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This week wasn’t much of a week with all kinds of different things happening. With the end of the year fast approaching, many interruptions are taking place week to week.

Monday – Guidance Counselor came in to do career stuff.

Tuesday – Guidance counselor came into to finish career stuff.

Wednesday – Testing, 15 minute classes.

Thursday – Testing, 28 minute classes – Uncle Tom’s Cabin lesson.

Friday – Reward Day for all students, all day.

Yes, I had 43-50 minutes of instructional time all week. Thursday, we did a simple lesson on Uncle Tom’s Cabin and I planned some other lessons that I will share with you here.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Thursday was a perfect day for this mini Uncle Tom’s Cabin lesson I put together. Many times we teach about Uncle Tom’s Cabin as contributing to the Civil War. We discuss the author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, at great length. However, how many of our students (or teachers) have actually read excerpts from the novel?

In this lesson, I begin by discussing how the novel acted very much like the television in the 1950’s and 1960’s bringing Southern segregation and treatment of blacks into people’s living rooms across the country. The novel brought slavery into the homes of people all over the country.

After my brief introduction, we did a Fast and Curious about the characters and basic facts regarding the novel. After the fast and curious, I gave some feedback and then we hit again right away.

After 2-3 rounds of quick Fast and Curious, students could choose from 3 chapter excerpts to read:

1. A Mother’s Struggle
2. Slave Auction
3. Cassy

As students read their selected chapter, they designed a slide about that chapter. They focused on retelling the events from the chapter, sharing and analyzing a quote, adding a relevant picture, and analyzing why this would contribute to the start of the Civil War.

1. Fast and Curious Quizizz
2. Iron Chef

First Emperor of China

I don’t teach 6th grade, but I help out our 6th grade teacher with designing lessons and incorporating some EduProtocols. I designed this lesson for Lesson 19 – The First Emperor of China using History Alive.

Day 1

1. Thin Slide – add one picture, one word to show what makes someone an effective or ineffective leader. This was to get students thinking about the overall question they were trying to answer – Was the emperor of Qin an effective leader?
2. Sketch and Tell – to me, three important vocabulary words for students to understand in this lesson are Great Wall, Legalism, and Qin Shi Huangdi. The Great reflects Qin major accomplishment. Legalism reflects his ruling style, Qin himself is important for students to create a representation based on some basic information they learned about him.
3. Fast and Curious Quizizz – try to run this twice.

Day 2

1. Fast and Curious Quizizz – try to run this once or twice during the class period.
2. Iron Chef – the Iron Chef was designed for students to create a character profile about Qin Shi Huangdi. Students read the section about him and list adjectives and facts related to his life and leadership. Students will then partner up for some Glows and Grows – what is one thing you ike about your partner’s slide? What is one thing they need to improve on their slide?

Day 3

1. Fast and Curious – run this at least once during class.
2. Thick Slide – students choose one of the sections related to Qin and his highlights, or lowlights and design a thick slide. The options are – Standardizing culture, the Great Wall, removing opposition, and his death.
3. Frayer – this is done on paper. Students share their Thick Slides with each other and collect notes in a Frayer model. The slide links are shared through a Google Form that in convert to a Google Sheet.

Day 4

1. Frayer – students finish the Frayer and use their notes for the final project.
2. Archetype – the archetype lesson is from the upcoming Eduprotocols Social Studies book that I co-authored with Dr. Scott Petri. Students will apply an archetype to Emperor Qin to decide if he was effective or ineffective as a leader. They will use their frayer information to defend their choice.

Civil War Lesson

Near my school is an old cemetery – Watkins Hill Cemetery that was one of the original burial grounds created for the village of New Richmond. In fact, one of the founders of New Richmond is buried there. It’s a cool spot to take the students and we look at the grave stones, discuss the history of New Richmond, and I teach them the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard. (Do you know the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard? Give my history, this is seriously not a dad joke.)

One thing I always wanted to do was figure out who some of these people are, but relate it to a current lesson. However, I didn’t know how to go about looking people up. This was the case until my students teacher showed me the national archives site for looking up veterans. (If anyone else knows another way, please help me out! I would love some feedback and more sources.) This cemetery has several Civil War veterans and this National Archives site is a great way to get us started.

Here is my plan that was inspired by a lesson design from Dr. Scott Petri:

Day 1

1. Great American Race – to teach about Civil War Battles, people, basic terms. Examples include: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, The Union, Confederate States, Secession, etc…
2. Frayer – (Amanda Sandoval template) the Frayer is used for students to learn some vocabulary.
3. Fast and Curious – to learn some basic military terms – company, infantry, general, private, etc…

Day 2

On this day, we would head to the cemetery looking for Civil War Veterans. I would have students try to writ down 2-3 names and the information from the grave stone. We would then head back to class and I would have students submit names through a Google Form.

Day 3

On this Day I would have students list 10 facts about their veteran. Then I would have students list the facts from interesting to boring. Then I would have them design an Iron Chef slide about their veteran. The Secret Ingredient would have the students list the battles the veterans fought in during his service in the Civil War.

Day 4

Design a Thick Slide about a battle or battles the Civil War Veterans fought in. Take the battle information and add it to the Iron Chef to complete a better picture of this veteran.

Day 5

Have students take their paragraphs from the Iron Chef and paraphrase their words down into an easy to read format. For example, if they had 200 words, shrink it down to 160 words or something. Finally, have students record their paraphrased tribute through Flipgrid.

I wish I had more to share in the way of links for some of these lessons, but I was literally thinking out loud and typing. More to share soon….

Sorry for the late post – I have a lot going on right now:

1. I had a small part in the school musical, Newsies.
2. I am taking a gifted class.
3. I am also taking another class on the T3 Framework.
4. I am teaching tennis again.
5. The ins and outs of teaching 8th grade.

That is my shortened list (not kidding). This week we continued state testing and we began a new unit on the causes of the Civil War. As I mentioned in my last post, I have a student teacher I have been working with since January. He really like the structure of a Group Playlist (inspired by Catlin Tucker and Amanda Sandoval). He also wanted the students to understand that slavery was a cause of the Civil War – not states’ rights, not secession. He also wanted to work in some local history because Harriet Beecher Stowe has ties to Cincinnati and the New Richmond area (her brother was a preacher in the New Richmond Village right down the hill from my school). The resources put together in the playlist represent these topics:

1. Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850.
2. Kansas Nebraska Act
3. Dred Scott
4. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

This post will not follow the typical Monday, Tuesday pattern because each class started on a different day. With testing, field trips, and fun days planned, every class is off schedule. I was so excited to begin the Civil War in April because I usually start it in May. Starting in may means I rush through it and don’t have time for Reconstruction.

You would think since I started the Civil War on April 18th that I would have time to get to Reconstruction – nope. It’s not looking good. Think about that for a minute – 30 days of school left and I don’t have time to get through Causes of the Civil War, Civil War Battles, and Reconstruction. That’s how many interruptions take place the last days of school.

1. The Causes of the Civil War Group PlayList (@historysandoval template)
2. The Graphic Organizers

All Week

The student teacher I’ve been working with loves the idea of Group Playlists. He put a playlist together for the causes of the Civil War. With each playlist the students focused on reading, listening, and watching various sources to help them fill out graphic organizers. The students used their information to help them make connections between events related to the causes of the Civil War. Here are the questions for each playlist:

1. How did the issue of western expansion and the extension of slavery help spark war ?
2. What did popular sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska Act reveal about U.S. sectionalism?
3. How did political divisions over slavery spark war?
4.  How did the exposure of slavery lead to war?

Directions

Let use Playlist #1 for this example – students read and watched about the Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850 as they took notes in a Venn Diagram. He also included a couple of questions for students to evaluate the topic of compromises. When students finished, they made a copy of the collaborative task which had them make connections between events. Students would discuss and summarize what they learned about the Compromises in the Playlist 1 box. Then they would move onto Playlist 2 (Kansas Nebraska Acts).

Students would complete the graphic organizers to learn about the Kansas Nebraska Act. Then they would go back to their collaborative task. Now they would discuss and summarize the Kansas and Nebraska Act in the Playlist 2 box. Now that students have 2 events summarize, they would find 1 to 2 connections between the events.

In the end, when the collaborative task was complete, and connections were made, students would use their information to respond to this prompt, “Provide a summary. Ultimately, what led to the Civil War?”

Here are some examples:

My Feedback

I personally liked the layout of the lesson. However, I would have mixed it up with more EduProtocols (I’m a protocols guy). For example, I would have added these protocols to each playlist question:

1. CyberSandwich to compare the compromises – How did the issue of western expansion and the extension of slavery help spark war ?
2. Thick Slide for info on one event – What did popular sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska Act reveal about U.S. sectionalism?
3. Frayer – How did political divisions over slavery spark war?
4. Iron Chef to create a slide about a chapter from Uncle Tom’s Cabin – How did the exposure of slavery lead to war?

OR run a stack:

1. CyberSandwich – How did the issue of western expansion and the extension of slavery help spark war ?
2. CyberSandwich – What did popular sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska Act reveal about U.S. sectionalism?
3. CyberSandwich – How did political divisions over slavery spark war?
4. CyberSandwich – How did the exposure of slavery lead to war?

I also gave feedback on question 2 with sectionalism. Many students finished the playlist not knowing what sectionalism meant. It would be good to throw it into a Fast and Curious or run a quick Frayer with it.

I also mentioned that I would drop 1 source from some of the individual tasks. It seemed overwhelming, or too much for some of the playlist. For example, either drop the Edpuzzle on the Kansas Nebraska Act or the reading.

My point with this feedback was simple – teaching and education is a constant reflective process. As Monte Syrie states, “Do. Reflect. Do Better.” I have embraced this quote and use it each day. Teaching and learning should be an ongoing reflective process class after class, day after day, year after year.

I’m currently writing this on Good Friday. However, I could call this day Bad Friday:

• 3:00 AM wake up call from my 2 year old daughter who puked.
• I drove my 5 year old daughter to the bus stop and my front axle broke.
• Ran the 5 year old to the bust stop.
• A marker found its way into the laundry and ruined 2 pairs of my pants and a shirt.
• I had all these plans to work on 2 classes I’m taking and memorize my lines for the school play ONLY to do none of it.

If I write this with a bit of extra snark then I have 5 reasons listed above.

If I covered all of the standards laid out by the state, I could cover it all, but I could only do a mile wide and an inch deep. Why am I going to cover content just to say I covered it? That’s stupid. I’m going to cover important topics and cut out the unnecessary stuff. Last week we covered the different methods Abolitionists used to push for an end to slavery. I had a choice – so I switch to the women’s suffrage movement or go into resistance to slavery? After a discussion, we (my student teacher and I) decided to move into resistance to slavery.

^{Side note: I rarely teach the same stuff year to year because I would get bored and probably quit. This is why I quit teaching tennis – the feeling of doing the same lessons over and over, saying the same stuff over and over day after day. Awful. As a result, I mix up my lessons year to year. Sometimes I change how I teach. Other times I change what I teach.}

The Resistance to Slavery lesson is a C3 Inquiry Unit on www.c3teachers.org. (Even though it says grades 3-5, it doesn’t matter. It can be used with any grade level 3-9, in my opinion). Every C3 unit has a “stage the compelling question” activity. With this particular unit, I turned the compelling question into a Number Mania. The unit itself was broken into 4 questions:

1. What about the daily life of enslaved people would have prompted resistance?
2. What were the means of resistance to slavery?
3. What were the risks of resisting slavery?
4. What were the results of resisting slavery?

I like the C3 units because they usually have great formative assessment tasks, EduProtocols can easily be incorporated into them, and they are very adaptable to different formats.

Nevertheless, here is my week:

Monday – finish Abolitionist assessment choice, Number Mania

Tuesday-Thursday – Resistance to Slavery Group Playlist, Thick Slide

Friday – No School

Monday

Monday was a day with all kind of stuff happening. Some students were finishing their assessment choices from the Abolition lesson.

Other students began the new C3 lesson on resistance to slavery. I wanted to begin this lesson with some little known statistics about slavery. The statistics that textbooks won’t tell you. I found an article written by Henry Louis Gates (I shortened it down a bit for 8th grade). We turned this into a Number Mania. Students read the article for 10 minutes, and shared 2-3 numbers and facts with the class through a Google Form. I created a Google Sheet with the Form data and shared with the class.

Once I shared the Google Form Data, students had 15 minutes to design their Number mania slide. However, I framed the lesson like this, “When you select your numbers and facts, think of how you can tell a story with your infographic.”

The students did a really nice job with their infographics. They put a lot of thought into their creations. Many of them were surprised to learn that enslaved women had an average of 9-10 children. They were also surprised to learn that 75% of white families in the south didn’t enslave people. All in all, this was a powerful way to introduce the Resistance to Slavery C3 unit.

Tuesday-Thursday

I mentioned earlier the C3 Units are adaptable to any formats. When I was at Spring CUE in Palm Springs, I learned of the Group Playlists from Amanda Sandoval. These PlayLists are a modified version of the Playlists created by Catlin Tucker. I like these Group Playlists because they have students working individually, have self checks, and provide opportunities for students to collaborate. Here is an example (@historysandoval template):

When I created these Group Playlists, I used similar sources the original C3 unit had linked. However, instead of youtube videos provided, I found the same videos on EdPuzzle. I also included primary and secondary sources into the individual tasks.

For the Self-check part of the Playlists – I made mini organizers on a Google Doc and made copies. I also made a Frayer model for students to collect notes. Some students really liked the Frayer. Other students really liked the mini organizers.

The goal for the individual tasks and self-check are building background knowledge with DOK 1 and 2 tasks. The collaborative task should be a DOK 3 or 4 with students applying, or creating, with their knowledge. I thought and thought about this for a day and a half. Then I thought of a great application strategy – hexagonal learning. Here were my thoughts:

1. Share a blank hexagonal learning slide deck (have a paper version too).
2. The blank slidedeck has 16 blank hexagons (4 for each playlist).
3. At the end of each playlist, the students add 4 different ideas to 4 hexagons. The idea is to think about the answer to the playlist essential question.
4. When all 4 playlists are completed, the students pait the hexagons and make connections.
5. Finally, students find connections to people, narratives, and events they learned about from the playlist primary and secondary sources.

I didn’t know how this would turn out, but the students did awesome! They started from scratch and created their own learning and connections. I give credit to the clear learning objectives and goals for the awesome students creations.

The other part to C3 Units that I like are the extensions to learning. The extensions have students connecting their learning to today. In this particular unit, it wanted students to research a modern day resistance movement and make comparisons to slave resistance. When I read this, my mind went right to a Thick Slide idea.

Number Mania Creations

Hexagonal Learning

Thick Slides – Extension

This week we started state testing – “yeah” (sarcastic voice). Thursday and Friday were shortened days as students completed parts 1 and 2 of the Ohio ELA test. Classes were 22 minutes in length. As for social studies, Students finished the comparing the Northern and Southern United States during the Industrial Revolution with an annotated map.

After this lesson, I have a student teacher who designed a mini-lesson on the abolitionist movement to end slavery. The focus for the lesson was teaching students about different abolitionist, tying in some local history, and the methods abolitionists used to ends slavery.

Monday – Finish Annotated Maps on paper or with Google Drawings.

Tuesday – Thin Slide (nearpod), Fast and Curious, Thick Slide

Wednesday – Fast and Curious, Frayer

Thursday and Friday – Assessment Choice

Monday

Today was used for students finishing their annotated maps showing differences between the Northern and Southern United States during the Industrial Revolution. I offered two options – a digital version on Google Drawings or a hand drawn map on paper.

With the rubric, I had students adding symbols to represent the differences in geography, economy, and transportation. They had to include 2 geographical differences, 3 economic differences, and 1 transportation difference. After their map completion, students answered some basic geography map analysis questions I got from Robert Mayfield:

• What is the purpose of the map?
• What patterns do you see?
• Why was that pattern created?
• What can you conclude?

Here are some completed student maps (I forgot to take pictures of the hand drawn maps, but they are incredibly well done):

The completed maps were awesome, but I ran into a problem on Monday. Some students missed a lot of days and there was no way they were going to make some of this up. This is where my special education background kicks in and I excel – adapting, accommodating, and modifying things on the fly. I remembered another idea I got from Robert Mayfield – a Mapwich.

I took the original Google Drawing map template from above and added a premade map. I kept the questions the same, but changed the map. Here are those results:

Tuesday

Today was the start of the mini-lesson created by my student teacher. I shared the standards about reform movements with him and here is the lesson he created:

1. Thin slide on Nearpod – what does it mean to reform something?
2. Thin slide graffiti board – Without looking it up – can you name an Abolitionist?
3. Fast and Curious Quizizz
4. Thick Slide – a focus on abolitionists and their motivations and methods used to bring an end to slavery.
5. Share the Thick Slide link through a Google Form
6. Create a Frayer – collect information on 4 other abolitionists
7. Create a Brochure about Abolitionists and their methods.

We ran a test run of this mini lesson in 2nd period and made adjustments. Going from a Nearpod to Graffiti Board to Quizizz to Google Classroom to a Thick Slide – whew, too much!! So, we changed the “Name and Abolitionist” graffiti board to a Nearpod collaborative board. That small change made a huge difference.

Then we adjusted the “Name and Abolitionist” discussion after the Fast and Curious. We did this because the Fast and Curious gave some ideas for Abolitionists. Many students listed Abraham Lincoln as an abolitionist which led to a great discussion.

The Fast and Curious results ranged from 40% to 53% class averages. The questions and answer choices were well done and related to the topics. Some of the questions were vocabulary related, with the main question being, “What is the best definition for abolition?” After the first lesson test run, I asked my student teacher, “On Quizizz, does your definition for abolition contain the word reform?” I asked this because we started with the word reform, but it the word appeared again the rest of the lesson or throughout any reading. We made that small adjustment and we were set.

Next, students rolled dice to determine their abolitionist to study for the Thick Slide. The Thick Slide was set up for students to include background information, motivations, conflict, and methods of reform. Plus, it included a space to define abolition and include a picture with a caption. This is the 5th or 6th Thick Slide completed by students and each one gets better. Here are some examples:

A couple of teachable moment from the Thick Slide – addressing background information. For example, students would say to me, “Mr. Moler, I don’t see where he/she is from for the background information.” I replied with, “Does background information always mean where someone is from? Are you only defined by where you are from?” It led to a nice discussion.

We finished the day with another Fast and Curious and the class averages were raised 30% to 35%. Feedback and the Thick Slide are powerful tools for student learning.

Wednesday

The next day, we began class with a Fast and Curious again for a third rep. Class average remained the same or went a bit higher – 85% to 90%. Following the Fast and Curious, we shared a Google Form for students to share their Thick Slide. From the form we made a Google Sheet with the slide links and shared with the students. During this time, I highly recommend to teach your students how to change the share settings on a Google Slide.

Originally, we were going to have students use a Frayer on a Google Slide and then I suggested using paper. I suggested this to limit copying and pasting. Students made a Frayer on paper and chose 4 abolitionist to study. They collected background information, motivations, conflicts, and methods used for each abolitionist. Students were going to use this information to make a brochure.

Thursday and Friday

The final part of this mini lesson was making a brochure highlighting the abolitionists and their methods to end slavery. I was going to stay out of it, and not suggest anything. However, I can’t help myself. I remembered an Amanda Sandoval template and suggested a Dinner Party – choose 4 abolitionists to send to a dinner party and place them at the table. Then think about these questions:

1. Why did you seat them next each other?
2. What would they discuss or debate?

To me a brochure is great for a hands on project if the internet is down. But the dinner party takes critical thinking and creativity to a new level. What was awesome is my student teacher created conversation starters to scaffold the dinner party.

As students began the dinner party, they struggled to include details and the answers were basic. Was this from taking a 2 part ELA test? Was it from lack of knowledge? We pushed the students for more and they ended up doing a great job.

In typical Moler fashion, I didn’t stop with the dinner party, I decided to create a list of assessment options for all students. I ended up offering a dinner party, sketch and tell, Instastory, or Somebody – Wanted – But – So – Then. Here are some students exmaples:

First week back from Spring Break. A new unit began – The Industrial Revolution. In past years, I asked the question, “To what extent was the Industrial Revolution beneficial for people?” In the old unit, I would focus on new inventions, Lowell Mills, cotton production, etc. It just felt like it was isolated, and no context.

This year, I decided to focus on the differences in North and South based on the Industrial Revolution. We focused on geography, economy, and transportation. I wanted to go this route because it provided context and would eventually set us up for the Civil War unit afterwards.

Monday – Industrial Revolution – whirlygigs (Mr. Roughton lesson)

Tuesday – Fast and Curious, CyberSandwich

Wednesday and Thursday – Station Rotation, Fast and Curious

Friday – Thick Slide, Annotated Map Directions, Annotated Map

The end goal of the unit for students is having them understand how the Industrial Revolution impacted northern and southern states differently. The end assessment is an annotated map where students create symbols highlighting the differences and analyzing their maps.

Monday

This was the first day back from Spring Break. I needed something uplifting. I needed a hook to get the students into the Industrial Revolution. Then I suddenly remembered a lesson I saw on Mr. Roughton’s Website – it was a lesson where students experienced the transition from the Cottage Industry to Factory life making whirlygigs. This lesson is engaging and helps the students understand that some people made things in their homes; we didn’t always have factories.

For this lesson, I found some old paper (It’s a paper waster). Before we began, I showed the students a whirlygig and how it twirls around when dropped in the airs. For the first round, I didn’t give any instructions on how to make it. I didn’t give students any tools. They were frustrated as they tried to figure it out. After 5 minutes, I had them record their feelings and the number of functional whirlygigs they created.

The next round, I actually gave instructions, rulers, and scissors (but no paper clips). Students had 5 minutes to work independently to make as many whirlygigs as possible. At the end of time, I had them record the number of functional whirlygigs they created. I also had them record their feelings during this round. The big idea I pointed out during this round was some whirlygigs were better than others due to various reasons: we understood the directions differently and some had better tools than others. Lastly, I asked the students, “What would make this better?” They thought and thought and finally someone said, “If we got into groups, we could each specialize in something.” Lightbulb moment.

The third round, I had students get into groups. Each students specialized in creating some part of the whirlygig. Someone cut rectangles, someone cut a slit down the middle, someone folded the edges, and someone added a paper clip. This time the whirlygigs were similar, functional, and I brought up the idea of interchangeable parts with the paper clip.

This lesson idea is awesome and super engaging. It was a great way to introduce the Industrial Revolution and a great way to kick off the week the first day back from Spring Break.

Tuesday

Tuesday I got into the first main part of the lesson – the differences in geography between Northern and Southern states. Here is my initial lesson set up…

1. Begin with an 8parts – I wanted the students to choose an image representing the North or the South. Students gave it a 3 word title, focused on nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. They would also list out an example of geography, economics, and transportation.Students finished the 8parts by writing a descriptive paragraph about the image.
2. Transition to a Quizizz – the Quizizz had 12 questions, 5 vocabulary words and 7 questions related to Geography. If students did well with vocabulary that meant I didn’t have to waste time doing vocabulary activities.
3. CyberSandwich – The CyberSandwich would be a 10 minute read and note take, 5 minute discuss, and a 10 minute summary. One students would read about northern geography and their partner would read about southern geography.

This plan would change throughout the day…

8Parts

I began the day with this period and took a chance with the 8Parts. I broke a golden rule and used the 8Parts for the first time this year with actual content. I should have known better. It’s interesting, though, because students that had me last year did an excellent job with this activity. However, I didn’t like some of the results and the 8Parts took entirely too long. Again, I should have known better – low cognitive load to begin and more reps!!

I decided that I needed something simpler and quicker. As a result, I switched this to a Thin Slide. However, the Thin Slide was done with a NearPod Collaborative Board. I uploaded the same images and gave students 3 minutes to share one word and one picture of a geographical feature they observed. This proved to be more effective as we looked for similarities in the posts…thank goodness for the Thin Slide in my toolbox. Plus, the setup on Nearpod was super easy!

Quizizz – Fast and Curious

The Quizizz I put together had 12 questions – 7 questions related to geography and 5 related to vocabulary. I included vocabulary questions to see how the students would do. The class average on vocabulary questions was 90% or higher across all classes. The class averages on geography questions was 40% or lower across all classes.

The goal was to run the Quizizz twice before the end of class. Here were the class averages the first time taking the Quizizz – 62%, 57%, 49%, 40%, 33%. After completing the CyberSandwich, the class averages were: 82%, 86%, 89%, 79%, 77%. This was a significant jump and shows the power of the Fast and Curious reps.

CyberSandwich

The CyberSandwich evolved throughout the day. We began the day with a completely digital CyberSandwich using Google Slides. One student read about northern geography and their partner read about southern geography. I felt bad that I didn’t have paper copies of the reading available of a physical copy of a note taking sheet. I try to have these things available for students. For 4th period and beyond, I had the copies available.

By the time 7th period rolled around, I had to switch up the CyberSandwich. This class is made up of 50% or more of students with an IEP and it’s tough for me to get around to everyone. With this class differentiation and UDL is a must. As a result, I created a CyberSandwich on Nearpod.

The Nearpod adaptation was such a great mixup!! I shared my Nearpod link and gave every student a Venn Diagram on paper and had them takes notes. I also had physical copies of the readings as well. There’s no doubt if I left the CyberSandwich as a Google Slide, it would not have gone as smoothly. I set up my Nearpod like this:

1st slide – I can statements.

2nd slide – Thin Slide with a Drawing Slide

3rd slide – Thin Slide with a Drawing Slide

4th slide – Read about Northern Geography – takes 4-5 notes.

5th slide – Collaborative Board – share 1-2 important notes you wrote

6th slide – Read about Southern Geography – takes 4-5 notes.

7th slide – Collaborative Board – share 1-2 important notes you wrote

8th slide – type a summary, write a summary on paper, or record audio of your summary.

All in all, it was cool how this lesson evolved throughout the day. My goal is to strive for better for my students and myself on a daily basis. Switching the CyberSandwich to a Nearpod was a huge move that proved to be effective for my 7th period students.

Wednesday and Thursday

For Wednesday, I was going to roll with another CyberSandwich. As usual, my mind changed and I wanted to try something different. I created a station rotation model that was to be completed in 2 days. The station rotation was set up on an interactive image made created with Genial.ly. When I created this set up, it was intentionally done with these options:

1. EdPuzzle – Lowell Mills and the women of Lowell Mills (watch).
2. Listenwise – NPR Podcast and the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution (listen).
3. CyberSandwich – read about the Northern/Southern economies, discuss, and summarize.
4. Sketch and Tell – Research an invention that was invented between 1790-1840 and summarize your findings.
5. Card Sort – get the paper bag and sort pictures into Northern or Southern categories.

Within these lessons, I provide accommodations and modifications as necessary. For example, if a students didn’t want to do a CyberSandwich with a partner, I had them read about the northern economy and I would share notes I created. Then we discussed the information together. In some cases for the written summary, I provided sentence starters for students. I also showed students how to use voice typing for a summary. As usual, I offered physical copies of the CyberSandwich and the readings. With any lesson or activity, my special education background kicks in for all students. All in all, the station rotation model was engaging and I had 80% of students complete all 5 stations.

Friday

Friday was used to cover changes to transportation in the North. Students created a Thick Slide about railroads, canals, and steamboats. I gave students 20 minutes to read and design their slide. This is the 4th or 5th Thick Slide we have done, and they are getting so much better. Plus, the students love creating their slide. Reps are important!! Here are some student samples:

Through the week I kept emphasizing the CyberSandwiches and Thick Slide served a purpose. The students would look back on the information to help them create an annotated map. Here is the start to one of the maps:

My Final Thought

Earlier in the week I visited another class and walked the students through a Thick Slide. The students could choose a section to read for their slide. The slide had students writing details about the topic, copying a quote, adding a relevant picture, picture cation, and they explained a vocabulary term. I showed some examples and then gave them 20 minutes.

Near the end the states to me, “How do I know they’re done? What if they aren’t adding a caption? I’m going to have to take 10-15 minutes to go over this so they have everything they need.”

I replied, “It’s okay. They’re fine.”

She replied, “How do you know? Some of these kids aren’t going to have a caption or a quote. I come from a generation where I did everything asked of me.”

I replied, “I’m 38 with a masters degree. You have a masters degree. They’re in 6th grade. I come from a different generation, and I would have everything required of me too. There are people from all generations that don’t do everything required of them. It’s okay. You’re working too hard.”

Then I proceeded to use something I learned from Kim Voge at Spring CUE. I had all the students partner up and then I had them state one “glow” and one “grow” for their Thick Slides. Students gave each other feedback and they proceeded to correct the thing they didn’t have.

I don’t know where this distrust of students came from? To me it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy – if you expect them not to do things, then you will treat them as such, and that creates a negative situation for everyone involved. Kids are remarkable people and will rise to the occasion. We were blown away by their feedback and corrections and it took about 5 minutes. Trust students. Give them opportunities to speak with each other.

This is my 100th overall post on this site since I created it about 4 years ago. I started this blog as a way to reflect on my teaching and lesson designing. This particular post is a reflection for my new unit on the Industrial Revolution in relationship to Northern and Southern states.

I have the unit set up for students to learn about the Northern and Southern region differences from 3 perspectives geographical perspective, economic perspective, and transportation perspective. Ultimately, students need to understand how geography contributed to the types of jobs and economies of each region, they need to understand how the Industrial Revolution impacted the North versus the South, and they need to understand why the North had different means of transportation from the South.

I’m writing this post to share my thought process on a daily basis with my lessons. For me it’s an ongoing reflective process throughout the day. Here was my initial plan:

1. Begin with an 8parts – I wanted the students to choose an image representing the North or the South. Students gave it a 3 word title, focused on nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. They would also list out an example of geography, economics, and transportation.Students finished the 8parts by writing a descriptive paragraph about the image.
2. Transition to a Quizizz – the Quizizz had 12 questions, 5 vocabulary words and 7 questions related to Geography. If students did well with vocabulary that meant I didn’t have to waste time doing vocabulary activities.
3. CyberSandwich – The CyberSandwich would be a 10 minute read and note take, 5 minute discuss, and a 10 minute summary. One students would read about northern geography and their partner would read about southern geography.

This plan would change throughout the day…

8Parts

I began the day with this period and took a chance with the 8Parts. I broke a golden rule and used the 8Parts for the first time this year with actual content. I should have known better. It’s interesting, though, because students that had me last year did an excellent job with this activity. However, I didn’t like some of the results and the 8Parts took entirely too long. Again, I should have known better – low cognitive load to begin and more reps!!

I decided that I needed something simpler and quicker. As a result, I switched this to a Thin Slide. However, the Thin Slide was done with a NearPod Collaborative Board. I uploaded the same images and gave students 3 minutes to share one word and one picture of a geographical feature they observed. This proved to be more effective as we looked for similarities in the posts…thank goodness for the Thin Slide in my toolbox. Plus, the setup on Nearpod was super easy!

Quizizz – Fast and Curious

The Quizizz I put together had 12 questions – 7 questions related to geography and 5 related to vocabulary. I included vocabulary questions to see how the students would do. The class average on vocabulary questions was 90% or higher across all classes. The class averages on geography questions was 40% or lower across all classes.

The goal was to run the Quizizz twice before the end of class. Here were the class averages the first time taking the Quizizz – 62%, 57%, 49%, 40%, 33%. After completing the CyberSandwich, the class averages were: 82%, 86%, 89%, 79%, 77%. This was a significant jump and shows the power of the Fast and Curious reps.

CyberSandwich

The CyberSandwich evolved throughout the day. We began the day with a completely digital CyberSandwich using Google Slides. One student read about northern geography and their partner read about southern geography. I felt bad that I didn’t have paper copies of the reading available of a physical copy of a note taking sheet. I try to have these things available for students. For 4th period and beyond, I had the copies available.

By the time 7th period rolled around, I had to switch up the CyberSandwich. This class is made up of 50% or more of students with an IEP and it’s tough for me to get around to everyone. With this class differentiation and UDL is a must. As a result, I created a CyberSandwich on Nearpod.

The Nearpod adaptation was such a great mixup!! I shared my Nearpod link and gave every student a Venn Diagram on paper and had them takes notes. I also had physical copies of the readings as well. There’s no doubt if I left the CyberSandwich as a Google Slide, it would not have gone as smoothly. I set up my Nearpod like this:

1st slide – I can statements.

2nd slide – Thin Slide with a Drawing Slide

3rd slide – Thin Slide with a Drawing Slide

4th slide – Read about Northern Geography – takes 4-5 notes.

5th slide – Collaborative Board – share 1-2 important notes you wrote

6th slide – Read about Southern Geography – takes 4-5 notes.

7th slide – Collaborative Board – share 1-2 important notes you wrote

8th slide – type a summary, write a summary on paper, or record audio of your summary.

All in all, it was cool how this lesson evolved throughout the day. My goal is to strive for better for my students and myself on a daily basis. Switching the CyberSandwich to a Nearpod was a huge move that proved to be effective for my 7th period students.

This past weekend two awesome events happened:  my school started Spring Break and I spent my time at the Spring CUE conference in Palm Springs, California. At the conclusion of the conference, Jon Corippo asked me a simple question, “What was your biggest take away?” I replied, “The people.” 

I feel like I live 3 lives on a daily basis. My family life. My tennis life. My Education life. When I my education life – I refer to New Richmond, Twitter world, EduProtocols. Spring CUE gave me a chance to meet my Twitter/EduProtocol friends in person. The magic of social media made me feel like I have known these people for a long time. 

While in California I experienced great conversations, new learning experiences, connecting with others, and visiting other schools. I attended many great sessions at Spring CUE as well. 

The People

Here are some awesome people to follow on Twitter: 

Dr. Scott Petri (@scottmepetri) – We are co-authors of EduProtocols: Social Studies and talk once or twice a week. Every time I speak with Scott, I learn something new. Sometimes a new piece of research data. Sometimes it’s a new teaching strategy or idea to use in my classes. It was a pleasure to meet Scott in person. I had the honor of visiting John F. Kennedy High School and observing Scott’s interactions with students. He’s. heck of a teach and an even better person!

Jon Corippo (@jcorippo) – From 3,000 mile away, Jon changed my life. The power of social media and technology. Jon is another person that teaches me something new every time we talk. This time I had the pleasure of meeting Jon in person and being a part of one of his live sessions featuring EduProtocols. Despite my extensive use of EduProtocols, I learned two new protocols – the 3x genre protocol and the For the People protocol.

Kim Voge (@kvoge71) – Kim warned me I was getting a hug when I arrived in Palm Springs. As soon as I arrived, the first session I attended was Kim’s session on EduProtocols. Sure enough – I got a hug and a selfie. Through the power of Twitter, I feel like we have known each other for years. She featured Thick Slides, Thin Slides, and Iron Chef. Despite using these items on a regular basis, I took away some new, awesome ideas from the session to implement in class. Oh yeah, Kim’s new book came out – Deploying EduProtocols. It’s a must read for any teacher or administrator. Great ideas for planning or the research behind implementing EduProtocols.

Val Sun (@mllevalsunshine) – Val is another person who I feel like I have known for a long time. Val has great ideas for implementing EduProtocols and uses them with the future teachers she trains with her college class. Plus, she has a book, Navigating Dual Immersion releasing soon! OH yeah, she laughs at my stupid dad jokes too.

Jacob Carr (@mrcarrontheweb) – It was fun meeting Jacob in person. He is the future author of the EduProtocols: Language Arts edition. I thoroughly enjoyed Jacob’s session on implementing EduProtocols at the DOK-1 level. I learned some Dutch with Fast and Curious which was fun. Lastly, I learned about a possible new protocol called the Repuzzler that I’m excited to use when I return from Spring Break next week.

Brianna Davis (@MrsDavisRCHS) – It was great meeting Brianna Davis. I believe I introduced myself in the Hilton parking lot (which was probably creepy, but oh well). Brianna is an avid user of EduProtocols and Social Studies. She also makes some rad templates and lessons for her students. She was awesome to create a template for the Archetype Four Square lesson featured in the EduProtocols: Social Studies edition book!

Diane Mapes (@mrsmapess) – It was great to connect with Diane as she is another avid user of EduProtocols with Social Studies. Look for her great ideas using Great American Race, CyberSandwich, and Thin Slides. It was great meeting Diane for dinner with Jon and Kim the first night of the conference.

Robert Mayfield (@MrMayfieldRHS) – Robert has been rocking the EduProtocols lately with his classes.He’s been using some CyberSandwich, Great American Race, Iron Chef, and Thin Slides. Oh yeah – he even invented a new protocol called Thin Chef (2 pictures and 2 words). Robert is another person I feel like I have known for a while and I look forward to him visiting Cincinnati in June.

Jamie Halsey (@mrsjamiehalsey) – It was great meeting Jamie briefly at the EduProtocols Social Studies session. Then talking more in depth at Shakey’s Pizza. Jamie is an EduProtocols and EMC2Learning expert and does amazing stuff fusing gamification into the protocols. Please, please, please check out her stuff and templates. Oh, and thanks for helping me charge my phone!

Adam Juarez (@techcoachjuarez) – Although briefly, I met Adam Juarez. He has great ideas infusing technology into lessons. It was awesome of him to give me a copy of his book – The Complete EdTech Coach. I can’t wait to dive into this book!

The Sessions

Through EduProtocols and virtually presenting, I have learned the importance of creating a session that is hands on. People learning new ideas actually need to do something to learn how to implement those ideas. From each session, I took notes and tried to take away something positive and something new to use with my classes.

Relationships – One of my favorite sessions was on the importance of building relationships. This session was run by Roni Habib (@Roni_Habib). The session was interactive and he had the participants connecting. I liked his honesty and straight talk in the session. I liked getting to know my partner Justin Berzon throughout the session. Each activity we did took 30 seconds and really had us listening, laughing, and sharing honestly.

EduProtocols – With EduProtocol sessions, I took away some new ideas. The For the People protocol is a great idea to get students working on feedback using a Google Form. I also like the idea of Glows and Grows from Kim Voge. Glows and rows has a nice positive spin for peer to peer feedback.

I can’t wait to use the RePuzzler lesson I learned from Jacob Carr. It’s a great, hands on activity (reminded me of a concept sort) with vocabulary. This lesson can easily be adapted to any subject.

Listenwise – I learned about Listenwise from Dr. Scott Petri. Listenwise is a short podcast site that can be used for any subject. The 6-7 minute podcasts, or news stories, were archived by NPR and can now be used to incorporate with any lesson. They are used to help students work on listening skills and really help students visualize being in the story. Here are 2 other things I learned during this session:

1. Students can read 2-3 grade levels above their level as they listen to the reading along with a transcript.
2. Students need a working vocabulary of 50,000 or more words by the time they graduate high school.

Keynote – The message of the Keynote from Amanda Sandoval (@historysandoval) was incredible. I loved Amanda’s Group Playlist idea for this crazy time in education. The Group Playlist is a spin on Catlin Tucker’s Station Rotation Playlist idea. What I took away the most, however, were these 4 questions Amanda used to help her design the group playlist:

1. What is most important?
2. How does this connect to the real world?
3. Will this engage students?
4. Will they find it meaningful?

These are the questions she developed from students survey answers and the questions used to help design lessons. In this age of Covid, these questions are crucial for any teacher developing lessons.

All in all, this was an awesome conference. Amazing people. Amazing sessions. What an awesome experience!

I am currently writing this post from the Spring CUE Conference in Palm Springs, California. I made the trip out on Wednesday after school. This week is the last week before Spring Break begins. So that means craziness ensues. It’s unlike me to begin class with a stern lecture, but it had to happen this week.

As for the lessons and content, the goal for the week was wrapping up the Westward Expansion Unit. I wanted the content focus to be on the motivations for territorial expansion and the motivations for people moving west. The grand finale of the unit is a digital breakout I put together with some puzzles and clues to help the students.

Monday – Thick Slide combined with a SHEG Lesson.

Tuesday – Wrap up the SHEG lesson with a GimKit

Wednesday – CyberSandwich

Thursday – Text Quest Wrap Up

Friday – Digital Breakout

Monday and Tuesday

After finishing the traps and treasures lesson to give students background knowledge on how the United States expanded west through purchases, treaties, and wars – the perfect lesson is the Manifest Destiny SHEG Lesson. This lesson has students consider what motivated American territorial expansion. The lesson uses the familiar painting American Progress, and 3 other primary sources with different perspectives.

I decided to shorten this lesson down for middle school and I only had students analyze 2 sources:

1. John O’Sullivan’s article on reasons for expansion (O’Sullivan coined the term Manifest Destiny).
2. Theodore Parker who was an abolitionist and minister and offered the reasons for expansion were expanding slavery and showing power.

In order to analyze these perspectives, I created a Thick Slide for students. I set the Thick Slide up so students could source the documents, close read the documents, and compare the perspectives. I also had the students add a quote, picture, and caption.

With the lesson set up, the first task was reading a textbook excerpt about Manifest Destiny. I asked students to consider the information presented by the text – what was a reason for Manifest Destiny? This was followed up with the students reading 2 sources and completing the Thick Slide. Here are some student examples:

After the Thick Slide was completed, we circled back to the original textbook excerpt we started with and asked the question, “What more could you add to this excerpt?” Students used their thick slides and previous knowledge to create new paragraphs or insert new information. Here are some student samples:

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday we focused on groups of people that traveled west. Instead of going through all the groups, I have students focus on 3 of them: Mormons, 49er’s, and Pioneer Women. The Mormons and 49er’s are listed in our standards. Pioneer women I chose because they make references to voting rights which ties nicely to reform movements and the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

For this lesson, I set up a CyberSandwich where students could choose which group they wanted to study. I ran the standard 10 minute read and note taking, 5 minute discuss, and 10 minute summary. Instead of a summary at the end, students could choose to do an Icon Board which is an idea I got from Matt Miller at Ditch That Textbook. For the CyberSandwich, I had students focus on 2 questions:

1. What motivated groups of people to move west?
2. What legacy did these groups leave?

Here are some student samples:

The day after this lesson, I had students complete the Text Quest they started last week. During the first part of the Text Quest, I had students look at 3 items to figure out what all 3 had in common. Here is that slide:

The second part of the lesson, I had students go back and reread the articles from the CyberSandwich. This time, however, I had them look for examples of Bravery, Empathy, Fortitude, etc…

How did this lesson end up? I don’t know yet…….

Friday

The final day of the week, I put together a Digital Break. Here is the breakout:

In this breakout I included several clues to help students:

1. A puzzle they have to put together.
2. A hidden word, word search (Find all the words, the unused letters reveal the answer).
3. My favorite – a Where’s Waldo page where I placed in my own Waldos with clue links embedded in. Students have to find the correct Waldo that holds the correct clue….

This week 505 continued Westbound and Down unit on Westward Expansion. My goal for this unit is for students to understand how we acquired territories in the United States, understand the concept Manifest Destiny, and understand what motivated groups of people to risk everything and travel west. These are the Ohio expectations for learning:

1. Describe how the United States added to its territory through treaties and purchases. (Standard 10)
2. Analyze debates over sectional issues, war with Mexico and the displacement of American Indians in relationship to westward expansion.(Standard 11)
3. Describe the movement of people, products and ideas that resulted in new patterns of settlement and land use. (Standard 17)

Monday – Continuation of Traps and Treasures with a Gimkit

Tuesday – MAP testing round 3

Wednesday – MAP testing round 3

Thursday – Quizizz and Text Quest or Side Quest

Friday – Text Quest or Side Quest

Monday

Monday was a continuation of Traps and Treasures with learning about the different territories the United States acquired through purchases, treaties, and war. We had 2 rounds left to complete. A quick recap – I put different point totals and power ups in an envelope with readings about the territories. Students selected the territories at random. Then I collected and added points on the board. Surprisingly the team scores were super close.

We finished the game of traps and treasures with a chance game. Any student who thought the game was over was wrong. During the chance game students sent 1 team representative to the front of the room. Each representative had a choice: choose bananas from the Banana Blast game or select an envelope from the skull’s mouth. The risks involved:

1. If a student pulled a banana and the monkey jumped on the first turn, they lost every point.
2. If they pulled a banana and the monkey didn’t jump, they could lock in their point total. They could keep adding point with each subsequent banana pull.
3. The skull’s mouth envelope selection could give negative points or a lot of points.

This was just a fun way to end the game. In the end, I gave each team some money for their Westward trip during our game.

After we finished the game, I began a Gimkit with questions related to the readings from Traps and Treasures. Based on the class averages, I was a bit disappointed. No class average was above 78%. I stopped to think about why…and I realized some of the students were engaged and discussing as a group while others were not. Some of the rounds were rushed and chaotic. As a result, I will get the point stuff out of the way at the beginning and then start the timer. I will also make the rounds a bit longer. Finally, I need to remind the students to stay focused, and on task during the game.

Thursday and Friday

After 2 days of MAP testing, we got back to westward expansion. I wanted to start a Text Quest which is another great lesson format from EMC2Learning. I cannot share this lesson or the files, but check out www.emc2learning.com.

Since the GimKit scores were low from Monday, I decided to go to Quizizz because I feel I get more accurate test results. Gimkit and Blooket are great for repetition of questions, however, after a while, students stop reading the questions. That’s where I step I explain why I use Blooket and Gimit and teach them the Forgetting Curve.

Before I had students take the Quizizz I explained to them what was riding on the quiz…

1. An 80% or higher they could move on and join the Text Quest.
2. Below an 80% they had to watch an EdPuzzle and retake the Quizizz.

As I tell all the students, “Failing is not an option in 505.” Out of 104 students, 24 students got below an 80%. The rest of the students got into their teams and we began the Text Quest.

The Text Quest began with a game called Odd One Out. I gave the students 3 pictures of territories (Mexican Cession, Louisiana Purchase, and Gadsden Purchase) and they talked with each other about which territory didn’t belong. I chose these territories to debate because there is not one right answer – only better answers. Students had 5 minutes to discuss and submit their answer through Socrative. At the end of time, I revealed the group responses, read them out loud, gave feedback and decided on 1st through 4th place. I also explained why I placed the responses the way I did. The reading and feedback are key to learning during this time. Here are some quick examples of student responses:

1. “The Louisiana purchase does not belong. This is because both the Mexican Cession and the Gadsden purchase have states involved such as New Mexico and Arizona.”
2. “We think that the Gadsden Purchase doesn’t belong because it was the smallest purchase brought compared to the Mexican Cession, and the Louisiana Purchase. We also think that the Gadsden Purchase doesn’t belong because the only reason that it was bought was that the land was needed to be able to finish a railroad that was being built.”

Next we moved into final piece of the Text Quest – analyzing the painting, American Progress by John Gast. I wanted to use an 8Parts to analyze it, but then I changed my mind at the last second. Instead, I used the Word Scramble from EMC2Learning (I cannot share this file). Here are the rules:

1. 15 minutes – analyze the painting and work together to create as many relevant words as possible.
2. Using your words, write a paragraph relating the painting to westward expansion and manifest destiny.
3. There was a catch with the paragraph writing – Each person had to write a sentence. I set a timer for 45 seconds to write a sentence. Then they had to pass the chromebook. This got everyone writing and the teams were giving each other suggestions for writing. This was an awesome mix up. On the fly I decided to call it the Sentence Swing.

Here are some student examples:

Side Quests

The other part to the Westward Expansion unit are Side Quests. Side Quests are a way to have students explore interests and create something, or they can use information they already learned and create something. I tried to include all different kinds of activities for Side Quests – some easy, some hard, music related projects, timeline creation projects, and I even throw in some EduProtocols (Sketch and Tell and Number Mania). The Side Quests are a way to earn extra supplies and badges.

During a Side Quest Day, students must create 1 or more Side Quests during a class. Students can even work on Side Quests at home, during learning period, or when they have extra time in class. Either way, all Side Quests are due by the end of the unit. So far, I have seen some awesome creations…

Exciting News

I’m excited to leave next Wednesday as I head out to Palm Springs, CA for Spring CUE to present with Dr. Scott Petri and Jon Corippo!

This week we are coming off a successful week of EduProtocols helping students organize information to write an essay. Many students liked the different ways we organized the information with a Research Protocol and Thick Slide. However, they were not fans of learning how to write an essay or actually writing an essay. We write ALL the time in my class because writing is important. However, last week was not a normal week for 505 – students are used to walking into the unknown. I try to create a different experience for everyone.

With that in mind, I needed to create a different experience with Westward Expansion. I needed something uplifting. I needed something fun. On Saturday, an idea hit me – create a gamified unit similar to an Oregon Trail like game. Saturday night, I slept on this idea and thought about it more. I needed to create a story, think of game elements to incorporate, and think of how to piece together the unit. When I plan a unit, I lay out the standards and work my way backwards…

The students need to know how the US acquired territories through purchases, wars, and treaties. The students also need to know the groups of people who went west – Mormons, 49er’s, and Oregon Pioneers. From this information, I put together the story, created a website, and Westbound and Down was born.

Here is the story I created:

^{The wild west. Gold. Resources. Riches. The United States keeps expanding and you want to follow suit. It’s time to pack up the family and see what the hype is all about. Oregon? California? Texas? You want to go, your family wants to go, but you must plan very carefully. You need to learn as much as you can about the territories out west – how did we acquire them and why? Your knowledge will earn you the necessary supplies to make the trip. The wagon needs to be carefully packed and supplies organized as you are about to embark on a long, treacherous journey out west!}

Along with the story, I made supply badges students could earn throughout the unit. The badge creation is an ongoing process throughout the game. I like to create different twists and turns. Along with the supplies, I put together a spreadsheet to keep track of teams, money, and supplies. Here is the spreadsheet. The supplies are earned through mastery, through games, and I hid supplies around the school. For example, I took a Map badge, cut it in half and hid the halves in the school. I hid guidebooks throughout the school. However, one of the guidebooks was faulty just like the one the Donner Party had that got them lost. Here are the supplies I put together for students:

The last piece of the puzzle was creating Side Quests for students. Side Quests are ways for students to explore topics on their own, show off their creativity, and earn extra badges. Here is a Side Quest example link. I love these gamified units because they allow me to be creative. Anything goes. It build curiosity, builds teamwork, and builds motivation.

Monday – Monroe Doctrine Breakout

Tuesday – Introduced West Bound and Down, Great American Race.

Wednesday – Resource Rumble

Thursday – Traps and Treasures

Friday – Traps and Treasures

Monday

Monday was used for finishing the Monroe Doctrine essays and “breaking out” of the Monroe Doctrine into the next lesson. Around 5 years ago I created a Monroe Doctrine Breakout that used political cartoons. Students had to solve the locks by using my clues and using the political cartoons. I created a website to go along with this as well.

I gave students 30 minutes to work through the breakout which then led them to an empty locker in the school. My final clue stated, “You successfully completed the breakout! BUT…..there’s more to thee. The winning decided by whatever’s behind locker door 503.” Students had to find locker 503, open it, and inside was an introduction to the next unit.

The next unit introduction was an ABC chart where students had to list as many relevant words as possible related to westward expansion. As the clock was winding down, students turned in their ABC charts and I left the class with this, “The team with the most relevant words will gain an advantage in tomorrow’s class.”

This type of line leaves them with excitement and intrigue for the next day.

Tuesday

I began Tuesday and our new unit with the Great American Race EduProtocol. The advantage winning teams got from the previous class was 1 free answer with the Great American Race.

“This sounds easy. All we have to do is Google stuff?” – This is usually the quote when I explain the first Great American Race EduProtocol rep. Fast forward to our third rep of the year and the students are asking this question, “Can we have a word bank?” Students quickly learn there’s more to creating clues and researching answers with Google.

My first class I ran a Quizizz, ran a Great American Race, and then a Quizizz again. Here are the Great American Race instructions if you are familiar:

1. Create an index card with a number on one side and a vocab term on the other side.
2. The vocab term is the “answer” and instruct students to keep it a secret.
3. Students had 10 minutes to design their own slide – add the card number to the slide, add clues for the vocab term, and a picture.
4. To determine the amount of clues to add to the slide, I make it interesting and have 1 student roll a dice.
5. As students work, I copy their slides, in order, to a large slide deck.
6. I give feedback as they do this.
7. Then students have the rest of time to figure out the answer for each slide. I give each students (sometimes each group) 1 paper with answer blanks.

Here are the Great American Race slides:

That’s it. The Great American race. In my opinion, though, my first period setup didn’t produce desirable results. Something needed to change. I opened up Explore Like a Pirate by Michael Matera and began the next class with some Graffiti.

Graffiti

Students walked into the classroom and saw textbooks laying on the desks. “What are these Mr. Moler?” “We haven’t used a textbook all year! I don’t like this.” I quickly correct the student(s), “We have used the textbook all year, you just didn’t realize it.”

I instructed the students to look at pages 276-315 – skim and preview. I had them find words they thought were important to understanding Westward Expansion. If students found a word, they had to raise their hand and I had to call on them to go. There were 2 catches:

1. They couldn’t write the same words or phrases on the board.
2. I added a “magic word” – a secret word that could instantly win the person who wrote it some money for their group. (Think of it like the secret word from Pee Wee’s PlayHouse show). The secret word was “Manifest Destiny” and every class had 1 student that wrote it.

Students had 6 minutes to skim and add words to the board. When we were finished, I summarized the information on the board and surprisingly, students listed 90% of the words I had on the Great American Race Cards. I took a picture of each board and added it to the picture to the Great American Race assignment as a word bank. THIS. WAS. AN. AWESOME. ADDITION. TO. GREAT. AMERICAN. RACE!!! Here are the boards:

This was such a fun element to add to the Great American Race. Students wanted a word bank and so they created their own and fun doing it. The Great American Race results were much better with a word bank and the eneggament was tons better as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time a for a Quizizz.

Wednesday

Following the Great American Race was a Resource Rumble. I cannot share the slides because they are located on EMC2Learning. I wanted a way for students to learn vocabulary words related to the Great American Race from Tuesday’s class. I took the 8 most important words and put them into 8 different treasure chests, and taped them to my board. Teams had 35 minutes to complete a TIP Chart and collect Legos to win supplies for their western trip.

A TIP Chart is a vocabulary strategy that stands for Term, Information, and Picture. My TIP Chart is located here. The TIP Chart is a good vocabulary strategy to use it as an organizer and the picture element involves dual coding which helps students retain words and information (Think Sketch and Tell). Students worked together in teams to write down a term, they paraphrased a definition, and drew a picture (It was like a Parafly and Sketch and Tell combined). Before a team could roll dice and earn legos, they had to bring up their charts, say the term out loud and read their definition. I was amazed at how many students had trouble pronouncing words like: cession, annex, and diplomacy. Once approved, teams rolled dice and collected legos.

Near the end of time, students had to build a Lego creation related to a vocabulary word. I told them I should be able to look at the creation and guess the word. This helped the thought process and quality of Lego construction. All in all, this was a blast and the Resource Rumble is a hit.

Thursday and Friday

With vocabulary knowledge built up a bit, next we moved into learning how the United States obtained some of its territories. I wanted to try Traps and Treasures. I cannot share this file as it is on EMC2Learning.

To make Traps and Treasures happen, I collected sections from the Textbook and made copies – Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican Cession. Then I put together a Main Idea organizer to pair with the readings. My idea was that students would work in their teams, read for 10 minutes, take 5 minutes to discuss their notes, and take 5 minutes to write a paragraph. Most groups/students rose to the challenge and did a great job organizing a paragraph. However, this would take a lot of time. I changed this to a basic read and comprehend on Friday to make it go quicker.

When students came into the room, I had a map of the United States drawn on the whiteboard. Students got into their groups and got ready for the day. I took the readings from the Textbook and placed them in a large envelope. Then inside the large envelope was a smaller envelope which had a trap or treasure. The trap or treasure would give or take away points for each team. I also included some of the Power Up options into some of the envelopes. With each round, the points and power ups were changed to keep things interesting.

At the end of the class period, I threw in a twist. Each team had an option to add more points or lose them. I went to Walmart and purchased the game Banana Blast. Each team had a chance to go up to the monkey and pull a banana. If they pulled one banana, they solidified their team score for the day. If the monkey popped up ON the first pull, they lost ALL of their points. If the monkey popped up AFTER the first pull, the team lost the extra points they earned. Students could choose to stop pulling bananas at any moment. This was a simple way to add a new element to the game. At the end of both days we used a Gimkit to review information.

We are going to finish Traps and Treasures on Monday.