationships among them, the teacher asks them to apply what they have learned to a new problem, the causes of World War I. This topic is explored at greater length in a follow-up lesson.

What's New?

History teachers frequently ask students to consider causes. This lesson, however, challenges students to grapple with multiple causality, including the way that different kinds of causes relate to each other. Further, the design of the lesson allows all students to participate and be challenged, not only because it begins with an accessible case, but also because it includes causal relationships of varied complexity. The video moves back and forth between the lesson in action and interviews with the students and instructor in order to highlight what makes the lesson successful.

Subscribe to 10