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This week we were in the final stretch of our Creating the Constitution Unit. We were wrapping up the 3/5ths compromise and moving into the impact of protecting slavery in the Constitution.

The week took a crazy turn when we suddenly switched to remote learning for Wednesday through Friday. We had a short notice and I had to switch some things up. My hexagonal learning became digital and I created final assessment options for the unit.

I was thinking about this a lot today…..before I became a teacher, I was a tennis pro. Not a “travel the world” tennis pro, but I teaching pro at local clubs. In my past tennis life, I was a staff pro, tennis director, and tournament director. I grew up playing tennis and was fortunate enough to take private lessons, group lessons, and play in tennis tournaments. But, I knew it was tough on my parents to pay for those things – tennis is expensive. However, as a tennis pro, and coach, I have always seen it as my role to promote and grow the sport of tennis. Knowing that tennis is expensive, I have always tried to make it affordable for everyone. I have given countless free lessons because I feel that’s important.

Sharing. This is the approach I take to education. This is why I love sharing stuff with others. Let’s promote good teaching. Let’s promote collaboration. Let’s work together for students. I truly don’t mind sharing individual lessons or entire units. This Teachers Pay Teachers stuff is for the birds – if you need something, I got you.

Monday – finishing 3/5ths compromise, SHEG Lesson.

Tuesday – The impact of protecting slavery.

Wednesday – Hexagonal learning.

Thursday and Friday – Final Assessment.

Monday

On Friday I gave students a choice of how they wanted to learn about compromises over slavery at the Constitutional Convention. Monday was a continuation to finish assignments. Students were finishing infographics or the remote learning (structured and basic) assignment. The main goal for this assignment was having students identify 3 compromises over slavery – 3/5ths compromise, Fugitive Slave Law, and Banning the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1808.

The next part of our lesson was a SHEG (Stanford History Education Group) lesson – Why did the Founding Fathers keep slavery in the Constitution. Students analyzed 3 quotes from the Convention, and 2 quotes from historians. Students analyzed these quotes through a graffiti wall that worked out very well! Then students answered the original question through a PearDeck lesson put together by Stacy Yung (@stacyyung). This was a great addition to our lesson from Friday.

Tuesday

This day was building off of the compromises over slavery. The question we were trying to answer was, “What was the impact of protecting slavery in the Constitution?” This lesson is sooo important, especially for the students I teach. But, in the times we are living in, it concerns me. This question is one that people can’t run away from. They can’t deny it. It’s a question that helps us better understand what is happening in our world today. Yet, it worries me with this topic……..and it shouldn’t worry me. That’s sad.

With this lesson, students work together and reac two excerpts. One excerpt is from William Lloyd Garrison. The other excerpt is from Thurgood Marshall. I explain the backgrounds of these men and students begin to read. Students make connections, create context, and make connections with the sources. Students read the documents, filled out the chart, and discussed with their partner. The goal of this lesson is for students to realize that protecting slavery had looooooooong lasting effects such as: amendments, Civil War,Jim Crow Laws, racism, Civil Rights movements, Black Lives Matter, etc. All in all, this was a successful lesson with a few classes.

One class, where I let them choose their groups, was a disaster. Teaching civil rights and human rights is a passion of mine, and this particular class thought it was a joke. It was sad to me. I was discussing slavery and some were laughing. Others were worried about school drama. Honestly, I can’t handle those reactions with such a serious topic. In my opinion, 8th graders should understand the situation and act respectfully. As a result, we ended up having a segment of “Life lessons with Mr. Moler.” I’m sure they didn’t like being lectured, but hopefully one they will appreciate years from now.

Wednesday

Tuesday night I got word we were switching to remote learning for the rest of the week. My plan for a paper and glue hexagonal learning lesson had to be switched. Thanks to Stephanie Howell (@mrshowell24) there was a digital hexagonal learning template. I switched the hexagons to major concepts from our unit with 16 total hexagons.

With remote learning, I dislike Google Meets…..A LOT, and I resort to making directions videos with Screencastify. (I really love how you can have people sign in with their GMail account to watch Screencastify videos. It keeps track of who watches.) Plus, with being at the end of a unit, there was no need for a Google Meet. With the Screencastify video, I walked students through the purpose of Hexagonal Learning and adding textboxes to make connections. Overall, students did a nice job:

Thursday and Friday

For Thursday and Friday, I created 4 options for a final assessment in our unit on Creating the Constitution. I kept the focus on the original question – Should the Constitutional Convention be considered a success? and I kept the focus on having the students explain 5 major concepts from our unit.

When I created the final assessment options I wanted to focus on students’ processing styles:

1. Write a first person Time Magazine article from the viewpoint of someone who lived during the time of the Constitutional Convention (1787). Create a story about the Constitutional Convention being a success or a failure. Include information on at least 5 major concepts from our unit. Click here for the template (vision and interpretation processing)

2. With a partner (or by yourself) write and perform a dialogue (write a script) between two representatives at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention. They should recall 5 major concepts as they discuss the Convention as a success or a failure. Turn in your script. (Use Google slides, docs) (question and connection)

3. Design a Netflix series about the Constitutional Convention as a success or a failure. Your Netflix series and episodes should focus on 5 major concepts from our unit. Click Here for template (experience and movement)

4. List at least 5 major concepts from our unit explaining why these concepts are important. Based on these concepts, should the Constitutional Convention be considered successful? You may write an essay or use Google Slides to show the information. (Use Google slides, docs, or a Google Drawing) (structure and certainty)

I created a rubric for the projects so it could be open-ended and allow for student creativity instead of student compliance:

1. Final Product includes a digital representation which is clear, informative, and organized.
2. Final Product includes a mixture of media (pictures, videos) that enhances the visual appeal and supports your understanding of the Constitutional Convention.
3. You created an original product that demonstrates your understanding of the Constitutional Convention:
4. You chose 5 major concepts.
5. You provided examples and accurate descriptions of 5 major concepts.
6. You evaluated the Constitutional Convention as a success or failure.

Overall I was happy with the choices students made and the creativity:

Student choices led me to see the individual processing styles. Most students chose the Netflix assessment, the second most chosen assessment was the structured essay/Google Slides assessment, 4 students chose the Magazine, and 1 student chose the script.

505 Room Messages

This week was a continuation of Unit 3 – The Constitutional Convention. The compelling question for the unit is: Should the Constitutional Convention be considered a success? The supporting questions for this week were:

1. What was the purpose of the Constitutional Convention?
2. What was the argument over representation for the states?
3. What were compromises over slavery?

Last year when I did this unit, I had everything set up for virtual learning. The stuff I created looked appealing, looked engaging, but it was just okay. Those lessons can be found here. I easily could have said, “Here you go,” and assigned the lessons but that’s a recipe for disaster. These lessons needed something more, so I separated out the main parts of lessons and used some EduProtocols.

Monday – Purpose of the Convention – fast and curious with a Cyber Sandwich and Frayer

Tuesday – The Great Compromise – a fast and curious with a Thin Slide and Sketch and Tell

Wednesday – The Great Compromise – Sketch and Tell and Frayer

Thursday – Veteran’s Day Lesson

Friday – Compromises over Slavery – classes decided how they wanted to learn

Monday

Now that the Articles of Confederation concluded after a weird scheduling week, it was time to begin the Purpose of the Constitutional Convention. The supporting question with this lesson was: What was the purpose of the Constitutional Convention? Now that the students have an understanding of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, and I hinted at why the convention was assembled, it was time to learn a bit more about who, when, where, and why the Constitutional Convention took place. With my original virtual lesson, every part of the lesson was included on a Google Slide. I wanted more out this lesson so I turned it into a fast and curious and Cyber Sandwich.

The fast and curious was set up as 10 questions, and the first rep had low class averages (63%, 60%, 68%, 63%, and 49%). Next, I set up the Cyber Sandwich with a Main Idea note taking literacy strategy. Students read for 10 minutes and took notes on who, where, when, why, and how. As always I had the reading linked on the notes slide and I had paper copies. After 10 minutes, students discussed their notes with each other and I shared my notes as well. Instead of a typical summary, students created a fake newspaper clipping about the purpose of the Constitutional Convention. The site I used for the newspaper clipping was www.fodey.com. Students can edit the paper title, headline, date, and article text.

I really liked the Main Idea note taking strategy as it really helped students include key details about the Constitutional Convention in their articles. The quality of the news articles was a lot better than in past years. We finished the class period with another fast and curious and scores went WAY up (99%, 98%, 95%, 96%, 88%).

Tuesday

One thing I have been doing throughout this unit is having students go back to the main vocabulary words on a Frayer model and writing their own definitions, own elaborations, characteristics, and including a picture. It has been good having them process their learning in their own ways. So, we began class on Tuesday by defining the Constitutional Convention on their Frayer model slides.

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After 5 to 8 minutes we followed up the Frayer model with a Thin Slide to introduce the Great Compromise. The supporting question with the Great Compromise was: What was the argument over representation for the states? The Thin Slide I put together asked students to predict and answer the supporting question based on 2 documents: an excerpt of Article 1 of the Constitution and the 1790 Census. Here is the link to a completed class Thin Slide. Students did a great job with one word and one picture. However, they had a hard time explaining in words why they chose that word.

After the Thin Slide we shifted gears to a fast and curios with a Quizizz over the Great Compromise with some review. Class averages were: 60%, 68%, 74%, 72%, and 59%.

After the quiz was completed, we moved onto the Sketch and Tell where I asked students to create representations and explain the Virginia Plan, New Jersey Plan, and Great Compromise. I chose to do this because students have a hard time understanding these abstract ideas and sayings about representation, Houses, two bodies, Senate, etc. The Sketch and Tell is a perfect way for students to create abstract representations with a more concrete explanation of concepts.

Within the Sketch and Tell I chunked up a reading about the Plans and the Great Compromise and put separate links on all of the slides. My final thought with the Sketch and Tell was having students create representations with Play Dog, Legos, Google Shapes, or Noun Project Icons. Oh yeah, I even made two versions of my Sketch and Tell – one heavily scaffolded and one lightly scaffolded. What’s good for some, is good for all. After reviewing the completed work, for the most part, students did a nice job. I felt like I typed more comments than usual so I used Wednesday as a quick direct instruction day.

This original lesson was all on one Google Drawing slide (located in Unit 3). I decided to change that lesson to a Thin Slide – Sketch and Tell combination because I had a student do the original lesson and her responses about the Great Compromise showed me she was confused. I read through the lesson and the material just didn’t match up and jive. As a result, this lesson you just read about was created.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a shortened class period. I took time to do some direct instruction with these slides. I kept the instruction to under 10 minutes, or I tried to anyway because I love U.S. government related topics. After my direct instruction, students finished the Great Compromise Sketch and Tell and created definitions on their Frayer. Finally, we finished out the lesson with a Quizizz where class averages soared to: 88%, 75%, 93%, 97%, and 83%.

The one number that jumped out to me was that 75%. I began asking why and I dove into the student work a bit more. That particular class , out of 23 students, 14 had incomplete Sketch and Tells. Needless to say, we had a “Life Lessons with Mr. Moler” conversation.

Thursday

Thursday we put a halt to the Constitutional Convention and focused on Veteran’s Day. The lesson I do for Veteran’s Day I put together last year. The lesson worked out so well that I will continue to do it until something better happens, or is created.

I wanted students to do something meaningful for Veteran’s Day instead of a passive lesson followed by moving on with our lives. So, I stumbled upon this organization called A Million Thanks. The organization mails out letters out to Veterans and active duty members all over the world. Before students write letters I show them some great videos with Steve Hartman and veterans. Here is the lesson and order in which I do it (I stick with this order for the effect):

1. I show this video about a WWII Veteran who wanted to learn how to read.
2. Then I show this video about a Gulf War Veteran who wrote a letter to President Bush.
3. Finally I show this video about a Vietnam War veteran who, years later, meets the girl that wrote him a letter when she was in 6th grade.
4. This transitions us to writing a letter for a veteran or active duty member.
5. I collect the letters and then we mail them out.

Between the videos and letter writing, some tears are shed. The students take this very seriously, and, to me, this lesson has meaning and purpose. I will continue to do this lesson for many years to come.

Friday

Friday, I began the day knowing it would be about constitutional compromises over slavery. The supporting question for this lesson is: What were compromises over slavery? I had a virtual lesson ready to go, but I didn’t want to do it. Instead I had this idea:

1. Post this quote, “Most northern delegates agreed that enslaved people should be counted only as property,” and use Question Formulation Technique to let students create questions. Most students have knowledge that slavery existed in the North, but it became illegal through time. Most know that slavery was mainly in the South and continued through the south for an extensive period of time. This quote would surely create many questions.
2. Students would discuss their questions and select the top 3 for their group.
3. Then students would copy their questions to a Cyber Sandwich notes slide, read for 10 minutes, find the answers, discuss, and summarize.

I was excited. I created a new, higher level thinking design for notetaking with a Cyber Sandwich. I couldn’t wait to try out this lesson.

When 2nd period rolled in, I had it ready to go and a student said, “Are we making posters today!?” I replied, “No.” Then I proceeded to explain my awesome lesson idea. They were sad. BUT, I asked them, “How do you want to learn about compromises over slavery?”

The students all said they wanted to make a poster. I took 3 options for lessons, put them into a Mentimeter ranking tool, and the students decided between these 3 options:

1. My virtual lesson – straightforward, organized, watch a video, read, identify 3 compromises, and take a Quizizz.
2. Number Mania with a reading.
3. Create questions, decided on best questions, complete a Cyber Sandwich with a partner.

Students, overwhelmingly voted for the Number Mania. So, I had a students pass out the reading and I asked them to read for 10 minutes as they highlighted important numbers and facts. As they read, I created a Number Mania assignment and sent it out through Google Classroom. The common theme throughout the day was Number Mania as students really enjoy that EduProtocol. The common 2nd place finisher was my virtual lesson. As a result, some classes had multiple things going on – some students doing the Number Mania and some doing my virtual lesson.

The one thing I really took away from asking students how they wanted to learn was the processing styles of my students. The students who need structure and certainty are the ones who chose my virtual lesson. The students who are more vision and interpretation oriented chose the Number Mania. The students are more driven by question and connection chose the Question Formulation Technique. Differentiation was not my only goal when I asked students how they wanted to learn the material, I wanted a sense of the processing styles of the students.

505 Classroom Messages

This week I started my 3rd Unit – Creating the Constitution. In this unit, students consider the following question, “Should the Constitutional Convention be considered a success?” Students end up forming their answer for this question based on the compromises that took place at the convention.

I love the Constitution and government! Finding ways for 8th grade students to connect to abstract ideas about government is a fun challenge for me. The Constitutional Convention isn’t mentioned in great detail within the standard. I believe it occurs only once if you do a search. However, I feel this unit is super important to set up my next unit on the principles of the Constitution.

To begin the Creating the Constitution unit, students need an understanding of the Articles of Confederation. I focus on the weaknesses of the Articles, the Northwest Territory and Northwest Ordinance as a success, and Shays’ Rebellion which highlighted the weaknesses of the articles and made us think differently about a stronger national government.

This week was a weird week with different schedules, and a day of remote learning. Nevertheless, we focused on some vocabulary and the Articles of Confederation.

Monday – Important vocabulary to build a working memory.

Tuesday – remote learning day – quizizz with designing 1 slide of the Solo Iron Chef.

Wednesday – 40 minute classes – finish the Solo Iron Chef

Thursday – 28 minute classes – Frayer and final assessment piece with the Articles of Confederation.

Friday – Catch up and complete work.

Monday

To introduce the Creating The Constitution unit, I began with a splash vocabulary lesson. The point of this lesson is to expose students to vocabulary, get them working with the words, making guesses of their meanings, and guessing which words connect.

I printed this list of vocabulary words and handed a copy to every student. The students partnered up and I read all of the words first so they could hear the pronunciations. Then I gave students 5 minutes to discuss and come up with definitions for what they think the words mean (NO chromebooks or computers). At the end pf 5 minutes, we had a class discussion about words we know, we might know, and have never seen before. The last part of the splash vocabulary lesson, I had students draw lines between words they thought were connected in some way. After my 5 minute timer went off, we had a class discussion about their ideas.

The class discussion went great as students shared where they heard these words before. Many were fearless when they shared some of their definitions for what they thought these words meant. I guess in some way it’s good they feel comfortable being wrong as I try to preach learning nonstop in class. Many students connected the Virginia Plan with the New Jersey Plan because as they stated, “They are plans.” Students also connected the Northwest Ordinance and Northwest Territory because as they stated, “They both have Northwest.” They connected Ratify to the Constitution because as they stated, “They probably had to approve the Constitution.”

Those connections may seem simple. Too simplistic. Not rigorous enough. Years ago I wouldn’t think much of those connections. However, by doing this exercise, students were working with the words and content. Students were building a working memory. As a result, when we begin to study the words within the lessons, they will think back to these connections to make sense of what they’re reading.

The final part of the lesson we did a Quizizz with the 12 vocabulary terms from our list. When the quiz finished, I introduced our compelling question, Should the Constitutional Convention be considered a success?

Tuesday and Wednesday

This was a remote learning day – gross. With remote learning days, I avoid Google Meets or Zooms. Instead, I make directions videos with screencastify and post the video to the assignment. To take attendance, I have students take a Quizizz or do an EdPuzzle. Here’s why I use one of these tools for attendance – I could do a Google Meet, but I’m not forcing student to turn on their camera. I could take attendance from the Google Meet, but are they really there? I could do a lesson, but are they really engaged or learning anything? Through a Quizizz or EdPuzzle, at least I have a timestamped lesson that students actually completed.

The Quizizz that students took related to the 12 vocabulary terms from the day before. At the conclusion of the quizizz, I reminded the students of the compelling question and introduced the supporting question, Why did the Articles of Confederation Fail? I created a Solo Iron Chef for students to complete for this lesson.

The Solo Iron Chef contains 3 slides with 3 different links. I took sections out of their textbook and linked in readings related to The Articles of Confederation, The Northwest Territory, and Shays’ Rebellion. For remote learning, I wanted students to only design and complete the Articles of Confederation slide.

I like the Solo Iron Chef because students are designing their slides to show their learning and it fits their needs. Some students kept in plain. While other students went all out. What’s interesting, students that I had last year (not all, but some) are the students that went all out and designed a colorful slide and changed some fonts. Here was the goal of each slide:

1. Articles of Confederation – read the linked reading (or listen to it – I always record audio of me reading), list 4 weaknesses, add 2 pictures, create a title, and answer the secret ingredient question, “Why do you think America’s first government was created to be weak?”
2. Northwest Territory/Ordinance – read the linked reading, list out – How did a territory become a state?, add 2 pictures, create a title, answer the secret ingredient – “What was the first state created out of the Northwest Territory?”
3. Shays’ Rebellion – read the linked reading, create a cause and effect for Shays’ Rebellion, add 2 pictures, create a title, and answer the secret ingredient question – “Why do you think Shay’s Rebellion is considered one of the most important events in American History?”

On Wednesday, students finished their Solo Iron Chefs and began completing a Frayer model which I will describe under Thursday.

Thursday

Thursday was a shortened class period and students used it to finish up Frayer’s or begin Frayers. Either way was fine. When we began the unit on Monday, we did a splash vocabulary activity to build a working memory with vocabulary. Naturally, most people would then hand a vocabulary list and have students copy definitions. I do not like this practice. Instead, I have students write their own definitions after working with the material.

After students completed the Solo Iron Chef with the Articles of Confederation, Northwest Territory, and Shays’ Rebellion, I wanted them to create their own definitions on the Frayer. I asked them, “Based on what you learned, how would you define that word? How would you elaborate on that word? What examples or characteristics can you list?” If students can create their own definitions, this is learning at it’s finest. Did all students do it the correct way? No, and that’s okay. Here are some examples that students came up with after their learning:

Friday

Friday was a catch up day. I made a checklist for students of assignments that were to be completed on Google Classroom. I cut out the Checklist, and on the back, I wrote an encouraging note to every student. A few students said thank you, some did not, but I could tell they cared because very few checklists were thrown away.

For students that had everything completed during the week, I had one last choice assessment:

1. Create 3 memes about the Articles of Confederation
2. There’s An App For That – created by Mike Meehan (@mrmeehanhistory) – choose 6 apps that would help fix the Articles of Confederation.

Both of these involve critical, and creative, thinking and both a super engaging for students. Here some of the results:

My Messages

Here my room messages for the week:

This week was another shortened week. 4 days of class to cover the American Revolutionary War. For the longest time, Ohio’s standards included reasons that led to the Revolutionary War along with the Enlightenment’s influence on the Declaration of Independence. It also included how groups can form and create change. However, it never included anything about the Revolutionary War until 2019. The standards were changed and now include a standard devoted to the Revolutionary War – important battles and groups of people who influenced the outcome. Last year I was browsing through Twitter and found 2 really great files that paired nicely with Ohio’s American Revolutionary War standard. These 2 files were created by Mike Meehan (@mrmeehanhistory).

1. American Revolutionary War – I altered this file to fit the learning needs of my classroom. It includes weaknesses and strengths of the Continental and British Armies, groups that contributed to the war, Number Mania EduProtocol, Hamilton the Musical, and an interactive map about the Battle of Yorktown.
2. American Revolution Soldier Experience – this is set up as a game and students LOVE this. Students choose to learn about Continental soldiers or Minutemen. I paired this with an Empathy Map or Google Drawing for students to show me what they learned.

I love using these 2 lessons for the Revolutionary War. I rarely do the same lessons 2 years ina. row, but these are keepers.

Monday – no school

Tuesday – finish slides 1 through 7 for the American Revolutionary War.

Wednesday – Finish the Number Mania and slides 8 through 10.

Thursday – Complete the Revolution Soldier Experience.

Friday – Review with Nation Builder from EMC2Learning.

Tuesday

I began the American Revolutionary War by sharing the slide presentation linked above. I love these slides as they cover basic information related to the war. I have never been a big war guy, and never paid much attention to this war until the past 2 years. For the 48 minute class period, I had students complete slides 1 through 7. These slides covered some basics:

1. The battles of Lexington and Concord – read and drag the arrows to the sentences that answer the questions.
2. Visit a website and fill out the organizer of strengths and weaknesses of the Continental and British Armies.
3. Dragging and dropping True/False tiles next to statements that pair up with an Infographic.
4. Choosing between African Americans, Women, or the French and writing a letter from the perspective of George Washington about how that chosen group contributed to the war.

I finished the day by having students take a Quizizz over the information from the slides they completed. Next year, I’m going to approach this differently and use a Thin Slide or Graffiti Wall paired with a question – Who should have won the Revolutionary War?

Wednesday

Wednesday was a shortened day with 40 minute classes. Covering every important battle in the Revolution is kind of boring. I refuse to do it. As a result, the Number Mania saved the day! I found some awesome information from American Battlefield Trust and linked in 4 different battles that students could choose from:

1. Battle of Bunker Hill
2. Battle of Trenton
3. Battle of Saratoga
4. Battle of Yorktown

Students had 15 minutes to read the site, submit 2-3 facts through a Google Form, and determine what made their chosen battle important. After 15 minutes, I shared a Google Sheet of information with the students. Students then had the rest of time to create an infographic about their battle.

I love posting up the Google Sheet on the board as students are submitting information because it creates a good discussion over good information versus bad information. For example, a student submitted that the Battle of Yorktown lasted 6 years. We had a discussion about this question, “Does the information sound correct?” We went back and looked and the reading stated, “After 6 long years of war…..”

This was my 3rd rep of Number Mania for the year, and these were the results:

Thursday

We used this day to finish up Number Mania and the last 2 slides. When the Number Mania was completed, students listed to the song, Guns and Ships, from the musical Hamilton. They looked up some people mentioned in the song – Betsy Ross, Marquis de Lafayette, and Hamilton’s role in the Revolutionary War. The last slide was an interactive map where students read about the American strategy for Yorktown and moved pieces to a map. This was a good part of the lesson as students had to locate places and use a map key. These 2 slides took a total of 10 minutes combined.

The last part of the class period, students learned about the experience of an American soldier. THIS. IS. AWESOME!! Students love this lesson as they click through slides, and I hear this every year, “This reminds me of a video game, this is cool!”

This “soldier experience” lesson goes fairly quickly, so I paired it with a choice for students to show me what they learned. Last year, I only posted a blank Google Drawing and had students create something, anything to show me what they learned. This year, I used the same file, but I added an empathy map which worked out wonderfully with this lesson. Here are the results:

Friday

The final day of the week was used for 2 of my classes to catch up on work. We did a quick Gimkit, then students worked on finishing anything they needed to finish from the week. On the other hand, Three of my classes were far enough along that we were able to try a new lesson from EMC2Learning called Nation Builder. (sorry I cannot share this file)

I can’t give away all the details on Nation Builder, but students competed in groups of 6-8 to build the best nation. Now, they didn’t actually design a nation or civilization. Instead, they used content from our Revolution unit and made connections in different ‘sectors’. Students could not use the same concepts across sectors, thus creating great discussions and teamwork. Students did some awesome work with discussion, team building, reviewing concepts. I love ending the week with new, fun games with crazy scoring twists! Now I’m ready to move onto the Constitutional Convention.

My Room Messages for the Week

One EduProtocol I haven’t used much in the last few years is the Number Mania. I try to use this protocol 5-6 times a school year. It’s a great way to introduce students to a topic for any subject. I especially like to use this when a topic involves a lot of numbers – battles, wars, revolutions, etc. The protocol itself is fairly simple and can be completed in 1, 50 minute class period:

1. Students read one source or research through multiple sources for 10-15 minutes.
2. They submit numbers and facts through a Google Form.
3. I transfer the Google Form data into a Google Sheet and share it.
4. Students create an infographic (Here is a great template from Stephanie Howell) about a given topic from the crowdsourced information from the Google Sheet.

In this post, I’m reflecting on my current use of Number Mania and the different ways I need to consider it for future use.

Number Mania – 1st Rep

This school year I have used Number Mania 3 times. The first time was a non-academic way to introduce the protocol. I asked students to make an infographic about themselves. It’s a great way to get to know students at the beginning of the year. Students shared 5-6 numbers and facts about themselves. I use this “get to know you” Number Mania introduction to teach these ideas:

1. Creating Word Art – changing fonts, colors, etc.
2. Adding Textboxes.
3. Using Ctrl+D to duplicate shapes and Word Art.
4. Organizing information.
5. Adding titles to infographics.

Once students know these basics, they are ready to create some amazing infographics. The idea of the first rep is to teach the process along with some basics so students can focus on content in the future.

Number Mania – 2nd and 3rd Rep

For my 2nd and 3rd reps of Number Mania, I used for introducing the Declaration of Independence and covering a battle from the American Revolution. In past years, I had students complete Number Mania’s on both topics, but I had them research through Google searches. For a high school class, this would be good and create discussions of finding reliable sources. However, for Middle School, it was too open-ended and unstructured.

This year I wanted to focus on providing one source for students to create infographics. For the Declaration of Independence, I couldn’t find a source, so I typed this one. For the American Revolutionary War battles, I used this great source from American Battlefield Trust. Using these sources made the reading and number finding more structured.

After the 10-15 minute reading and number finding, I establish the success criteria for the infographic:

1. The infographic has a title.
2. The infographic has 5 or more numbers with facts.
3. The infographic is organized and easy to read.
4. The infographic is creative.

As a result of using more structure with one source and success criteria, my results have been A LOT better among my middle school students.

Reflection

To the outside world, these infographics look awesome! My students did a fantastic job and I’m thoroughly impressed. However, I can’t help but think how I can get better at building off of this protocol. Based on Quizizz scores, I know these students learned something from these lessons. But, I want to design these lessons differently. Here are some ideas running through my mind:

1. Design an infographic with nubers and facts that CREATE a story about a historical event. Tell that story through a Flipgrid or blog writing.
2. I need to be better with having students share and tell each other about their learning.
3. Pair with a Thin Slide at the end of class – 4 minutes to design a slide and 10 seconds to explain your biggest takeaway from the information.
4. Use this as an entry point into a Cyber Sandwich. Have students take numbers away from a reading. Then use the Cyber Sandwich to take more information and main ideas away from the same reading.
5. Pair with a Ted Ed Video – 8pARTS template designed by Amanda Sandoval.

Can you think of anything else to add to my list?

This week 505 continued our study of the Declaration of Independence (DOI – I’m tired of typing all those letters). We used an awesome lesson from Kevin Roughton (@mrroughton) to breakdown the crazy words of the DOI.

As usual, I rarely do the same thing year after year. For example, last year I spent 2 days on the DOI. However, this year, we spent 6 total class days. I have cut out a lot of useless crap so I could focus on the important stuff – the DOI, Constitution, and hopefully I can get to Reconstruction this year.

I have seen a lot of blackout poetry related to the DOI on Twitter, and I was inspired. Why not take a deep dive into the famous words of Jefferson, gets students thinking about the words, and get creative? That is where this week headed:

Monday – study of the Declaration vocabulary and discussion.

Tuesday – Deciding if we agree with the Declaration’s arguments, and working in some Hamilton music.

Wednesday – Introduce Blackout poetry – followed by self-doubt and negativity.

Thursday – Complete Blackout Poetry – followed by feeling accomplished and awesome going into the weekend.

Monday and Tuesday

The previous week we learned about the history behind the DOI with an 8pARTS. This week we were going to look at the DOI as a breakup letter between the colonies and Britain. I used to read a fake breakup letter, but this year I showed some classic breakup clips from my 3 favorite shows – Seinfeld, Friends, and The Office. After the videos, we explored the vocabulary and meaning behind the document. I’ll admit, I never know how to approach this because there are so many vocabulary words, and phrases, kids don’t understand. Using inferences and context clues is a must to understand it all. However, it seems like it would take a week, or longer, to get through it properly.

So, I had students read through the opening of the DOI and as expected, it’s the same words and phrases:

1. dissolve political bands
2. self evident
3. unalienable
4. prudence
5. instituted
6. separate and equal station
7. endowed
8. usurpations
9. despotism
10. dictate

I wanted students to look up some of these phrases, but it wasn’t going anywhere. I took matters into my own hands. The commonly unknown words I highlighted on the original file and I read Jefferson’s opening words. As I read, I offered direct instruction. I don’t know about other teachers, but I love what this document has to offer. I try to avoid direct instruction for more than 10 minutes, but I am passionate about the DOI. Jefferson’s words have power. Jefferson’s words have meaning. Jefferson’s words have influence throughout history. I LOVE teaching this. After this direct instruction, I gave students 10 minutes to sort modern day translations of the DOI with the regular version. This worked out really well and seemed to help the students make sense of this document.

When Tuesday rolled around, we continued our study of the DOI. The presentation from @mrroughton had a section where the students decided if they agreed with the meaning of specific statements from the DOI. I read each statement and students decided of they agreed or disagreed with the statement. For example, with this line, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed,” students decided if they agreed or disagreed with, “People would rather complain than actually change something.”

The next part of the lesson was the song, “You’ll Be Back,” from the musical Hamilton. Whenever I can use music from Hamilton, the better. Students LOVE this musical and it’s so engaging. Students listened to the song with the lyrics and they always ask me to play iy multiple times.

The last part of the lesson was a Thin Slide where I asked the question, “What does the Declaration of Independence mean to you?” Students had 4 minutes to create a slide with 1 picture and 1 word. After 4 minutes, students wrote a claim with evidence and reasoning to support their 1 word. They had to use their 1 word in the response. Students need a lot of help with writing claims so I provided some sentences starters for scaffolding. This Thin Slide was important because it set up our blackout poetry lesson for the Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday and Thursday were the final days of our DOI lesson. I decided to try blackout poetry for the first time. I had students reflect on their Thin Slide response to help focus their thinking on creating a blackout poem about the DOI.

The goal for students was creating a poem about the meaning of the DOI. Before school started, I got on NewsELA and found a primary source of the DOI. I created, and printed, 3 lexile versions of the document. Here were my steps:

1. Students skimmed the document and lightly circled words they might use.
2. Students wrote out their words and tried to find connecting words such as: the, for, but, etc.
3. They finalized their chosen words by creating darker boxes.
4. Then students drew pictures and symbols.
5. Finally they added color and blacked out the rest.

At first students seemed overwhelmed and had a lot of self doubt. But, as we worked through the process for 2 days, they realized they were making things happen and gained a lot of confidence. Here are their creations:

My Room Messages for the Week

I love showing up to 505 early in the morning, having a quiet place to sit and think so I can find a quote and write a message down for the day.

This week I wanted to begin a deep dive into the Declaration of Independence. To me it’s an important document whose message runs deep throughout this country. The ideas put forth by Jefferson of equality, natural rights, governments are created to protect rights, and we have the right to alter or complain about government are the heart of our democracy. But, Jefferson’s words, as great as they are, are far from our reality today and throughout history. I try to stress to the students that our history is a series of people trying to uphold the ideas of Jefferson – the American Revolution, abolitionist movement, Women’s Suffrage Movement, soldier’s fighting overseas, Civil Rights Movement, LGBTQ rights, Black Lives Matter, the Me Too movement. Whether you agree or disagree with their actions and statements – they are fighting for equality, they are fighting for a better life, they are pursuing happiness.

Before I got into the Declaration of Independence, I needed to begin with the Enlightenment. I focus heavily on 3 things for the Enlightenment: John Locke, natural rights, and Social Contract. There is no need to overcomplicate it – these are the basic understandings students need to comprehend Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence.

Monday – Fast and Curious Quizizz, Vocabulary evaluation, Sketch and Tell

Tuesday – Fast and Curious, Cyber Sandwich, Vocabulary Evaluation

Wednesday – Number Mania

Thursday – Thin Slide, Begin Hyperdoc on the Declaration

Friday – Fast and Curious, 8pARTS

Monday

I began Monday with a Fast and Curious to introduce the Enlightenment period. As suspected, classes bombed the Enlightenment quiz because let’s face it – 8th graders don’t know much about the Enlightenment theories or government. This is such a weird, abstract concept to them. I have learned to take a different, hands on approach with government related topics, especially with middle schoolers.

The first run of Fast and Curious (12 questions) my class averages across the board hovered around 52%. This brought us into our next part of the lesson with vocabulary. I am trying a new literacy strategy with vocabulary that I like to pair with Frayer models and/or Sketch and Tells. I have been using an evaluative vocabulary strategy (click here for sample) where I have the students evaluate their knowledge of words based on 3 items: Know It, Not Sure, or Don’t Know It.

When I first do this, I stress to the students to be honest with themselves. If they truly KNOW a word, they should be able to define it within seconds, in their own words. Then I explain if they are not sure of a word that means they have seen it, but can’t define it. Finally I explain, if they don’t know a word that means they have never seen it before. Anything they are unsure about, or don’t know, then they Frayer the word. I like to have the students state, elaborate, exemplify, and illustrate the unknown words. I don’t spend more than 10 minute on the Vocabulary evaluation.

For the illustrate part of the Frayer, I had students do a Sketch and Tell (click here for file). They could use Google Shapes, Legos, or Playdoh for their creations. I really wanted to emphasize natural rights and social contract. Here are some examples:

Tuesday

Tuesday I started with a Cyber Sandwich (click here for the file). I try to do one of these a week. Occasionally, I will structure the note-taking portion, and other times I will leave it alone. For our Enlightenment Cyber Sandwich, I left the note-taking unstructured – Find 6 or more facts from the reading. The reading came from ICivics – a great, simple article on the Enlightenment which is great for middle schoolers.

I loaded up Monday with vocabulary to prepare students for reading on Tuesday. Students read for 10 minutes and took notes about the Enlightenment – natural rights, social contract, the influence on America. I like to share notes that I took after the 10 minute timer goes off. This was followed by a 5 minute discussion and note comparison. Finally, students summarized their learning with a 5+ sentence summary.

I like to do a fast and curious after a Cyber Sandwich to show the effectiveness of the vocabulary strategies and Cyber Sandwich notes, discussions, and summaries. All classes began with a 50-55% average and finished with: 82%, 87%, 90%, 94%, and 81% in 2 days. This is a huge confidence builder for students and helps create engagement and enthusiasm for the Cyber Sandwich.

Wednesday

Wednesday, I decided if I continued with the Enlightenment, it would not be good. The students demonstrated their knowledge of the key concepts of natural rights and social contract. I was ready to move onto the Declaration of Independence. They were ready to move on as well.

Here’s how I operate most days – I fly by the seat of my pants, go with the flow, and take it all in stride. I usually have a plan, but I’m always looking to change it to something better. With that being said, I had an introductory lesson for the Declaration of Independence, but a photo memory popped up in my phone. The photo memory was a Declaration of Independence Number Mania I put together 2 years ago.

Before I went into the Number Mania lesson, I began with a Thin Slide. I asked students, “What’s the importance of July 4th?” Students had 3 minutes to share 1 picture and 1 word about the importance of the 4th of July. I learned quickly to make one rule – the 1 word cannot be fireworks or anything to do with blowing stuff up. When the 3 minute timer went off, I went around the room and students presented for 10 seconds or less. Common responses:

• “The Declaration of Independence was signed.”
• ‘We won independence.”
• “We became a new country.”

I use these quotes to clear up misconceptions and this created a nice transition to the Number Mania lesson.

I saw the Number Mania picture in my photo memories and wanted to do this again. However, I remembered last time I did it, the lesson seemed unorganized and students were looking up random facts. It had no flow. It wasn’t that great. As a result, I searched for an article with numbers (dates and facts) about the Declaration. I found nothing. I did the next best thing – I typed my own article, added subheadings and loaded it up with numbers and related it back to the Enlightenment for some reinforcement of those ideas.

Here was the number mania lesson flow:

1. Students read the article for 10 minutes.
2. They submitted two or three numbers and facts through a Google Form.
3. I shared the Google Sheet of facts with the class.
4. Students created an infographic about the Declaration of Independence with 5-6 numbers. (The template was created by Stephanie Howell – @mrshowell24)

In 40 minutes, here are the results of our number mania:

Thursday

To begin class, I had students take 10 minutes to finish their Number Mania infographics. I asked them to answer these questions before submitting:

• Does it have a title?
• Is it easy to read or organized?
• Did you add color and change fonts?
• Do you have 5-6 facts?

When this was completed, I transitioned to a hyperdoc I created about the Declaration of Independence. The hyperdoc is located here. I designed my hyperdoc around 2 questions – What is the meaning of the American Revolution? and What is the meaning of the Declaration of Independence? Here are my sections on the hyperdoc:

Engage – Morgan Freeman’s stated, “True glory of the Declaration of Independence is our nation’s epic struggle to close the gap between the ideals of this beautiful document and the sometimes painful realities of our existence.” What have we done throughout history to close the gap?

Explore – Who was involved with creating the Declaration of Independence? Why did they write this document? Students answered these questions with an 8pARTS.

Explain – with this section, students are diving into the Declaration of Independence. I will begin this part of the lesson by reading a fake breakup letter or sharing a compilation of break up videos. This hooks the students in before we make meaning of the document.

Apply – I’m having students do some blackout poetry as a mix up. They will circle or box words that help explain the meaning of the Revolution and Declaration.

Share – students will share their blackout poems with me.

Reflect – students will take a Quizizz one more time.

Friday

I started class off with a fast and Curious about the Declaration of Independence. The Quizizz I created related to the Number Mania article and ideas from the Enlightenment. The class averages students received determined my next move. If classes reached an 80% or higher, we were going to try out an Iron Chef – Archetype lesson I learned from my friend Dr. Scott Petri. If classes got below an 80%, we were doing an 8pARTS summary lesson.

As a result, my 2nd, 4th, and 7th periods did the 8pARTS summary lesson (click here for the file). This lesson used a template from Amanda Sandoval (@historysandoval). Students watched a Ted Ed video about the Declaration of Independence and took notes about Who, What, and Why as they watched. I took notes as well and we had a debrief and discussion. I really like this Ted Ed video because it pairs really well with the Number Mania article I typed. After our debrief, students had 10 minutes to summarize, list 3 items that stood out the most, and reflect on new learning. Here are some examples:

For my 5th and 6th periods, we tried out a new Iron Chef-Archetype lesson. An archetype is a title or persona you can connect to characters. Typical archetypes are: the hero, the jester, the lover, the caregiver, and so on…. You can learn more here. These archetypes, however, wouldn’t work with my lesson on the Declaration signers, so I created my own. Here are my archetypes:

• The Supervisor – someone who is involved with a lot of committees and overseeing the development of our country.
• The Lawyer – someone who seeks justice and fairness in the law.
• The Jack of All Trades – a person who can do many different types of work
• The Radicalist – someone who is extreme in their views, and opinionated, loud.
• The Orator – a good speaker, good at getting others to listen and follow.

I created this archetypes after reading the bios of selected Declaration signers. The list of Declaration signers included: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Rush, Edward Rutledge, and Samuel Adams. I wanted to choose a list of familiar Founding Fathers we would be studying in the future.

I had students get into groups of 2 or 3. Then I had students choose one of the Declaration signers from my list. They had to visit this site: www.ushistory.org and read a brief bio about their chosen signer. Here are the rest of the steps:

• 20 minute timer.
• Read and List 5 facts about their signer.
• Decide and discuss which archetype to apply to their signer.
• Explain why they chose that archetype.
• Connect a modern day person to that archetype as well.

Here are some examples and a link to my template:

I really liked this lesson as it had students making connections between archetypes, historical figures, modern people, and using evidence. For a quick lesson on archetypes, and only 20 minutes, my students did a phenomenal job!

My Messages for the Week

Everyday for the last 2 1/2 years, I write a new message on my board. I don’t bring attention to it. I don’t ask students to read it. It’s just simply there. Yet, students always tell me it’s the highlight of their day and they look forward to reading my message. I post them to my instagram account everyday (Follow me at @moler.adam). I never thought to post them on here, but I will now:

This week our Road to Revolution unit was coming to a close. My focus this year is using more strategies to build literacy skills in social studies. I’ve been inspired by a Building Literacy Strategies in Social Studies and a podcast called, The Science Behind Reading. From these items, I’m learning some new strategies with vocabulary, building background knowledge, explaining text structures, and exposing students to more informational texts and reading.

Monday

Monday, was uneventful. I had students finish their empathy maps from Friday. However, I wanted to a Gimkit as a review before the went back to empathy maps. I was hoping the Gimkit questions would refresh their memories. Gimkit is one of my favorite platforms and they have a new Jeopardy mode! I love that students can earn money and they can bet their money with a final question. It was awesome and engaging!

The empathy maps had students comparing British and Colonial perspectives during the American Revolution. These maps led to great discussions among students and served as a great review. (I wish I could share this, but it’s a file located at www.emc2learning.com).

Tuesday

Tuesday was the final question of our unit, “What attempts were made to avoid war?” With this question we looked at from a British perspective and a Colonial perspective.

With the British perspective I created a Peardeck Lesson where we looked at the repeal of the Stamp Act. We used this as an opportunity to practice sourcing, contextualizing, close reading, and corroborating. I asked some basic questions:

1. Who wrote this document?
2. What motivated the author to write this document?
3. Whose voice or opinion is missing?
4. What information is left out?

These simple questions led to a great discussion and we dove a bit deeper and learned that the same day British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, they passed the Declaratory Act which gave them total authority over the colonies.

Immediately following this, I tried out a literacy strategy which I oddly paired with 8*pARTS template (click here). This lesson was on Olive Branch Petition and showed how the colonists attempted peace. I created an 8*pARTS template with these headings around it:

1. Rephrase the article title as a question.
2. Who?
3. When?
4. Why?
5. What?
6. 3 word summary.

Here is the structure of the lesson I ran:

1. I had students partner up.
2. Student 1 read to Student 2, as Students 2 took notes.
3. Students 2 then read to Student 1 as Student 1 took notes.
4. Both students discussed notes.
5. Then students wrote a 5 sentence summary about the article.

This lesson worked out wonderfully and the 8th graders surprisingly didn’t mind reading to each other. I went great! As students were working, I was walking around offering feedback, asking questions, and grading. I quickly realized this format could easily be implemented with a Cyber Sandwich.

This 1 day lesson finished off our unit and we were now ready to tackle the final assessment and answer our question, “Was the American Revolution Avoidable?”

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday and Thursday would be used for our final assessment – the Netflix Assignment. I forget where I found this awesome Netflix template, but I love it because it’s easy to change and manipulate for assignments.

During the Netflix assignment students write a title and description of a show they create. They can change the show pictures as well. After students create a title and description, they break their show down into 4 episodes with descriptions.

Before students began creating, I reminded them of our unit questions and the main compelling question, “Was the American Revolution Avoidable?” I encouraged them write their show description in a way that answered our compelling question. Then I encouraged students to create 4 episodes based on anything we learned during the last 2 weeks. There creations were awesome:

The Netflix assignment is so engaging and I’m always impressed by students work. This assignment works well with any subject and everyone should try it out!

Friday

After 2 days of designing Netflix shows, I wanted to use Friday as a fun day to try something new. The site www.emc2learning.com had a new idea. We played the 12 Topic Stitch Up.

I listed out 12 topics/concepts on a slide. Students formed groups of 4-5 and they worked together to choose 1 concept and relate it to 4 other concepts on the list. If they successfully explain their connections, they were given access to the Operation game board to pull out the piece without making is buzz.

This was so engaging as students worked together and just had fun! I will definitely be using this idea again and again.

This week we continued our unit on the American Revolution. We are focused on a compelling question – Was the American revolution avoidable? The lessons this week addressed the supporting questions of – How did British policies worsen tensions? and How did colonial responses and protests worsen tensions?

• Monday – Professional Development Day
• Tuesday – British Taxes and Policies and Quizizz
• Wednesday – British Taxes and Policies Cybersandwich with Quizizz
• Thursday – Colonial Protests graffiti wall, Iron Chef, Story time, Quizizz
• Friday – Colonial Protests, graffiti wall, Empathy Maps

Tuesday

Tuesday’s questions was – How did British policies worsen tensions? Up to this point, the students studied the French and Indian War last week and learned how the relationship changed between Britain and the colonists. With this lesson we moved into the taxes, laws, and punishments the British Parliament passed onto the 13 colonies.

For this lesson I wanted something to review the French and Indian War after a 3 day weekend. I also wanted an engaging lesson. I went to Kevin Roughton’s site and found this great lesson that used the causes of the Revolution as analogies to a teenager struggling with, arguably, overbearing parents.

This lesson was phenomenal as the students were laughing as I read the scenarios between the parents and the child. After I read the scenario, I had the students write down and reflect on how they would feel as the overbearing parents gradually increased control over their lives. Finally, we read the historical event (Navigation Acts, French and Indian War, Proclamation, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Tea Act, Intolerable Acts) and students related the scenario to the historical events.

After we finished this lesson, I had students take the Quizizz. Based on the Quizizz results, I felt like students didn’t quite get everything out of the lesson that I was hoping for…..Whatever students are focused on is what they are learning. In this lesson, they were focused on the weird scenarios and crazy parents rather than the historical event. As a result of this, I decided to bust out a Cyber Sandwich for Wednesday.

Wednesday

Again, whatever students are focused on and doing is what they are learning. I wanted students to gain an understanding of the British taxes and laws that made colonists mad, so I created a Cyber Sandwich (click here for a copy). I used the same question – How did British policies worsen tensions? and we ran a standard 10 minute read and notes, 5 minute discuss, and 10 minute summary.

Students read the one page article for 10 minutes and I wanted them to have 6-8 important facts. When the 10 minute timer went off, I shared my notes with students and explained my thought process with my notes. My goal was to take notes that helped me answer the main question.

For the summary part of the Cyber Sandwich, I wanted students to write 4 or more sentences. This time I provided a sentence starter sheet to provide a scaffold, or support, for students. The students did a wonderful job with their summaries and we took the Quizizz.

After the Cybersandwich, students significantly raised their class averages. Over 3 days, one class went from 60% class average, 75% class average, to a 93% class average. I will always do a Cyber Sandwich once a week – IT IS AN EFFECTIVE LESSON AND CAN BE ADAPTED WITH MANY NOTE TAKING STRATEGIES!!

Thursday

On this day we moved to a new question – How did colonial responses and protests worsen tensions? I began this lesson with a graffiti wall where I posted this question, “How do people express themselves and communicate today?” I gave students 5 minutes to come up and draw, add a word, or add a sentence to the whiteboard. This was followed up with a quick discussion. The goal of this was to help the students realize that communication and expression are not that much different today than it was in 1776.

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After this, I went through a quick slide deck where I shared stories about different forms of colonial protests. I call this Story Time With Moler. It’s my creative way to avoid saying lecture. Each slide has a picture with a cool story I like to share abput colonial protests (I love this talking about this stuff!). Story time took 15-20 minutes.

Next we switched to an Iron Chef (click here for a copy) where students did a virtual tour and explored the American Revolution Museum galleries to find examples of colonial protests. I wanted them to treat their slide like a graffiti wall – add pictures, words, sentences. I gave students 15 minutes to explore the galleries and find examples:

Friday

Friday was a continuation of the Iron Chef. I gave 5-10 minutes so students could finish their slides. When the timer went off, I had students contribute examples of protest to a graffiti wall(s). This led to a discussion about the amount of peaceful protests versus violent and destructive protest. Then we related these protests to today. I always mention violent and destructive protests are often done when people aren’t heard. In this case, the colonists weren’t being heard.

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After our graffiti wall discussion, I pointed students back to our question – Was the American Revolution avoidable? I said to them, “You can truly understand this question when you understand the perspective of both sides – the British and the Colonists.” This was a perfect time for an Empathy Map. I got this from http://www.emc2learning.com so I will not share a link.

I had students work in groups to review past learning and new learning with the protests to understand the colonists point of view during the Revolution. I modeled this process and helped guide students to create some examples for the categories:

1. Pain
2. Gain
3. Seeing
4. Hearing
5. Saying/Doing
6. Thinking/Feeling

This was an awesome lesson as students worked together. Plus, there was no single correct answer. The discussions, thinking, recalling, and learning was AWESOME!! Here are some examples:

Reflection

Overall, this was a great week! I’ve been focused on research based, science based strategies to improve literacy skills in Social Studies. Plus, I have been focused on trying new, engaging lessons. The graffiti walls are awesome and my new favorite thing ever – the students loved writing and drawing on the whiteboard. The empathy maps were a great way to get students thinking outside the box. I love using the Cyber Sandwich as a way to build literacy skills in Social Studies.

Oh what a week it was in 505 – starting a new unit on the events that led to the American Revolutionary War. I brought back some classic Eduprotocols and an Eduprotocols I haven’t used in 2 years.

Monday – Finished our Text Quest.

Tuesday – Great American Race

Wednesday – Sketch and Tell

Thursday/Friday – French and Indian War Graffiti Page

Monday

We finished the Text Quest with Colonial Regions and teams had 3 options for the bonus battle: Retell in Rhyme, Upside Down Learning, or Story Cubes. I cannot share the Upside Down Learning or Story Cubes because it came from the site www.emc2learning.com – check out the site!

The Retell in Rhyme comes from Dr. Scott Petri where he has students retell main details about a historical person or historical event in rhyme. The goal is to see how many rhyming couplets students can create within a given time period. Most students think this is easy, but they quickly find out it’s pretty tough.

With Upside Down Learning students write a fact from the lesson on top of the line, then they change the fact to be untrue underneath the line. It sounds simple, but students have trouble with this one as well.

The story cubes are simple, students choose 9 story cubes and relate the images to anything they learned in the unit. It’s a cool way to create forced connections and really pushes students to think creatively.

Tuesday

I started a new unit called Toward Independence – I introduced our unit goals and I can statements. Then we began the Great American Race. The Great American Race is a simple way to introduce vocabulary for a unit. Here’s how it works:

1. I created 20 or more cards – one side has a number, the other side has a vocab word.
2. I distribute the cards and tell the students, “Don’t reveal the answer on your card.”
3. Students have 10 minutes to type 3-4 clues, add a picture, and their card number to a blank slide.
4. As students are working, I collect and organize their slides into one shared slidedeck. This way I give feedback on their clues.
5. At the end of 10 minutes, students then work to Google the clues on the slides and figure out the answers.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRbEuBZLZvpeNYFIHU_jDzsi66Xi1VrOEI4c4ZJTkh8ATUcgYExvT3hQwX6M34m-OfE2N3ytBGWWyKH/pub?start=true&loop=true&delayms=3000

Wednesday

Wednesday was shortened class period day due to testing. Each class was 28 minutes long. It was a perfect day to start with a fast and curious with our new unit and to use some sketch and tell. The Sketch and Tell was used to further build background knowledge with important concepts – French and Indian War, Taxation without Representation, and The Stamp Act. These words were included with the Great American Race as well. I just simply had students look these words up and create a sketch and tell using Google Shapes. The idea behind the Sketch and Tell was to build background knowledge about the French and Indian War before Thursday’s lesson.

Thursday and Friday

I had to scrap Thursday’s original plan and keep it simple because I was absent. Instead of doing the French and Indian war digital breakout, I kept it simple with a graffiti page.

The graffiti page is supposed to keep students actively engaged as they are reading. Students draw 2 pictures, draw 2 bigs words to represent main ideas, and I wanted students to include causes and effects of the French and Indian War. It is similar to sketchnoting. Looking back I should have the students sketchnote next time.

Some of the Graffiti pages were great. I felt like the French and Indian War reading was good as it was written in a way that picked up the story from our Colonial Regions Unit. However, I felt the like the students didn’t make the connections. Most of them missed the effect of the war in the British claimed the Ohio River Valley and were then prevented from moving there by the Proclamation of 1763.

The plan Friday was having the students complete a Retell in Rhyme about the French and Indian War. However this was not happening because most needed to finish their graffiti page.

After some reflection, I need to do a better job at writing I can statements. I need to write more I can statements to help guide the students through the entire process of the unit.