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This blog is a forum for educators to share their best practice strategies for social studies instruction. Please share your ideas and let me know how you make history come alive for your students.
This blog is a forum for educators to share their best practice strategies for social studies instruction. Please share your ideas and let me know how you make history come alive for your students.
2 Comments
November 2nd, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Hi Mrs. Ledbetter, My name is Adalia Espinosa, I met you last year when Dr. Hoffman and Dr. Fields had us visit your classroom in action. I remember your passion in Social Studies and hoped to find some ideas for teaching a unit on Texas Independence to my 4th graders. It’s my first year, I was in Cohort E and now teach at Garcia Elementary in Houston, TX. I still remember your use of RAFT and open discussions/debates and hope you can give me some powerful ideas.
thank you, hope your year is off to a great start.
November 6th, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Hello Adalia,
Don’t forget about document-based questions. Pull a few artifacts from the website: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/ and ask simple questions like:
What do you see? What can you tell about this event or the people based on what you see? etc. This website includes Teacher Resources ( http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/teach/index.htm )l, a Kid Zone ( http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/kids/index.html ), and a virtual museum ( http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/adaes/ ). There are also good storybooks and chapter books that you can use in language arts related to your social studies unit. The capital here in Austin and the Bob Bullock Museum also have great resources. Check out the Texas State Historical Association teacher resources ( http://www.tshaonline.org/lone-star-history-links/1054 ). If you have access to Discovery Education, I’m sure there are some related videos.
Good luck and congratulations on your teaching job. Those are some lucky kids!
Mary
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