This video, from the Auburn Early Education Center, AL, shows examples of using digital tools, such as whiteboards, to encourage very young students to develop their own projects and to weave the use of electronics and the internet in with "real world" classroom activities.
In this video, UK teacher Simon Botten demonstrates beyond-the-basics whiteboard techniques for use in history and geography classes. The video focuses on elementary-level students and on engaging younger children using interaction with the whiteboard.
Sara Romeyn, social studies department chair at Bullis School, MD, teaches AP U.S. History to high-school juniors. In this video (2 min. 47 sec. long), she describes a project in which her students used Facebook to report on early 19th-century reform and political figures. Instead of researching and using the collected information to write reports, students created Fan pages, hosting albums of images related to their figures, detailed biographies, and continual status updates written "in character." At the conclusion of the project, students gathered for a 45-minute "virtual salon," viewing and commenting on each other's pages.
Students involved in the project demonstrated continual engagement, updating their pages and interacting with others' pages over weekends and after school. Romeyn has since repeated and improved on the project, asking students to use Google Maps to pinpoint locations important to their historical figures and Survey Monkey to poll other students' historical figures on controversial issues important to their lives.
Check out an example of one student's project, on DeWitt Clinton.
NOTE: In order to view the video, you must be on a computer that has YouTube access.
Kathryn Lindholm-Leavy and Graciela Borsato, “Academic Achievement,” in F. Genesee (Ed.), Educating English language learners (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 192.
Cruz & Thornton, "Social Studies for English Language Learners: Teaching Social Studies that Matters," Social Education, in press.
See Cruz & Thornton book, 2009; see also, Jennifer Truran Rothwell, History Making and the Plains Indians, Social Education, 61, no. 1, pp., 4-9, 1996.
Teaching history to English Language Learners poses special challenges owing to its conceptual density and assumed cultural knowledge. It seems obvious that ELLS need additional support and materials to understand content, yet many social studies classrooms are ill-stocked in this regard.
Here we outline how visuals can help ELLs build interest and understanding.
Rationale
Christie, F., & Derewiank, B. (2009). School Discourse: Learning to Write Across the Years of Schooling. New York: Continuum.
As we ask students to become more sophisticated in their historical thinking, we expect them to move from reporting historical events to explaining and interpreting them. Making claims about historical events requires a shift in writing that requires new language tools.
Many students, especially English learners, will require more support in the form of explicit instruction in writing explanations about relationships between events and conditions in history. One central relationship in history is cause and effect.
The qualities that make a piece of history writing “good” or “effective” vary, depending on the purpose and genre. For students, this can feel like a moving target! For English Learners, it’s even more challenging.
Your feedback on their writing can help them to communicate their thinking more effectively. However, English Learners often turn in assignments with so many flaws in their writing that it is difficult to know where to start. Overwhelming students with too much feedback will not help their learning.
Being strategic with feedback means:
SQ3R is an effective note-taking system that helps English Language Learners self-monitor their comprehension before, during, and after reading a passage in a textbook. This instructional strategy helps students understand key historical content and vocabulary.
Ideas for this lesson were inspired by:
Visit the website at the National Constitution Center for printable copies of the Constitution, other free primary sources, and lesson ideas. You can also find ideas and resources at the Center for Civic Education.
Quick Overview
This tried and true lesson, a blend of history and civics, guides students through a process of evaluating John Locke’s theory of “living in the natural state” as a basis of our Constitution. Students discuss and learn about the three basic freedoms (rights) in our Constitution: life, liberty and the right to own property. Students will “lock in” these concepts through an exciting mix of brainstorming, framed discussion, and writing techniques designed especially for English Language Learners.
We history teachers who teach English language learners face a dilemma: how can we teach our students a rigorous history curriculum rich with opportunities to develop historical thinking, while making sure the language, and hence, concepts, are understandable?
Also, since most of us have a mix of different levels of language learners in our classrooms, along with students who speak and write non-academic English, how can we scaffold the language learning so that all students benefit, without dumbing-down the instruction?
The Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project offers teaching resources and guidance for conducting document-centered inquiry in middle and high school classrooms. This wealth of resources includes vast archives of documents, (for example Montreal is Burning) and several guides for teaching students to think critically about history. Materials are available in both French and English.