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PPT presentation from NCSS 2018. Download to see notes on the notes pages.

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Just one of many examples

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Artifact Bag

Authentic Learning Experiences

Today in class, we presented the artifact bags that we created based off of our previous lessons. My unit plan was on the Civil War, so I used artifacts relating to slaves. Artifact bags are great ways to incorporate authentic experiences into a lesson. They are very engaging and exciting for students.

The Artifact Bag lesson is based off of Carol J. Fuhler's article, " Building Literacy Skills across the Curriculum:Forging Connections with the Past through Artifacts". This article speaks about what artifact bags are and how you can use them in your classroom. She includes a chart on the steps of discovery, which can be seen below. These steps are crucial to have in a successful artifact bag lesson.

Fuhler also includes a "pondering data collection" worksheet, which students can use to collect all of their information. I included many of these questions in my own artifact lesson. Fuhler's chart can be seen below:

All of these questions are certainly helpful for students, when trying to figure out what the given artifacts mean.

Below is a picture of my artifact bag:

Here are images of the artifacts that were in my bag:

All of these artifacts pertained to slavery during the Civil War. I included slides on the time period, what each image was, what they meant, and how they related to slavery. I also concluded my lesson by asking my students to give me an example of an artifact, since they were now experts after my lesson! To learn more about my artifacts, view my artifact bag presentation, which can be found below.
Here is the link to my Artifact B ag slides.

Resources:
Fuhler, C., "Building Literacy Skills across the Curriculum:Forging Connections with the Past through Artifacts

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Today in class, we presented the artifact bags that we created based off of our previous lessons. My unit plan was on the Civil War, so I used artifacts relating to slaves. Artifact bags are great ways to incorporate authentic experiences into a lesson. They are very engaging and exciting for students.

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AMLE - Association for Middle Level Education

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Imagine a photo of the Grand Canyon, jagged peaks under a summer sky. In the foreground, a father holds a round-bellied little girl in a yellow shirt and sandals. Feet dangling, the girl stares at his collar, while he looks past her, eyes fixed on the horizon.

When you click the image, you hear the voice of a young woman, narrating. She tells you the photo was taken on a father/daughter road trip to Arizona. She chuckles, recalling her father's reason for waxing the rusty Ford pickup: "We'll get better gas mileage this way." After the trip, her parents will divorce, leaving her confused. Was he saying goodbye? Will she ever have such time with him again? Feeling hopeful, she concludes that the photo represents shared time and friendship.

What I've just described is a two-minute single-image screencast video, compact and loaded with meaning. To make it, this student engaged in all facets of literacy: writing, reading, speaking, listening, and thinking. Our narrator tells you what you see and what you don't see as she determines what the story means to her.

Since argumentation became a key feature on standardized testing, we spend a lot of time talking about claims, reasons, and evidence. And while these concepts are vital for fostering critical thinking, too much focus on argument sends the message that the world is little more than a theatre for pro/con argumentation (a message the world is happy to reinforce). Digital storytelling, by contrast, has the unique ability to provide authentic audiences and promote divergent thinking while fostering a sense of shared humanity.

Making Meaning

When I think about story, I draw upon the work of Jerome Bruner, who proposed that narrative was a way of knowing. You could learn about the properties of a wood-burning stove through observation and experimentation (what Bruner called the paradigmatic mode), or you could learn about the stove by inadvertently touching it, despite your mother's high-pitched "No!" (his narrative mode).

While some things are best learned vicariously or via formal experimentation (thus saving you a trip to the doctor), our most powerful and long-lasting learning experiences are storied. How you learned something is a story, complete with motives, helpers, and hindrances. But, there is more to a story than its factual elements (touching a hot stove). There are the conclusions we draw, which allow us to transfer what we learn to other facets of our lives (slow down, pay attention). So, it is worth asking what our stories mean.

As human beings, we determine meaning all the time, and sometimes we get it wrong. Take this example, as told by my sister, who teaches eighth grade reading: A student, let's call her Emily, sits down in class and begins to text Erik, a boy with whom she is "going out." Since he is on a different schedule, she writes, "How's lunch?" and puts her phone away. As class winds to a close, she peeks at her phone to see a notification from Erik: "It's over."

Emily can't concentrate. It's over? What happened? The next day, she will apologize to her teacher for failing the quiz. The relationship wasn't over. Lunch was over.

It's not what Erik says that worries Emily. It's what she thinks it means. And, if you pressed Emily to explain what she learned from the experience, she might generate some very good conclusions, such as that Erik is a pretty literal dude, or that text messages have limitations.

If we don't ask students to derive meaning, they generally don't, and so miss opportunities to question their conclusions. If Emily can learn to reflect on something as simple as the misinterpreted text, she may be more adept at determining something more complex down the road, like asking what it means when her boyfriend habitually succumbs to fits of rage. Deriving meaning is not a thing we do in school; it is a thing we do in life.

Moving Beyond Binaries

As teachers, we're generally pretty good at fostering convergent thinking: we help students get the same answer to a math problem, the correct context for a historical event. We want students to reach the same conclusion, the right answer. Sometimes we get the opportunity to foster divergent thinking: we look at events from different points of view, read the short story and emerge with different personal connections. We entertain possibilities for interpretation.

Writing can be a powerful conduit for divergent thinking. Take our digital story at the top of this article: a daughter tries to decide what the road trip with her father means to her. His joking about waxing the truck could be a way of showing he cares (love takes many forms). She could conclude that we should savor time with people we love (seize the day), or that parents are human.

Generating possibilities for meaning can help us open up, think reflectively, learn. Struggling to hone her message, another student of mine turned in two separate videos, each one featuring the same photo of a scrappy black and white kitten sandwiched between pillows. In the first video, she spoke about how she adopted a shelter kitten, explaining that the kitten taught her responsibility. In the second video, she explained that she adopted the kitten on the advice of her therapist (new detail), and that the kitten curbed her sense of isolation and growing depression.

Note the switch: In the first version, she saves a kitten. In the second, the kitten saves her. What's terrific is that both stories are true. Life doesn't have to fit into binaries: good decisions/ bad decisions; right answers/wrong answers; giving love/receiving love. Moving past binaries helps us understand human nature.

What Did I Do?

Bruner was interested in actions-the choices we make within specific cultural contexts-along with how those actions generate narrative. In Acts of Meaning, he noticed that children supplied more elaboration when they were asked to explain an action that deviated from an established cultural pattern. If, for instance, Sally decides to pour water on her birthday candles rather than blow them out, you've got a story.

If unlikely actions (or feelings) call forth narrative, that's great news for middle school educators, since their students are grappling with identity, including their own weird feelings and actions. Stories can help students consider their motives and assess the results of their choices: did things go according to plan? What went wrong? Can I tell this in a way that will help others understand me?

When things go wrong, we tell stories. When we get caught eating a third piece of cake, we tell stories. When we have feelings that don't match the occasion (why am I crying?), we tell stories. Stories help us explain, rationalize, reflect. Middle schoolers have a lot of stories. So, there's plenty to mine.

Shorter is Sweeter

In giving this assignment to teaching candidates, I have learned to ask them to keep it short. If students have 1-2 minutes to tell a story, they tend to think in terms of relevance. They winnow things down to the most salient details, focus on precision, along with the message they are trying to send.

If students have 4-5 minutes to tell a story (or, heaven forbid, an unlimited amount of time), they tend to ramble, lose the narrative thread, or supply unnecessary details, trying to fill time in the same way they pad essays. In the real world, we rarely have unlimited time to make a point, share a story, or idea, so it's worth practicing pithiness.

Short videos can also help differentiate instruction. While the time limit makes digital storytelling seem easier for students who are paralyzed by the thought of writing to length, students who are skilled elaborators find that the time limit makes the process harder, since they have to be selective about the details they choose. In this way, everyone gets a challenge suited to their abilities.

The Basics

Ask students to identify a photo in their library that needs explanation. Then, instruct them to do the following: 1. List what is obvious, 2. Identify what is not obvious (emotional states, intentions, conflicts), Then, ask them to outline a narrative arc and draw conclusions. What do they learn from the photo? If you want to foster divergent thinking, challenge students to supply more than one explanation, or challenge each other's conclusions.

You will find plenty of free screen-capture software applications online. Just make sure to keep it simple as you begin: one image/one narrator. Ignore all the bells and whistles, including audio effects and pan-and-zoom options. The educator page at University of Houston's digital storytelling website will provide you with more sophisticated techniques when you're ready to go wild. In the meantime, help students generate stories worth telling. The rest will follow.

Denice Turner has taught for 30 years, starting with young adolescents. She teaches content area literacy at Black Hills State University and is the author of Worthy: A Memoir.
denice.turner@bhsu.edu Published November 2018.

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Imagine a photo of the Grand Canyon, jagged peaks under a summer sky. In the foreground, a father holds a round-bellied little girl in a yellow shirt and sandals. Feet dangling, the girl stares at his collar, while he looks past her, eyes fixed on the horizon.

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The Role of Photoblogs in the Social Studies Classroom: Learning about the people of the Civil War

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The Role of Photoblogs in the Social Studies Classroom: Learning about the people of the Civil War

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by Elizabeth Barrow, Georgia Southern University; Janice Anderson, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; & Martinette Horner, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Educating students in the 21st century has necessitated a shift in the way preservice teachers are prepared to use, understand, and interact with social media in the classroom (McLoughlin & Lee, 2008). Bruns (2011) characterized this paradigmatic shift as a movement toward a participatory culture using Web 2.0 technologies-dynamic environments that are reshaping the educational landscape (Keen, 2008).

Classroom teachers for the past decade or more have been typically technology savvy and have integrated social networks into their daily lives (Windham, 2005). Additionally, with the emergence of mobile technologies such as iPads and other devices students' access to computing devices is omnipresent (McLoughlin & Lee, 2010). These dynamic changes present both new types of challenges and vast opportunities for teachers.

The emergence of new media technologies, specifically social network sites (SNSs) and platforms such as the photoblog Humans of New York (HONY; www.humansofnewyork.com), coupled with an increase in student-centered pedagogies, has brought the use of these technologies to the forefront as a mechanism to integrate media and technology skills (Partnership for 21st Learning, 2016) and disciplinary content.

According to McLoughlin and Lee (2008), the use of online social networks enables people (e.g., students) to present their ideas and connect to others. Other researchers (e.g., Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robison, & Wiegel, 2006; Wheeler, Yeomans, & Wheeler, 2008) have seen these social platforms as a mechanism to engage in meaningful conversations with others regardless of location. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that any type of technological disruption needs to have the appropriate pedagogical enhancements in order to be successful (e.g., Doering & Veletsianos, 2008; Hughes, Thomas, & Scharber, 2006; Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Veletsianos & Navarrete, 2012).

The mobility and access the iPad and other mobile devices provide opens up the classroom for new and innovative instructional practices, allowing students to explore their world physically and share these experiences with others (Squire & Klopfer, 2007). Mobile devices themselves are not enough to guarantee student engagement and learning, however, (Prieto, Villagrá-Sobrino, Jorrín-Abellán, Martínez-Monés, & Dimitriadis, 2011). Looi et al. (2011) found that placing technology in the hands of students was not enough to ensure student learning; teacher lesson design and their support during implementation were critical components needed in order to achieve the goal of student learning. These findings suggest that, in order for iPads and other mobile devices to reach their full potential, teachers need to develop engaging and active learning opportunities for students that purposefully integrate and orchestrate mobile devices into instruction.

The ways teachers choose to integrate iPads and other mobile devices into their classroom instruction impacts student learning. Sharples and Pea (2014) argued that mobile technology in the classroom should be conceptualized around the learner's mobility, with seamless learning as a primary goal; that is, what were once conceived as distinct, independent learning experiences should be bound together to create a continuous learning environment. Looi et al. (2011) supported this idea when they described mobile devices as learning "hubs" that provide students and teachers the ability to learn on the move and across contexts. These unique capabilities of iPads and other mobile devices require that teachers become learning orchestrators and leave direct instruction behind.

Blogging is an instructional technique that integrates content acquisition with Web 2.0 technologies in a manner that can encourage critical thinking, reflection, and collaboration (see: Kuo, Belland, & Kuo, 2017; Papastergiou, Gerodimos, & Antoniou, 2011). Other benefits of using blogs and photoblogs as an instructional technique include (a) providing an online space for students, (b) promoting increased participation in class, and (c) "increase[ing] students' motivation to learn the subject content" (Kuo et al., 2017, p. 37). However, students are more likely to engage in blogging activities incorporating materials and topics of interest to them (Li, Bado, Smith, & Moore, 2013).

The social phenomenon HONY is a perfect example of using technology, social media, and photoblogging to investigate human nature. Its photoblog platform can easily be modified to promote research and investigation in K-12 classrooms. This article uses the concept of HONY to introduce teachers and students to a new lesson for teaching the American Civil War.

HONY's photographer and storyteller, Brandon, captures moments in people's lives through their portraits and stories. In many ways he is an investigator, researching what it means to live in the 21st century. This article will draw on the technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006), the replacement, amplification, and transformation (RAT) framework (Hughes et al., 2006), and photoblogging to emphasize engaging, inquiry-based lesson using HONY as an example to create a student-centered research project titled Humans of the Civil War.

Conceptual Framework

The use of technology to engage students in more meaningful instruction has been well documented (e.g., Howland, Jonassen, & Marra, 2012; Martin & Ertzberger, 2013; Sadik, 2008), but specifically, if teachers make strategic decisions about the types of technology they use, student learning outcomes improve (e.g., Beetham & Sharpe, 2013; Wu et al., 2012). The primary conceptual framework for this project was informed by Mishra and Koehler's (2006) TPACK framework (see Figure 1), Hughes et al.'s (2006) RAT framework, and blogging research.

TPACK suggests that teachers can synergistically call upon their knowledge in three domains-content, pedagogy, and technology. The framework builds upon the earlier work of Schulman's (1986) pedagogical content knowledge, which describes how teachers must draw upon their knowledge of course content and pedagogical approaches. TPACK or technology integration knowledge is operationalized when educators identify an effective combination of curriculum content, a particular pedagogical approach, and a technology tool or resource that supports the learning experience.

TPACK provides the framework to organize teaching with technology like iPads, allowing teachers to connect content and technology. Educators' TPACK is internalized when they identify an effective combination of curriculum content, a particular pedagogical approach, and the integration of a technology tool or resource to support the learning experience.

We recommend that teachers follow the RAT framework (Figure 2; Hughes et al., 2006) when making decisions about what technology to use and how to use it. Teachers who use technology merely as a replacement for traditional methods of instruction are not changing "established practices, student learning processes, or content goals" (Hughes et al., 2006, p. 2).

For example, teachers who use electronic presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint instead of writing notes on the board have not fundamentally changed the way they practice or deliver content. The second level of RAT, amplification, "increases efficiency and productivity" applies to this situation (Hughes et al., 2006, p. 2). Teachers operating at this level, however, still have not fundamentally changed their pedagogy nor how students learn.

One example of amplification is for students to turn in assignments electronically so that teachers may more easily and quickly return comments to students. There is a time and place for replacement and amplification; however, teachers who use technology to transform their lessons, the highest level of RAT, push students to think about and approach learning differently, including refining their epistemological and ontological beliefs. At this point, teachers use technology to change fundamentally how students learn and the content they are learning.

The five steps to achieve reorganization and transformation of classroom lessons are as follows:

The actual mental work changed and expanded.

The number of variables involved in the mental processes expanded.

The tool changed the organization in which it has been used.

New players became involved with the tool's use (or expanded use of the tool).

New opportunities for different forms and types of learning through problem-solving, unavailable in traditional approaches, are developed (Hughes et al., 2006, p. 2).

Research indicates that using blogs in a classroom environment supports social constructivism when students have the opportunity to construct knowledge in collaboration with their peers (Kuo et al., 2017). Kuo et al. argued that group collaborative learning associated with blogging increases students' perceived learning experience and supports the "understanding of knowledge and acquisition of skills through meaningful communication or interaction over time" (p. 46).

Other studies support the use of blogging as an avenue to increase student agency and positive teacher-student interactions in the course (Cuhadar & Kuzu, 2010). Photoblogging offers students the opportunity to visually represent what they have learned.

The next section describes a lesson, originally designed for middle grades U.S. history, but applicable to any level of social studies, that uses the HONY website ( www.humansofnewyork.com) as inspiration for a transformed lesson on the American Civil War. By integrating content, technology, and popular culture platforms, teachers can engage their students in an inquiry-based lesson designed to promote upper-level thinking and questioning according to the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (Armstrong, 2017; Krathwohl, 2002).

Exemplar Lesson

The following lesson plan integrates technology, role-playing activities (e.g., Beal, Bolick, & Martorella, 2008; Di Blas, Paolini, & Sabiescu, 2012; Robin, 2008), and photoblogging to simulate a version of HONY that can be used to promote student research and learning of the American Civil War. Students research historical figures from the American Civil War and use their knowledge to roleplay as if their historical figure is being interviewed for a classroom version of "Humans of the Civil War." The purpose is for students to investigate what it meant to live during the time of the American Civil War in a way that is intended to be more engaging than traditional didactic, fact-based lectures.

This activity leverages technology and innovative pedagogies to engage students not only in learning content, but also in promoting inquiry, motivation, and participation (McCarthy & Anderson, 2000), thereby incorporating all components of the TPACK framework. Furthermore, this lesson plan moves students to the forefront, facilitating learning through an inquiry-based exercise that changes how students learn by incorporating pictorial representation of content.

Table 1 outlines the connections among TPACK, RAT, and the lesson. To understand a person's story, students situate the main events of their figure's life within the context of the political and social upheaval of the 1860s. Schmidt calls this activity "putting the social back in social studies" (Schmidt, 2007, p. 4). By "re-establishing human beings as the central subject of social studies" through inquiry, "authentic experiences," and "real-life tasks" (pp. 4-5), this Civil War learning activity may heighten students' content knowledge and understanding of the era.

Table 1
TPACK, R.A.T., and Humans of the Civil War Lesson Plan

Phase 1: Research

Students engage in investigating the content of the American Civil War using technology in a pedagogically appropriate manner. Students use the technology as a tool to support their research efforts. By researching individuals, students learn what life was like during the American Civil War.

Replacement: Students conduct research online using mobile devices.
Amplification: Students take notes using shared environments (i.e., Google Docs) to easily share information with their teacher.
Transformation: Students are engaged in inquiry-based learning instead of receiving information directly from the teacher.

Phase 2: Interviews and Filming

Students role-play as investigators or journalists like Brandon from HONY to learn about the lives of others in the Civil War. The technology is used to capture information and assist students in their investigations.

Replacement: Students use mobile devices to access their notes when being interviewed by another student and to take notes when serving as their group's note taker.
Amplification: Students' notes are stored in easy-to-access digital folders that can be shared with group members and teachers.
Transformation: Students use mobile devices to record video and/or still images of the students they interview, which can be used as an alternative and more illustrative form of data collection.

Phase 3: Digital Presentation and Debrief

Students collaborate as a whole to create a digital platform to display their knowledge. The debrief serves as both formative and summative assessments to showcase what students have learned.

Replacement: Students use the mobile device to access notes.
Amplification: Final portfolios, pictures, or videos can be easily shared with the teacher for assessment.
Transformation: Creating a digital storyboard, using tools such as Lino, Padlet, or even Google Slides, provides students with alternative and more expressive means of communicating what they have learned, as opposed to traditional pen and paper tests.

Students should become familiar with the HONY website ( www.humansofnewyork.com) or Facebook page ( www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork) before starting this lesson. The website is filled with opportunities to present social studies content and context, including entire sections devoted to Iranian and Syrian refugees-subjects that can easily tie into content on immigration, human rights, geography, and foreign wars, to name a few. The following is one example lesson plan idea. Teachers may be able to incorporate this lesson using the HONY concept into their curriculum or use this lesson plan as a model for incorporating similar ideas into their classes.

Although this lesson focuses on researching historical individuals to understand a past event, the lesson can easily be modified to focus students on researching the lives of people who are still living in order to understand a historical event. For instance, students could research the Civil Rights movement by interviewing individuals who lived through the struggle, or they could research the impact of wars on home life by interviewing spouses of veterans or active military.

Photoblogging can also be used for students to process current events, such as student or public reactions to events in the news. However, if teachers are interested in having their students interview living subjects, they should review oral history resources for teachers at the Library of Congress ( www.loc.gov) and LEARN NC ( www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/764).

The lesson plan outlined in this article includes a basic timeline for each phase and is designed to be conducted between 5 and 7 days, depending on class size and time available.

Phase 1: Research

For Phase 1, students conduct background research on the American Civil War through the lens of one individual. They should begin this lesson with some background knowledge of the American Civil War, so it will be ideally situated toward the middle of the unit. Since the focus is on individuals, teachers can either assign students a person from the Civil War to research or allow students to pick from a list.

All ranks of the military, representing the Union and Confederate armies and navies, male and female civilians, and slaves should be included to provide students with multiple perspectives. See Handout 1 ( Appendix A) for an example list of individuals from the Civil War. Students should also be encouraged to research individuals not on the handout and to pursue their own creativity and interests.

The resources section ( Appendix B) includes a list of websites and apps that may prove useful during the research phase. This list is not exhaustive, but provides a starting point for student research.

See Handout 2 ( Appendix C) for a list of questions students should be able to answer during Phase 2. At a minimum, Phase 1 should require at least 2 days for research, but ideally more if timing allows.

Phase 2: Interviews and Filming

After having researched their individual, students role-play and pretend that they are representing the group Humans of the Civil War to uncover the real story of how the war affected the lives of those involved. Students should divide into groups of three or four depending upon class size. Each student is assigned an initial job but should rotate through all of the positions.

The student roles are as follows: Videographer/photographer (using iPads or any mobile device), interviewer, interviewee (should answer all questions in character), and an optional note taker. The role of the videographer is to document the interview. Students should use their mobile devices to record or take photos that can then be compiled into a classroom set (see Phase 3). The interviewer asks the interviewee questions while the note taker listens and watches.

The note taker should listen for any questions that he or she still has about the individual following the interview so that the interviewer can ask follow-up questions. Additionally, the note taker should write a brief summary of the life of the person. Students should ask themselves: What caption accompanies the photo or video of this important individual? (The HONY website includes a caption or brief story that accompanies all photographs published.) If a note taker is not available, this responsibility should be completed by the interviewer.

Using the questions referenced in Handout 2 ( Appendix C), students build a profile of the Humans of the Civil War. Depending on class size and time allowed, Phase 2 could require 1 to 2 days to complete. The purpose of this phase is to engage students in their learning and to foster critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity-the four C's of 21st-century learning (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2016).

Phase 3: Digital Presentation and Debrief

To showcase student work, teachers can help students create their Humans of the Civil War display. Including students in the creation of a display using Web 2.0 platforms, such as Lino Boards ( http://en.linoit.com; Lino Boards is a collaborative platform that students can use to express their ideas with images, videos, and documents and is available for iPad, iPhone, and Android.), is one way that students can showcase what they have learned and highlight their creativity. (See Figure 3 for an example. The first author created the Lino Board displayed here. All images were found via Google and were labeled for reuse.)

A digital presentation can also serve as a form of authentic assessment. (According to Wiggins, 1998, "An assessment is authentic when we anchor testing in the kind of work real people do, rather than merely eliciting easy-to-score responses to simple questions," p. 21.) Video taken during Phase 2 can be uploaded to student sites or compiled together in Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides or other presentation software to create a montage.

Following student presentations, the teacher leads students in a discussion of the real lives of the individuals that the students researched. Sample questions include (a) What common themes were represented across all groups of individuals researched? and (b) What did it mean to live during the American Civil War? Teachers can continue to use technology to assess what students have learned. For instance, a collective Google Docs file could be utilized to create a study guide for an upcoming examination, or students can create a hypothetical letter to President Lincoln from the perspective of their individual or groups of individuals. For example, all students who researched civilians could get together and write a letter to President Lincoln about how the war was affecting their lives. This group could be further broken down to include women, men, and Black civilians or slaves.

Students should also be allowed an opportunity to debrief the learning process and activity (as recommended in Beal et al., 2008). Teachers lead students through a conversation about the Humans of the Civil War activity and encourage them to reflect critically on the process. Sample questions include the following: (a) What went well? (b) What could have gone better? and (c) If we do a similar activity again, what should our goals be?

Debriefing allows students to provide valuable feedback to the instructor about what they learned, how the lesson was perceived, and improvements for future iterations. Additionally, allowing students to debrief increases their agency, investment in the class, and investment in their own education.

Lesson in Action

High school students and teachers in a professional development (PD) workshop for middle grades teachers used a version of this lesson plan to engage participants with inquiry-based learning using technology. The teachers divided into groups and traversed their school interviewing people they met to create a Humans of Caldwell Middle School (pseudonym). In the debrief following this activity, teachers were engaged and excited but also nervous about letting students loose around the school.

In our lesson plan, students stay in their classroom under their teacher's supervision and can still become engaged and excited about learning content while using technology. High school students studying American history connected their own personal stories with those of the individuals from the Civil War and appreciated the element of autonomy of learning that the lesson provided.

These two examples showcase how the Humans of the Civil War lesson plan can be used in a variety of classroom contexts. Teachers should use their professional judgement to modify the lesson plan as appropriate for their students.

Conclusion and Implications for the Classroom

The primary affordances of tools like the iPad and platforms such as HONY may be their power to engage students in the use of technology tools that provide mechanisms and context to think through complex systems and ideas. The challenge, in moving forward, may be that teachers do not always see these devices and platforms as tools that can enhance their pedagogical strategies. The key will be to help those individuals, through specific PD and experiences, to recognize the power that these tools provide.

Given the right supports and platforms, the iPad and other mobile devices can be utilized as a way for teachers to engage students in the use of primary resources and the study of history and other social studies topics. Though we have not yet found the best ways to bridge this integration gap, experiences like Humans of the Civil War will help us continue to refine the types of practices, integration, and lessons used in iPad and mobile device integrated classrooms.

Blogs and photoblogs can be used in a variety of ways in the social studies classroom. Smith (n.d.) provided instructions for creating a teacher-centered blog in a history classroom on http://teachinghistory.org. This website provides an overview of how to set up a blog; however, teachers should step back and allow their students to create the blog content.

Kozlowsky (2016), posted on The Social Studies Lab how technology can be used in a social studies classroom, specifically using Adobe Spark. Blogs do not have to be housed on a traditional webpage or platform such as WordPress. Photoblogs can consist of the typical photograph blog or using multimedia such as Adobe Spark or iMovie to create a video blog.

The Humans of the Civil War activity exemplifies the five steps of a transformed lesson according to the RAT framework (Hughes et al., 2006) and utilizes engaging and effective instruction with photoblogging to achieve desired outcomes. Following are the ways in which this lesson met all five steps, based on anecdotal evidence:

The actual mental work changed and expanded. Students are responsible for conducting research, using both traditional research techniques (e.g., a library) and online resources, thus expanding what and how they are learning beyond a didactic lecture. The way teachers think about and approach the lesson also changes. Students are able to take ownership of their learning, which may result in increasing engagement and ultimately learning.

The number of variables involved in the mental process expanded.Students are introduced to websites, mobile devices, filming, photography, interviewing, and note taking. By integrating these tools, students not only develop technology skills but they apply these skills in authentic ways that may enhance their learning experience.

The tool changed the organization in which it has been used. By using mobile devices, websites, and digital presentations to engage students in learning about the individuals who lived during and participated in some way in the American Civil War, technology may move the lesson beyond traditional teacher-centered lectures followed by pen and paper tests toward a student-centered, inquiry-driven classroom.

New players became involved with the tool's use (or expanded use of the tool). By making lessons more student centered, inquiry activity can allow the students to gain agency in their learning, likely increasing their engagement and ultimately their learning.

New opportunities for different forms and types of learning through problem-solving, unavailable in traditional approaches, developed. Through this transformed lesson, students engage in inquiry-based learning, critical thinking about historical information and sources, and the use of technology for digital presentations. These types of experiences can give students the opportunity to engage in authentic learning that can carry over into other types of life experiences.

This sample lesson provides an opportunity for social studies teachers to integrate technology and social media platforms to achieve two important goals in a manner that is both pedagogically sound (TPACK; Mishra & Koehler, 2006) and grounded in content knowledge. First, through the integration of these platforms, teachers are able potentially to engage students in more meaningful instruction that goes beyond lectures and provides authenticity to the students' experiences.

Second, as a result of these platforms, students can gain agency in their learning. In this particular lesson, students make strategic decisions about (a) what is important to know about historical figures, (b) how to best tell a person's story, and (c) how to engage with content about the American Civil War using photoblogs. Teachers can use this lesson, the TPACK model (Mishra & Koehler, 2006), and the RAT framework (Hughes et al., 2006) to reconsider traditional methods of teaching social studies and to include technology in ways that engage students, transform learning, and increase motivation (e.g., Heafner, 2004).

References

Armstrong, P. (2017). Bloom's taxonomy. Retrieved from the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching website: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy

Beal, C. M., Bolick, C. M., & Martorella, P. H. (2008). Teaching social studies in middle and secondary schools (5th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. (Eds.). (2013). Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing for 21st century learning (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Bruns, A. (2011). Beyond difference: Reconfiguring education for the user-led age. In R. Land & S. Bayne (Eds.), Digital difference: Perspectives on online learning (pp. 133-144). Boston, MA: Sense Publishers.

Cuhadar, C. & Kuzu, A. (2010). Improvising interaction through blogs in a constructivist learning environment. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 11, 134-161.

Di Blas, N., Paolini, P., & Sabiescu, A. G. (2012). Collective digital storytelling at school: A whole class interaction. International Journal of Arts and Technology 5, 271-292. doi:10.1504/IJART.2012.046277

Howland, J. L., Jonassen, D. H., & Marra, R. M. (2012). Meaningful learning with technology (4th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

Hughes, J., Thomas, R., & Scharber, C. (2006). Assessing technology integration: The RAT - Replacement, amplification and transformation - Framework. In C. M. Crawford, R. Carlsen, K. McFerrin, J. Price, R. Weber, & D. A. Willis (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2006 (pp. 1616-1620). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.

Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Retrieved from John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation website: http://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

Keen, A. (2008). The cult of the amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today's user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Kozlowsky, A. (2016). Get your students creating content with Adobe Spark Suite. The Social Studies Lab: Thoughts on teaching history as an investigation and the uses of ed tech in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.thesocialstudieslab.com/2016/08/get-your-students-creating-content-with.html.

Kuo, Y., Belland, B. R., & Kuo, Y. (2017). Learning through blogging: Students' perspectives in collaborative blog-enhanced learning communities. Educational Technology and Society, 20, 37-50.

Li, K., Bado, N., Smith, J., & Moore, D. (2013). Blogging for teaching and learning: An examination of experience, attitudes, and levels of thinking. Contemporary Educational Technology, 4, 172-186.

McLoughlin, C., & Lee, M. J. W. (2008). The three P's of pedagogy for the networked society: Personalization, participation, and productivity. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 20, 10-27.

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108, 1017-1054.

Papastergiou, M., Gerodimos, V., & Antoniou, P. (2011). Multimedia blogging in physical education: Effects on student knowledge and ICT self-efficacy. Computers & Education, 57, 1998-2010.

Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2016). Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework

Schmidt, L. (2007). Social studies that sticks: How to bring content and concepts to life. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Sharples, M., & Pea, R. (2014). Mobile learning. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 501-521). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Smith, K. (n.d.). Using blogs in a history classroom. Retrieved from http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/22261

Veletsianos, G., & Navarrete, C. C. (2012). Online social networks as formal learning environments: Learner experiences and activities. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(1), 144-166.

Wiggins, G. P. (1998). Educative assessment: Designing assessments to inform and improve student performance. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Windham, C. (2005). Chapter 5: The student's perspective. In D. G. Oblinger & J. L. Oblinger (Eds.), Educating the Net Generation (pp. 5.1-5.16). Washington, DC: EDUCAUSE.

Appendix A
Handout 1: Names of Individuals to Be Researched

Appendix B
Resources

Lincoln Telegrams ( http://lincolntelegrams.com)

The Lincoln Telegrams Project provides students and teachers with access to 324 telegrams written by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War and are accessible via the project website or through the Apple iTunes app store.

The National Archives ( www.archives.gov) and DocsTeach ( https://www.docsteach.org/)

DocsTeach is sponsored by the National Archives and provides teachers and students access to thousands of primary sources. The website includes ready-to-use activities utilizing the primary sources for teachers to use or modify for their own instructional purposes. Presently, the only mobile platform for DocsTeach is an app for iPads.

Gilder Lehrman ( www.gilderlehrman.org)

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History also offers teachers and students excellent resources for researching the American Civil War. Similar to DocTeach, Gilder Lehrman divides American history into eras (Civil War and Reconstruction-1861-1877) and then sub-themes within each era (e.g., African Americans and Emancipation). The website offers access to both teachers and students; however, at this time no mobile platform is available.

The National Park Service ( www.nps.gov/civilwar/index.htm)

The National Park Service's Civil War website is an excellent place for students to begin their research. The information is easily accessible and organized, including one section especially devoted to the people of the Civil War ( www.nps.gov/civilwar/people.htm).

Appendix C
Handout 2

Name of Interviewer:

Name of Interviewee:

The year 2015 marked the Sesquicentennial anniversary of the American Civil War. You have been charged by the founder of Humans of New York to go back in time and interview the men and women who lived during the Civil War. Your mission is to collect their stories and create your own digital storyboard using Lino boards. Through your interviews, we hope to gain an accurate picture of the Humans of the Civil War. Use the following interview questions as your guide.
Interview Questions

What is your full name?

Where were you born?

Are you married? If so, to whom?

Where did you grow up?

When do you currently live (between 1860 and 1865)?

Do you have any children? If so, what are their names?

Do you support the North or the South in this war? Why?

How have you participated in the fighting? If so, on which side did you fight?

Have you participated in the war effort? If so, how did you help?

What has life been like for you during the Civil War?

Who do you think should win the war and why?

Who do you think will win the war and why?

Tell me about a time in your life when you were the happiest.

Tell me a time in your life when you were the saddest.

What makes you mad?

If you could change one thing about the war, what would it be?

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The Role of Photoblogs in Social Studies Classroom: Learning About the People of the Civil War

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Educating students in the 21st century has necessitated a shift in the way preservice teachers are prepared to use, understand, and interact with social media in the classroom (McLoughlin & Lee, 2008). Bruns (2011) characterized this paradigmatic shift as a movement toward a participatory culture using Web 2.0 technologies-dynamic environments that are reshaping the educational landscape (Keen, 2008).

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Civilians at Gettysburg (U.S. National Park Service)

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John Burns An elderly resident of Gettysburg in 1863, this veteran of the War of 1812 took his musket and powder horn and walked out of town to fight beside Union troops on July 1, 1863. Suffering several wounds, he made his way home where he was left unmolested by Confederate occupiers of the town.

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By Bill Bigelow (part of the Zinn Education Project)

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Most of my students share a cartoon-like version of the causes of the Civil War: slavery was horrible; President Abraham Lincoln was a great man who hated slavery; so, to free the slaves, he fought a war against the South; the North won and the slaves were freed. This common but wildly inaccurate history reinforces at least two unfortunate myths: the United States fights wars only for high moral purposes; and African Americans owe their freedom to the efforts of a great white man. The activities in this lesson offer students a more complex and truthful historical picture, and, thus, help to puncture these myths.

Four political parties competed for the presidency in 1860. The outcome resulted in a social earthquake that permanently transformed the United States of America. The role play asks students to confront the actual issues addressed by the different parties in 1860. It gives students the tools to analyze some of the main causes of the Civil War, and helps them expel the simplistic notions of the war's aims that they may, perhaps unconsciously, carry around.

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The Election of 1860 Role Play " Zinn Education Project

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Most of my students share a cartoon-like version of the causes of the Civil War: slavery was horrible; President Abraham Lincoln was a great man who hated slavery; so, to free the slaves, he fought a war against the South; the North won and the slaves were freed.

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Historical Inquiry Model

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The Doing of History

For Harry Potter and his compatriots, history lessons at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry took the form of brain-deadening encounters with a subject that appeared devoid of inquiry, imagination, interpretation, and personal meaning. This kind of history teaching, however, is not merely the 'stuff of fiction.' Lamentably, the teaching and learning of history as an officially sanctioned, neatly packaged chronicle of facts, people, and events, too often continues to be the experience of current students.

Easily the most boring class was History of Magic... Professor Binns droned on and on while [students] scribbled down names and dates, and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sourcerer's Stone, p. 133

A Story Well Told

Traditionally, history in textbooks involves a series of names and dates integrated into a narrative designed to be easily consumed, with minimal effort, by students and adults alike.

Sources Well Scrutinized

The doing of history is where students "pose questions, collect and analyze sources, struggle with issues of significance, and ultimately build their own historical interpretations." (Levstik, 1996, p. 394)

Learning to Think Historically

Barton contends that it is important to see a student's abilities to comprehend history and think historically as "a set of skills educators can nurture, not an ability whose development they must wait for or whose absence they must lament" (1998, p. 80).

Central Questions of How

How can students be assisted in developing a deep understanding of history?

How do students develop the capacity to contextualize and corroborate historical sources such as texts, photographs, audio, video, and artifacts in the pursuit of establishing the evidence significance as part of the process of historical inquiry?

Understanding the Past

History is a way of organizing and explaining the past. One cannot come to know history by merely learning overviews of the past, nor by simply learning the skills of history in terms of analyzing historical sources. Learning history means learning how to engage in the process of historical inquiry.

Engaging in historical inquiry, in order to develop an understanding of the broad picture of the past, is a cyclical process that begins with the asking of guiding historical questions. These questions are investigated by locating and analyzing traces of the past - historical sources. It is vital to recognize that these records and relics, primary and secondary historical sources, are:

leftover remains and traces from the past, and that we do not have access to every single record, relic, or artifact from the past;

products of very different times and contexts from today, and we must make every effort to try to understand the people, places and times that produced these sources; and

not always developed to serve as intentional evidence of the past, but they can still be analyzed in an attempt to draw credible and worthwhile inferences and claims about the past to help answer historical questions (Lee, 2005, p. 58).

The systematic and sophisticated process of analyzing these historical sources in the light of guiding questions results in historical evidence. This historical evidence, which at times can often be complex and contradictory, is then used to construct credible claims/narratives about the past, or in other word, historical interpretations, that seek to provide answers to the guiding historical questions. These interpretations often open up new avenues for the development of further historical questions and mysteries to be explored.

What is Historical Inquiry?

A central goal of historical inquiry is the understanding of the broad picture of the past. This understanding is a cyclical process that begins with the asking of historical questions. These questions are then investigated by locating and analyzing relevant historical sources. This process of analyzing historical sources results in historical evidence. This historical evidence is then used to construct an historical interprestion relevant to the guiding historical questions.

Historical Inquiry Explanation (video)

SCIM-C: A Strategy for Interpreting History

Grounded within research on teaching and learning history and building upon Riley's (1999) layers of inference model to support teaching evidential understanding, the SCIM-C strategy was developed to provide teachers with a tool to help students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to interpret historical primary sources and reconcile various historical accounts, in order to investigate meaningful historical questions. The SCIM-C strategy focuses on five broad phases: Summarizing, Contextualizing, Inferring, Monitoring, and Corroborating. Further, when students examine an individual source, they move through the first four phases (i.e., summarizing, contextualizing, inferring, and monitoring) and then, after analyzing several individual sources, they compare the sources collectively in the fifth phase (i.e., corroborating).

Summarizing

Summarizing is the first phase of the SCIM-C strategy and begins with having students quickly examine the documentary aspects of the text, in order to find any information or evidence that is explicitly available from the source. Within this phase students should attempt to identify the source's subject, author, purpose, and audience, as well as the type of historical source (e.g., letter, photograph, cartoon). In addition, the student should look for key facts, dates, ideas, opinions, and perspectives that appear to be immediately apparent within the source. The four analyzing questions associated with the summarizing phase include:

A Letter from Bobby Murray to the Children's Bureau (1939)

The first phase of the SCIM strategy is summarizing. The purpose of summarizing is to locate any information or evidence that is explicitly available within the source. The first piece of evidence available from the source is the source type, that is, a letter. At this point it is necessary to read through the letter to get a broad understanding of the letter's author, subject, audience, and purpose.

What does the letter reveal, explicitly? The author of the letter is a 15-year-old boy, Bobby Murray, who is in the 10th grade. The purpose of the letter is to seek assistance to be able to continue school; specifically, he is writing to the government, to the Children's Bureau at the Department of Labor for some help. In addition, the author has a mother and obviously an older sister, who died fairly recently, 6 months earlier, and a niece from his now deceased older sister. The mother works, though not regularly, and pays the family's living expenses.

Contextualizing

Contextualizing begins the process of having students spend more time with the source in order to explore the authentic aspects of the source in terms of locating the source within time and space. The teacher needs to emphasize that it is important to recognize and understand that archaic words and/or images from the period may be in a source. These words and/or images may no longer be used today or they may be used differently, and these differences should be noted and defined. In addition, the meanings, values, habits, and/or customs of the period may be very different from those today. Ultimately, students and teachers must be careful to avoid treating the source as a product of today as they pursue their guiding historical question. The four analyzing questions associated with the contextualizing phase include:

A Letter from Bobby Murray to the Children's Bureau (1939)

The second phase of the SCIM strategy is contextualizing. The purpose of the contextualizing phase is to examine the source in more detail in terms of recognizing and locating the source in time and space. In this case, when and where the letter was written is fairly straightforward and was mentioned previously within the summarization phase. Specifically, the letter was written in 1939, in Malvern, Arkansas. Why the letter was written is also clearly stated. Bobby Murray, the author, is seeking financial assistance from the government to continue his schooling.

The question of what was happening within the immediate and broader context of when and where the letter was written is interesting. The date of 1939 is significant, in a broad context. Ten years earlier, in 1929, the Depression started in the United States. By 1939, however, the time of the writing of this letter, economic life was generally getting better. However, within the immediate context of Malvern, Arkansas, the letter indicates that life was still difficult, though not desperate. The author is not talking about starvation, about being thrown out of his home, or about his niece being taken away from them. Specifically, the letter reveals that unemployment was still a problem for boys under 18 years of age.

Inferring

Inferring is designed to provide students with the opportunity to revisit initial facts gleaned from the source and to begin to read subtexts and make inferences based upon a developing understanding of the context and continued examination of the source. In answering an historical question and working with the primary source, sometimes the evidence is not explicitly stated or obvious in the source, but rather, the evidence is hinted at within the source and needs to be drawn out. The inferring stage provides room for students to explore the source and examine the source's perspective in the light of the historical questions being asked. The four analyzing questions associated with the inferring phase include:

A Letter from Bobby Murray to the Children's Bureau (1939)

At this point, the letter's author, the letter's purpose, and the letter's context have been addressed. Within the SCIM strategy the next phase is inferring, that is, what information may be implied or concluded from the evidence within the source? For example, the letter suggests that the boy is mature for 15 years of age, as he seems to understand the family's dynamics. Specifically, he is concerned with furthering his education, but not allowing his education to adversely affect the family finances.

The author also seems sensitive to his mother's workload and her need to take care of his niece. Unfortunately, the author does not reveal much about his family; specifically, who was his father, how did his sister die, or who was the father of his sister's child? In addition, since the author is writing the Children's Bureau and referencing the Superintendent, it is likely the author already asked the Superintendent for financial assistance. Extending this financial focus, since the author is seeking financial assistance from the government, it can be concluded that the family was not an upper class family, but more likely, a middle or lower class family where finances would be difficult.

Finally, this letter reflects a change in individual's perspectives, that is, the letter reflects a perspective that the government is willing and able to get directly involved in citizen's lives - a perspective not common in the 1920s. Curiously, the author does not provide much explicit information regarding life in Malvern, Arkansas. The author paints a picture of a difficult time, but the author does not reference bleak details about the number of unemployed, the number of students out of school, or the number of people starving, which would suggest that life has improved since the depths of the Depression in early 1930s.

Monitoring

Monitoring is the capstone stage in examining individual sources. Here students are expected to question and reflect upon their initial assumptions in terms of the overall focus on the historical questions being studied. This reflective monitoring is essential in making sure that students have asked the key questions from each of the previous phases. Such a process requires students to examine the credibility and usefulness or significance of the source in answering the historical questions at hand.

Ultimately, monitoring is about reflection, reflection upon the use of the SCIM-C strategy and reflection upon the source itself. The SCIM-C strategy is recursive in nature and thus revisiting phases and questions is essential as one begins to create an historical interpretation of a source in light of one's historical questions. The four analyzing questions associated with the monitoring phase include:

A Letter from Bobby Murray to the Children's Bureau (1939)

The progression from summarizing, through contextualizing, to inferring, always leads to questions. The fourth phase of the SCIM strategy is the monitoring phase, that is, what questions exist regarding initial assumptions and interpretations or current understandings? The author also seems very mature for a 15 year old boy, which raises the question: Was there something about the experience of the depression that would have increased the sense of responsibility of a 15-year-old boy? Also, what opportunities were available to a 15-year-old boy during 1939? The author seems to value an education, why? Did the author see an education as a way to better conditions for himself and his family?

As mentioned previously, the author does not indicate much about the conditions in Malvern, Arkansas. It may help to know more about Malvern to understand the author's environment and better contextualize the contents of the letter. Was Malvern a typical southern community? Similarly, questions remain regarding his family. Who was his father and did something happened to him? What happened to his sister? What happened to his niece's father? Were the conditions of the author's family common during the late 1930s?

Finally, questions remain as to what happened to Bobby Murray and his family. Unbeknownst to Bobby, he will be of a prime draft age when World War II begins for the United States in December 1941. Ultimately, there's a lot in this letter. It is short, but it's clear and it's objective is specific.

Corroborating

Corroborating only starts when students have analyzed a series of sources, and are ready to extend and deepen their analysis through comparing the evidence gleaned from each source in light of the guiding historical questions. What similarities and differences in ideas, information, and perspectives exist between the analyzed sources? Students should also look for gaps in their evidence that may hinder their interpretations and the answering of their guiding historical questions. When they find contradictions between sources, they must investigate further, including the checking of the credibility of the source. Once the sources have been compared the student then begins to draw conclusions based upon the synthesis of the evidence, and can begin to develop their own conclusions and historical interpretation. The four analyzing questions associated with the corroborating phase include:

A Letter from Bobby Murray to the Children's Bureau (1939)

With all four phases of the SCIM strategy complete (not including the Corroborating stage, since multiple sources have not been analyized yet), we are left to create an interpretation of the source relative to the guiding historical question: What was life like for a child during the great Depression? One such interpretation might look like this:

This letter, written in 1939 by Bobby Murray to the Children's Bureau, suggests how the effects of the Depression were felt by one boy and his family. The boy's difficulties were not caused directly by the Depression, but rather by the lack of resources available to the family. The one source of support, the sister, has passed away, leaving the mother to work part-time while also raising her grand-daughter. The Depression is thus a background cause, suggested in the statement that a boy under eighteen cannot find any work. The letter does show, however, how the government is perceived as a source of assistance. Bobby Murray is writing to the Children's Bureau because he is hopeful of receiving some of the assistance being offered to children who cannot pay their school expenses. He refers to the superintendent of the local school district as a reference who will testify to his attendance. The letter thus shows how the combined difficulties of home life and the Depression caused problems for a child, and how the child's response demonstrates both a sense of responsibility and a willingness to look for assistance from as far away as Washington, D.C.. The author is clearly hopeful that a change will come as soon as possible, because any further delays will keep him from school.

As can be seen from the interpretation above, utilizing the SCIM strategy results in a deep, thorough, and careful analysis of the primary source, as well as an insightful and well-grounded interpretation.

Show Me the SCIM-C Strategy

In addition to the aforementioned five phases, within each phase there exists a series of four spiraling analyzing questions that serve to scaffold a concerted level of engagement with each source in order to allow students time to linger and learn from the source in light of the historical question being asked.

View SCIM-C Explanation (video)

Teaching History as Mystery

The whole idea of teaching history as mystery is to get students thinking... That is, we want to hear their ideas;we want to see evidence; and above all, we want to hear reasons, hypotheses, interpretations, and theories that analyze and explain events.
(Gerwin & Zevin, Teaching U.S. History as Mystery, p. 13)

View The Mystery of Sam Smiley

Learning Social Studies

Greg Giardina, 8th grade teacher at Sacred Heart Elementary School, Pittsburgh PA teaches an inquiry lesson about the Cherokee Removal Act of 1838. He uses primary sources from the Library of Congress and the inquiry process of SCIM-C for this historical investigation lesson. His guiding historical question is: "To what extent did the United States Government have a responsibility to serve the will of the majority even if it would violate the rights of the Cherokee?" Mr. Giardina developed this lesson while taking an online professional development class, National History Day Resources At the Library of Congress offered by the Eastern Region TPS Partner at Waynesburg University October, 2013. Co-Teachers for this class were Dr. David Hicks, VA Tech, Dr. John Lee, N.C. State, and Dr. Ann Canning, Waynesburg University.

Learning Social Studies: An Evidence-based Approach

The teaching and learning landscape of social studies is complex and challenging to navigate. This book chapter (Hicks, van Hover, Doolittle, & VanFossen, 2012) highlights eight priciples of learning and how they are applied within the social studies to create complete, student-centered instructional environments that foster deep and flexible learning.

View Learning Social Studies

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For Harry Potter and his compatriots, history lessons at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry took the form of brain-deadening encounters with a subject that appeared devoid of inquiry, imagination, interpretation, and personal meaning. This kind of history teaching, however, is not merely the 'stuff of fiction.'

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Engage students with different types of literature.

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history - united states - civil war period (1850-1877)

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children's books/ages 9-12 graphic novels

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history & the past: general interest (children's / teenage)

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juvenile nonfiction / biography & autobiography / historical

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juvenile nonfiction / comics & graphic novels / history

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juvenile nonfiction / history / united states / 19th century

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juvenile nonfiction / social science / politics & government

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juvenile nonfiction / history / united states / civil war period (1850-1877)

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Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is familiar to all Americans. But never has his most famous speech-his 271 indelible words-been presented in such a visual and accessible format. Graphic artist and Civil War aficionado C. M. Butzer deftly uses a detailed, comic-book style to depic...

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Only civilian casualty at Gettysburg

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1860: The Election that Led to War lesson plan