One of my favorite ways to teach is by using Socratic seminars. If done well, an effective Socratic lesson can not only take me (the teacher) off the stage, but invest my students in their own learning by creating an environment of academic discourse, improvisational questioning and answering, critical analysis, and free-flowing exploration of content.

Of course, for all of these wonderful things to happen, class sizes must be manageable; instructors must design compelling questions that are specific enough to narrow focus, but also broad enough to elicit multiple answers; and, most importantly, students must bring a competent level of prior knowledge to the seminar so they can intelligently participate in the discussions. Over the years, I have found that prior knowledge is the biggest challenge in conducting an effective Socratic seminar. How do I get the kids to connect with the material before I ask them to discuss it?
Traditionally, I provide prior knowledge through brief lectures, homework assignments, and readings in the text. This year, I added primary sources to student preparation and I saw a dramatic difference in how my students connected with the material. Here is how I set up the lesson for two separate Socratic seminars; the first was on slavery and the second was on the 1920s.

I chose the slavery unit for my first Socratic seminar of the year because every student knows what slavery is and brings with them a basic understanding of the topic and its place in American history. My hope was that this prior knowledge would allow a certain degree of comfort and thus more participation by the students.

In order to make sure all of my students had a similar grasp of the topic, I asked the students to read the chapter on slavery in our text and identify the most significant points and ideas (I used a reading guide to do this). Secondly, I assigned each student a primary source from David Kennedy and Thomas Bailey’s collection of primary sources called The American Spirit. Each student was asked to read his or her document and connect it to the material from their textbook. Both of these assignments were due on the day of the Socratic seminar.

On the day of the seminar, I started the class by having each person quickly introduce their primary source and tell the class how it applied to the content from this chapter. (We have 90-minute block periods, so we were able to fit all of this into one day. You may want to break it up if your classes are shorter.) Each student was allowed 30 seconds to a minute to present their material and upon starting the seminar, I asked each student to incorporate their source into the free-flowing discussion. In essence, this forced participation while also allowing each student the freedom to chime in whenever they felt comfortable.

I found that by using this method, the focus of the seminar became grounded in primary resources and not just the secondary material that the text provided. I found that the depth of discussion improved and students were excited to incorporate their documents into the course of discussion because they had become personally tied to them. More students actively participated, the discussions were rooted in facts and not conjecture, and for the most part, the students really seemed to enjoy the process.

One more note: The documents dealing with slavery elicited a powerful reaction from my students. Content areas like slavery, the Great Depression, and World War II can offer a treasure trove of primary sources that will engage students in this process. The sources related to these topics are often easy to connect to and allow students to invest personally in each document.

For years, I found myself struggling to communicate to my students the depth and vibrancy of the post-World War I period. From the intolerance of the KKK, the Red Scare, and the Sacco-Vanzetti case to the cultural revolutions involving flappers, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Lost Generation writers, to the long-ranging ramifications of the automobile, the radio, and the advertising boom, I struggled to develop a focused timeline or lesson that connected these diverse topics in a coherent manner.

By using a Socratic seminar, I found that I didn't have to worry about connecting the topics—the kids did it for themselves! This might sound like a cop-out, and to some degree it was, but what I found was that by letting the students dictate the direction of the discussions after they completed a search for and chose a relevant primary source, it became more clear to all of us how many of these seemingly unrelated topics combined to tell a more complete story of the 1920s. Here's how I did it.

Prior to the seminar, I gave each student two assignments. The first was a chapter-wide review that touched on most of the items any teacher might want a student to get from this period. Second, I assigned each of the students one of the major topics from the period (examples of these included the Sacco Vanzetti Case, the Red Scare, flappers, Al Capone, Prohibition, the Scopes Monkey trial, the 19th Amendment, the Advertising Boom, and many more—see "For More Information" below for the complete list.) I asked them to research their topic more deeply and be prepared to share what they discovered. In addition, they were to find an applicable primary source directly connected to their assigned topic. This would also have to be presented. I recommended numerous research sites, but I always try to steer them to Teachinghistory.org.

When the students came to class on the day of the seminar, they presented their topics and primary sources in the same fashion as they did for the slavery seminar, and when they were done, we started the seminar.

After about 15–20 minutes of discussion (or when things stagnated), I asked all of the students to look at their topic cards. Each card had a number (1–10) on it that was associated with a theme or idea that I wanted the students to understand. I asked all of the students to find other students with the same number on their cards and sit together. (We all know how physical movement can positively affect a classroom environment. I found that doing it during a free-flowing Socratic seminar can help refocus the group and entice some of the quieter kids to start speaking up.)

Once in their groups, I asked each person to quickly remind each member of their topic and then, AS A GROUP, deduce the common theme that brought them together. They presented this finding to the class and proceeded with the seminar by focusing on some of the new themes discovered.

After about 15–20 minutes, I followed the same process, but this time, I combined multiple groups with common themes and then asked each to figure out what brought them all together. We presented the new findings and then spent the remainder of class wrapping up the seminar.

By combining primary sources and student critical thinking we were able to come to a much deeper and multi-tiered understanding of the 1920s. There was a stark difference between the superficial chronology that I had used in the past and this dynamic interaction that forced students to make connections and inferences about the diverse topics presented to them by the Roaring Twenties.

In both of these lessons, the use of primary sources allowed me to enrich the content areas and connect students to actual events, people, and time periods. As historians, I think it is our responsibility to incorporate these powerful tools into the fantastic lessons that we are already doing. Hopefully, this article will inspire another day of greatness in your classroom. And if it does, please share it with me!

Ron Gorr
Air Academy High School
ronald.gorr at asd20.org

A pocket camcorder shrinks the technology of a video camera to the size of your pocket. While not the highest-quality recording device, pocket camcorders offer an easy way to point and shoot video. Although camcorders have been used in classrooms since the 1980s, greater availability of pocket camcorders has revolutionized the way we think about using video in the classroom. Before, a teacher was lucky to check out one camera for use in his classroom. Today, with pocket cameras costing around $150, schools can afford to have multiple camcorders in teachers’ hands. In addition, the pocket camera affords increased flexibility in storage and editing over its predecessors.

Pocket camcorders are relatively inexpensive with continually falling prices. Most pocket camcorder models cost between $150-$250. The difference in price is largely dependant upon the quality of video it produces and its memory capacity. When searching for a pocket camcorder, you should consider what it will be used for in the classroom. For most projects high definition video and zoom capabilities are valuable, but not a requirement. However, battery life and ease of uploading should be considered. Controls for recording and playing back video should be easily found on the unit. Many media centers have invested in these devices, but if yours has not and you would like to have a few cameras in your own classroom, funding need not hold you back. Currently, there is a 2-for-1 deal on Flip brand video cameras at the nonprofit DigitalWish.com. Also, you can look into buying refurbished pocket camcorders online for around $75.

Increasingly we see smartphones with video capabilities in students’ hands. This will likely make the pocket camcorder technology short-lived. But for now the pocket camcorder offers all students a chance to learn by creating video. I feel there is no need to worry as the same teaching techniques can be applied with the new smartphones as these devices become widespread.

To use a pocket camcorder, you will either need a computer on which to upload the stored video (most often via USB) for editing and sharing, or a way to project video from the pocket camcorder to a television or LCD projector (usually via HDMI cable). Once you figure out the logistics of students presenting or sharing their videos, you’ll need a reason to have students use the cameras! I believe the pocket camera’s true benefit is providing students authentic learning and assessment opportunities. The new National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies put out by the National Council for the Social Studies includes a number of products that could be created with a pocket camera. Students could take pocket cameras home to conduct interviews of those that have witnessed historical events. Or, they could create a public service announcement publicizing healthy habits. Students could also use their cameras to capture visual evidence of culture in their community or create a documentary on a community issue. I have also seen teachers assign students the task of recording and narrating trips to historical sites to share with classmates. I had students create CommonCraft-like videos in which they explained a constitutional amendment “in plain English.” In this project students created a script and a storyboard, and used black-and-white cutouts to help explain their assigned amendment. If rehearsed properly students could shoot their two-minute video in one take and did not need to spend time editing. Aside from a pocket cam, the only other additional piece of equipment necessary is a tripod that will allow the camera to face downward to record action beneath.

The social studies classroom offers many avenues to incorporate the pocket camera into instruction and assessment. I hope that you experiment with other uses for the pocket camera and share them with us here.

Today, the 146th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s death, a new historical feature film, The Conspirator, opens.

It is interesting timing for another reason as well. The Conspirator is the first major motion picture to open during the Civil War sesquicentennial and yet it begins with one of the war’s closing chapters: the assassination of President Lincoln. It quickly, however, takes you beyond the events of the assassination and into a less well-known aspect of post-Civil War history.

Directed by Robert Redford, the film focuses on the relationship between the only woman accused in the assassination conspiracy, Mary Surratt, (played by Robin Wright) and her defense attorney, Frederick Aiken (played by James McAvoy). Aiken, a Union war hero, at first does not want to have anything to do with the defense of Surratt. In turn, Surratt does not want to do anything to possibly implicate her son who flees the country after the assassination and is considered a suspect.

Aiken eventually decides that Surratt deserves a fair trial and it is through Aiken that we as an audience wrestle with the central question of the film: Was Mary Surratt complicit in the Lincoln assassination? Like a good teacher, the movie leaves you to decide this for yourself.

In conjunction with the film, the producers of The Conspirator developed an Educators’ Page with links to a downloadable Educational Resource Guide (41 pages) and movie poster. Free registration is required.

The guide offers three lessons: Women and the Civil War, Impact of Presidential Assassinations, and Right to a Fair Trial, all geared toward students ages 13 and older.

If you are looking for additional ways to use interest in The Conspirator in your classroom, Teachinghistory.org can point you in some good directions.

Let’s start with the big question: What do students learn when watching historical feature films? In this study from the University of British Columbia, researchers found that students often empathize more strongly with the past after seeing a historical film, but they also have difficulty analyzing the film’s historical accuracy. So it is important to provide students with the background knowledge they need in order to analyze a film’s historical accuracy.

Here are a few resources found on Teachinghistory.org related to the Lincoln assassination:

• For a gripping retelling of the Lincoln assassination, listen to this NPR podcast at Fords’ Theatre with James Swanson, NY Times best-selling author of Manhunt.
• Find answers to the question of why John Wilkes Booth wanted to assassinate the president in this Ask a Historian Q&A.
• In another Ask a Historian, explore the question of whether President Lincoln had premonitions of his own death.
• For information about Mary Surratt, visit the Surratt House Museum.
• For younger students, this review of the Gilder Lehrman Institute lesson, What Events Led to the Lincoln Assassination?, is suitable for grades 4 and 5.
• The Chicago Historical Society produced an interesting online exhibit, Wet with Blood, that invites you to join historians and scientists to look at the artifacts related to the Lincoln assassination.
• Looking for primary source materials related directly to the conspirators’ trial and execution? The Daniel Weinberg Collection at the Indiana Historical Society has over 90 items related to the assassination conspiracy, including the handwritten execution order.

For other resources beyond Teachinghistory.org, the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law offers the Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators that includes images, newspaper articles, and excerpts from the trial transcripts. Your students can compare the primary source material related to the trial to the movie’s version of events.

The Library of Congress’ Teaching with Lincoln has a section of materials related to the assassination, which includes resources for teachers, resources for students, and primary sources.

Films offer a great way to introduce young people to the stories of history and with the right teaching tools they can help engage students in historical inquiry. Try incorporating a few ideas in your next lesson and let us know what works!

In February 2011 two colleagues (Christopher Dean Lee and Alex de Erizans) and I completed a manuscript and presented excerpts from the paper at a social studies educator’s conference in Orlando, FL. Both the paper and the presentation were the results of successful experiences we had simulating historical events in our classrooms. We found these efforts fostered students' historical empathy and issues-analysis and decision-making skills, all necessary to the experience of “doing” history. While I admire those teachers who take simulations to the level of character reenactment—dressing the part of Napoleon to depict the Battle of Waterloo, for example—what we did here was a bit tamer, and more importantly, student-centered. For our exercise, we chose the 1919 Paris Peace Conference as the simulated historical event on which to focus. Our purpose was to provide opportunities for students to engage in deliberative exchanges based on the 20th-century event that set in motion so many truly global changes.

An experience beyond traditional classroom discussion, deliberation requires generation of consensus through an investigative process. Classroom simulations employing deliberation are not new in social studies pedagogy. For over two decades organizations such as Model UN have provided opportunities for students to experience deliberation focused on contemporary global issues and challenges. These experiences, however, have largely been extracurricular and not part of the day-to-day learning environment. For this lesson, we attempted to bring some of the designs of Model UN into a history classroom.

As preparation for the lesson, we designed various “position papers” which spelled out the proclivities and concerns of the representatives from each of the delegations at the conference including the Big Four: France, Britain, Italy, and the United States. These documents were developed using various primary and secondary sources including Margaret MacMillan’s book, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World. We were fortunate that one of our colleagues, Alex, is a German historian who employed his vast knowledge and various sources to craft these documents. Websites such as Firstworldwar.com and the World War I Document Archive's post-1918 documents section provide examples of the sources we used.

To begin, the teacher establishes delegate groups and distributes the position papers. Flexibility allows that the teacher may dictate some group dynamics. For example, the teacher may decide to assign a specific delegate group to each student or allow students to advocate for all groups within their delegation. Students might, therefore, receive all of the position papers from his or her delegation or receive only the one position paper of his or her group or nation. We chose delegations based on region in an effort to provide students the realistic situation of grappling with regional challenges as well as mutual needs. For example, Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks represented Northern Europe while the Turks, Arabs, and Jews represented the Middle East. Overall, four regions and the Big Four became our five delegations. For homework, students read their position papers and develop targeted questions designed to better understand their delegation’s stance.

In the subsequent class meeting the groups, representing the various delegations, are formed and tasked with reviewing the questions written for homework and developing a consensus statement (based on the position papers and various electronic and other sources available from the teacher) to be presented to the Big Four. Members of the Big Four delegation then deliberate in an effort to consider the demands of the delegates as well as their own constituents at home.

Authentic assessments are done via follow-up documents, which address the decisions of the Big Four in terms of delegations’ demands and actual outcomes of the conference. These assessments take the form of letters to the editors of home nation newspapers and detailed letters to the Big Four praising or raising concerns for the decisions made in Paris. The Big Four delegates write their own letters to home newspapers outlining the decisions they made and the reasons why these decisions are in the best interest of their constituents.

Upon completion, students will have a realistic sense of deliberating in the complex environment of 1919. Moreover, the revelations of the actual decisions made by the Big Four will likely provide memorable fodder for discussion as you move forward in 20th century history.

Our efforts in developing this simulation lesson have us excited about the possibility to find other historical events that may work with these activities. Thus far we have considered the Congress of Vienna, the Peace at Augsburg, the Continental Congress meetings, and even the Camp David Accords. As with any teaching strategy, we realize that many history teachers have successfully engaged students in activities akin to this. In an effort to amalgamate ideas, strategies, and resources, we have created a website designed to house historical simulation activities. If you are interested in employing historical simulation activities in your classroom, or if you have developed a simulation activity based on historical events, feel free to visit our nascent website, where you can find some details about the Paris simulation as well as contact information to submit your own historical simulation lesson activity.

The New York Public Library offers a digital gallery of many photographs and artifacts from its collections. The NYPL–Digital Gallery features a searchable index of thousands of pictures and artifacts related to a wide variety of subjects in American history. Best of all it is free and easy to use.

Next time you are looking for a photograph of an important historical figure, try using the NYPL-Digital Gallery to search for images of him/her. A simple search in the NYPL search engine box on the home page can unearth thought-provoking photographs, like this candid shot of President Grover Cleveland. This image says a lot more than the images one would obtain from a basic Internet image search.

Also from the home page, try browsing by subject and look for documents related to your state. There are many great images that capture towns and cities in the past. This is a fantastic way to tie in local history. On a digital map, instruct students to locate where an old building once stood using a site like WhatWasThere.com. Students could also compare this detailed 1911 collection of photos of 5th Avenue to a Google Maps street view of 5th Avenue today to show students the impact of urbanization.

The NYPL-Digital Gallery can also help locate sources that might display social change over time. For instance, you might find pictures showing how bridal fashion has changed over time. If you click ‘Browse Sources’ and type “brides” into the ‘Explore Subjects’ search box, you will see a link to pictures tagged by this subject from 1400 through 1939.

One of the skills we want to teach history students is how to ask the right questions. A way to practice this might be with the use of interesting images, like this one, of a “courting stick” in action. This photo begs students to ask many questions. A courting stick is a long, hollow tube around six feet long with a mouthpiece at each end. It allows courting couples to discreetly speak with one another while maintaining the appropriate physical boundaries. If you simply browse the depths of the NYPL-Digital Gallery for 10 minutes, you are bound to stumble across a treasure like this that will capture your students’ historical curiosity.

Another idea is to have students create a digital timeline incorporating images found in the Digital Gallery to demonstrate the concept of change over time. This assignment asks students to analyze changing American culture. Students could use the subject search feature of the Digital Gallery to find images related to sports, weddings, leisure, and other cultural phenomena in America over the last 250 years.

Allow yourself an opportunity to explore this vast collection of primary sources for use in your classroom. Give your students time to investigate the Digital Gallery as well. After all, this is one way historians craft questions about the past. In my browsing, I stumbled across this revealing group of photos related to African Americans serving in World War II. The photos capture the many ways African American men and women served during the war.

The NYPL-Digital Gallery is a one-stop-shop for primary sources on every topic in American history, and it is organized in a logical way, making it easy to collect documents and images. As you search for images you may want to create a collection of images for a class. You will note, above each image is a button to “select” the image. By selecting a picture it is stored in “My Collection,” accessible from the home page and from the menu bar at the top of each page. This function is handy when building a lesson around a group of documents. As you find new ways to use the NYPL-Digital Gallery I hope you will share them with us here.

Through the hard work of dedicated parents, our school received funding to improve its technology. Part of this technology was to install interactive whiteboards in every teacher’s classroom. It has been a wonderful addition to the classroom and really heightened enthusiasm for technology and learning, particularly from the students.

• The projector. I absolutely love having a whiteboard with a projector. The projector is handy, not only for projecting documents, but also for showing video clips and movies. We’ve used it in class to watch documentaries, demonstrate where to go on websites, and to project our class assignments.
• Writing on texts that we are looking at together (particularly our daily warm-ups). The marker feature, particularly, with the different color markers, works well for looking at a particular piece of text together. While it is the same as an overhead projector in terms of marking the text, it is nice to be able to save what each class has marked and to be able to print it off for absent students or students who need additional support to keep up.
• The random group generator. This feature allows me to create groups with a click of the mouse! It’s a great way to put students together and have them off and running on their task.
• Using the board—the kids are jazzed to use it!

With this said, it has also been a bit challenging as a teacher. The boards were delivered after the start of the year and finding the time to really practice using the technology and integrating it into already prepared curricula has been difficult. I’m very excited about the technology that is out there, but honestly, I am still figuring out how to get the most “bang” for my “buck” time-wise. I have to evaluate carefully what works well without technology and what could be enhanced by the use of technology.

• Having more students up to the board to write, critique, and analyze what we are doing—I can make using the board more student-centered.
• Integrating more of our interactives into it. The programs shared by the interactive notebook software, such as Jeopardy templates, make it handy to integrate interactive features into lessons. Other examples include great social studies features like U.S. map state identifications or geography vocabulary word reviews.
• Working more with my colleagues to develop tools that we all can use. As a department, we agree that there is terrific potential in this technology. We need to make a concerted effort to pinpoint what we could all use to strengthen social studies skills as a vertical team. For instance, is there a tool or a program or a method we can use to reinforce common social studies vocabulary words? Or the five themes of geography? Or timeline-building skills? These are social-studies-specific skills that we reinforce throughout the grade levels. Are there materials that we can create and then adapt for grade-level-specific needs? What is something that has worked well for one social studies teacher that the others could benefit from?

I have been surprised—but at the same time, not really—at the enthusiasm the board brings for student learning. Students have walked in and have seen that the whiteboard is on and said, “Yay! We’re using the whiteboard today?”

Unfortunately, while it has not been intended, there has been little training for the fantastic materials we have received. We have had small group peer training (probably one of the most helpful types, in my opinion) in our morning collaborative time; a staff PD morning where we were shown a lot that we could do, but had just a short amount of time to try it; and monthly district training that often collides with other obligations.

That said, I’m definitely looking forward to spending some dedicated time this summer on enhancing certain lessons and integrating them with my whiteboard software now that I understand the technology and the capabilities more.

Editor's Note: The features of interactive whiteboards vary by brand and model. Amy Trenkle's school uses SMART Boards. Other boards may have different capabilities than those mentioned in this blog entry.

History is a series of events and causal relationships, stories and tragedies and successes, that when strung together weave narratives of peoples and places. To teach this has proven quite tricky throughout American education. Any history teacher watching Jay Leno and his random trivia questions cringes in horror at the utter lack of historical understanding in the greater American populace. However, one must ask, "If we teach history every year in school, why do the students retain so little of the information?"

This is the perfect time to invoke Einstein's famous quote, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." After a number of years of teaching history chronologically, I made the curricular decision to shift to a thematic approach. I am privileged to work in schools that allow me the flexibility to make these types of classroom decisions.

My rationale for this change was grounded in a number of gut-check teacher experiences but also in the writings of Sam Wineburg, Eric Foner, David Perkins, and James Loewen. America has never excelled at knowing its own past. As I watched the school days pass, I observed that students participated and engaged, but still did not meaningfully retain the information. Something had to give. I ditched chronological teaching.

The way that I choose to envision the problem for the average student of history involves papers, books, and bookshelves. We teach students history by giving them pieces of paper (facts) with no real understanding of how to connect or make meaning. These papers stack up, but the learner can never find anything because the information is without structure or organization. Our students need bookshelves before we can really expect them to put any of the information away. Once the bookshelves exist, they can then begin to shelve their information in a way that allows for understanding and recall. In my classroom, each of the themes then becomes a shelf and as students understand the greater historical narrative they look for patterns and trends and flow over time. This long look at history invites the student into the story. Also, it provides shelves on which they can then store historical knowledge as they move into adult life.

The themes that I teach in American History are: American Identity, Political Participation, War, Business, Balance of Power, The American Dream, Environment, and Pivot Points. This is certainly not a comprehensive list or the "right" list, but it is the one that I settled on after much collaboration, discussion, and debate with a number of teachers. We work through two themes per quarter and have a project attached to the learning goals of each theme.

One unit that gets better each time I teach it is the War unit. Many K-12 history students feel like history class is one long study of America at War, rather than of the rich narrative that accompanies the nation’s endeavors. My War unit asks students to define war. One would think that with the amount of conversation about war we foster in America that this would be an easy process. Let me assure you it is not.

I start by asking students to write their own definition, then work with a partner to get one definition between the two.

After that, the partners join another partnership. We stop for a bit at this point and the students take their group definition and apply it to the American historical record. Each student is responsible for a section of years and applies their group's war definition to determine if America was at war that year. They then name the war and the place it occurred and report the death tolls. This is a bit time consuming, but I find that this process makes students reconsider the definition as well as thoroughly examine the historical record. We then return to the definition activity and repeat the consensus process until we get to a whole-class discussion.

The goal of the whole-class discussion is for the students to come to consensus on the definition of war. It takes all 65 minutes of class. I do not actively participate at all; I observe. This is about them and their ideas. The students sit in a circle and decide a process and go. Watching it unfold this year was like educational bliss: students asking really tough questions, listening hard to the answers, pushing back when they did not agree—but doing so respectfully, other students making sure each person’s voice was honored in the process. In the end they have a definition, but they also have a sense of the concept that I could not possibly instill in them in any other way. They did this. The creation of the definition was also the creation of their learning.

We then layer this theme over the previous themes and discuss connections and patterns and flow and trends that exist when we look at multiple themes at once. Then we move forward with another theme. By the end of the year they have seven shelves onto which to load their learning. The final unit has students choose a pivotal point in history and change the outcome. This final unit draws upon all the previous themes to craft a story that retells history.

Thematic teaching may not be the answer to improve the responses for the Jaywalk All-Stars, but in my 14 years of teaching, I have never felt more confident that my students are learning history in a way that allows them to learn beyond my classroom, beyond the textbooks, and beyond the boredom that many of them attribute to history class. Our struggles as a nation require a populace that is engaged and informed. Our history classes need to be a place that establishes the framework that assists them in becoming the citizens we need them to be. I believe that thematic teaching moves us closer to that goal.