Teaching for Historical Literacy

What a great article about teaching history as a living, breathing thing!  I'm interested in finding a lot of picture and chapter books on a grade level of 3-5 so that I can use them with all my students!

I think the two articles use different terms but talk about many of the same things.  History needs to be made real for all students, whether left- or right-brained.  Using different types of activities, questions and sources will allow for all students to learn.  I was very much impressed to see the metacognitive skills applied to learning history.  We use those every day in Reading class and, speaking for myself, I'm getting comfortable enough with them to use them in the content areas, as well.  We have a goal to get our kids answering open-ended questions (like they will see on the PSSAs and 4Sight) in all content areas.  There have been workshops offered to help us to build good questions for each of the subject areas.  What I have not done is to focus an entire history unit on using primary and secondary sources and completely immersing the students in the topic.  I hope to be able to do that in the coming years.

If anyone knows of a resource out there that lists books (chapter and picture) for historical knowledge about the 13 Colonies and Pennsylvania history, which are also written for students age 8-11, I'd love to hear about it! 

Right Brain/Left Brain

I took the test for Right Brain/Left Brain functioning and it came up with the score of 47% left and 53% right.  After reading further about how the RB/LB people learn, I think that score is accurate for me.   I like to learn by reading, but take notes for it in a logical, orderly fashion.  Math is best learned by watching several of the same type of problem done and then trying it myself.  However, hearing something in a song will make me remember it forever, and writing it creatively will cement it in my mind, as well.

After reading the other two sections I chose:  Right Brain Learning and Left Brain Learning, I think I maybe intuitively provide for both types of learners in my classroom.  I actually give my kids an Intelligence Inventory to start the year and it gives me a really good idea of what types of activities will help my kids learn best.  For instance, we just finished a geometry unit in my 4th grade classroom.  After learning all the different concepts and vocabulary, we put it all together in a picture made by using different geometric shapes.  In addition, the students had to study their picture and write a paragraph "introducing" their figure to us and explaining how many angles, shapes, parallel lines, etc. were in it. The students truly enjoyed it, and I think that's because it brought together both types of learning - creative and analytical.

Historical Fiction

There is an amazing series of books that take the reader through the 1700s in various countries.  The history is accurate, even though the characters are mostly fictional.  They begin around 1745 in Scotland and follow the characters through the Revolutionary Period in the American Colonies.  I'm dying for the 8th one to come out - which hopefully will be around this time next year.  They start with a book called Outlander and are written by Diana Gabaldon.  Has anyone else read them? 

What a Week!

Today is the first day of our Easter break from school and I don't know about your students, but mine were NUTS all week!  Every 5 minutes, they were off-task and chatting again.    I was very thankful that it was only 3 days long.