Collaboration  Time, and the Un-Conference:

I have to admit....I love sitting and listening, soaking in the expertise and storytelling of our guest historians in many of our training sessions. But today, it was great to explore resources, hear from experts among us, and share ideas with my smart colleagues.  In our hour or so of collaboration time, I burned some images (primary source documents) from Yvonne's shared resources, learned a little bit about "video star" and its utility in the classroom for student-created presentations, and also re-installed some of my long-lost bookmarks, lost in a recent virus infection, with the help of my foundations pals.   My brain is full....

Jan 13-- quick write and wordle

Wordle is a fun tool-- my students and I love using it.  There is something so visually appealing to word-lovers and writers, in seeing the artistry of ideas in this way. 

I am comfortable sharing my original quick-write reflections, so thought I'd post thoughts about how this lessons went in my class, for my future reference.

As I consider how my students are doing with this large-feeling assignment, the following ideas occur to me:

·       Students should have been taught the formula and format of persuasive writing beforehand, so that integrating this type of writing with history content was not so large a task.  We’ve only had minimal experience with persuasive to day….a few opinion polls, mini lessons on point/counter point, and then the topic, “should all children have pets?”  --they’ve only completed up to paragraph 2 on this and it was pretty guided.

·       In reviewing student work so far….which has been a graphic organizer and the first paragraph in rough draft form, it is evident that all of my students love this content/subject and that tying the assignment to a mystery was  good choice to motivate students.  It also occurs to me that my students have grown as writers, many are developing great voice, ad virtually all have great hooks.

·       I wish that my students were more comfortable taking risks in their writing.  They seem slowed down by needing to check and see if sentences, ideas, or supporting details are “ok” to add to their work.  

·       I’d also like to add more reading selections or video items, perhaps images or primary sources to their body of knowledge before asking them to write.  Using only the evidence from the book, our read-aloud seemed limiting.

·       Great that we are concurrently reading Blood on the River, as this story of Jamestown really helps students to connect with how life really was in the new world.

Lesson Plan and Links

We utilized the "Backwards Design Process" template provided as a shared document at our last training, to direct our teaching/learning objectives.  This LP has been emailed to members of our group, and to Yvonne, but I don't know how to add it as an attachment to this blog, to share with others.

In truth, the model is cumbersome.  We'll use a more straightforward, traditional lesson plan structure for our instruction. Our goal is to integrate persuasive writing while studying and analyzing the cooperation and conflict that existed between new settlers and Native Americans, leading to the mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke Colony.

These are a collection of shared resources for Jamestown and for Roanoke.  (google doc sharing)

Roanoke and Jamestown Resources

November, 2011-- Historical Method & Historical Thinking

Understanding Historical Method (in a nutshell)

Tier One:  Building a Personal and Intimate Connection to the Past by...

• Seeking personal connections to history
• seeing history as the story of people and their voice, rather than dry, disconnected events

During our training time, we used a template called, "Understanding by Design-- Backwards Design Process" that was shared by Bobbie Hansen, (created by Wiggins and McTighe).  For an hour or more, I worked to fit all of our great ideas into the model before us, and in the end, found it to be a bit more labor intensive than I liked, and not as user-friendly for sharing.  I think that two of the challenges I had were in sticking to teaching to one objective, and in formulating relevant questions/responses.  Our original idea of incorporating Persuasive Writing with our Social Studies content standards began to take on a much wider, more complex look and feel.   Much of the information used with this planning model seemed redundant to me.  I guess it is just a personal preference, and, like most things, becomes easier with time and use.  I am thankful that Yvonne and Bobbie are both so flexible and have given each group the authority to plan and create utilizing the resources that each feels most comfortable with.

Although we'll stick with the outline for teaching skills for both writing and for history, I think that we'll use a simpler, less complicated lesson plan than the one we originally co-created.
 
Historical Thinking:
I've reviewed the "historical thinking" notes and content from our previous trainings, to see how we were utilizing resources over time, and how each new phase of our training was able complement our prior knowledge of both subject matter and strategic teaching. 

This new information from Bobbie Hansen regarding the personal connections we'd like our students to make to history and also the integration of Language Arts standards is a good fit with many of the practices and resources that many of us seem to have already put into place.

In my classroom, for example, I've utilized Cicero on a number of occasions.  The Columbian Exchange presented by Dr. Bauer and by Anthony Fitzpatrick was a made a more primary focus of  my instruction, and it enabled my students to make cause/effect analyses, and to connect with  explorers, as well as the native people in a more meaningful way.  I've enjoyed using art/images to analyze perspectives, and find that students really love this alternative.  Lastly, using the SPECs model to analyze documents, pictures, etc., has been a useful tool, directing our focus and sharping our analysis skills.    Viewing history in this way directs our study and also promotes the personal connections (uncovering the 5 W's) to people and events.

Collaboration-- Connecting Language Arts & Social Studies

Lesson Planning

Our group of three had some great ideas to share for this collaborative lesson planning assignment.  Teresa had a fantastic idea of developing a narrative writing assignment from a read-aloud already "in progress" for her, called Blood on the River.  Laura and I shared our thoughts of further developing a persuasive writing lesson connected to the mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke Colony.  Since we loved both ideas, and since our timelines for teaching these two types of writing varied at our particular sites, we opted to pursue and share both ideas/lessons.

With this in mind, I began reading Blood on the River  to my students.  I am so glad that Teresa suggested this novel!  My class absolutely loves it!  I am looking forward to utilizing Teresa's Narrative Writing plan to further explore both literature themes & elements, and the historical context of the story.   When students engage in period-writing, they are able to make a more personal connection to the people, the culture, the places that they learn about.

Laura, acted as our researcher during our time together, and put together several documents for us to use on a google.docs share site.  We'll integrate these sources in our study of both Roanoke and Jamestown.

The Persuasive Writing essay prompt and lesson plan that we chose to develop incorporates our 5th grade standards for writing, as well as critical thinking and historical analysis of resources related to our standards for social studies, in learning about the obstacles faced by early colonists, motives for exploration/colonization, and outcomes with Native Americans.

Roanoke and Jamestown--Lessons in the Making!

First Draft (written during our seminar time together--)

I am really excited about the two lessons that we are creating together in our PLC.  We first looked at what we already liked in our classrooms as resources for teaching history.   Next, we looked at how we could refine what we were doing with the writing connection we've made in the past.  Lastly, we asked ourselves how we could incorporate the amazing resources (like Cicero for example),  to address the Historical Thinking, Teir 1 strategies. 

First, we chose to utilize a mystery picture-book about the lost colony of Roanoke, and incorporate Lang. Arts standards for persuasive writing.  Laura has set up an account at docs.google.com, and is researching online resources for viewing this time in history from different perspectives.  We're looking forward to  including primary documents, biographies, readers' theater, etc.

Planning Ahead: Notes to Self

Set up Livebinder
Set up Diigo
Utilize Cicero in the classroom more effectively  (I don't find it easy to navigate--it is time consuming)
Create a 4th to 5th grade glogster or prezi with my buddy teacher, connecting content/strategies
Post hero websites, history websites to my classroom website with activities
Find the functionality of using blogspot.com professionally or personally
Consider joining professional social network