Strategies
Cooperative Learning/Group Work
Students do not always understand the use of cooperative learning or the importance of it. At the beginning of the school year I take the time to discuss with the students why I use cooperative learning and review the expectations of each student during cooperative learning. I discuss this several times throughout the school year to reinforce the importance of it. The cooperative learning groups are mixed ability and I change groups each semester. I prefer groups of three but class size will ultimately effect group size. I use cooperative learning at least two times per week and I also use cooperative learning at least one time per unit for a group project.
Through cooperative learning, students build their communication and critical thinking skills and it helps create a community within the classroom. Within their cooperative learning groups, students examine a document or document set and answer guiding questions using a graphic organizer. The use of cooperative learning is also an essential strategy because it echoes some of the dialogic aims of public history. Using cooperative learning allows for students to act as public historians by communicating with their peers, who share difference voices, interpretations, and experiences, and also requires them to work collaboratively. By creating dialogue about the content, students are able to learn from one another and discuss different viewpoints about the topics at hand.
Document Analysis
I use a variety of primary and secondary sources to engage students in learning and develop their critical thinking skills. My use of the sources aligns to the PA Core Standards for History and Social Studies, which is listed in the appendix. Examples include: students read, understand, and respond to informational text, cite specific textual evidence to support their analysis of primary and secondary sources, and determine central ideas or information.
To analyze these sources, I use the document analysis worksheets found on the National Archives Website. I often modify these to meet the goals of the lesson and I usually add a written portion to this analysis to further develop their writing skills.
Close Reading
To build their reading comprehension skills and engage students with the text, I use close reading. The purpose of close reading is not to answer simple recall questions but to answer text dependent questions and cite evidence from the passage. When using close reading, I use a short passage or an excerpt. It is important to remember that close reading is not meant for long documents.
Active Reading
When students are not using the close reading strategy for a document, they use the active reading strategy.
This strategy engages students in the reading in a variety of ways. During the reading students underline and/or highlight unfamiliar vocabulary which they then define, identify the main idea or thesis, make notes in the margins as well as write questions, provide a one sentence summary after each paragraph, and provide a short summary after the passage.
Gallery Walk
I use gallery walks to display student work, promote discussion, and to get students out of their seats. In addition, it also requires students to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize. Sometimes I use the gallery walk as an independent activity, however, I do assign a group gallery walk as well which promotes team building in addition to developing high order thinking skills.
During a gallery walk, the student or group will rotate to examine each piece of work and develop questions or responses to the piece, as well as examine responses provided by others. Students use sticky notes to place their comment on the piece of work. Each group then returns to their piece of work and examines the comments. The gallery walk concludes with each group providing an oral presentation regarding their piece and synthesis of the comments.
Timeline
To document industrialization and deindustrialization in Pittsburgh, and to develop their chronological reasoning skills, students will create a photo timeline. Along with pictures, students will need to provide a small written description for each picture.
Interview
Since the unit will focus on public history, students will learn how oral history is used as a tool and will conduct an interview. After discussing the guidelines for an oral history interview, students will develop interview questions and then interview five people. Students will be given a writing prompt in which they will need to use evidence from their interviews within their response. Students will also record their interviews as part of a culminating project.
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