Hello Friends, I have been on a blog hiatus because I have been working on the Social Studies EduProtocols book with my new best friend, Adam Moler. We were asked to contribute to the fifth book in the EduProtocols Field Guide series. Adam provided a middle school History teacher’s perspective and student examples while I supplied lessons from my 10th grade World History, 11th grade US History, and AP Research classes.
With the start of a new school year, I’m excited about chronicling a new crop of students’ EduProtocol journey. We have made new friends since the book has been released, been on podcasts, and hosted some Twitter chats, but what we really enjoy is elevating the work of teachers who are new to EduProtocols. Please share your student work with the #EduProtocols community on Twitter. Seeing your innovative approaches to engaging students in social studies instruction is worth more than book sales. Thank you for purchasing our book.
For the past few weeks, my tenth grade World History students have been learning about the Mexican Revolution. They read The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela in their ELA class, and in my class they viewed the PBS documentary The Storm That Swept Mexico, learned about La Soldaderas, and researched and wrote children’s books on important events and leaders from the Revolution.
Almost every student completed this project on time and they were given multiple chances to revise and resubmit a perfectly formatted annotated bibliography of five sources for their book. I taught them how to use The Hemingway App and Rewordify to help paraphrase their text. Students could work in groups or independently, the only rule was each student had to produce six pages of content.
The top three entries were chosen by BookCreator to be displayed in their instructional libraries. I am so proud of these students.
At the end of the 15 week grading period, my students have earned 35 (As), 15 (Bs); 9 (Cs); 4 (Ds); and 7 (Fs). Please ask your child to share their book project with you and celebrate their creative accomplishments.
My 10th grade World History students recently completed a speaking project where they were asked to narrate sketchnotes on the French Revolution or complete an Ignite Talk using 20 slides. The goal of this project was to get them to speak on an aspect of the French Revolution and make it entertaining to an audience of teenagers.
I used excerpts of Well Spoken (pp. 17-54) by Erik Palmer and this worksheet from teacher Erin Rigot to help students understand the importance of a grabber opening, an organizational strategy, signposts, and a powerful closing.
Almost 80% of my students completed a Narrated Sketch Note or Ignite Talk (55/70) within five days. Here are what I assessed as the top four, using the following rubric.
This student designed her speech for a teenaged audience perfectly. She used high-interest terms like True Crime, Netflix, using Googling as a verb, and living like Jeff Bezos. The key points about the Guillotine and French Revolution were understandable and entertaining. She made several clear connections to this audience when she made references to #vegetarian, and fangirling.
The next student clearly designed her speech for a teenage audience by asking students what it would be like to be treated fairly. She explains the plight of the Third Estate and connects with the audience with via her cartoons, which were perfectly timed and entertaining.
The third student gets the audience on his side by making fun of not only me, but also our school principal, Dr. Chavez. He uses us to illustrate the problems France had with inequality. Who says I don’t have a thick skin?
The fourth student uses a surprising statistic to open her speech and helps students understand the mountain of debt France had before the Revolution. She does a wonderful job explaining the concept of absolutism and the divine right of kings. She had minimal text on her slides. Je l’aime! Keep up the good work, World History students. Next year, my students will be learning from you.
Chapman University had a wonderful prompt for their annual art and writing contest this year. “As you listen to the survivor’s or rescuer’s testimony, and as you reflect on the stories they tell, write down a specific word, phrase, or sentence that speaks to the inner strength of this individual and the role of connectedness in sustaining strength. As the person now entrusted with this individual’s memory, through your creativity in art, poetry, or prose, explore this word, phrase, or sentence as central to the survivor’s or rescuer’s story, your understanding of the Holocaust, and your own search for inner and shared strength during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Because of pacing issues, my students weren’t able to participate in this year’s contest, but I did use the prompt for my 10th-grade Holocaust unit and we participated in a joint LAUSD-Glendale Unified zoom session with survivor Joseph Alexander. Here are some of the entries from my 10th-grade World History students along with my comments on how they connected the Holocaust testimony to their lives and survival of COVID.
This student finds a shared strength with the Holocaust survivor, but does not supply enough supporting details as to how knowledge protected them during the COVID-19 pandemic. It would be nice to have them elaborate and share more details.
This student composed a poem based on Holocaust testimony, but made no effort to connect it to their life or experiences under COVID-19. They were invited to revise and resubmit.
Another poem with the required connection and explanation to the student’s life follows below:
Fences A fence separating sides, never looked so diminishing as now. Fences everywhere left and right in my life. Everything closed off at one point. Hungary fenced off to Czech Republic. Soon being fenced off of my own home. Closed off from real life trapped in a world where no one seems to relate on the outside. The ghetto stripping us of our rights, fenced from the light, closed to the conditions set for us. Treated lower than others making us feel diminished. No hope, no sight, fenced to my real life. One point I believed it would end, let out of the ghetto only to be trapped in carts for days. No food, no space, no necessities, we are going to waste. Our lives mean no more than a dime to them. I wonder why. What have I done to deserve this? I am Jewish, what a crime. A child, suffering a punishment cruel to man. Ripped away from my parents, what if I never see them again I thought? Off to the crematorium my mother went, reuniting with her only in dreams. Fenced from my family now alone with my sister. Stripped from my beauty, my clothes and hair stripped from me fenced from what was mine. Yellow stripes from my head and back. I was called over before, for my looks. Perfect Aryan they said. Blonde with blue eyes. Baffled when they figured I was Jewish. A waste they said, frustrated I was let go. Only to eventually be fenced from my sister once more. Meeting her from a fence everyday. Restricted from where I once was. Off to a side where I was going to live when my sister wasn’t. Seeing her making sure she was okay was the only thing keeping me going. One day she did not come. Worried I waited for days. Concluding she was selected. Fenced off from every part of what my life once was, I have no will. Death looked me in the eyes wishing it would take me but I survived. With the help of others I made it through. Auschwitz to factories in kettle carts once more. No space, no room, no life. Working until we were set free. Fenced from all free life no knowing what it would be like. Not knowing when it was over. Confused but curious freedom in such a similar state. Soon enough the fenced dropped. Not being able to differentiate what was allowed and what wasn’t. The fence disappeared. I reunited with my brother. A long road ahead but eventually the sun will shine again.
Explanation: Renee Firestone is a Holocaust survivor who came from a well off happy family where she knew enough to associate herself as a Jew but not educated enough to be a master in the religion until later on in life where she learned more. She was taken to Auschwitz where she was separated from her family and fenced off from the only person she had left, her sister who was then selected and she really had no one left in the camp. She was fenced off everything in her life and in some aspects through covid we were fenced off our ordinary life as well. Not that our lives could ever be compared to theirs through covid because we have been fortunate to make it our health and make it this far without losing someone. The situations are not compatible at all but there are similar feelings throughout. In my quarantine experience, although I was safe, my family and I still got covid a few months back. Through my whole covid positive experience, I was separated from my parents and I had to stay with my sister who also got covid and we all quarantined separately. My father was the only one who did not get covid despite being near my mom to help her while simultaneously helping my siblings and I. My siblings and I were fortunate to make it out well and have little to no symptoms but it was different for my mom. My mom was very ill and could not move for anything. She was so sick that she almost had to go to the hospital because she would not breathe. I was very worried for my mom because it made me sad that she was that sick but fortunately, she got better but as she was getting better, her mother passed away from natural causes which was also very rough for her. Throughout his whole time i felt isolated from those that i loved and i was isolated from the world. There were fences all around even though there was nothing there. Restrictions and quarantine life was still rough but nothing extreme. It is nothing compared to what Renee Firestone endured. A little taste of what she had but 20x worse is what I think covid was for me. I relate to Renee though the feeling of being fenced off of your life and those who you love.
For my Holocaust Testimony Project, I choose to research Mala Tribich. Her life story was filled with grief and loss sadly a common factor was being separated from loved ones and family. I can definitely relate to that as I was separated from my father at the beginning of the pandemic when he was severely ill in the hospital. It was 2 long months of not knowing whether he’d be alive anymore but thankfully he’s alive and well continuing to recover. I can also relate in the way that I’ve been separated from the majority of my family who live in Mexico, which include countless aunts/uncles and cousins of all ages, all of which I know little to nothing of. Although I do carry hope, the same way Mala and her fellow survivors did, to one day see them in person. I decided to do a digital art piece to represent the separation that these innocent people and families had to undergo simply because they were Jewish or had Jewish features. This led me to remember the BLM movement, specifically in the summer of 2020, where peaceful protesters were brutally injured. Once again comes to prove how divided we are as humans simply because of our differences. I also included the quote by the incredible Audre Lorde, an American poet/writer feminist as well as a black lesbian mother. The image I drew represents how the Jews felt being attacked trying to hold onto the rope which represents the connections between loved ones and hope meanwhile all it took was one hateful person, Hitler, as he stands on his infamous balcony watching all the henchmen he’s brainwashed with propaganda and racism to follow along with his evil tactics. The henchmen in the background is an image from google just wanted to make that clear because I wanted that image crystal clear but the rest is hand drawn. Ultimately, I wanted to convey the pain that these innocent families went through yet through the worst of tragedies they held onto hope and persevered.
This student made strong connections with her survivor’s testimony and being separated from her father during COVID. They elaborate on the theme of separation with their family history. I appreciated their citing the image and identifying their original art. The composite of the image, quote, and original artwork add up to a powerful experience.
This well done example makes a connection to labor as a benefit. This student elaborates with the work they have done with their father and cites how meaningful work kept them sane and happy. This learning experience demonstrates that tenth grade students can study the past and improve their self-awareness. CASEL defines self-awareness as the abilities to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. This includes capacities to recognize one’s strengths and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence and purpose.
After participating in the #AdvanceSELinCA activities this summer, I decided to start the year with a focus on trauma and recovery.
The first step was asking my students two questions. Here is a sample of their responses.
What is one thing that you are most afraid of this school year?
I’m not that good at online anything so I am afraid that I will mess up on some assignments because I don’t know how to do them properly.
I suck with online school.
I’m sorta afraid of waking up super super late and completely missing almost all of my zooms for that day.
Not knowing how to do the work because of online classes.
I am scared of not being able to understand/learn much with online learning.
One thing I am afraid of this school year is messing up or not knowing how to do my assignments.
One thing I am afraid of for this school year is that I won’t be able to figure out how to submit certain things because I am new to using schoology.
This school year I am afraid I will fall behind in school work and become overwhelmed.
One thing I’m afraid of is not knowing how to do things in online school because I’m not very good with technology.
I am afraid of not learning the same online as I did in person.
I’m afraid my internet won’t work and I won’t be able to join a class.
I’m afraid of not being able to understand the material as much because online learning is very different than in person.
I’m afraid that I’ll be behind my school work and not know what’s going on during my classes.
One thing I am scared of this school year is missing zoom meetings.
I’m afraid that I’m going to fall behind on schoolwork.
I am scared that I’ll miss a class and just miss an important lesson.
I’m afraid of not being able to retain information from online work and classes.
I am afraid I will procrastinate too much and fall behind in all my work.
I’m afraid of being late to class due to the fact that my sleeping schedule is messed up.
I am afraid of missing assignments and zooms because I couldn’t find or access the materials.
a few things i’m afraid of for this school year are procrastinating and not actually learning.
I’m scared of accidentally missing assignments or zoom meetings, like if I forget to check one subject or platform.
I’m scared that I’m gonna keep getting distracted and have a hard time learning.
Some things that I am afraid of are getting distracted and falling behind. I like to wait until the last minute to do things and I get distracted easily. working from home isn’t going to make that any easier.
I’m afraid of not understanding a topic and messing up the homework.
One thing I’m afraid for this school year is that we won’t go back.
I am afraid that I will get distracted and will fall behind.
I am afraid that I won’t be able to attend the zoom meeting due to internet issues.
One thing that I am afraid of this school year is having online school next year because I don’t learn as well when on remote learning. I am also afraid of procrastinating.
I am afraid that I will miss a class or be really late and miss everything and not understand the lesson well then doing bad on the test.
The main thing I am afraid of this school year is falling behind and missing assignments.
My biggest fear for this school year is failing or procrastinating a lot more than usual
I’m scared that I can’t handle all the classes I signed up for and can’t keep up like I thought I would.
My biggest fear for this school year is getting overwhelmed with the work given to me.
One thing I’m afraid of is that I’ll get piled with so much work that i won’t know how to get back on track or what to complete first.
My biggest fear is failing my classes and AP tests.
The one thing I’m most afraid for the school year is failing the classes because online is different that in person
One thing that I’m afraid of this school year is falling behind or feeling too overwhelmed with class work getting pushed all into one hour.
My biggest fear for this school year is falling behind classes and not going back to school until next year.
Failing my classes
What should your teachers do to manage your concerns about online learning?
Teachers should offer more practice to learn instead of giving busy work for a letter grade.
Provide extra support for homework, and have patience as all of us are new to online learning.
Teachers should communicate with other teachers to not overlap work dates and just overall spread out due dates.
To manage concerns about online schools our teachers should have all assignments and due dates placed somewhere clear to see so that there is no confusion.
I feel like teachers should be understanding and try not to give so much work as to stress the students out too much considering we are all going through a stressful time right now. Also extra credit since people will be missing out on alot.
I feel like teachers should help and understand when there are technical issues with zoom when it’s needed. I feel like students get these feelings because they are exploring a new way of school and are so unaccustomed to being there in the classroom.
Be available during school hours to help student who may have extra questions
Teachers should motivate us and understand that this a whole unique way of learning.
Teachers should be more patient and offer substitute assignments to help understand harder concepts
Teachers can help manage concerns by answering questions and communicating with us.
Teachers should address the concerns that the students have and provide simple solutions for said problems. This will help guide students through these concerns with less anxiety; another thing that the teacher may do to help students is being open to discussion about these problems and working with students to overcome them.
Send reminders for students to remember what’s coming up, if it’s either assignments or important dates.
Teachers should try to use similar websites so that us students will have an easier time finding things and feel more organized without being swarmed with tabs.
Teachers should offer more ways on how to help on hw
I feel that we should be given more creative ways to learn instead of just straight out of the book.
Teachers should find alternatives to schoology, for instance if schoology crashes, having a backup plan would be helpful.
I think teachers should try to be more understanding and have patience because online learning is all new to us. We’re all kinda stressed out so I think we’d appreciate it if teachers don’t pile a ton of work on us just because we’re learning from home.
Teachers should be patient with us one of my teachers already has stuff for us to print out and my printers at target
Teachers should make sure all students are aware of deadlines. It would be helpful to have some sort of schedule posted as well as organized materials in either Schoology or Google Classroom. 🙂
Teachers should just take their time with their lessons and take time with learning this new process.
I was most scared of showing my face on camera. I feel like if it wasn’t forced then it wouldn’t be so bad I guess. But it’s not that bad.
I think that teachers should concentrate more on posting lessons and lectures rather than giving out busywork. I also think it would be helpful to keep the zoom meetings for more of a discussion rather than teaching lessons on zoom because something student’s internet cuts out.
Teachers should record lessons and post them in case we need them, like they do in colleges. Also to be patient and understanding.
I think that teachers should answer as soon as possible, as well as understand that this is a whole new learning environment for us.
I think patience is key, since we’re all new to online learning. I also think we shouldn’t just rely on Zoom meetings, and find other ways to learn and practice, such as being recommended online articles, or having worksheets.
Teachers should offer after school help and should take this time to go more in depth with assignments instead of just giving us extra work.
Always a pleasure to work with Dr. Michelle Herczog at the Los Angeles County Office of Education to provide 6 Tips for Distance Learning. Here is a link to the webinar. I have pasted the agenda with additional links below.
Objective: Teachers will learn to simplify distance learning lessons and create engaging digital learning experiences. Presentation link: https://bit.ly/DL6Tips
Collaborate to Create Cross-Curricular Experiences
As a teacher who emphasizes reading and historical literacy to my high school students, I have mixed feelings on using study guides. Do they help our students read the texts we assign them? Are they used only by students who haven’t done the reading, but want to project the illusion of work? History teachers can solve this problem by asking students to create their own study guides focused on what happens to the historical figures, which vocabulary words a reader might have trouble with, and illustrating timelines that help the reader get a better understanding of the story.
These students had five days of class time to read a graphic novel called The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks and illustrated by Caanan White. I have used this text several times in my World War One unit and have noticed that students have trouble tracking who is who and who does what throughout the story.
This post is to showcase some exemplars from this assignment. I have also included the reflections from each student describing how they managed their time in italics. There was a 70% completion rate on this assignment. Grades were distributed as: 42 As, 48 Bs, 22 C/Ds, and 40 students didn’t turn in anything. Students receiving an A generally had 10 or more character descriptions, suggested WWI vocabulary words, or events on their timelines.
The first day in class, I spent the day trying to figure out what the prompt was and I was planning out how I was going to organize my information. The following days I read the book and wrote my information as I was reading. I also found a pdf of the book online which allowed me to work on the project at home. One of the major issues I have is that I get distracted easily when people are talking while I’m reading, so that’s why I also had to work on it at home. I think if I didn’t get so distracted, I would’ve finished sooner. In total, I would say I spent about 1.5-2 hours doing the assignment.
I think I earned an A because I worked hard on my slides and looked for characters and searched for different WW1 timelines. I probably would have made my vocab and WW1 facts more detailed.
This next student created a seven page book. I was impressed how historical context and vocabulary were front-loaded. There was also a very consistent citation method employed, no doubt due to this students concurrent enrollment in AP Research.
I believe that if I spent more time on identifying the characters and explaining the timeline it could have performed better. I worked all days, however, I definitely forgot to work on the Commonlit after being too focused on the study guide.
Another project that got an A was this unique creation on Canva. This student had turned in some work on paper and I did not check her electronic work. When you see her comment below, you will understand why she came to me after school very quickly so I would change her grade. She was proud of her project and I love students who advocate for themselves.
I GOT AN A! I really think i got an A because I really put the effort on the presentation of the time line. The only thing I would say is the amount of information I used could’ve been more but other than that I cited, used pictures, used more information than ____. This is very honest btw.
Overall, I was very pleased with how creative my students were in response to this assignment. There were a few instances of shared images and text, which necessitated some classroom discussion on plagiarism. I can see repeating this assignment next month when we read …
My next post will delve into the reasons that 40 students did not turn in anything at all. This semester we will be doing a lot more work reflecting on our classwork and documenting how students manage their time. #FailureIsNotanOption
This post will describe an instructional sequence using the Numbers Mania EduProtocol, a corroboration activity, and a rhyming game to formatively assess student’s knowledge of the French Revolution. Numbers Mania is a lesson frame from Marlena Hebern and Jon Corripo’s book The EduProtocol Field Guide: Book Two where students create an infographic to demonstrate their knowledge of your subject.
In this case, students used numbers to tell the story of a historical event. I use this lesson frame to motivate students into reading the textbook more closely than they would if they were just taking notes.
Here they are specifically looking for numbers that can be pulled from the text and used to tell the beginning, middle and end of the French Revolution.
For this assignment, my students had one class period to pull numbers from their textbook in order to tell the story of the French Revolution. This explains the lack of variation in their infographics. You can see an entire class period of Numbers Mania infographics HERE. On average my students created five stats for their story in one class period. There was a high of ten numbers and a low of 1 in the sample.
In the past, I have extended this activity by adding an annotated bibliography assignment. To evaluate the efforts of my students, I “graded” them on the number of statistics they included and the number of sources they used. Thanks to Ryan O’Donnell aka @creativeedtech for giving me access to his great templates.
Corroboration
On the second day of this unit, students were given a lengthy Sparknotes reading on the French Revolution and asked to corroborate facts from that reading with events in their textbook.
I ask my students look for areas of agreement in two separate texts. They document them in a Fact 1, Fact 2, Implication format. This helps high school students learn to analyze texts critically and to improve their explanations of quotes they select as textual evidence.
In one class period, my students could identify a low of two corroborations to a high of 16 corroborations of varying quality. The class average was five.
Rhyming Couplets
On the third day of this unit, students were asked to retell the story of the French Revolution in rhyme. They were allowed to work in groups or as individuals. Twenty-nine poems were created in two class periods.
I have removed student last names in order to publish the poems. At this point, I can turn them over to my ELA teacher colleagues and they will follow up with helping the students review their rhyme scheme, improve their drafts, and polish their prose. Interestingly, when I asked students which activity they felt them learn the most about the French Revolution (numbers, corroborating, or rhyming) — they overwhelmingly chose the rhyming activity. It helped them remember more historical details.
Conclusion
The EduProtocols book series has helped my transition to a 1:1 classroom by making the learning in my classroom visible. This allows me to give students discrete skill builders that I can remix for coherence and consistency. This has helped me get off the lecture and test treadmill. What protocols or skill builders are you using in your classroom to help students demonstrate they understand the content you are teachng them?
Students in my 11th grade US History class typically read four non-fiction books in addition to their History textbook. I have noticed that their note-taking skills, attention to detail, and recall of historical figures in the text need to improve. As students advance through upper-division work text complexity increases, yet the amount of reading instruction decreases. This can result in real problems in college where professors expect their students to do three hours of reading in the subject-area for every hour they spend in class. This post will describe an instructional sequence that helps students focus on the historical characters in a nonfiction reading using an Iron Chef protocol, a Who Am I? narrative writing technique, and a video response system that improves student speaking and listening skills.
Iron Chef
Eduprotocol authors Marlena Hebern and Jon Corippo developed this tool to help students flex quick research reps in 15 minutes or less. For this pre-reading activity, I listed the historical figures in The Professor and the Madman and assigned them via number on my class roster. Students research the individual, note key details and page number(s) they appeared on in the book, and for the secret ingredient add what we should know/remember about this person. The slide below is an example of what a student can create in less than one class period. Students build their own study guide that they can refer back to and add to as they read.
The next step is to have students turn their slide research into a first person narrative. Even if students mostly copied information from Wikipedia into their Iron Chef slide, now they have to do the literary heavy lifting of converting it from the third person into the first person. This student has done an excellent job with a minor historical figure from The Professor and the Madman and has even slipped her own confident personality into her script. I can’t wait to see what she does with her video.
Flipgrid – Engage Your Students in Speaking and Listening
The last step involves using Flipgrid, a free video-response platform that helps students learn via their own videos. For this assignment, the students have to speak for one minute giving the viewer clues as to the historical figure’s identify. As the grid populates with videos, students can view them, take notes, and learn who is who before they take a quiz made up of ten randomly selected videos.
This video shows how students can be creative and have fun when engaged in this instructional sequence. Flipgrid tracks the analytics for each grid, which allowed me to see that my students viewed each others videos a total of 2,764 times prior to the quiz. That adds up to 43 hours of study time on the characters in a book they haven’t read yet. What do you think will happen when they encounter each character in the text?
Big Takeaways
What I like about this instructional sequence is that each day builds on what students created the day before. If they didn’t try very hard with the research they put into their Iron Chef slide, then they will struggle to write a Who Am I? speech. If they didn’t put some effort and creativity into their script, then they will have trouble making an interesting video. If they didn’t review their classmates’ videos, then they probably won’t do very well on the quiz.
Teaching students to show up and work hard every day is the most important work we can do as teachers. I have used this instructional sequence to help my students learn about Historical Eras, Enlightenment Philosophes, and people in the Civil Rights Movement. These activities have increased effort and engagement in my classes. Feel free to remix them for your class and subject matter. All I ask is that you leave a comment or tag me in a tweet @scottmpetri and let me know how they work for you.
Illegal is the story of Ebo, a young boy from Ghana who journeys across Africa to Tripoli where he hopes to migrate to Europe and reunite with his older sister Sisi and his older brother Kwame who have already left home. This 122 page graphic novel by was written by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin with the images drawn by Giovanni Rigano.
A small cast of characters make this book an easy, yet dramatic read for students learning about immigration and Africa. Ebo, Kwame, Sisa, Uncle Patrick, Rozak, Penn, and Cammo.
The reader quickly learns that the life of a migrant is a dangerous routine of work, hide, and sleep in order to get up and avoid detection the next day. Human traffickers abound and pop up frequently to separate migrants from their hard-earned money.
Ebo’s gift for song carries him to the city of Agadez where an impromptu gig at a wedding helps him get to Europe. There are many opportunities for teachers to help students learn about African countries, the legacies of imperialism, and the sad history of decolonization. Students can create empathy maps, timelines, and map the refugees’ journey, as well as engage in inquiry projects about refugees in and out of the United States.
The opening quote from Eli Wiesel reminds us all that humanity depends on humans caring for each other. Isn’t that what the study of history is for?
HistoryRewriter 