pre-2011 middle school ideas

[Anonymous]

I don't know what local district you are in, but I got a letter for my local district 1 and for 6th grade, we are adopting the History Alive textbook.

Some teachers don't want it because it requires them to... um... teach, and not just have students do chapter reviews every day in class or vocabulary. But I love that it is so organized and directed at teaching concepts. Plus it has some great activities for the workbook and the disk has music and visuals that can really help the kids out.

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I am in local district 1, as too. We had a meeting and we reviewed 3 different books one of which was history alive. But there has been no final decision yet. They beleive it has to do with other schools as well. The district does not like to buy many different books. So far we are storing our old history books to see what happens. We may not even get new books for sixth grade.

[Anonymous]

I used a section of the unit Islamic Civilization and the Arts from SPICE in my general music class. It introduces students to instruments traditionally used in the Islamic cultures. There is a handout with pictures of the instruments, and a CD with recorded samples of each instrument. It made it very easy to introduce a new type of sound to students who are most familiar with the Western style of music. I would highly recommend this unit to music teachers, or to anyone who wants to incorporate more arts into any other subject matter.

[Anonymous]

Hi Lara,

What a wonderfull idea! I made copies of the music (from Islamic nations) disk that came with the material for the May 13th seminar and gave them to one of the music teachers on my campus. I thought he might appreciate it. But here is the thing you might like to know! some of the sounds you here are not relly music. For example 4 or 5 of them are " call for prayers" eqivalent to the church bells(chimes). some are recitations of verses of koran. One is THE group prayer by pilgrims of Mecca(as they go in circles around the Kaaba). Some are instrumental music from various countries, but are not Islamic Music (as the CD information reflects). Only a few are actually religious(Islamic) Music, the songs (the lyrics and the music)are joyful prayers(Sound Pakistani and Arabic to me).

Your music is probably different from what we received in the seminar. If it is the same, it's not a bad idea to make sure that students will NOT dance to the Call for Prayers or to the verses of the Koran. Your Muslim students(if any!!) could get offended.

[Edit by="rrustamzadeh on Jul 5, 6:55:33 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

The post I am responding to is right on about the notebooks!! They are a great way to keep the students organized and to accumulate all they have learned into one solid unit. I use just one or two notebooks for the entire year and those are broken down into interactive units. I am a solid believer in TCI as well. Teaching history and learning about history should be something that comes alive for our students (yeah, I know, hence the name of the program). But seriously, it is a valuable resource that can work a lot of the time or just once in a while, depending on the elements in one's classroom.[Edit by="tnumark on Jul 5, 11:22:18 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

About NOTEBOOKS,good idea! here are some first hand experiences:
I took time and monitored to see all pages numbered (There are different ways to number pages.)
I tried to do it for 4 different subjects. It was not successful(It nearly killed me-unless you have honor students or magnet.). This year I will try it for one subject only.
Just a thougt!

[Anonymous]

I was just informed that I will be using the History Alive curriculum for my 6th and 7th SDC class this year. I'm excited about it. I only heard good things about the teaching material.

I also taught 4 Chinese philosophies to my 7th graders this spring and I will be posting the lesson plan on the forum somehow. The internet research experience was a little painful but the presentation (situational role play) was so funny and the students were really into it. To my surprise, the final writing went smoother than I expected because their individual thoughts within the group all went into their writings. Sometimes it amazes me how much they are able to handle. Thanks to the UCLA Asian study.

S.Padilla

[Anonymous]

I agree with you about the music implementation to the cultural study. Music takes you to the different time and space. Many of our students are not exposed to different varieties of music. If teachers are the only ones that can introduce it to them, then we really will be doing a great favor to them.

By the way, thank you for mentioning Yo Yo Ma's "Silk Road." The concert at the Hollywood Bowl was fantastic. The sound of forign instruments (bongos and strings) and the group who played with him just blew me away. S.P

[Anonymous]

Here is a little game for your Asian study middle school students. You can use at the end of the unit lesson. They will love the little competition with chop sticks.

Materials:

100 dry beans (any two different sizes) - Students will be glad to bring them if you ask.
4 paper plates
2 pairs of chop stick - you can use Chinese take out ones
Some kind of prize - you can go to the 99 cents store for them

Instruction:

1. Divide students into two groups.
2. Each group presents a player in front of the two plates. One filled with 30-40 beans.
3. The players pick up each bean with chop sticks to shift beans to the empty plate.
4. Who ever finishes first wins.
5. Go on to the play off.

Students not only learn how to use chop sticks but they will have a ball.
Have fun!![Edit by="spadilla on Jul 6, 7:08:57 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

See, I like the idea of this, but it seems like it would take too much time to be a simple introduction. Where would you suggest using chopsticks fit into the standards? One idea might be to have a food day for all of the ancient civilizations that we cover. That way we are also covering their important crops for many of them with the food. That includes geographic and economic aspects to the culture, and the kids always love a snack. (just make sure there are no allergies).

[Edit by="jreynolds on Jul 7, 11:50:44 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I have the students make up a story about traveling on the silk road. While it is a writing activity, I let them do whatever they want, as long as they make sure to include some of the information I told them, and the trading materials that I told them about for some of the stops I found on a map of the silk road online. Many enjoyed the creativity aspect of making up a story. As long as they show knowledge of what is in the standard, they score high, too. So it builds self esteem a long with it for many of them. Not the most fun they ever had, but they did in general like the activity.

[Anonymous]

When I teach the Chinese Philosophies, I use the ones in the standards, Confucianism & Daoism and Legalism. I also add Buddhism for flavor, as they will have just learned it in the India unit, and it keeps it in their brains. I have them answer questions that offer scenarios and they respond how each of the philosophies would respond to the situation. They can then offer their own, and name their own philosophy. I have them do this activity in pairs. Then, to assess them, I have each pair get in front of the class, and act out one of my choosing. Sometimes I will choose the scenario, and let them choose the philosphy, or vice versa. It is a lot of fun, the students really get it by the time it's over, and seem to remember it well. Examples of the scenarios include things like, "You find $20 on the street" and "You know your brother is cheating on his tests". I have about 7 of them. I consider it a successful lesson.

[Anonymous]

When I teach, I try to incorporate some fun activities for the students to remember. The standards are necessary and I do follow, but I don’t worry too much about every single instruction to fit tight to the standards. I take that the standards are there for the instructional guide; just as it is a guide to make my pacing plan. As I recall all the learning in my schooling, I don’t remember any of the detailed testing items. I believe that I have a lot of freedom in my teaching style that I create it. I feel that how to connect to the standards is not too difficult as far as the history/culture study is concerned. It depends on the teacher’s teaching philosophy. For instance, my 7th grade SDC class wouldn’t remember a thing from the text if I have them read from the text about the Chinese philosophies. Therefore, most of them fail the quiz or chapter review test. It is easier for me to give vocabulary words to them to define and have them answer the chapter review quiz in which case they may fail. It makes me feel that I became a failure myself. So, many times, I try to create the top down teaching to my SDC students just like that for the GATE student’s enrichment program. It is a lot more work as some of you mentioned that Special Ed. teachers have multiple subjects to teach. However, I need to bring student’s curiosities out to the surface in order for them to learn and retain what they’ve learned. Knowledge must make sense to them and in turn, it insures a good connection and better recall later. In that sense, the existence of standards is not helping me. If you a single subject teacher, you could go far with your ideas and creativity (lucky you!!).

[Anonymous]

Well, I agree with you on the creativity. However, I had a principal that was very "look over your shoulder" my first year of teaching, and we HAD to have everything relate to the standards... I could get away with it if it was something that took five minutes, but if it lasted longer than that he'd get down people's throats. And being an intern.... well... it's not easy to keep your job if you don't follow the rules.

I also agree that creativity and engagement are incredibly important. They are possibly the most important aspects of each lesson plan. You can follow the standards more closely and also be creative. Using the textbook is useful if you're trying to teach reading (which my regular history students need so very badly, and so I do incorporate it) but when really getting into content and therefore the majority of my lessons are directly related to the standards but in a fun and creative way. Creative writing, making up plays, group projects galore, they can still have fun. Even games, though I usually use study games, though I was working on finding a way to implement a "trading" game. However, because I'm held to the tests as my standard, I stick to the standards. There are somethings they need to know to know the standards, and those I understand, and some you can fit in because they actually fit in the frameworks... however, in general, I always feel like I have to have a lawyer like argument due to the principal I had my first year. I guess it's just the way I started out. That's why I ask, when my principal leans over and says, "why?", how do I justify that? I am certain that I am not the only one in this position.... so I thought it was appropriate to ask it in the forum so others to justify it and get to use it.

[Anonymous]

As recommendd by one of the participants, I made it a point to see 'Hero' starring Jet Li. I liked the movie but I think the theme in the movie of putting forward different analysis of how to assasinate the first emperor of China would be too much for MS students to keep track or comprehend. Clips can definitely be shown to possibly strengthen the point that there were other empires that had established in Asia before the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean.
I happened to record 'The First Emperor' (Qin) broadcast by the History Channel. It is 2 hours long and very informative. However, it does show a lot of fights and other incidents that took place during the formation of the empire, including the strangling of the grand kids on orders of the emperor and the tearing apart of one of the opponents by tying him to four horses pulling in four different directions. This might be somewhat too dramatic for MS students. From this broadcast, I think, only some clips can be shown as an introduction to China.

[Author]

Posts