Author: molersmusings

One thing we don’t do enough within our lessons is the use of retrieval practice. We spend so much time putting information into the students’ minds. As a result, we spend less time having them get that information back out. Retrieval practice is an aspect of my teaching I wanted to focus on this week.

Last week students watched an EdPuzzle about Andrew Jackson. This was followed by the creation of a thick slide featuring a “battle” that Andrew Jackson fought within government. Students shared their slides through a Google Form to created a curated bank of thick slides. Then I gave students a Frayer model to take notes from the other slides.

This week we finished up taking notes on Monday and started creating these fight posters about Andrew Jackson vs. someone or something. It was a nice. ix up because it was done on a paper. Yes, I’m a believer that it’s good to mix some paper into my lessons or units. However, paired with this was some retrieval practice strategies.

Near the end of the week, students finished up Jackson’s battles and we moved onto the Trail of Tears. I created a mini lesson paired with a reading. The reading I left was longer than normal, and it yielded some interesting results.

Monday – Jackson’s Battles (posters), Retrieval Practice, Fast and Curious

Tuesday – Career Planning

Wednesday – Trail of Tears Lesson with a Number Mania

Thursday – Finish stuff catch Up Day

Friday – PD Day

Monday

I’m going to just focus on the retrieval practice for Monday. If you want to learn more about the Jackson’s battles thick slide, please refer to last week’s blog post. When class began, I gave students 15 minutes to work on finishing notes on the Frayer or creating the fight poster. Then I followed this with students creating questions for our running Gimit. After students submitted some questions, we played the Gimkit for ten minutes. I started with the Frayer and poster work so it would feed into helping students create questions for the Gimkit.

After the Gimkit finished, I had groups get into pairs. Some students got into a group of three (not ideal, but okay). I handed out a dry erase marker to every group. At first they were confused and curious which is what I wanted. I then stated, “We are going to play the marker game.” I explained the rules:

1. I read a true/false statement.
2. Only grab the marker if you think the statement is true.
3. If grab the marker, or touch the marker, and the statement is false – you lose a point.
4. If you grab the marker, and the statement is true, you gain a point.

Pretty simple rules. No tech required. The students had a blast. I used ChatGPT to create true/false statements about Andrew Jackson. Some of the statements I had to change the wording to fit with the vocabulary I’ve been using, but they were good statements. Here are some of the true/false statements:

This was a great retrieval practice strategy I learned from Lauren Richardson and Ashley Morrison from the Pickerington Conference I recently attended. The students had a blast.

Wednesday

Tuesday was a lost day. However, I had a data team on Tuesday for a half day. It had an interesting conversation. The conversation included thoughts on reading stamina for map tests. Do we build reading stamina? Do we make reading basic article seem like a daunting task? For example, how often do we say, “I know this reading is long, but….” I’m guilty and never thought about it before. We also discussed if students realize how long it would take to read a longer passage.

Wednesday I was presenting some EduProtocols at OETC in Columbus, OH and I left a longer than normal reading passage about the Trail of Tears. I wanted to see who would take on the challenge of reading and completing a couple of slides. With the reading, here is what I did:

1. I left printed copies of the reading.
2. I had a digital version of the reading.
3. I used Screencastify to record an audio of the reading. Then I linked the audio to the digital copy. (If students are listening to audio of a reading, and following along with a text, students can read and comprehend at grade level, or two levels above.)
4. I used ChatGPT to rewrite the reading at a 5th grade level.

Needless to say, I covered my bases. Some students would challenge themselves. Some chose to listen to the audio. Some opted for the edit, fifth grade level. My engagement level is usually around 70-75% when I’m away. Again, I define engagement as opening the lesson and attempting to do something worthwhile. On Wednesday, my engagement level percentage was 50-55%.

The assignment I left with the reading was a Google Slide with three parts. My request for students was simple:

1. LISTEN TO THE DIRECTIONS
2. Read or listen to – The Trail Where They Cried.
3. Complete the activities on 2 or more slides.

The three parts to this assignment were a sequential order slide (I used an Amanda Sandoval template for that slide), a conversation slide, and a Number Mania. I included the sequential order slide because I wanted to see how students would do with putting events in order.

I had a realization during our data team meeting on Tuesday – I need to do a better job with informational text structure and craft. The data from the informational text – key details and main idea wasn’t good either. However, this could be due to not understanding the structure of the text. It could also be due to students reading information text with no background knowledge or working memory of what they’re reading (this is a major problem I have with testing). Why not include readings on the ELA state tests that involve social studies topics we covered this year? It makes sense to me. My mini-rant is over.

Either way, I need to focus on teaching text structure and my mind is wandering that way. In looking at the sequential order slide I put together, the students didn’t do a good job with putting the events in order. It was scary. I need to do better.

On the Number Mania slide, I took this quote from the article, “…the sufferings of the Cherokees were awful. The trail of the exiles was a trail of death,” and wanted the students to create a slide with four numbers and facts to prove that statement true.

One thing I’ve been trying to get the students to think about are the numbers that aren’;t directly stated. For example, the article stated the forced march took place in “below freezing” temperatures. I encouraged the students to think about, “What’s a below freezing temperature?” That could be a number.

I’m trying to up my Number Mania game. Let’s use numbers and facts as textual evidence. Let’s also think beyond explicitly stated numbers and facts.

Thursday

Thursday was a day to finish Jackson fight posters. It was also a day to finish the Trail of Tears activities I left on Wednesday. I also used Thursday to ask students how long they thought it would take to read the Trail of Tears reading that I left. Here are the answers I got –

1. 50% of students said 20 minutes.
2. 30% said 30 to 40 minutes.
3. 10% said 10-15 minutes.
4. 10% said 5 minutes.

We were all over the place. This tied into helping students realize that long reading don’t take as long as they think. I told them the reading should take 10 to 15 minutes which is the same amount of time we read during SSR time last year. They were truly surprised to realize to make that connection, and have that realization.

I also shared with the students I had to take a remedial reading class in college because my reading scores were low. I seriously took a basic level, remedial reading class. At the time I was embarrassed. I shared that story to help them realize that if you practice reading, find things you life to ead, you can find better. One student asked me, dead serious, “Did you get better at reading?”

I’m stopping it there. 🤦 If you want to purchase my book, check it out on Amazon!

Podcast

This week came and went so fast.

I find myself saying this many times throughout the school year. The students mention to me quite a bit, “This class flies by.” When we are jumping protocol to protocol – yes, it flies by.

This week I got a student teacher for a brief stint of five days. At one point I asked him, “Do you realize how much the students have done in these class periods?” I proceeded to map it out on the board:

We got after it this week studying the Age of Jackson. We learned important vocabulary with Repuzzler (a new EduProtocol from Jacob Carr). Students were collaborating and creating cards on Tuesday for a game on Wednesday.

This was followed by a CyberSandwich to learn about the Election of 1828. Since Wednesday, I have been painting this picture of Andrew Jackson as a tough, stubborn, champion of common people. It was only fitting to learn how he became president.

I continued sticking with my theme during this unit – students will create their own questions. After the CyberSandwich, students made questions about the Election of 1828.

We continued into Wednesday with some vocabulary word practice with the Repuzzler cards made by the students. They created their own questions on Gimkit, and we played some Fast and Curious. We finished class with a Thin Slide – one picture, one word or phrase – What did you learn today?

I wanted to create a contributive learning lesson with Jackson’s battles. From this I learned that students thought he fought actual battles against these people and things 🤦. We started with an Edpuzzle video about Andrew Jackson. It was 4 minutes long with 7 questions. Next, students chose a topic: nullification, bank, indigenous people, or government officials. They read about their topic and created a Thick Slide.

Students shared their Thick Slide through a Google Form, and they used a Frayer to process the other topics.

Monday – career planning

Tuesday – Repuzzler, CyberSandwich

Wednesday – Repuzzler, Thin Slide

Thursday – Edpuzzle, Thick Slide

Friday – Frayer, Poster, Success Criteria, Examples

Tuesday

Last Saturday was the Catalina Lesson Mixer put on by EduProtocols+. I attended a virtual session, hosted by Jacob Carr, about Repuzzler. This is a new protocol coming out in his AP Language Arts book. From this session, I was inspired to try the Repuzzler on Tuesday.

When I walked into class, I asked the first student in each row to open the Repuzzler file and share it with everyone in the row. This was followed by, “What? How do I do that?” That was followed me saying, “You have 2 minutes to figure it out.” Guess what? They figured it out.

I gave the groups 10 minutes to complete the entire slidedeck. The Repuzzler had eight slides with each of the eight vocabulary words. The students had to add a definition, use it in a sentence, and add a symbol to represent the word. Last Friday students completed a TIP chart with vocabulary. I handed the TIP charts back to them for reference. After students completed the Repuzzler, they asked me, “What are we doing with those?” I responded, “You’ll see tomorrow.”

After the Repuzzler was a CyberSandwich. I found a NewsELA article on the Election of 1828. I created two different lexile levels of the article and linked it to the notes slide. The students had to describe the Election of 1828 and how Andrew jackson won. I ran a traditional CyberSandwich with a 10 minute read with notes, and a 5 minute discussion. However, I shortened the time for a summary down to 5 minutes and didn’t tell the students. They cranked out quality paragraphs in five minutes and didn’t realize it. Our reps are paying off!!

At the end of the CyberSandwich, students created questions, with Gimkit Kitcollab, about the Election of 1828. I LOVE the Kitcollab because I can give feedback to the students:

1. Reword this question because….
2. Change this word because…
3. Add a question mark.
4. Capitalize this or that….

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning, I went through all the Repuzzler slide decks. I chose the best decks, printed them, and cut them into fourths. I clipped the cards together and had them ready. Students came into class curious about the vocabulary cards they created on Tuesday. I had them get into groups of two to three, gave each group a different set of cards, and said, “Piece them back together. Have fun.”

This worked wonderfully! It was something new for 505. I loved it. The students loved it. Repuzzler worked for the first time because it was only 8 vocabulary terms (32 total cards to piece together).

The fastest finisher was around 10 minutes. Other finishers lasted between 15 to 20 minutes. Either way, when groups were finished, I had them use the cards to create questions for the Gimkit.

Following the question creation, we played some Fast and Curious. I set up the Gimkit to run for five minutes. When it ended, I went over the three most commonly missed questions. Then I set up the Gimkit again for four minutes. I challenged the groups to answer more questions and earn a higher class average. Most students thought this was impossible. However, every class beat the challenge.

To end class, I set up a Thin Slide that asked, “What did you learn today?” Students added 1 picture and 1 word. It was a great way to end class.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday and Friday we were building off of vocabulary and exploring Jackson’s battles. I added these “I can” statements to the activity:

1. I can analyze the battles that Andrew Jackson fought within the government.
2. I can analyze Jackson’s impact on democracy. 

I wanted to create a contributive learning lesson with some EduProtocols. To help my student teacher, we planned the lesson out with a Madeline Hunter lesson design template.

Anticipatory Set – TedEd Edpuzzle video to build some background knowledge. The video puts Jackson on trial and discusses some of his battles and decisions he made for the country.

Objectives – Students will be able to analyze battles that Andrew Jackson faced within government. Students will be able to analyze Jackson’s impact on democracy.

Input – Repuzzler and Gimkit to build vocabulary knowledge.

Guided Practice – Students will choose one of Jackson’s battles and create a Thick Slide. Students could choose from the following – Jackson vs. Banks, Jackson vs. Nullification, Jackson vs. Indigenous People, or Jackson vs. Government Officials. I set up the Thick slide so students could list the cause of the battle, two key details, and the outcome of the battle. They had to include two pictures, give the battle a catchy nickname, and write a claim analyzing Jackson as a president.

Once completed, students shared their slides through a Google Form. I converted the form data to a Google Sheet and shared the links. Then we handed out a Frayer model to the students. They went through the links collecting information about the three other topics they didn’t read about. They were writing down the cause, details, and the outcome for each.

Independent Practice – Students were using their Thick Slide (or Frayer) and creating a battle “fight”poster. To do this, I created success criteria. The students had to include pictures, a catchy nickname for the fight, causes, and an outcome. Students have the option of completing the poster on paper or a Google Drawing.

Check for Understanding – Students used their Thick Slide and frayer to help create questions for the Gimkit. I asked them to focus on general understandings of the battles. For example: Why did Andrew jackson want to end the national bank?

Modeling – We provided several “fight” posters as examples. Any type of modeling is beneficial for student success.

This lesson is still in progress, but it’s quite successful so far. The Thick Slide format is familiar, Gimkit is familiar, the Frayer is familiar, and this is the third contributive lesson we have done this year. The reps are paying off.

One student completed a Google Drawing poster which is here:

Odds and Ends

I have a super challenging class and I will never forget this line Jon Corippo said to me, “They’re in your head. Get into their heads.” So, I did just that…

1. We played a Fast and Curious and this class answered 370 questions in 7 minutes with a 67% class average. I lowered the time down to 4 minutes, had half the class close their Chromebooks. Then I challenged them to answer more questions and raise the class average. They answered 360 questions and got a 76% class average. They were screaming to play one more time because they wanted to beat the challenge. Guess what? They did it. They answered 500 questions with an 83% class average with only 10 chromebooks open with some teamwork.
2. I played a retrieval practice game with this class called The Marker Game. I learned this at the Pickerington Local School District Conference in a session run by Lauren Richardson and Ashley Morrison. In the Marker game, students partner up and each pair puts a marker between them. I ask true/false questions. Students race to grab the marker first. If it’s true, the student who grabbed the marker gets a point. If it’s false, they lose a point. It was a BLAST!!
3. I used a brain break in the middle of a lesson during this class, and they loved it! We played the Counting game. It works like this: the students collectively count to 50, but they can only count 1 at a time. When two students count at the same time, they have to start over at zero. The rules are – no talking and no gesturing. This game promotes emotional intelligence, and we celebrated each time we messed up. It was awesome.

Events

1. I will presenting at OETC (Ohio EdTech Conference) on February 15th. I’m presenting EduProtocols to get students talking. I’m also presenting Retell in Rhyme.
2. On February 16th, at 9:00 PM EST, Scott Petri and I will be hosting a live show on EduProtocols+. We will be discussing Thin Slides as we talk with Ben Harrington and Dominic Helmstetter.
3. Jon Corippo and I were on a, EdPuzzle Live show discussing EduProtocols and EdPuzzle. It was a great show with some awesome insight and new ideas…

We had our first snow day of the year this week. We also had a field trip to a vocational school. That left Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for learning. As we ended one unit on foreign affairs in the early republic, I found that I was 3 weeks ahead of schedule. I had to make a new unit.

I was asked how I am to Jackson with it being early February. The fluff gets cut out. I could have done my blogging unit from last year, but I didn’t feel like draining myself urging/motivating students to write every day. Plus, EduProtocols help getting through material. The protocols are familiar so I don’t have to waste time explaining and re-explaining.

If I need to improve upon anything, it’s using more formative assessments throughout the lesson. I use a lot of Quizizz and Gimkit as a check for understanding. However, I need to incorporate more things like haiku, 5xGenre, Retell in Rhyme, or maybe some Penny Pedagogies from EMC2Learning.

The new unit I created is a unit I haven’t had time to focus on in years’ past. It’s the Age of Jackson. I wanted to begin the unit with an introduction to Andrew Jackson because he has a lot of interesting history. Here is a layout of the unit I had in mind:

1. Students will be able to analyze the impact of decisions made by Andrew Jackson on the United States.
2. Essential Question – What impact did Andrew Jackson’s presidency have on the nation?
3. Learn about Andrew Jackson’s background.
4. Learn some vocabulary (spoils system, tariff, secede, sectionalism, Indian Removal Act, Trail of Tears, Jacksonian Democracy)
5. Learn about the Election of 1824 and 1828.
6. Learn about the battles Andrew Jackson had with people (Spoils System, National Bank, Tariffs, Indigenous People).

Monday – Fast and Curious, Great American Race

Tuesday – Snow Day

Wednesday – Thin Slide, Number Mania

Thursday – Field Trip

Friday – Andrew Jackson Vocabulary TIP Chart

Monday

We used Monday to finish up the early republic and foreign affairs unit. We used the Jeopardy style Gimkit (This is a favorite of mine – I love how you can wager your money at the end) as an assessment. The students did okay (I feel like I didn’t do a very good job on this unit). The averages were as follows: 81%, 74%, 75%, 59%, and 84%. Considering we began in the 40% to 50% range, maybe that’s good?

The class that got a 59%, I had to do something different. I created a Great American Race EduProtocol. It’s easy to set up. I found 17 index cards – one for each student. I wrote a number on each card and a term, person, or phrase on the other side. All the terms were related to the unit:

1. George Washington
2. Federalists
3. XYZ Affair
4. Embargo Act
5. War of 1812
6. Monroe Doctrine
7. James Monroe
8. Thomas Jefferson

When the data tells us something is not working, then we need to stop and do something different. All too often, the data is overlooked, we blame the students, and we move on. Or, if we reteach something, we reteach it the same way we taught it before. The Great American Race was something different.

The students made a slide with 3-4 clues and a picture. I compiled all the slides together and shared the slidedeck. Some slides I had to help correct. But, I tried to give feedback as the students were creating slides. After I shared the slidedeck, students had the rest of class to find the answers to all 17 slides. This Great American Race served as their assessment and they did an excellent job as most students found 13-17 answers for the slides.

For my other classes, when they finished their Gimkit, I gave the students a Virtual Story Dice template from EMC2Learning. I gave them 2 options:

1. You can choose 9 random story cubes to make random connections with anything you learned in the unit.
2. You can choose 9 story cubes to retell a story or series of stories from the unit.

The students that needed a challenge, challenged themselves. The students that needed to keep it simple, did just that.

Wednesday

Wednesday we began a new unit on the Age of Jackson. Andrew Jackson is an interesting person. The stories that surround him are interesting to most 8th graders – his duels, carrying a bullet in his chest and arm, being held as a prisoner of war at the age of 13, and on and on.

We began class with a Thin Slide – 1 pic, 1 word or phrase – find the most interesting fact about Andrew Jackson. The most interesting fact earned a piece of candy. I set a timer for 3 minutes and let the students explore. Here are some things they shared.

After the Thin Slide, we transitioned to a Number Mania. One thing I’m tired of is the use of a birthdate as a fact. For some students, it’s a good starting point. However, it’s tiresome see the most basic of facts shared on a Number Mania, or in student writing. I wanted a way around this, so I thought and thought and changed the approach of the Number Mania.

When students opened the Number Mania slide, they read a statement, “Andrew Jackson was nicknamed Old Hickory due to his toughness, stubbornness, and controversial leadership.” The students had to read, and find four numbers with facts, to support the statement. Number Mania as textual evidence.

I also had the students add a title, icons, pictures, and wanted them to be creative. Overall, the students did a fantastic job. I used my new favorite tool – Mote – to give feedback. If you haven’t checked out Mote, please do so. I rarely buy things out of pocket unless it’s life changing. I purchased Mote. With Mote, I leave feedback within Google Classroom private comments as audio. It tells me when the student listened to it. It also allows the students to respond with audio, or marking the feedback as, “I’m understanding,” or “I need help.” Here are the tech tools I purchase out of pocket:

1. Gimkit
2. Screencastify
3. Mote

After the Number Mania, I set up a Gimkit Kitcollab and students created their own questions about Andrew Jackson. I love how the questions come up, I can give feedback, and I can accept or reject questions. The students enjoyed creating their own questions, and then play a Gimkit mode with their questions. I plan on deleting some questions, and letting them build their assessment through the entire unit.

Friday

Friday was used to learn some vocabulary. I wanted a lesson to get the students, moving, and with no chromebooks. I turned to the Resource Rumble from EMC2Learning.

Around the room, I had 8 chests with a card in each. The card contained a vocabulary word and definition. I gave each student a TIP Chart. TIP stands for Term, Information, Picture. The students worked in groups of two to three filling out their tip chart.

After each chest was complete, the students brought me their chart so I could approve. It also allowed me to give feedback on their paraphrases and pictures. In the process, students earned Legos. They had to use the Legos to create something related to a new vocabulary word.

I wish I could share this resource, but visit EMC2Learning for this and other great templates.

This week in 8th-grade social studies, we delved into the War of 1812 with a unique and interactive “This or That” choice board assignment. Students were given the task of exploring different aspects of the war, but with a twist. Instead of traditional options such as writing a diary entry or creating a political cartoon, students had the choice of creating either a Netflix series or a Yelp review about the War of 1812.

The “This or That” choice board was a hit with the students, as it allowed them to think creatively and engage with the material in a way that was both fun and meaningful. The Netflix series option gave students the opportunity to develop a plot, characters, and a setting for a fictional show about the War of 1812, while the Yelp review option allowed them to explore different perspectives on the war from Federalists or War Hawks.

In addition to the War of 1812, we also covered the Monroe Doctrine. To do this, we followed a CybereSandwich format, where students read a section of the textbook, took notes and discussed them in small groups. But to make it more interactive, we also did a variety of activities such as Retell in Rhyme, Upside Down Learning, or the new 5xGenre.

All in all, it was a great week of learning about these important historical events. The “This or That” choice board and the various activities helped to make the material more engaging and interactive for students. The student’s understanding of the War of 1812 and the Monroe Doctrine was greatly enhanced as a result, and they had fun while doing so.

I have been using ChatGPT in a variety of ways – differentiating for various reading levels, creating 2 truths and 1 lie, creating essays with factual errors, creating questions for readings, and even writing the opening to this blog post that you just read. (I wanted to try this out to see what it could come up with. I was specific with my requests for writing this opening. But this blog is too personal for me to have a computer write it.)

Monday – This or That War of 1812

Tuesday – This Or That War of 1812

Wednesday – This Or That War of 1812

Thursday – Monroe Doctrine CyberSandwich, 5xGenre

Upcoming Shows – EdPuzzle Live with Corippo, EduProtocols+

Monday and Tuesday

The War of 1812 is often overlooked and under taught. Last year, I used a This or That Choice Board template created by Stephanie Howell (@mrshowell24). I like this style of choice board because each new column builds on the previous one.

For this particular choice board, I created three I Can statements:

1. I can identify and describe 2 causes of the War of 1812.
2. I can analyze perspectives of Federalists and War Hawks when deciding to go to war or not.
3. I can identify and describe 1 effect of the War of 1812.

For the Explore column, I wanted two activities to introduce the War of 1812. I decided to add a Frayer because it’s familiar. Plus, I could have paper copies of a Frayer. I also included an EdPuzzle as a choice. EdPuzzle is familiar for all the students, and I always try to choose videos that are under 10 minutes. This particular video on the War of 1812 was created by EdPuzzle and is around 7 minutes long.

In the Read column, I had a Thick Slide as an option because it’s familiar to the students. I also used ChatGPT to create questions with the textbook section. I pasted the textbook section into ChatGPT and asked it to create five questions. Some students like the traditional read and answer the questions (even though it makes me cringe). The questions also allowed me to have paper copies. Both the Thick Slide and questions focused on causes, reasons for war, and effects of the war. The Thick Slide or questions could be used as a resource. Everything we do in 505 has a purpose.

In the Connect Column I wanted students to think of the War of 1812 from the perspective of a Federalist or War Hawk. The options were an Empathy map or Dialogue slide. The empathy map has students thinking about the war from a Federalist or War Hawk perspective. The Dialogue slide had the students creating a conversation between James madison and Rufus King. These two men were mentioned in the article from the Read column.

The Create column I changed from last year. This year I had students write a Yelp Review as a federalist or War Hawk. Students also had a choice of creating a Netflix series. The Netflix template is familiar. The Yelp Review was new.

Some students had trouble thinking about how to write a Yelp Review so I got on ChatGPT. I literally asked it, “Write a yelp review about the war of 1812 from the perspective of a federalist.” Sure enough, it spit out an amazing review. I copied and pasted the review to a Google Doc, shut off the ability to copy and paste, and shared it with students. (The review, however, didn’t identify 2 causes of the war or effects of the war. But, it was a good starting point for students.)

Overall, this choice board was successful. The students enjoyed it, and did a nice job completing all the activities. If I could change one thing, I would change the Connect column. Something about doesn’t seem to fit. I might add in more of an exploration of the war and it’s battles. Maybe a Number Mania? Maybe focus on some of the people? I don’t know….this is me thinking out loud.

Wednesday

I was hoping the students would be finished with the Choice board by Tuesday. In my mind, Monday and Tuesday were enough. However, I gave them another day. I felt like I was going too fast and rushing them through stuff. Every now and then I need to remind myself to slow down.

When Wednesday rolled around, I had some students finished with everything. Most were behind. For the students that were ahead, I wanted them to have a day where they could review, and make connections with the he content they have learned up to this point.

To help with this, I went to EMC2Learning and found some Penny Pedagogies. Penny Pedagogies are quick, ready-to-use lessons that can work with any subject area. The Penny Pedagogies I chose were (I cannot share these – please visit the EMC2Learning Site):

1. Linking Logs – Students add people, places, events, ideas and find the connections with each layer.
2. Upside Down Learning – Students retell the real story of an event. Then underneath they create a false story by changing some minor details.
3. Content Crossword – Students play on a scrabble board using letter tiles and making words and connections related to the content.

Overall, it was a good day. The students that needed to finish Netflix or Yelp reviews had a chance. The students who were finished had an opportunity to review content, make some connections, and take their thinking to the next level.

Thursday

Thursday we learned about the Monroe Doctrine. I began with a Thin Slide and asked the questions, “List a continent in the Western Hemisphere.” Students had 2 minutes, 30 seconds to locate and list a continent. This was done to build background knowledge and give the students a sense of location.

After a quick discussion, we used a remixed CyberSandwich. Students read and took notes for ten minutes. I used a Main Idea note taking strategy where students looked up who, where, what, why, etc. with the article. Then students discussed their notes. This was followed by a simple twist of bazinga, 2 important facts, or questions. This is a great way to get a sense of students learning, and a great way to get your class communicating and collaborating. What do these 3 categories mean?

1. Bazinga – students wrote on the board a fact that surprised them.
2. Two important facts – students wrote on the board two important facts.
3. Questions – students wrote down a question they had from the article.

Students could choose to contribute to any category. It allowed me to clear up any misconceptions and answer any questions.

We ended the CyberSandwich with a Retell in Rhyme. The students had 10-15 minutes to write as many couplets as possible. They did okay. I need to use this more often in class.

Throughout the day, however, I changed the CyberSandwich summary to a 5x Genre. I found the template on the EduProtocols Community on Facebook. The 5x Genre has premade genre’s, or focus areas, for students to write about. This EduProtocol has students shift their thinking while writing about content, pictures, or videos.

Instead of having premade genres, I created 8 different genres, or focus areas and we rolled dice. I timed each writing prompt 4 minutes, but then shifted it down to 3 minutes after two rounds. The students loved this new EduProtocol. I was going to stop at 4 rounds, but the students asked to do another round. The dice added a new level of fun.

Here were the eight different focus areas:

1. Informational (Did you know…)
2. Use Rhyme (Monroe made a statement clear, Europe stay out of here.)
3. Narrative (Once upon a time…)
4. Persuasive…(This is the best/worst because)
5. Point of View (Europe)…
6. Angry Tone
7. Happy Tone
8. Haiku…(3 lines, 5-7-5)

Upcoming Shows

EdPuzzle Live Event – To learn more about EduProtocols, 505, or any of the lessons you see on hear join Jon Corippo and me on the EdPuzzle Live show Feb. 9, 2023 at 7:30 PM est. In this Edpuzzle Live we’re exploring how teachers can create student-centered learning experiences using EduProtocols. Register for Free.

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““I will keep constant watch over myself and—most usefully—will put each day up for review. For this is what makes us evil—that none of us looks back upon our own lives. We reflect upon only that which we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future descend from the past.” – Seneca

I truly believe stoic philosophy has a place in teaching. I truly believe it can make classrooms better. I truly believe it can help us create a better classroom experience, not only for ourselves, but for our students.

Why did I get into stoicism? I started listening to the Daily Stoic podcast (Ryan Holiday) on the way to school each morning. I never heard of stoicism. Didn’t know how to define it. However, as I started listening, the messages within the philosophy reminded me of some of the ways I think about the world. I’m not a religious person by any means. I don’t turn to religion for guidance and reflection. But stoicism gives me a way to reflect and think about the world around me. It gives me a way to become a better person.

Why did I begin writing each week for The Week That Was In 505? It stems from the quote from Seneca above. Everyday should be up for review. What we put up for reflection is that what we can learn from. Reflecting is the most important part of teaching.

As I’m typing these blogs, I’m outwardly sharing my thoughts and lessons with the world. However, I’m inwardly criticizing myself and thinking about BETTER.

Find ways to reflect. Find ways to be critical of yourself. Even if you think you have the best lesson in the world, be critical of it. I, we, can all find ways to improve each day…not only for us, but for our students.

This week we started a new lesson titled, Foreign Affairs of a Young Nation. We are taking a look at George Washington’s advice, and foreign policy, mentioned in his Farewell Address. We are also taking a look at how our first presidents involved our country in world affairs. Did they practice isolationism? Did they involve us in world affairs? At what cost?

Last year, part of this lesson was a blogging unit I out together. This year, as I mentioned in older posts, I’m taking a new approach. I’m using some classic rack and stack combinations of EduProtocols. Moreover, I’m trying some new rack and stack combinations.

I began this new lesson with some vocabulary using the Pile of Words strategy created by Jay McTighe. We followed this up with some Fast and Curious on Quizizz. The next day brought a CyberSandwich with Washington’s foreign policy with a Fast and Curious. Then we used a Hero’s Journey and Archetype Four Square combination with presidents.

The stories of the first few presidents trying to uphold President Washington’s advice is a perfect match with the Hero’s Journey. The Archetype Four Square is a great way to reflect on the presidents. It’s also a great way to get students making connections with evidence and reasoning.

Monday – No School

Tuesday – Pile of Words, Fast and Curious

Wednesday – CyberSandwich, Frayer, Fast and Curious

Thursday – Hero’s Journey, Archetype Four Square, Fast and Curious

Friday – Hero’s Journey (Jefferson), Archetype Four Square, Fast and Curious

Tuesday

Every year I try to discover new, and better, ways to teach vocabulary. I’m always looking for new strategies. As my co-author, Scott Petri, mentions from a Marzano study, students get 55% of their academic vocabulary from social studies classes. Teaching vocabulary correctly is important.

One of my new favorite strategies is the Pile of Words created by Jay McTighe. I went through the new lesson and made a list of important words. The words were already listed out in the History Alive chapter. However, I always add in a few extra words of my own. For example, I added the word: foreign policy.

When students came into class, I had the list of words posted on the Newline board and pronounced each one. I gave students 5 minutes to go through the list and pick out words they already knew. This was an interesting one because most students only knew one word out of the ten listed. The one word they remembered came from last week’s lesson: XYZ Affair.

Next I had students go through the words they didn’t know. I gave them 15 minutes to lookup and define the unknown words. I gave them this much time because they had so many words to lookup. After the timer went off, I had students discuss the words and categorize them. I have found that many students like to create categories FIRST. I try to coach them up and have them sort words FIRST, create categories SECOND. After the discussion, I had students predict what the lesson was about.

This time around, I didn’t do a fast and curious. I didn’t give any background information to the lesson. I wanted the predictions to be based purely on the vocabulary. Here are some predictions:

1. “War and politics and how George Washington’s Farewell had an effect on what is going to happen or if it will help them. Amd america expanding or other countries expanding”
2. “I think we will learn about how the U.S expanded and kicked out Spain colonies,Great britain colonies and french colonies. I also think we will learn about how different countries were involved with each other and how dIfferent words Involved U.S history.”
3. “This lesson is going to be about how wars were fought over disputed land claims in north america, the body of the foreign policy, about treaties, the war of 1812, the monroe doctrine, and finally, about blockades and embargoes.”

Following the Pile of Words, students completed a Quizizz for a Fast and Curious. The Quizizz was a combination of vocabulary and content. The class averages were: 49%, and 52%.

Unfortunately, I had to leave for the 2nd half of the day. Therefore, I changed my lesson plan completely. This is the beauty of EduProtocols. I switched my lesson to a Sketch and Tell paired with an EdPuzzle, and a Quizizz set up as an assignment. Whenever I’m gone, I try to leave FAMILIAR activities. The students understand Sketch and Tell, Edpuzzle, and Quizizz.

There was no guest teacher to cover my class. They were in the “learning lab” (sarcastic quotes) with supervision. Even in that situation, I had 75% student engagement. I’m defining engagement in this situation as students opening ONE of the assignments and completing it.

On the Sketch and Tell I left, students had to define four words, use it in a sentence, and create a picture to represent the word. The words I left were: embargo, impressment, neutrality, isolationism. The EdPuzzle video was a review of Washington’s Farewell Address. The Quizizz was 15 questions with a combination of vocabulary and content knowledge.

Wednesday

I began class on Wednesday with a Fast and Curious. I did this so I could give some feedback on the commonly missed questions and give feedback with vocabulary related questions.

Following the Fast and Curious, students completed a Frayer with the words neutrality and foreign policy. The template I used was created by Amanda Sandoval (@historysandoval). I felt like this word was important to understanding the textbook section about Washington’s Foreign Policy.

Following the Frayer, we began a CyberSandwich with George Washington’s foreign policy. We are getting better and used the process of a CyberSandwich. The reading and notetaking took eight minutes. I had the students add four important facts to the Venn Diagram and discuss for 3 minutes. Finally, I had students write a paragraph and submit it through Socrative.

I like having students submit their paragraphs through Socrative for these reasons:

1. Everything is in one spot. This means good feedback and quick grading.
2. If I have class tiem leftover, I hit the “start vote” button on Socrative. Students read each other’s work and vote for the best paragraph. Then I will take that paragraph with the most votes, start a new Socrative question, and have students add more to the paragraph. Maybe I will have them change the topic sentence. Maybe it’s adding a vocabulary word. Either way, it makes them think differently.

We have been focusing on writing paragraphs with topic sentences, details, and a concluding sentence. If you knew some of the students who wrote those, you would be proud (I am). I have some awesome students!

We ended class with a Fast and Curious Quizizz. The class averages were: 60%, 62%, 65%, 58%, 68%. This was followed by some quick feedback for the most commonly missed questions.

Thursday and Friday

I was driving to school Thursday morning listening to my Daily Stoic podcast and thinking, “What the hell am I going to do today?” I do my best thinking in the car, mindlessly driving. It hit me about 5 minutes out from school – The Hero’s Journey and Archetype Four Square. It’s something new for the students, I have templates ready, and it’s a different way of comprehending. Plus, it works perfect with the stories of presidents trying to keep us out of wars against European countries.

France attacking ships. The XYZ Affair, Insecure John Adams losing popularity. Jefferson paying ransoms to pirates. France and Great Britain impressing sailors. It works perfect with Hero’s Journey. How can these presidents follow Washington’s advice and avoid conflict?

Typically, I would do a low cognitive first rep with Hero’s Journey. I would suggest having the students map out a commercial with Hero’s Journey. However, I took a chance. I went for it. I read the textbook section about John Adams and did an I do, We do, You do with three boxes on the Hero’s Journey. For example:

1. I do – I completed the problem on my own as I talked through the problem with the students. (France was attacking US ships.)
2. We do – I asked the students, “What was the background to the problem?” They responded with, “France was mad at the Jay Treaty.”
3. You do – I asked the students, “Your turn. Who is the helper or hero?” Some students said, “John Adams.” Other students said, “Napoleon.” They were all correct.

For any student needing extra help, I showed them some Hero’s Journey examples with Cinderella, Moana, and Harry Potter.

Once students were ready to go, I let take over on their own. They completed the Hero’s Journey with John Adams. With some feedback, they did a really nice job.

Following the Hero’s Journey, we completed an Archetype Four Square on John Adams. This a great way to get students reflecting on historical figures, using evidence, using reasoning, and making connections. Most students chose John Adams as a rebel. Some chose him as a magician. I said to them, “There are not right or wrong answers, only better answers. Justify your choice with evidence. Why is it the better choice?”

The next day, to keep reps going, students completed a Hero’s Journey and Archetype with Thomas Jefferson. I told them to focus on one problem Jefferson faced – Great britain and France attacking our ships or Barbary pirates. Overall, this second rep was better and I will provide it as a choice when we study the War of 1812.

This week we continued our study of the Early Republic. Last week I mentioned that I don’t have the energy to do the normal lesson I run – a blogging unit about the Early Republic. As a result, I decided to change how I teach this lesson to following the textbook structure paired with some EduProtocols.

The structure of the textbook for this lesson is okay. It seems disjointed. For example, it focuses on Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion with the Farewell Address. Then it switches to Federalists versus Democratic Republicans. The chapter concludes with John Adams.

The next lesson focuses on foreign involvement and goes back to Washington again. Then it discusses John Adams and the XYZ Affair. This is followed by Jefferson’s purchase of Louisiana, Madison’s War of 1812, and ends with the Monroe Doctrine. The set up is weird. I liked how I had my blogging unit set up – focusing on one president at a time. But, it is what it is.

This week we began with a lesson on Federalists and Democratic Republicans.Students focused on writing paragraphs about these two political parties. This was followed up with some review and a Peardeck lesson on John Adams. We reached the end of the unit with more review and a final assessment.

Monday – CyberSandwich (Federalists), Fast and Curious

Tuesday – CyberSandwich (Democratic-Republicans), Fast and Curious

Wednesday – John Adams Peardeck, Fast and Curious

Thursday – Review Day, Fast and Curious, Word Up Wednesday

Friday – Hexagonal Learning, Fast and Curious

Extra activities I created on the fly: Assessment Choices, John Adams Primary Source (adapted from Rosalie Metro), Frayer (@historysandoval template)

Monday

The main question for this unit is, “How did the Federalist and Democratic-Republican visions for the United States differ?” Last year, I created a choice board for the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. This year, I divided up the political parties into two days as we did a CyberSandwich.

Before our CyberSandwich, I ran a five minute Fast and Curious with Gimkit. The Gimkit had basic vocabulary from last week and new questions related to content from this week. After five minutes, the class averages were: 47%, 67%, 72%, 52%, 74%. I gave some quick feedback and we transitioned to a CyberSandwich.

I ran a typical CyberSandwich with a 10 minute reading and notetaking. I had students write down four important facts (beliefs) from their notes and discuss with a partner. Then we focused on writing a basic paragraph with a topic sentence, details, and a concluding sentence.

One thing I changed this time was the use of Chat GPT. If you don’t know what that is, please visit my blog post about this amazing site. I used Chat GPT to change the reading level of the textbook section so a third grade student could understand it. I went to Chat GPT and literally type, “Convert this textbook section into something a 3rd grader could understand.” Within seconds, I differentiated for several students and copied the converted article to a Google Doc. AMAZING!

At the end of the CyberSandwich, I ran the same Gimkit again for five minutes. This time class averages went to: 72%, 70%, 80%, 65%, 83%.

As the day continued, I began to think about Chat GPT again. I wanted to know how I could use it for feedback. I began copying and pasting student paragraphs into the chatbot asking it, “Grade this paragraph on Federalists.” It spit out some great feedback. It was fairly consistent. However, I learned to be more specific with my requests.

I decided to change my requests to, “Give feedback about the paragraph based on the topic sentence, 3 key beliefs of Federalists, and a concluding sentence.” Amazingly, it gave incredible feedback. It even picked up on students only identifying one key belief of Federalists. I was able to get feedback for 90% of my students in less than an hour. I copied and pasted the feedback as a private comment into Google Classroom.

I also found commonalities in the feedback and used it for a teachable moment on Tuesday.

Tuesday

From Chat GPT, I found commonalities in the feedback with weak topic sentences and using more details. Before we began to do a CyberSandwich about Democratic-Republicans, I shared the feedback with students. We discussed writing topic sentences and including more details. I provided a model paragraph as an example.

The students are really great with including information right in front of them. For example, they are great at including three key beliefs. However, they are weak with adding their own thoughts, or more information. This same feedback would be said again on Friday with the Hexagonal Learning.

Again, I used Chat GPT to differentiate reading levels for the students. We ran a typical CyberSandwich with a 10 minute read, 5 minute discuss, and a 10 minute summary write. This time, however, I wanted students to focus on feedback to improve their paragraphs. I felt like the topic sentences and inclusion of more details was better after the feedback, example, and more reps.

After the CyberSandwich, I ran another Fast and Curious on Gimkit. The class averages were as follows: 81%, 81%, 80%, 71%, and 86%.

Wednesday

I hate lecturing. Sometimes it needs to be done. Sometimes I need to explicitly say why things happen, or explicitly say connections between historical events. Wednesday was reserved for a PearDeck. I prefer Nearpod, but I didn’t have time to convert my slides.

I had a PearDeck about John Adams and his presidency. It focused on the Election of 1796, XYZ Affair, Alien and Sedition Acts, and the Election of 1800.

The PearDeck was interactive with some Sketch and Tell built in. It contained some summary writing practice as well. Now, I don’t know how you view student engagement. I view students engagement as, “Enthusiasm, curiosity, optimism, motivation, or interest toward a lesson.” With my definition, student engagement is not great with PearDeck or Nearpod. If my definition of students engagement was: “Listening attentively, participating in discussions, turning in work on time, and following rules and directions,” then these tools are awesome. I had 88% student engagement throughout the day.

A quick Chat GPT note to add – I copied and pasted some of the paragraphs from the PearDeck slides into the chatbot. I requested it to, “Create a multiple choice question for this paragraph.” It was awesome because I suck at writing questions.

My last period of the day saw we were doing a PearDeck. They flipped out. It’s a small, good class. I don’t take offense to stuff like this. I simply asked them, “What do you want to do?” They responded, “Anything but a PearDeck.” Then I asked, “Does anyone want to do a PearDeck?” A few raised their hands. For the rest I created a new lesson with an EdPuzzle video and a primary source analysis. Everybody was happy. Some even mentioned, “I’ve never seen a teacher just completely change a lesson on the fly like that.” My response, “Never fear when Moler’s here.”

At the end of all the lessons, I had students complete the Fast and Curious Gimkit again. I added new questions about John Adams. This time scores took a dip. However, the scores were fascinating as EVERY class averaged a 76%. (76%, 76%, 76%, 76% and a 76%).

Thursday

I was feeling the Fast and Curious wasn’t enough to check for understanding. I created a bunch of review activities. Here is what I put together:

1. Gimkit for Fast and Curious – same questions and the class averages were: 84%, 84%, 85%, 78%, and 87%.
2. Word Up Wednesday – students were still struggling with Federalists and Democratic-Republicans beliefs. I saw this on the Gimkit data. This worried me, and so I had students partner up to research the beliefs of the political parties, write definitions, and apply images.
3. Frayers – one class really needed something different. I had them do the Gimkit and I took the most commonly missed questions and developed a series of Frayer Models. The most commonly missed questions related to: Federalists, Democratic Republicans, Washington’s Farewell Address, and the Alien and Sedition Acts.
4. Find 6 errors – I asked Chat GPT, “Write a short, nonfiction text about the Alien and Sedition Acts and include 3 factual errors.” It wrote the article, I copied and pasted it to a Google Doc, and added in the errors myself from the Chat GPT suggestions. In the past, I would have done this myself and it would have taken an hour. With Chat GPT, it took 30 seconds. I had students get into groups and they had 8 to 10 minutes to find a correct the six factual errors in the article.

Overall, it was a good review day. Lots of different activities. One students even mentioned, “This class flies by.” Yes, when you’re doing multiple things in one class period, yes it does. When you’re working bell to bell, yes it does.

Friday

We used Friday as the day to wrap up the lesson about Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. I posted Hexagonal Learning which is a familiar lesson for the students. Hexagonal Learning was created by Betsy Potash (@betsypotash) and featured in Kim Voge’s (@kvoge71) book, Deploying EduProtocols. The template I used was designed by Stephanie Howell (@mrshowell24).

On Thursday, one group of students completed a Hexagonal Learning template. They turned it in, and I gave them some feedback. What appears to be awesome work was vague, and needed more details. Here is what they turned into me:

The students didn’t like my feedback, but it was helpful. I used their template as an example for my other classes. For every class, I posted this example (names removed) and had the students grade it on a 4 point scale. Most students gave this a 3 or a 4. I gave this a 2 or 1.5. My classes were surprised to learn this grade. However, I explained, “These students simply rewrote the information in the hexagons with a sentence. No extra information. No extra detail were added.” This analysis really helped the students with completing these activity. The discussions among partners was awesome too!!

One of my classes (a different class from Thursday) started complaining about Hexagonal Learning. So, I put together a list of choices:

1. A solo iron chef – design a slide about Federalists, design a slide about Democratic-Republicans, use the information to construct a paragraph answering the essential question. – by yourself
2. Netflix – create a series about the fight (beliefs) between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Your series description should answer the essential question above. -by yourself
3. Hexagonal Learning – Use and connect all the hexagons. Add in new/missing information for 8 connections. (an example in bright green is provided) – partner/2 people

This class was really appreciative of this change and addition of choices. Typically, I don’t get much from this class. BUT, most students finished their choice. It was awesome.

At the end of all classes, I ran a Gimkit for 7 minutes and took their average as a grade. I had one criterion – you must answer 22 or more questions. Anything less than 22 questions resulted in a 1 out of 10 grade in ProgressBook. The class averages were as follows: 87%, 87%, 87%, 84%, 91%. Overall, a successful week despite me feeling like this lesson is disjointed and not great.

More Chat GPT Stuff

I thought of two more ways to use Chat GPT:

1. 2 Truth and 1 Lie – have it create a list of 2 truths and 1 lie related to social studies content. Absolutely amazing and a great way to get students thinking.
2. Odd one out – have it create a list of 3 items with 1 item being one that doesn’t belong. This is great, but I wish the items were more closely related to create more a discussion and debate on the odd item out.

Chat GPT is the current, controversial topic in education. I understand the disdain of people with this new tool. However, having an immediate, negative reaction is way too easy. Throwing up your hands and questioning why we even have to teach is way too easy.

I see a tool like Cat GPT and think, “How can I use this to make my life easier? How can I use this to enhance my instruction? How can I use this to enhance my feedback?”

What is Chat GPT? Rather than me explain it, I visited the chatbot and asked it to describe itself. Here is a screenshot of that query:

In other words, artificial intelligence to answer questions, have conversations, or write essays. However, what can it be used for to help teachers? Here are some ways I have used Chat GPT in my social studies class:

Differentiation – I wanted a quick way to differentiate for multiple levels of students within my social studies class. I took a textbook section we used for a CyberSandwich and I asked the chatbot to, “Rewrite this textbook article for a 3rd grade reading level.” I also asked it to, “Rewrite this textbook article for a 10th grade reading level.” Within seconds, I have differentiated for various reading levels in class.

Feedback – the more specific you are with your queries, the better. During our CyberSandwich about Federalists, I wanted students to write a summary about Federalists and their beliefs. I wanted students to focus on topic sentences, 3 key beliefs, and a concluding sentence. Later that night, I decided to see if Chat GPT could grade. At first, I was asking it, “Grade this paragraph about Federalists.” The feedback was okay. I changed the query to, “Give feedback on this summary about Federalists focusing on the topic sentence, 3 key beliefs, and a concluding sentence.” The feedback was AMAZING. I was able to give feedback to 90% of my students by copying and pasting it as private comments through Google Classroom. I also picked up on commonalities of feedback and gave class feedback on improving topic sentences and adding more details. Based on the feedback, the paragraphs with our second CyberSandwich with Democratic-Republicans was tons better.

New ways of thinking – I asked Chat GPT to, “Create a nonfiction, short text about the Alien and Sedition Acts with 3 factual errors.” In seconds, it created a short text that I copied and pasted to a Google Doc. It suggested errors that I manually put in myself. That day, I had students get into groups and gave them 8 minutes to read, identify, and correct all the factual errors.

Questions – I am the worst at creating questions. During one of my lessons, I needed some quick questions to add to a PearDeck. I got on Chat gPT and asked it, “Create multiple choice questions based on this passage…” I copied and pasted the passage from the PearDeck slide and I have multiple choice questions within seconds. I also copied and pasted a textbook section and asked it, “Create multiple levels of questions for this textbook section…” Within seconds, I had multiple DOK leveled questions I could copy and use.

UPDATE**

This new idea falls under questions.

1. Create a video using Screencastify and upload the video to Youtube.
2. Paste the Youtube URL into YouTubeTranscript. This will automatically create a transcript.
3. Copy and paste the transscript into ChatGPT and ask it to make questions.
4. Load your video into EdPuzzle and copy and paste the questions into the video.

As I hear, or think about, new ways to use Chat GPT, I will keep adding more information to this post. Is this system perfect? No. But, it can provide ideas to get us thinking. It can be used to save time. It can be used to enhance learning. It’s definitely a game changer…in the right hands.

UPDATED (2/28/23)***

1. Use ChatGPT to create a historical Mad LIb. I first asked, “Do you understand mad libs?” It responded with a long explanation of Mad Libs. Then I asked it, “Create a Mad Lib about the Louisiana Purchase.” It created a nice, detailed Mad Lib with spots for nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. I copied the creation to a Google Doc and highlighted the blank spaces.

1. I saw this on TikTok and it blew my mind – use ChatGPT to create questions for a Blooket game in seconds. I had to try it myself and made a video…

Back at it with a three day week and a new unit. We began the Early Republic unit where we focus on the first five presidents of the United States. I decided to make some changes to my unit this year.

In the past, I used this as a blogging unit. Students would learn about Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, create a character, and blog from that characters perspective. They would analyze the decisions of the presidents from their character’s perspective and party affiliation. I would infuse the lesson with EduProtocols, and it was awesome. However, I’m tired. I’m exhausted. I’m worn down. As much as I love this unit, and set up of the unit, I don’t have the energy to ready 115 blog posts. I don’t have the energy to motivate students to keep blogging and writing.

With that being said, I decided to use the lesson from our History Alive book and infuse it with EduProtocols. In my opinion, a regular textbook lesson, infused with EduProtocols, is just as effective and engaging as my blogging lesson.

The first lesson in my unit focuses on political divisions in the early republic. We look at the different viewpoints of Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. We also focus on George Washington, his cabinet, the Whiskey Rebellion and a growing divide between the political parties.

This week’s focus was on some vocabulary and the George Washington presidency. Here was our week of learning:

Wednesday – Thin Slide, Pile of Words Vocab, Fast and Curious

Thursday – Word Up Wednesday, Iron Chef, Fast and Curious

Friday – Nearpod Farewell Address, 3xCER, Fast and Curious

Wednesday

I’m always searching for better ways to introduce vocabulary. On Tuesday, I happened to see a Tweet from Stephanie Howell (@mrshowell24) referencing a blog post from Dr. Catlin Tucker (@Catlin_Tucker) about a vocabulary strategy called Pile of Words. When I dove into the blog post, I realized the strategy was created by Jay McTighe. As I read about this strategy I was intrigued and had to use it with my eighth graders. The strategy works like this:

1. I looked through the lesson and compiled a list of the most important vocabulary words.
2. I added the words to a slide deck.
3. I had students partner up into groups of two or three and discuss the words they knew.
4. The students made a list of the words they knew and wrote their own definitions. (5 minutes)
5. Then students made a list of the words they didn’t know and looked up the definitions. (10 minutes)
6. Then students discussed what they learned and categorized their words. They created their own categories.
7. As students discussed, I walked around asking questions.
8. Finally, I had students predict what the lesson would be about.

I used this strategy with no context to the lesson. It was interesting to read some of their predictions. Some were great, Many were okay. The students need to get better at thinking beyond what’s in front of them. They need to get better at making connections. They need to get better at articulating their thoughts. Here are some responses:

1. “I predict that this lesson will be about the first few presidents who had relations with the creation of the U.S. government, The different views that can be taken on the government and constitution such as loose and strict construction, and actions that were taken in revolt to certain things and what the government did in reaction to this.”
2. “I can predict that in this unit we will be talking about people’s political beliefs and what people do in order to protect their rights. I can also predict that this unit will be about founding fathers and connecting to past lessons. Finally predict that we will be learning about new things about the government.”
3. “I think this lesson will be about the government along with the political parties. We’ve heard many vocab words relating to this so i think that it makes sense for this lesson to be about government and political parties.”
4. “This lesson will be about views on government, actions, and the people who were involved and their actions.”
5. “I think that it will be about what happened after the constitution was written and after George Washington was elected.”

The last two responses listed reflect many responses. I’m trying to teach students to add more thought, and more details, to their writing. Either way, the main focus of this vocabulary strategy was engaging students with something new and building some background knowledge. Here is a group example from a class period:

After the completion of the Pile of Words strategy, we did a quick Thin Slide EduProtocol. I played a song entitled, Hail Columbia, and had students use one picture and one word to show the mood of the song. Many students mostly listed happy or proud for the mood. I timed the Thin Slide with song length – three minutes. At the conclusion of the song, students presented their slide. We finished class with a Gimkit fast and Curious with vocabulary and unit related questions. The initial class averages were as follows: 54%, 52%, 67%, 53%, and 63%.

Thursday

Thursday was another day to try something new. I reviewed the Gimkit data and determined the most commonly missed questions related to the presidential cabinet and the Whiskey Rebellion. As a result, I found a Word Up Wednesday template created by Shaun Moriarty (@MoriartyHistory). The original concept of Word Up Wednesday was created by Ryan Stephans (@Coach_Stephans).

Before the lesson began, I created two different slide decks. One slide deck contained the word Whiskey Rebellion. The other slide deck contained the word Presidential Cabinet. Here was my procedure for the lesson:

1. Students got into groups of two to three.
2. I timed the first round for six minutes.
3. Students claimed a slide on the slide deck and began collaborating to complete their slide.
4. Students had to define the term in their own words.
5. Students had to find a GIF, meme, and image representation of the word.
6. Students had to use the word in a sentence, find a historical example, and find a modern example.

The first round, students really struggled to complete the slide. However, most students quickly learned the importance of dividing and conquering together.

The students also struggled with finding historical and modern examples. I had to pause the timer at one point and show them how to find an example. Furthermore, I had to give some ideas for examples. I’m really trying to help them critically think….I really am 😩. At the end of it all, the students really enjoyed beginning class with Word Up Wednesday.

When transitioning to the Iron Chef, I made sure to mention the words from Word Up Wednesday were important because it was time to understand the historical significance of them. The Iron Chef for the day was about George Washington’s cabinet and the Whiskey rebellion. For the Iron Chef reading, I took two major sections from History Alive, condensed them down and use the important information.

I set a timer for 18 minutes to have the students complete their slides. They worked individually as they added pictures, changed the title, answered the questions, and completed the secret ingredient questions. Here are some examples:

To wrap up class, we used the same Gimkit from Wednesday. I ran the Gimkit for 8 minutes. This time class averages were as follows: 67%, 65%, 73%, 58%, 76%.

Friday

Friday we transitioned to Washington’s Farewell Address. In years’ past, I usually began with Federalists, Democratic-Republicans, and Hamilton vs. Jefferson. This year, I used Washington’s warning about political parties to set up to for next week’s topic of Federalists vs. Democratic Republicans. Through this reflection, I like beginning with political parties better. It just makes more sense to me. The structure of my current lesson, however, is the path I chose so I’m sticking to it.

When students came in, I had a Nearpod code on the board. In the Nearpod, I put together some slides to help students make sense of Washington’s Farewell Address. Here was my setup:

1. Slide 1 – intro slide
2. Slide 2 – What do you know about George Washington? collaboration board.
3. Slide 3 – two minute intro video on George Washington (this served as review of his cabinet and Whiskey Rebellion from Thursday).
4. Slide 4 – context slide about the Farewell Address.
5. Slide 5 and 6 – translate Washington’s Farewell Address drag and drop slide.
6. Slide 7 – Washington’s main warnings – fill in the blank
7. Slide 8 – A link to a 3xCER slide deck.

It was important for me to help students translate Washington’s words into modern english. With the words translated, followed up with a fill in the blank summary of Washington’s warnings – it would only serve to help the students complete the 3xCER. If I didn’t have students translate his words, the 3xCER would have been a disaster.

I gave students 12 to 15 minutes to complete the 3xCER. They did an excellent job placing claims (Washington’s warnings) in their own words. They used quotes from the Farewell Address as evidence. Finally, I wanted them to think about Washington’s reasoning for the warnings. For the most, the students’ reasoning was okay. They still needed to add more detail and thought. Here are some examples:

To conclude class, we did a Fast and Curious with the same Gimkit. This time class averages were as follows: 72%, 75%, 78%, and 83%. Not all classes were able to do the Gimkit.