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I’m learning quickly that my school has a rhythm all its own—one filled with odd schedules, unexpected interruptions, and lots of moving parts. Some days it feels like just when I find my teaching groove, the bell schedule changes or half the class disappears for a shadow day. Other days, Mass, assemblies, or leadership experiences shift the tempo in ways that make planning a clean, flowing lesson nearly impossible. It’s a challenge, but I’m adjusting.

At the same time, I keep reminding myself that these “interruptions” are actually experiences that matter. Students are getting chances to lead, to serve, to worship, to see other schools, and to grow in ways that reach far beyond my classroom walls. So while it can make teaching messy and sometimes frustrating, the bigger picture is that it’s giving kids experiences they’ll carry with them. This week was one of those jumbled weeks, and instead of a day-by-day recap, I’m sharing the themes and highlights of what we managed to pull off in between it all.

Early Week – Columbus Lesson

Mid Week – England, France, Netherlands

Late Week – Resistance Reading

Early In The Week

Columbus: Did He Know?

Early in the week, we took on a classic history question: Did Columbus die believing he had reached Asia? I used a packet from Mr. Roughton’s site as the backbone, but I also added in a secondary source I thought was interesting. It suggested Columbus probably knew he wasn’t in Asia at all but kept fudging numbers and stretching the truth so the ships, money, and prestige would keep coming his way.

Working Through the Sources

Students analyzed a mix of evidence: a textbook passage that claimed Columbus never realized he had found a new land, letters where he signed himself as “Governor of Asia,” writings from his later voyages describing a “new heavens and new earth,” and even a map drawn under his direction that labeled South America as the “New World.” Adding in the secondary source about him lying for funding gave students a new angle to wrestle with.

Why It Mattered

By the end, the room was buzzing with debate. Was Columbus simply mistaken all the way to his death in 1506, or did he know he had discovered something new but lied to protect his reputation and keep the support rolling? For me, the highlight was seeing students not just memorize a textbook claim but weigh conflicting pieces of evidence, argue their case, and realize that even “famous facts” from history are not always so simple.

Mid Week

By the middle of the week, we shifted focus to how other European powers followed Spain into the Americas. I kicked things off with a map showing land claims from Spain, England, the Netherlands, and France. But I had some fun with it first. I scrubbed off five key details using the cleanup.pictures site, including “1682” from the title, the word “New,” and even Jamestown. What was funny is that in every class, students noticed “1682” last, even though the year was sitting right there in the title. It was a good reminder that sometimes students need to be pushed to read titles and pay attention to the little things.

Big Picture Pinpoint with a Twist

Next, we dove into an EMC2Learning lesson called Big Picture Pinpoint. I broke the reading into four sections, placed our lesson question in the center of a bullseye, and set up four surrounding boxes. Each round, two students rolled dice. The first roll determined how many bullet points they could write, the second determined how many words per bullet point. The dice added an element of pressure and fun, but the real goal was to force students to boil down the text to its most important details. After four rounds, they had a tight set of notes ready to go.

Processing and Comparing

To make sense of the information, students then created a Sketch and Tell-o. Each circle represented one of the four reading sections, and they had to sketch an image tied to the content. After sketching, they circled back to answer the lesson question. The next day, we built on that foundation with a triple Venn diagram. Students compared and analyzed why Spain, France, and the Netherlands colonized North America, identifying both similarities and differences in motives and impacts.

Why It Mattered

This sequence worked because it layered skills: map analysis, summarizing under constraints, visual processing, and finally comparison. The dice game kept things light, but the students still had to think carefully about what mattered most in the text. By the time they hit the Venn diagram, they weren’t just recalling facts. They were analyzing patterns across different nations and weighing how those choices affected Native Americans and the landscape of North America.

Late Week

I think it is important for students to understand and learn how marginalized groups fight back. Too often textbooks gloss over this or only mention resistance in passing. I wanted students to see that Native peoples were not passive victims of colonization, but active defenders of their communities and ways of life.

Doubling Details

We began class with a Doubling Details warm up using the lesson question from 2.6: Why did England, France, and the Netherlands follow Spain into the Americas, and what effects did they have on Native Americans and North America? Students had one minute to respond in exactly eight words. Then they had two minutes to find a partner and build their response into sixteen words. Finally, I gave them four minutes to find two other partners and expand it into thirty-two words. Each group shared, and I picked the best one. This quick routine gave students practice in stretching their thinking and refining their ideas before we dug into new content.

Reading and Questions

We worked through a reading that traced Native resistance from the Taíno in the Caribbean to the Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico, the Powhatan at Jamestown, and Metacom’s coalition in New England. Students saw how different groups used different strategies: revolts, cutting off food supplies, burning towns, building alliances, and even blocking trade routes. The questions in the packet pushed them to think not only about what happened, but why these strategies mattered and how different groups chose different paths of resistance.

Empathy Map

To process what they read, students used an empathy map. At the center of the map was the same North America map we began the unit with, showing the many Native groups that had built their own cultures across the continent. Now students were adding the layer of how those groups fought and resisted when Europeans arrived. Around the edges of the empathy map, students considered what Native peoples might have seen, felt, thought, and done. This activity helped them shift from memorizing events to stepping into the perspective of the people living through them.

Why It Mattered

By the end, students recognized that resistance was a natural human response to being threatened, exploited, or pushed off land. They also started to connect that resistance to larger patterns in history, realizing that marginalized groups have always found creative ways to fight back. For me, the highlight was seeing students connect the map they started the unit with to this empathy exercise, tying together culture, conflict, and agency in a way that made the history feel more alive.

If you follow my blog, you know I’ve been writing a lot lately—reflections, ideas, quick thoughts, lessons, frustrations, the works. And while I’m still posting everything to Moler’s Musings like always, I’ve decided to start sharing on Substack too.

It’s, flexible, I can still write like I always do, and I can also post short audio or video pieces when the mood hits. It’s all in one place, easy to use, and honestly just gives me more ways to share and connect.

I learned about Substack from Jake Carr, and he’s doing some really cool things with it. If you’re into teaching, AI, and new ideas that push your thinking, check out his podcast What Teachers Have to Say—definitely worth a listen.

Check out my Substack here:
👉 https://substack.com/@adammoler

And Jake’s:
👉 https://substack.com/@whatteachershavetosay

Same reflections, new space. Thanks for riding along.

This was the last week before Spring Break and I needed to finish the westward expansion unit. The main focus of this unit was having students understand how we acquired territories, the implications of manifest destiny, and the motivations and legacies of groups that went west. A short and simple 3 week unit.

Monday – Explore Trail of Tears

Tuesday – Inspirations to Go West

Wednesday – Groups That Went West

Thursday – Dividing the Pie

Friday – Quizizz, Bento Box

Monday

Last Friday I left a lesson about the Trail of Tears while I was making my way to Madison, Wisconsin. The engagement level among all my classes was 85% – to me, this means 85% of students at least opened the assignment and attempted something with it. This does not mean they finished, and I didn’t expect them to finish everything.

As a result, Monday was used to finish the Number Mania about the Trail of Tears. For this activity, I provided a quote to students, “…the sufferings of the Cherokees were awful. The trail of the exiles was a trail of death,” and students had to find 4 numbers from the article to prove that quote true. I love using Number Mania numbers and facts as textual evidence as it gives the students a purpose for the numbers they share.

On Monday, I used a Dr. Scott Petri trick and asked the students to analyze their Number Mania infographics. I extracted all the numbers that could prove the quote true and had the students share the amount of numbers they had correct. I also asked the students to reflect, “How do your chosen statistics and information work together to paint a picture of the suffering endured by Native Americans during this period? Is the overall impact of your infographic powerful and thought-provoking?” I didn’t want this Number Mania to be a one and done activity. I love this extension that Scott does with his students. Overall, the reflections were okay. Considering I’ve only done this a few times this year, I need to make reflecting a regular aspect of my class for the future.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, I asked the question, “What inspired people to go west?” This is a lesson that I took from TCI and wrapped some Eduprotocols around it for more engagement. The materials for the lesson worked perfectly with a Frayer, 3xCER, and a Sketch and Tell comic or Netflix template.

This particular lesson has a combination of secondary source background information paired with primary sources. The sources include:

1. Thomas Jefferson letter to Lewis and Clark to explore the Louisiana territory.
2. Excerpts from Josiah Strong’s book, Our Country: Its Future and Its Present Crisis.
3. An explanation of the Homestead Act and the song, I Will Go West, by JP Barrett.

I like the Thomas Jefferson source because it refers back to the Louisiana Purchase which we have discussed from the perspective of Federalists and Democratic Republicans. We also looked at it from the perspective of Lewis and Clark exploring from the Mr. Roughton Culture Shock lesson.

To begin this lesson, I had students Frayer the Homestead Act. I linked a brief reading that AI created and they had 4 minutes to define it, list 3 characteristics, use it in a sentence, and include a picture.

The next part of the lesson was the 3xCER. At first students struggled with pulling a claim from the Jefferson article and letter to Lewis and Clark. They struggles with this because it wasn’t directly stated – they had to process it themselves and figure it out. After noticing the struggles, we read the article and letter together and I mentioned that 4 possible claims could be pulled from the reading. We discussed as a class and this seemed to help with the other two readings.

The last piece of the lesson was creating a Netflix show description based on an inspiration or creating a Sketch and Tell comic using a Justin Unruh template. For the Sketch and Tell comic students could identify 4 inspirations or create a story about what inspired someone to go west. This was an awesome one day lesson.

Wednesday

Wednesday we built off of Tuesday’s lesson and focused on the groups that went west:

1. Explorers because it mentioned Lewis and Clark.
2. Pioneer Women because I like to include women’s history whenever I can.
3. 49er’s because most students understand gold and people trying to strike it rich.
4. Mormons because it’s a fascinating story.
5. Missionaries – because it ties to the idea of manifest destiny and expanding religion and forcing natives to convert to christianity.

Students chose one group to read about and they used a Brianna Davis template for an Iron Chef – Archetype smash. Students had to list out the motivations, hardships, and legacies left by their chosen group. They had 20 minutes to read and make their slide – BUT there was a catch. I rolled 4 dice and that’s how many words they could use for their motivations, hardships, and legacies. I like this because it’s fun and the students end up paraphrasing the information. Some classes could use 24 words whereas other classes could only use 8 or 10.

After 20 minutes, students shared their slides through a Google Form. The next phase of the lesson was having the students read about the four other groups they didn’t make their slide about. The different word amounts ended up being a good thing because I mentioned to them, “When you are going through everyone’s slides, you need to be the judge and determine what’s good information versus not. A slide with 8 to 10 words might not be good so find a better source.” The different word amounts created this source analysis piece that I like.

Thursday

On Thursday, after the students read about the different groups, we finished up the lesson with an activity I saw on Twitter from Mr. Cline – Dividing the Pie. Lucas George did this activity for his westward expansion lesson as well.

Students had a pie chart and had to divide the pie chart up into sections based on the different motivations and inspirations for what drove people west. The options were: gold, adventure, new opportunity, spreading christianity, and escaping religious persecution. Based on their percentages, students then had to justify why they divided up the pie for the different motivations. I timed this 25 minutes and collected it after the timer ended.

After the timer ended, it was time to wrap up the unit. I like to do two-part assessments. I asked students if they wanted to begin part one (Quizizz) or part two (Bento Box) of the end of unit assessment. They chose the Quizizz – 28 questions and the same quiz they have been doing off and on for the last three weeks. All class averages combined were 92%.

Friday

Heading into Spring Break I thought an Amanda Sandoval creation, the Bento Box, would be a great way to finish the unit. With the Bento Box students find pictures of icons, artifacts, images, etc and relate the symbolism to things they learned in the unit. It’s like a mini museum curation of items with explanations. I thought this would be great because it would allow the students to share multiple artifacts and open ended enough for students to share anything they learned from our westward expansion unit. I gave the students the entire class period to finish the Bento Box and submit. These turned out awesome…

I’m currently writing this from the O’Hare Airport in Chicago as I make my way to Madison, Wisconsin for the WCSS Conference. I’m looking forward to this conference as I will meet up with my friend, and co-author, Dr. Scott Petri. We are doing multiple sessions on EduProtocols and I’m doing an extra session on utilizing AI within the classroom. I was lucky enough to meet up with Jon Corippo in O’Hare! (Thanks for the popcorn, Jon!!)

This week we continued our unit on Westward Expansion. We began the week with having the students finish their Annotated maps from the previous week. I always underestimate how long it take to complete an annotated map. Then we followed up the maps with Manifest Destiny. I looked at last year’s lesson on this topic and I didn’t like it. I revamped my Manifest Destiny lesson to something I did 10 years ago when I first began teaching social studies.

Following the lesson on Manifest Destiny, I left a mini lesson on the Trail of Tears. I assigned this lesson because some of the readings about Manifest Destiny included references to the Trail of Tears. I assigned this lesson last year and really liked the outcomes of the lesson.

Monday – Mad Lib, Quizizz

Tuesday and Wednesday – Manifest Destiny – Part 1 and Part 2

Thursday – Dublin Details EMC2Learning

Friday – Trail of Tears

Monday

For Monday’s class I noticed many students needed to finish their annotated maps on westward expansion. Some needed 10 minutes while others needed 20 to 30 minutes. In times like this, I always have some supplemental things ready to go.

The best way to include supplemental activities when students finish at different times involve Quizizz, Gimkit, EMC2Learning Penny Pedagogies, EduProtocols, or utilizing AI. In this case, I had a Quizizz ready to go with questions from the previous week’s lesson. I also had a Mad Lib I created with AI.

For the Mad Lib, I got on Claude AI and asked it to, “Write a one paragraph Mad Lib that blends westward expansion with the concept of manifest destiny.” It was a decent paragraph that I copied and pasted to a Sketch and Tell. The students that were able to do the Mad Lib seemed to enjoy it as it was something different. A nice mix up and change of pace. For those of you thinking, “How did they do with the noun, adjectives, and verbs??” The students did great with this because we have been practicing these skills recently with some 8pArts.

By the end of class, 90% of students completed their annotated map, some completed the Quizizz, and some completed the Mad Lib. Below are some examples.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we began the concept of Manifest Destiny. I looked at last year’s lesson and wanted to do something different. I began to think about a lesson I did with manifest destiny about 10 years ago…Below is my sequence…

Wicked Hydra

My lesson started off with a Wicked Hydra. In the middle of a Google Slide I typed a headline that read, “Gap’s ‘manifest destiny’ T-shirt was a historic mistake,” and placed this with a picture of the shirt. I had students working together asking questions about this headline. They have no background on manifest destiny or the Gap. Students were asking questions such as, “Why was it a mistake? What is the Gap? Why were people mad? What is manifest Destiny?” I wanted to see these types of questions. The Wicked Hydra immediately creates interest.

Thin Slide

Next in the lesson was a Thin Slide. I linked a short section of the textbook to thin slide and asked two questions, “According to the textbook what is Manifest Destiny? and If this is all people knew about Manifest Destiny, would they still be mad about the shirt?” Students read the textbook section to quickly gain some background information on manifest destiny. I set this lesson up to visit the textbook section again.

8pArts

For the 8pArts I had students analyze the American Progress painting by John Gast. Students looked through image finding nouns, adjectives, guessing the time period, and the purpose. At the end of it all they wrote a brief summary of the image. We debriefed with a short discussion of the symbolism within the painting. I told the students, “If Manifest Destiny was an image, this is it.” Slowly I was building this idea of manifest destiny in their minds.

Wednesday

On Wednesday we continued our lesson on Manifest Destiny. I was hoping the Thick Slide would have been done on Tuesday, but we didn’t get that far.

Thick Slide

On the Thick Slide I shared a link to an article about manifest destiny. On the slide I included a table that asked students to list 3 reasons people might be offended by the Gap shirt. Students also had to share a quote from the article and explain its connection to manifest destiny. They had to include a picture that related to manifest destiny and they had to redefine manifest destiny from the Thin Slide. The article I included with Thick Slide was a combination of primary source quotes and analysis of Manifest Destiny.

Gap News Article and Compare

Next I had the students read the news article I grabbed the headline from. I paired this with a comparison slide from a CyberSandwich. Students read and compared the news article with the information from their Thick Slide.

Textbook Section

The last part of the lesson I had the students revisit the textbook section from the Thin Slide. I put this on a Sketch and Tell because I was out of town on Wednesday and wanted something to look familiar. I asked the students, “What else could you add to this textbook section to better inform people about Manifest Destiny? Highlight anything new you added.” They did an awesome job adding in more details. By the end of the lesson they had a better understanding of why the Gap t-shirt was offensive.

Thursday

Thursday’s class I began with giving the students an option – finish adding to the textbook section from Wednesday or take the Quizizz I had posted. At the end of 10 minutes we played a game from EMC2Learning called Dublin Details.

In this game I gave the students a topic and they had 2 minutes to write an 8 word sentence about that topic. No more, no less. When the timer went off, they found a partner. In the second round, they had two minutes and combined ideas with a partner to make a new 16 word sentence. For the final round, students created groups of four and had five minutes to combine their ideas into a 32 word mini-paragraph. At the end of of round 3, I had each group submit their mini-paragraph through Socrative. I chose the winning paragraph, explained why, and gave feedback.

This is my new favorite thing from EMC2Learning. We did a round on a random topic. Then we did a round on Manifest Destiny. This was truly an engaging activity.

Friday

On Friday I wasn’t at school as I flew out to Madison, Wisconsin for the WCSS Conference. Again, I wanted to leave a familiar lesson – this is why EduProtocols rock!! The articles from manifest destiny mentioned the Trail of Tears and Indian Removal. So, I left a lesson on the Trail of Tears.

I adapted a lesson from TCI called, The Trail Where They Cried. I copied and pasted the article to a Google Doc and linked it to the lesson. I also provided a differentiated copy of the reading. Plus, I recorded myself reading the article and linked the recording to the Google Doc.

The first part of the lesson I had the students read and put the events from the reading into a sequential order. The second part of lesson students fill out thought bubble from John Ross and Andrew jackson. What were the Cherokees and the American government trying to achieve.

The familiar part of the lesson is a Number Mania. I like to set up Number Mania’s with a quote. I then have the students prove the quote true with number and facts from the article. For this particular lesson, students had to prove true this quote, “…the sufferings of the Cherokees were awful. The trail of the exiles was a trail of death.” This helps focus the students and the information. The students did an awesome job with their Number Manias and this lesson!

Introduction

This week, we started a new unit on Westward Expansion. Last year at this time, I was ahead of schedule and created a new unit on Andrew Jackson, but I decided not to do that unit this year because I am now three weeks behind schedule compared to where I was last year. To begin this new unit, I took the question directly from our textbook: “How justifiable was westward expansion?” I also added another question: “What role did Manifest Destiny play in westward expansion?” In Ohio, our standard suggests that students need to understand and be able to describe how the United States acquired territories such as Louisiana, Oregon, Florida, the Mexican Cession, and the Gadsden Purchase. My end goal with this unit was to have students continue to work on writing with claims, evidence, and reasoning, as well as be able to summarize and describe how we acquired different territories around the United States.

Monday – Quizizz, Geography Challenge

Tuesday – Sketch and Tell, Quizizz

Wednesday – Westward Expansion Territory Thick Slide

Thursday and Friday – Annotated Map

Monday

On Monday, I started off with a Quizizz featuring questions related to the entire unit we are going to study on Westward Expansion. This included topics such as the territories and the people that went out west. The quiz served as a pre-assessment to see where we were and what we knew and didn’t know. The average score across all classes was around 42%. Next, I took the geography challenge from TCI and used some AI to generate additional questions. The geography challenge was a nice way to introduce the students to Westward Expansion, allowing them to see a map and become familiar with the time and space in the context of the unit.

I took the questions from TCI, put them into a Google Doc, and then had AI generate two new questions, resulting in three different levels of the geography challenge for the multiple levels of students within my class. I was really impressed with AI and the questions it came up with for the geography challenge. I had it provide several different quotes from somebody who took a trail out west, and the students had to read the description and mark an X on the map where they thought the person was located. I thought this type of question was creative and pretty awesome. Here was one of the questions: “Read this quote and place a green X on your map at the location where you think it took place: ‘We followed the Oregon Trail along the Platte River for many miles. The landscape was flat and dusty, with few trees as far as the eye could see. The river guided us on, but provided little relief from the harsh prairie winds that parched our lips.'”

After 30 minutes, I collected the geography challenge. While the students were working on the geography challenge, I set up a Great American Race by writing different people, events, and topics on index cards and numbering them. At the end of the 30 minutes, I passed out an index card to each student and had them design a slide with three clues and a picture to set up the Great American Race for Tuesday’s class. This took less than 10 minutes.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, I handed back the geography challenge and told the students we were going to use these maps, so they had to hold on to them and be responsible for them. I also printed off all of the slides they designed for the Great American Race, stapled them together, and had the students get into groups of two to three people. I handed each group a packet of the slides they created, had them get out a piece of paper, and number it from one to 20.

This was a great way to introduce some of the events, people, and content associated with Westward Expansion that the students were getting ready to learn about. It was also a nice extension after the geography challenge. I gave the students 25 minutes to look up and find the answers for the 20 slides they created. Most groups got this done, but some groups did not. It’s always funny to me how they always assume this is easy because they feel like all they have to do is just type something into Google and they’ll get the answer; however, this is not the case. They have to know exactly the important words to type in to find the answer for what they want.

After the Great American Race, I looked at the results of the quizzes from the previous day and noticed that students were having trouble coming up with the answer for the Great American Race slides for annexation and cession. I anticipated this and had Sketch and Tell slides ready to go for these two words. We ended class with a Sketch and Tell on annexation and cession.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, now that we had the geography challenge and the Great American Race complete, it was time to dive a little deeper into the territories associated with Westward Expansion. I reminded the students of our essential question: “How justifiable was westward expansion?” To begin class, we looked up and completed a Frayer model for the word “justifiable.” I gave students three to four minutes to look it up, write a definition, find examples and non-examples, and use it in a sentence.

Next, I used an idea that I saw on the EduProtocols+ Hot Shot Show with Drew Skeeler. I used a geography template that I applied to a Frayer model. I had the students pick a territory from Westward Expansion, and they had to describe its relative location, use a compass to identify what was north, south, east, and west of the territory, find a geographical feature, and list a state that was created from the territory. I had the students use their geography challenge maps to help them with some of this, and I told them we were going to use that map again. This was a great way to help the students become familiar with their territory in a geographical context.

I then stated that the territory they chose was the territory they were going to create a Thick Slide about and share with the class. I had AI generate readings for all six territories and asked AI to provide context and details on how we got these territories and the consequences of each. I also mentioned our essential question in my prompt so AI could generate the readings to help students answer the question of how justifiable Westward Expansion was.

Students read about their territory and created a Thick Slide using the “Somebody Wanted But So Then” framework to retell how we got that territory. They provided two pictures and used some claim, evidence, and reasoning to answer the essential question. Reading and creating the slide took about 20 minutes. Once students were done, they shared a link to their slide through a Google Form, and I compiled all the slide links from the form into a Google Sheet and shared it with all of the classes. The last thing I had students do was take their territory and create a title and show description related to their claim, evidence, and reasoning from their Thick Slide. This was a simple way to end class for the last 10 to 15 minutes and a great way to incorporate some Depth of Knowledge Level 3 with the learning.

Thursday and Friday

On Thursday and Friday, I began class with a Quizizz because I ran out of time from the previous day. We were then going to start an annotated map, which I like to do with this unit because it fits with the standard and learning expectation of being able to summarize and describe how we got the territories during Westward Expansion. With an annotated map, you can either have the students hand draw a map or use a pre-made map and label it and cut it out. In this case, I had the students get out their map from the geography challenge, and I had them finish labeling the map with all six territories. Then, I had them glue the map to the center of a big piece of paper, and around the map, they were going to have to summarize and describe how we got the territories along with the consequences of it. Also, at the top, I had them write, “How justifiable was westward expansion?”

The idea of the annotated map is that you begin with the essential question in mind, work through the lesson, and then circle back to the original question at the very end, using evidence from all of your summaries to answer the essential question. To get their information, the students were going to use the slides that their classmates shared. I like doing this activity as it connects all my classes, and we are learning from each other. Plus, I like this lesson as I tell the students they must evaluate the sources that their classmates have created for them and ask themselves, “Is this a reliable, valid source which is going to give me the information that I need?” If not, then they should move on and find another source that they think is better.

I was hoping the annotated map would take two days, but we’re going to have to use a little bit of class time on Monday to finish them up. On these two days, we also did a little Fast and Curious with Quizizz, and the scores of the classes were really good. Based on the scores that I have seen, I really like this sequence of the geography challenge and EduProtocols for student learning.

This week we continued with the War of 1812. I used a great lesson from Mr. Roughton called “Weigh the Evidence.” I thought this would be a great follow-up from Friday’s lesson about the War of 1812 and how James Madison responded to British impressment. I like this particular lesson because it was a refresher of the War of 1812 and it had students practicing writing a claim, using evidence, and reasoning.

We followed up this lesson with a lesson on the Monroe Doctrine. However, I had to leave town and needed to leave a self-sufficient lesson. I was also out of town Wednesday and needed to leave a familiar lesson. The goal was to end this unit this week so I can move on to something new. Since I was out, I left some hexagonal learning. This is something we have done at least 5 times this year. Each time my focus is getting the students to add more, be more descriptive rather than just restating the concepts in the hexagons. We also finished up the lesson with a Quizizz.

On Friday we wrapped up with a game. I didn’t feel like starting a new unit and then immediately go into the weekend.

Monday – Weigh the Evidence

Tuesday – Monroe Doctrine

Wednesday and Thursday – Hexagonal Learning, Quizizz

Monday

On Monday I wanted to keep the War of 1812 lesson going and I found a lesson from Mr Roughton’s website called “Weigh the Evidence.” In this particular lesson, there was a series of slides where I presented six artifacts related to the War of 1812 to the students. I then asked the question “Should the War of 1812 be considered a positive event for America?” I then went through the artifacts with the students and they had to determine which was a reliable source, which was useful, and which was not. They then rated each artifact on a scale from -2 to +2, with 0 meaning the evidence was not useful at all. This was a great lesson to work on analyzing primary sources, secondary sources, and thinking about what was decent evidence versus not.

We began by looking at the Treaty of Ghent, a Wikipedia page, an engraving showing the burning of Washington, statistics from a textbook on casualties, a parody movie trailer, and the song “The Battle of New Orleans” written by Johnny Horton. Students gave each artifact a rating and explained why they rated it that way. At the end, they added up their ratings. If they had a negative number they saw the War of 1812 as a negative event. If they had a positive number they saw it as a positive event. And if they ended up with zero, they had a decision to make.

I really like the structure of this lesson and the numerical rating system really helped students make an informed decision before writing their paragraph using claims, evidence, and reasoning. When it was time to write, I had the students type their paragraphs into a Google form to submit. I then downloaded the paragraphs, put them into Claude AI, and gave whole-class feedback. We discovered that our claims were pretty good as they were definitive. The use of evidence was also really good but our reasoning needed some work – it was often not developed enough or too basic. This was great feedback to give the students the next day.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I was only at school for half the day before I had to leave to catch a plane to New York. The last president we covered was James Monroe. With Monroe, we simply learned about the Monroe Doctrine – my goal is for students to understand its purpose before high school. In this lesson, I had students analyzing political cartoons related to the Monroe Doctrine. There were five cartoons I wanted them to examine. They could walk around viewing printed copies, access them on their Chromebooks, or I stapled packets together.

One by one, students looked at the images and made a prediction about what they thought the meaning or purpose of the Monroe Doctrine was based on the cartoon. After predicting, they watched an EdPuzzle video to check their understanding. I followed this up with a “sketch and tell” activity – students had to draw their own political cartoon showing the meaning of the Monroe Doctrine and explain it. We ended with a Thin Slide: “One thing you learned, one image, one word” to wrap up the remaining 8 minutes.

Wednesday and Thursday

On Wednesday and Thursday, I wanted to wrap up the unit with a familiar activity since I was out on Wednesday attending an AI conference. When I’m gone, I’ve learned students engage better with familiar tasks rather than introducing something brand new. As a result, I left instructions for hexagonal learning. We have done this five times already this year. I like hexagons because the activity is flexible enough to be an assessment allowing students to demonstrate their learning in creative ways. With so many recent absences due to illness, it also works for students at multiple levels – I can tailor it as needed by removing or adding hexagons.

Some students I just asked to connect hexagons, others I asked to connect and share five things they learned. When I returned Thursday, students checked their work against a success criteria checklist I provided. Some criteria included: 3 connections explaining Federalist views, 2 connections showing how a president responded to foreign threats, 2 connections about strengthening national government. I also had a simpler checklist for struggling students: make 5 connections about anything learned.

We also discussed adding more descriptive detail, using transition words like “because” instead of just turning the hexagon text into a sentence. To wrap up, students completed a Quizizz mastery check. They had 10 minutes to earn at least 90% to demonstrate their knowledge.

Friday

On Friday, I found a review game on EMC2Learning rather than start something new before the weekend. The game was like Scattergories. I put up a topic like George Washington, Declaration of Independence, or Bill of Rights. A video scrolled through the alphabet and I stopped it on a random letter. Students had 2 minutes to brainstorm related words starting with that letter. We shared words in groups, some students had to explain connections back to content. It was fun, made them think creatively, and worked on listening skills as groups crossed off duplicate words.

This week we continued with our study of the first five presidents of the United States, exploring this question: “How well did the major decisions under Washington, Adams, and Jefferson live up to the Federalist and Democratic-Republican visions for America?” This week we looked at Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase and James Madison and the War of 1812. A common theme throughout this unit has been having students put themselves in someone else’s shoes and examine different events from other perspectives. This has been a recurring theme throughout the entire unit.

My classes were still a bit uneven, so I did some things this week to get all my classes back on fairly even ground. Between lessons on Jefferson and Madison, I incorporated review with a Resource Rumble and an engaging “culture shock” lesson I adapted from Mr. Roughton, which allowed me to catch all my classes up to the same point again. The main EduProtocols I utilized this week were Thin Slides, Archetypes, CyberSandwich, 3xCER, and Number Mania.

Tuesday – Louisiana Purchase

Wednesday – Mr. Roughton website

Thursday and Friday – War of 1812, History4Humans, Gimkit

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we did a lesson on the Louisiana Purchase. I asked why Federalists opposed the purchase. First, I provided relevant background knowledge before students could answer. I started with a Thin Slide, asking students to find an interesting fact about Thomas Jefferson to share with a partner. Next, I gave students a section of the textbook on the purchase, enhanced with AI to incorporate more statistics. With Number Manias, I often give a quote for students to support with facts and numbers. The quote: “Expanding the country west was a key goal for Jefferson. So even though it went against some of his usual policies, Jefferson made the daring choice to buy all of Louisiana from France.” Before the Number Mania, students completed a Frayer model for the word “diplomat”—I should have done this last week with the XYZ Affair. Students then had 5 minutes to read and find 4 numbers to support the quote, followed by 15 minutes to design slides.

We then did a 3xCER, answering why Federalists opposed the purchase. I emphasized that although doubling the U.S. size seemed positive, Federalists objected. This ties back to whether these presidents upheld party visions. Students read Hamilton’s editorial, recorded his claim/evidence/reasoning regarding his opposition, then did the same for a Rufus King letter. I think this showed multiple perspectives—on one hand it seemed beneficial, but Federalists opposed it for potentially expanding slavery, weakening federal power, etc. This foreshadows future learning and reminds that Federalists favored centralized power.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, I wanted some classes to catch up while allowing advanced classes to continue progressing. With one class, we used a Resource Rumble to review Washington, Adams and Jefferson’s presidencies. With other classes, we did Mr. Roughton’s “Culture Shock” lesson. This gave a feeling of early 1800’s life while reviewing past learning. It began by having students write the principal about a policy change, but I blocked out harsh language, relating it back to Adams’ Sedition Acts. We did an activity with political cartoons about presidents. We went outside to sketch leaves, then read Lewis & Clark journal entries to guess the animal, which I tied back to the Louisiana Purchase exploration. Students enjoyed this lesson, so I will use similar ones in the future.

Thursday and Friday

On Thursday and Friday, we began examining James Madison and the War of 1812, asking what he should do about British impressment. Since most students didn’t know Madison or impressment, I structured activities to build background knowledge. We started with a Thin Slide about Jefferson’s Embargo Act, efficiently providing/reinforcing information. Before they began, I rolled dice to determine slide phrase length to encourage concise summarization. My goal was to show Britain/France tensions persisted. I asked students the definition of insanity – trying the same thing but expecting different results – which I likened these first 3 presidents’ failed efforts to avoid war. Next was a Madison Archetype Foursquare, then students Frayer modeled “impressment” and “warhawks.”

I then added a CyberSandwich using an activity from Dan Lewer’s website putting students in Madison’s shoes regarding impressment. After a briefing/timeline for context, I simply asked them to decide as if they were president. Last time with Adams, students finished quickly, so I modeled weighing options first. We developed a good pro/con list before writing a speech for the public where I provided framework: summarize the issue since there was no instant media, share their decision, and justify why it was best. After writing, I revealed Madison urged war, now called the War of 1812. We watched a video on the burning of the White House, then I shared more outcomes like stalemate, the Battle of New Orleans, Federalists wanting succession, and the Federalist Party’s end. Students enjoyed considering perspectives and options as if they were president.

We closed with a 5-minute Gimkit review game, then partner discussions before a 4-minute rematch, challenging students to beat their prior scores. Every class scored over 80%, demonstrating learning.

This week was a 4-day week. We had class Monday through Thursday. There must be a lot of sickness going around because I’ve had a lot of student absences recently. Things just seem scattered and disorganized lately. I need to get myself back on track and find some consistency in my lessons and class structure again.

Much of my class focuses on the experience of being actively present within the class sessions and activities. Even though I am regularly using protocols and structured activities, it seems that when a student misses a day, they miss out on a lot of material, as the old adage goes. Having to create some Differentiated Instruction review articles and activities to catch some students up who have missed classes, it’s a quick and simple way to get them back up to speed.

This week we covered some important content. We examined Washington’s Farewell Address and then delved into learning about John Adams’s presidency, including studying the XYZ Affair and the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts.

Monday – 3xCER Farewell Address

Tuesday and Wednesday – XYZ Affair

Thursday – Alien and Sedition Acts

Monday

On Monday we analyzed Washington’s Farewell Address using a 3xCER protocol. I often use the 3xCER method when studying primary sources, as it has students focus on writing claims backed by textual evidence, and then explaining their reasoning.

In this particular lesson, we began class with a Thin Slide. In the Thin Slide, students had to look up one specific precedent that George Washington set during his presidency – 1 picture, 1 precedent. They had 3 minutes. I used this quick activity to set the context that Washington’s famous Farewell Address established precedents and advice that endured long after Washington left office.

Next, I gave students excerpts from the lengthy Farewell Address to read and analyze. Their task was to match sections of Washington’s address to comparable modern concepts and ideas. This helped them understand the still-relevant wisdom in Washington’s speech. I specifically pointed out Washington’s warning about the dangers of emerging political parties dividing the fledgling nation, as well as his admonition to avoid questionable “entangling alliances” with other countries.

I gave students 10 minutes to write their own claims about the address, citing textual evidence and explaining the meaning and their analysis in their own words. I incorporate study of the iconic Farewell Address for two key reasons: first, it’s valuable for students to closely read such an influential primary document that is still so often referred to even today; second, Washington’s parting words of wisdom to the nation provide helpful background context about factors that shaped later controversies and debates during the Adams and Jefferson administrations.

Since so many students had missed classes recently, I wanted to incorporate a retrieval practice review activity. We played a creative dice game where I would ask a question about content we’ve learned previously, roll several dice, and the students would then have to accurately summarize their response to my question in the exact number of words as the dice total. For instance, I might roll the dice and get an 18, then ask a question like “Who was George Washington and what was most important about his presidency?” The students then have 18 words to try to answer correctly. This fast-paced activity kept engagement high while reinforcing key knowledge.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we launched into learning about John Adams’s presidency, starting with the infamous XYZ Affair. I began the lesson with a Thin Slide and a linked reading that set the context by reviewing the contentious election of 1796, where Adams and his Federalist Party narrowly defeated Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party. Under the rules at the time, this made Adams President and Jefferson Vice President, even though they held very different visions for governing the young nation.

In the Thin Slide, I asked students to imagine how it would look if we still followed this election model today. They had an amusing time realizing that would put Biden in the White House and Trump right there beside him as VP! I used this as a discussion prompt to illustrate how much has changed, but also to preview the core theme we would keep revisiting: how much impact presidents and political parties had on shaping the nation, both then and now.

Next, students analyzed a short biography summarizing Adams’ early life and career before becoming president. To make this more engaging, they had to apply an archetype lens, examining Adams’ essential character traits, motives, and drivers using a framework often applied to literature characters. Choosing details from Adams’ pre-presidential life, students had to cite textual evidence to explain what archetype he aligned with most closely and why. As an extension, they compared and contrasted Adams’ archetype to someone in their own life exhibiting similar enduring personality characteristics and motivations. This activity prompted some insightful analysis and discussions about Adams and human nature more broadly.

I next introduced the major scandal that erupted during Adams’ term: the infamous XYZ Affair. This complex incident involved intrigue, international extortion plots, and heated political controversy.

To better understand the XYZ Affair and its impacts, I adapted a lesson plan developed by social studies teacher named Susan Gorman. Her approach made the scandal more accessible by having students examine primary source accounts and piece together the story like detectives. I paired her lesson concept with a CyberSandwich.

In my lesson, students had to closely read a set of fragmentary excerpts from witnesses and participants describing their view of events. As they analyzed each slice of the political drama, students filled out a graphic organizer, layering the pieces together into a coherent timeline. They had to deduce such key points as attempting to identify who the cryptically named French agents X, Y and Z were, why they tried to extort a bribe from America, and how the Adams administration responded.

The CyberSandwich provided helpful structure, allowing students to build up their understanding layer by layer as they progressed through the accounts. Once they read, notated and discussed the various perspectives, they then had to synthesize their learning by writing a summary reflecting their understanding of how and why this diplomatic crisis emerged. The interactive analysis and incremental building of knowledge about the XYZ Affair captured student interest while developing crucial historical thinking and primary source analysis skills.

Wednesday

We devoted the first part of Wednesday’s class to completing the XYZ Affair lesson to ensure students had thoroughly grasped the causes and sequence of events. After discussing their XYZ Affair summaries and analyses in small groups, I transitioned into the next phase of learning.

Even with the background factual knowledge from their summaries, students still did not know how President Adams chose to respond to the national crisis and inflammatory public fury sparked by the XYZ revelations. I wanted to simulate the complex decision making challenge faced by Adams to resolve tensions with France without triggering an expensive, risky war that the fragile young America could ill afford.

This reflective judgment activity compelled students to essentially attempt to re-enact Adams’ key decision points regarding the XYZ Affair aftermath. I emphasized that they needed to consider the context Adams faced at the time, based on geostrategic realities, the precedent of neutrality established by Washington, pressure from Adams’ Federalist allies urging war with France, and the perceived need to assert American strength abroad.

With these influential factors in mind, students had to actively debate and judge the wisest course for Adams by closely evaluating multiple options, national priorities, risks and trade-offs. I encouraged them to dig deeply into Adams’ perspective to try to see the situation through his eyes.

In one class, I noticed students racing through this complex deliberation far too quickly, finishing their recommended plan for Adams in just 5 minutes. This signaled they were not truly wrestling with the web of complications Adams had to balance and the judgment call he had to make amidst clashing viewpoints and shaky public morale.

So in the next class section, I deliberately walked students through the full scope of analytical thinking required for sound decision making of this magnitude. I used strategic questioning and patience to incrementally build their context, inquiry and cognitive engagement.

Through this guided interaction, I emphasized that as a Federalist, Adams faced immense pressure from within his own party to enter war against France. Yet he also had to weigh George Washington’s sage advice urging neutrality to give America’s fragile experiment in democracy time to stabilize. I thus set up an insightful realization that Adams was caught in an unenviable lose-lose predicament, with his Federalist allies threatening to desert him even as Republicans continued attacking his policies.

Pushing past knee-jerk solutions, most students dug deeper to thoughtfully grapple with Adams’ impossible situation. They finally realized the complexity of variables, trade-offs and paradoxes facing the president, needing 25-35 minutes of guided decision analysis rather than 5. We debriefed that such deeply consequential decisions require careful execution of critical thinking as much today as then. I ended class having students generate probing questions about the XYZ Affair which their classmates had to answer concisely, putting our debating and judgment skills to work!

Thursday

After analyzing Adams’ impossible decisions on avoiding war with France in the XYZ debacle, on Thursday we transitioned to examining a controversial set of domestic laws subsequently passed by the Federalists under Adams’ administration. Still alarmed by potential French revolutionary infiltration and attacks on American sovereignty after the XYZ Affair, the majority Federalist Congress passed four laws in 1798 collectively known as the Alien and Sedition Acts.

I opened this lesson by giving small student teams realistic scenarios describing French immigrants pathways into America during this volatile period. Teams had to rapidly discuss options and decide on the policy course they would set. This immediately set the context for the tensions and perceived threats posed by aliens and outsiders that in part prompted the Alien Acts.

We next examined the key provisions of these laws, which expanded the duration of residency requirements to 14 years before immigrants could apply for US citizenship. Students used Parafly EduProtocols to paraphrase the essence of the Naturalization and Alien Acts. We then examined a real case study that demonstrated the laws’ power in practice.

I described the fate of Congressman Matthew Lyon, an outspoken Republican critic of the Adams administration. Lyon had notoriously written that President Adams deserved to be put in a “madhouse.” For this perceived insult to the administration, Lyon was prosecuted and convicted under the controversial Sedition Act portion of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

I had students used a Frayer to investigate the meaning and examples of “sedition” more deeply. We analyzed an excerpt from the Sedition Act text itself using Annotate and Tell.

To synthesize their analysis, students wrote a short perspective 2xPOV from the vantage point of Federalists explaining why they strongly supported this law as necessary and proper.

In the last stage of the lesson, I flipped the script, having students write a rebuttal as Democratic-Republicans decrying the laws as hypocritical violations of constitutional liberties of speech, press and due process. By writing sequentially from contrasting political insider lenses, students gained a more balanced insight into the complex debate stirred by the Alien & Sedition Acts.

This multi-perspective analysis and writing task took up our entire Thursday class session. If time permitted by the end, we briefly revisited key concepts and historical figures from the week using the dice game as a quick closing review.

The XYZ Affair and Alien & Sedition Acts proved pivotal episodes in the Adams presidency that also encapsulated major themes of America’s early development. The inheriting tensions over centralized authority versus states’ rights, interpretations of checks and balances, and partisan efforts to control domestic dissent and international affairs resonate into modern U.S. politics. By enacting decisions Adams wrestled with using compelling primary sources and perspective-taking, students gained an enriched understanding of obstacles in governing a fragile new nation – insights equally relevant today.