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5 Teacher-Recommended Tips for Exploring Current Events with Your Students | Brightly

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5 Teacher-Recommended Tips for Exploring Current Events with Your Students | Brightly

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It's a question I hear often, a variation of: "How do I teach the turmoil that's happening right now?"

As teachers, we may wonder if school assemblies or Town Halls are appropriate or effective. Whether bringing up current events in the classroom will just encourage hostilities to bloom. If we should we just get on with the "business of learning." I think that the truth is, whether we try to seal ourselves and our communities off from "negativity," or work to engage young people with their world in a variety of ways, our choices tell a story. Our choices tell children what we value. And regardless of point of view, it seems apparent that critical thinking, multiple literacies, effective communication, and a curiosity about ourselves and one other are skills that we can all agree are necessary for 21st-century students.

With that in mind, I asked real-life teachers to share tips for exploring and reflecting on current events with students. Here's what they suggested:
1. Cultivate critical thinking.
"Being up on current events does not mean simply consuming information," says Jen Vincent, technology integration specialist, teacher mentor, and founder of Teach Mentor Texts. "There has to be a more explicit emphasis on critical thinking when it comes to current events - no matter how old you are ... anyone trying to be cognizant of current events should be looking at multiple resources and broadening their perspective as they grow their understanding and form opinions."

Donalyn Miller, author of Reading in the Wild and The Book Whisperer, has taught fourth through sixth grade language arts and social studies and was a 2010 Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year finalist. She recommends watching " The Danger of a Single Story" TED Talk by author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and " The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child's Bookshelf " TED Talk from children's author Grace Lin.
2. Share a variety of sources and resources.
"If we are teaching young people to be interested in and engaged in current events, we have to be sure to help them know the importance of looking at multiple sources of information and carefully examining them to grow their thinking," Vincent says. She suggests using a variety of resources with students, including Teaching Tolerance and National Public Radio (NPR). She appreciates NPR's "blend of reporting and interviews and personal narratives. I find their nonfiction writing to be so thoughtful and descriptive. It's a great example of how nonfiction writing doesn't have to be boring."

Cornelius Minor, Lead Staff Developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, agrees. In addition to his regular use of periodicals like Sports Illustrated and Teen Vogue, Minor has a dynamic array of resources that he likes to share with middle and high school students.

Minor thinks that databases can serve as helpful resources for students and recommends Opposing Viewpoints, which he describes as "a Gale Research database that is GREAT for classroom use in middle and high school." He also enjoys using Kids InfoBits, a database "that is great for background knowledge."

Podcasts have been making their way onto smartphones everywhere for the past few years - and teachers are now finding ways to use them in the classroom. Minor says Edge of Sports is of "high interest for all my sport kids ... Heavy social commentary." Pod Save the People is another on his list, as it covers "current events and the YOUNG people fueling them." Finally, he recommends Revisionist History to build "context, critical thinking, [and] perspective."

Miller also points to the Newsela app as a companion resource to illuminate cultural issues.
3. Empower learners through storytelling.
"Kids are aware of what's going on in their communities, in our country, and in the world. When we share stories that invite them to talk about difficult issues, we're also inviting them to be part of the solutions," points out award-winning author and former classroom teacher Kate Messner. She tackles opioid addiction, economic insecurity and homelessness, and the prison industry in her latest middle grade novels, The Seventh Wish, The Exact Location of Home, and the upcoming . Messner says, "Jewell Parker Rhodes is an author who does an amazing job telling these kinds of stories. Her middle grade novel Towers Falling helps young readers to understand what happened on 9/11, as well as the aftermath of that event, while her upcoming takes on the issues of racism and police shootings."

Miller has also turned to books in her teaching. She says that books like Fault Lines in the Constitution, Girl Rising, and Fred Korematsu Speaks Up have also been helpful in her work to engage students with current events.

Vincent recommends reading widely - and hitting the history books. "Read across time periods and look at themes. Compare history to today ... and then look for what can be done so we see change."
4. Get kids thinking - and involved in the learning.
Minor embraces drawing from multiple media sources and pop culture to get kids involved in the classroom. "Kids are overrun with media messages. I bring in media once a week so that we can practice using strategies to make sense of it all and to critique what needs critiquing (ALL OF IT) ... I allow them to vote on what I use. This has become an essential practice," he explains.

Vincent also believes that empowering kids to have conversations about current events can happen through the lens of culture. "My husband and kids are huge sports fans so we often have ESPN on in our house ... they were discussing the Rooney Rule," she says. "Believe it or not, they discuss a lot of current event topics in the midst of sports."
5. Examine your thinking, broaden your own perspective.
It's vital that we examine these issues and our responses to them with our colleagues, in our communities. Minor led an "Impromptu Conversation Led by Cornelius Minor" at the 2016 International Literacy Association conference that drew raves from conference attendees, immediately after the shocking killing of Philando Castile by a police officer in Minnesota. Rather than simply review topics and list resources, according to Literacy Daily, Minor "took the time to show how to model a conversation about a difficult topic using a method that could be used on a variety of subjects or tailored for a variety of classrooms."

Drawing on the resources of a community can also offer an opportunity to gain a wider perspective, points out teacher Christina Torres in " 3 Tips for Current-Event Lesson Plans." She emphasizes the importance of being intentional and consistent in her thinking about discussing current events in the classroom. She also suggests that your community goes beyond your physical surroundings: "Being part of an online community enables me to feel comfortable throwing out questions. Of course, being part of a community also means coming to the aid of and discussing with others - so I recommend having these conversations early and often!"

We are sure to experience various levels of discomfort as we navigate these complex conversations about what happens around us and on the news. But more and more of us are realizing that it's necessary to be up to the challenge of teaching the "real world." We do not have to have all the answers - we can't. But with input from other teachers, and resources like lesson plans and training from the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility and We Are Teachers's " 8 Smart Ways to Teach Current Events in the Classroom," we can help ourselves and our young people ask and learn from the questions.

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5 Teacher-Recommended Tips for Exploring Current Events with Your Students | Brightly

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It's a question I hear often, a variation of: "How do I teach the turmoil that's happening right now?" As teachers, we may wonder if school assemblies or Town Halls are appropriate or effective. Whether bringing up current events in the classroom will just encourage hostilities to bloom.

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Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States

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Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States

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Enter the Atlas Table of Contents

A spectacular historical atlas refashioned for the 21st century

Here you will find one of the greatest historical atlases: Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright's Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, first published in 1932. This digital edition reproduces all of the atlas's nearly 700 maps. Many of these beautiful maps are enhanced here in ways impossible in print, animated to show change over time or made clickable to view the underlying data-remarkable maps produced eight decades ago with the functionality of the twenty-first century.

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Old Atlas, New Functionality

Georectified Maps

Most maps in the atlas have been georectified, warped so that they can be placed consistently on top of a digital map.

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Navigating the Atlas

For most maps in the atlas click on georectified ⇆ plate to toggle back and forth between views of the georectified maps and how they look in the printed atlas.

There are lots of maps in the Atlas. Open up the table of contents to find what you're looking for among the atlas's 14 chapters and nearly 700 maps.

If you want to know more about a map, open up the text to read more about the sources on which it was based.

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Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States

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Enter the Atlas Table of Contents Here you will find one of the greatest historical atlases: Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright's Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, first published in 1932. This digital edition reproduces all of the atlas's nearly 700 maps.

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Games and Animations – Best of History Web Sites

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Games and Animations – Best of History Web Sites

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Welcome to the Best of History Web Sites Games and Animations section. Below you will find an annotated list of fun history games and animations organized around broad historical periods. Most of these games and animation are aimed at students ages 10-16. We hope you enjoy these selections and encourage you to submit a recommended history game or animation to us via the contact form. Many thanks to Joshua Dale for his help in organizing and developing this section. - Tom Daccord

Ancient History Games and Animations

Gladiator: Dressed to Kill
This game has the player choose the correct armor for three different types of Roman gladiators within a time limit. Each gladiator then fights and wins or loses based on what the player's choices were.

Housesteads Fort
This is a 3D tour of a reconstruction of a Roman fort along Hadrian's Wall in Ancient Britain.

Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii in 79 AD
This is a scavenger hunt that presents the user with several web sites and asks them to research the answers to various questions.

The Mummy Maker
Test your knowledge of history with an interactive challenge. Enter the embalmer's workshop and prepare a body for burial.

Roman Villa
This is an interactive reconstruction of a Roman villa viewed in Google Earth.

Discover Babylon 500
This strategy game provides challenges and mysteries that can only be solved through developing an understanding of Mesopotamian society.

Death in Rome
This game presents the user with a scene where a Roman dies and the user then has to figure out how the Roman died. The player uses evidence from the scene and information both from witnesses and modern experts.

Pyramid Challenge
This game presents the user with a series of challenges related to building a pyramid for the Egyptian Pharaoh. The construction of the pyramid succeeds or fails based on the player's decisions.

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
This quiz has the user match the wonders of the ancient world with descriptions in a variety of formats.

Anglo-Saxon Coins
In this game you learn stories behind the coins and try to make "money talk."

Inca Investigation
Players investigate maps and artifacts to learn what life was once like in Huánuco Pampa.

Medieval History Games and Animations

Middle Ages
This game quizzes the user on events in the Middle Ages.

Asian Middle Ages Chronology
This game prompts the player to reorder several events that took place in Asia during the Middle Ages.

King of the Hill
Dispatch armies of dispensable peasantry to defend your royal honor, your Majesty.

1066 The Game
You'll take the field with the Saxons, the Normans, and the Vikings to fight battles which decided England's fate.

Asian Middle Ages People, Places, and Things
This game quizzes the user on Asia during the Middle Ages.

Destroy the Castle
Build your own virtual trebuchet and fire giant sandstone balls at a castle wall. You decide on the size of your projectiles, where to place your trebuchet, and other factors critical to success.

Build a Medieval Arch
find out how medieval masons built cathedral arches - without the benefits of modern technology.

Early Modern History Games and Animations

The Battle of Waterloo Game
This game allows the user to replay the Battle of Waterloo and make the decisions that both generals faced.

Great Fire of London Animation
see contemporary etchings of the London skyline, showing the extent of the devastation. Afterwards, you could view the changing designs for St Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt in the aftermath of the fire by Sir Christopher Wren.

Abolition of Slavery
BBC History has created an interactive Google Maps mashup about the end of British Slavery.

Pirates!
Take this quiz about pirate lore and find out if you'll have to walk the plank!

Gunpowder Plot Game
Guy Fawkes was among a gang of Roman Catholic conspirators who wanted to blow up the House of Lords and assassinate King James VI of Scotland and I of England. As part of their plan, they stored gunpowder kegs in the cellars of the House of Lords. You must find those kegs before the fizzing fuse causes disaster!

London: A Life in Google Maps
This British Library creation charts the growth of London through the ages via seven chronological themes.

Early U.S. History Games and Animations

Places of the American Revolution
This game quizzes the user on important locations in the American Revolution in the form of a matching game, flashcards, concentration, or a word search.

On the Trail of Captain John Smith: A Jamestown Adventure
Follow in the footsteps of Captain John Smith to discover what life was like in the New World 400 years ago.

The British are Coming!
This timed quiz game quizzes the user with questions about the American Revolution. The goal is for Paul Revere to beat the British, but he only moves when the player gets a question correct.

Freecol
This is a strategy game based on the game Colonization where the objective is to create an independent nation.

The Flames of the Rebellion
This downloaded feature is a strategy game that allows two players to play either as the British or the Colonials and play out the Revolutionary War for control of the thirteen colonies.

Fact Match
This is a concentration type game about the American Revolution.

Bill of Rights
This game quizzes the user on the Bill of Rights in a variety of formats.

Franklin's Lifetime
Explore Benjamin Franklin's life through a variety of interactive exhibits.

Nation-Building U.S. History Games and Animations

Animated Atlas
This site features a ten minute, interactive movie that is a geographic history of the United States, locating major events and the admission of every state.

Constitution Facts
Test your constitution IQ with an interactive quiz and see how you scored against others in your state and nationally.

Argument Wars
Players debate historical Supreme Court cases by advancing arguments and backing them up.

Which Founding Father Are You?
Answer five questions to see who you best match up with.

Strike it Rich!
This PBS game will see if you have what it takes to strike it rich in the gold rush!

Early American Reformers of the 1800's
This game quizzes the user on important terms from reform movements in the 1800s.

Modern U.S. History Games and Animations

World War I Study Activity
This game quizzes the user on World War I in a variety of ways.

Electoral College by States
This game quizzes the user on how many electoral votes states have in a variety of ways.

America Becomes a World Power
This game quizzes the user on how America became a world power.

U.S. Navy Fleet
This Google Earth Tour for the 2010 San Francisco Fleet Week includes a voice overlay, images, video and more.

The Redistricting Game
The game introduces the redistricting system, explores potential abuses, and offers info about reform.

Do I Have a Right?
Explore the Bill of Rights in the context of operating and growing a Constitutional law firm from obscure to distinguished status.

1960-1980 Challenge
This game quizzes the user on events in the U.S. between 1960 and 1980.

U.S. Presidents
This game asks the user 10 questions about the presidents of the U.S.

Characteristics of Geographic Regions
This game quizzes the user on geographic regions in the U.S. in a variety of formats.

American Dynasties
This immersive digital video game enables players to live the lives of Americans from eras past.

Apollo 11
This Google Earth tour portrays the landing, moon walks, and the return to space of Apollo 11 YouTube videos, astronaut narrations, sound effects, and 3D models.

How Big is the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill?
This website uses Google Maps to compare the size of the 2010 Deep Horizon oil spill to various cities.

Modern World History Games and Animations

Warfare 1917
Build armies and send them into battle. Certain death, or ultimate victory?

Between the Wars Vocabulary
This feature presents the user with flashcards about World Wars I and II. The questions it offers are very good, though it does not allow the user to enter an answer.

Cyber School Bus
This is a collection of games by the UN. There are several different types of games and quizzes about world issues and countries.

The Changing British Population
Play the animation and track how key events in British history have affected the size of the British population.

FreeCiv
In this free and open-source empire-building strategy game your mission is to lead your tribe from the stone age to the space age.

This is a clone of the board game Axis and Allies and can be played online.

Animated Maps and Map Games

Crisis in Darfur
"Crisis in Darfur" is an impressive, interactive Google Earth file from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as part of their "Mapping Initiatives." Students can view images of burned-out Darfur villages and gain a deeper understanding of the destruction as a result of the civil strife in the area.

The Western Front, 1914-1918 Animation
This animated map shows the Western Front of World War I.

Animated Map: The Fall of France (Dunkirk)
This animated map shows the fall of France during World War II.

Kings and Queens Through Time
In this animated timeline you put the kings and queens of England, and later the United Kingdom, in their proper place. There are four periods to explore.

Google Earth for Educators
This site is brought to you by Google and made especially for Google Earth educators and students. Come join and help us build it!

U.S. Presidents Birth Places
This Google Maps charts U.S. Presidents via their birth places.

Plague in Gotham!
Interactive Google Map of 1832 cholera outbreak in New York.

Mapping America: Every City, Every Block
New York Times interactive map that allows users to browse local data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey -based on samples from 2005 to 2009.

Conflict History
This is a timeline and Google Map of world conflicts from 3000 BC to the 1970's.

BibleMap. org
This website creates a free Bible atlas illustrated with Google maps.

Do you know about US@ Geography?
This website offers four activities for learning about the geography of the United States.

Animated Map: Gettysburg
This is an animated map from Civil War Animated showing the Battle of Gettysburg.

Animated Map: Chancellorsville
This is an animated map from Civil War Trust showing the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Animated Map: Battle of Somme
This is an animated map showing the Battle of Somme in WWI.

Animated Map: The Burma Campaign
This animated map shows the campaign in Burma during World War II.

Animated Maps of European Mapmaking
Explore the changing European view of the world in the animated history of maps across the centuries.

GeoBee Challenge
The GeoBee Challenge from National Geographic is a game that features five new geography-based questions every day.

Social Explorer
interactive maps allow you to choose a time period and demographic feature to look at census data from 1790 to 2000.

Mapping the Holocaust (Google Earth)
Uses Google Earth to map key Holocaust sites with historic content illustrating the enormous scope and impact of the Holocaust.

The Traveler IQ Challenge
The Traveler IQ Challenge is a fun online geography game that tests your knowledge of various places in the world.

BBC Dimensions
allows users to overlay historical landmarks and events over other locations on a Google Map.

The Jew Map
This map shows the locations of important landmarks in Jewish history.

Philaplace
This website connects stories in Philadelphia's neighborhoods interactively via maps through personal accounts, videos and photographs.

Calisphere
As part of a project to digitize California artifacts, five Google Maps have been created to showcase digitized historical photographs.

Sydney Sidetracks
This interactive map explores the history of inner-city Sydney via audio, video, and photographs.

Historypin
Users can overlay (mainly historical) photographs on top of Google Maps Street View and add a story!

FreePoverty.com
This geography game allows participants to donate water to people who live in extreme poverty. The game presents a city or landmark, and you have a short amount of time (5 to 10 seconds) to locate it on a map.

Animated Timelines

Worldhistory
Create your own biography timeline and map, add your ancestors, and view them on a historical map.

Scavenger Hunt Through History
This PBS game challenges players to match a historical event with the time period in which it occured.

The Third Reich
An animated timeline of Germany under Hitler.

History of Religion
This animated map and timeline gives a brief history of the world's most well-known religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism.

March of Democracy
This map flashes democracy's "march across history" in 90 seconds.

Science and Technology in World War II
This engaging timeline is from the National World War II Museum.

Immigration Explorer
This New York Times interactive timeline/map shows how immigrants settled in the U.S. over time.

Paul Revere's Ride
An animated timeline of Paul Revere's life.

Road to Revolution
An animated timeline of events leading to the American Revolution.

The English Democracy
An animated timeline of the growth of English democracy to the Bill of Rights.

Growth of a Nation
This is a 10-minute animated timeline of the physical growth of the United States.

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Welcome to the Best of History Web Sites Games and Animations section. Below you will find an annotated list of fun history games and animations organized around broad historical periods. Most of these games and animation are aimed at students ages 10-16.

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Is Your Morning Work Making Kids THINK? - Miss DeCarbo

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Is Your Morning Work Making Kids THINK? - Miss DeCarbo

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Take a minute and think about what your students do during their first ten or fifteen minutes of class. Are they getting started on their morning work?

If we took a time machine back to my first two years of teaching, my first graders worked on what we called "Math Boxes" from the Everyday Math program. When I moved to second grade a few years later, my students completed a daily "fix it" page. If we go back just a couple years ago, my first graders worked on a math or word work page.

My kids were working on what I would call "practice work." They were answering questions. They were working on surface level activities. They were bored.Some struggled. Others finished so quickly that I spent more time working on "fast finisher" activities than I wanted to admit to anyone.

Hear me out. There is absolutely, positively, nothing wrong with printable practice pages for morning work. I have used them and I will use them again in my classroom. Sometimes our kids need additional practice. But this past year, I found myself wondering if there was something they could do in the morning that would work for ALL levels of learners AND foster pure, genuine thinking skills. What would integrate writing, science and social studies content, discussion, and critical thinking within those first 10 minutes of class?
What would make them THINK?
I started to dive into brain research. I discovered the power of pre-exposure for our students. Students will make more connections and retain more information if they are pre-exposed to content BEFORE we directly teach it.

A week later, I had a plan in place. I threw away the printables sitting in our Morning Work basket. I looked at my lesson plans and saw that we were going to use the old strategy of "seeing, thinking, and wondering" in social studies. We were suppose to talk about the past and the present. I threw this photograph onto my smart board:

"What ARE those buckets used for?" my students asked. "What do YOU think they are used for?" I asked them right back. 😉

First, they wrote down what they could see in the photograph. I encouraged them to use describing words and paint a "vivid" picture in their readers' minds. It didn't matter if they didn't know what the item was in the photograph, I just simply wanted them to write what they could see.

Then, they wrote about what they thought the item in the photograph was used for. They wrote about what they thought they knew about the topic. They wrote about what they thought it did, or who used it. The verb to pay attention to?? They thought about what they were seeing and looking at. They were thinking. I was immediately hooked. Now THIS is what I wanted morning work to look like for my students. I wanted it to say, "Wake up! Good morning! Today we are going to THINK!" In the final section, they jotted down questions they had about the photograph. Yes, yes yes! Genuine curiosity! (Remember, I had not told them anything about the photograph!)

The final part of this quick but effective morning work activity is the 2-3 minutes of discussion time that I provided my students with. This is where the real magic happened. As the students had a discussion and shared their ideas, they figured out A LOT of information about the photograph!

By the time our 10-12 minutes was up, my students had figured out that the buckets were old, they were used for carrying things, and that people long ago must have used them. I filled them in with some accurate, short information on lunch pails and how they were used long ago by children. Guess what?! When we got to our "long ago" unit later in the day, my students had been pre-exposed to a small detail about life long ago, which later helped them make connections to other areas and topics within the unit.

And so it began. Tuesday-Thursday, I threw a photograph up on the board. (Monday and Friday were journal prompt days.) Often the photographs were connected to a concept or topic we were studying in math, social studies, or science. Sometimes they were random antique objects that I knew my kids wouldn't truly "know." I waited for them to think, discuss, ponder, and draw conclusions about what the object was used for and what it was. They were developing problem solving skills and critical thinking abilities faster than I anticipated!

So why did I do away with our "practice pages" in the morning for this new, integrated writing experience? Here are five reasons why I gave my morning work a "makeover."

I want to CAPTURE my students during those first ten minutes of school. I want to ignite their excitement and their thirst for learning. Providing open-ended discussions and writing opportunities was much more engaging and thought-provoking than the practice pages we were using the prior year. (Again, there's nothing wrong with using practice pages! But for this group of kids, and my teaching style - this "makeover" was what they needed. It worked and we LOVED it!)

Our students are not born knowing how to think critically. The ability to think critically is a life-long skill that needs to be developed and fostered on a daily basis by teachers, families, and the community. I want even those first 10 minutes of the day to be a time when my kids are deeply engaged in thinking critically about a real-world topic.

It was really difficult for me to differentiate my morning work when I used practice pages. Yes, I often tried to run other skill levels off for my kids who were high achievers. But this turned out to be exhausting! Even if I was organized, I found it difficult to manage each morning. By having my kids participate in a writing-based morning work activity, each child was able to work at his or her level. No matter where they were in their writing skills, 100% of my students were capable of coming up with ideas and getting them onto the paper in some way. For kinders, that could mean drawing pictures. For emerging writers, it may mean labeling. My capable writers took off with pencils flying! Here are two pictures. One is a struggling writer and one is a proficient writer. Regardless of the length of writing, the important thing to note is that within the same ten minutes, both students were fostering thinking and writing skills:

Our time at school is limited. We have so much to do. So much to teach. So much content to make sure our lesson are covering. Pre-exposing my kids to what we were going to learn about later on in the day not only maximized my afternoon lessons, but they allowed my students to make deep connections between the facts we briefly discussed in the morning to the information we learned in the afternoon. Our subjects (math, writing, social studies, science) were blurring together. I showed an abacus one morning. The students wrote about it and later connected what they knew to the addition practice we were completing at the small group table later in the day. Integrating our content whenever possible - even in short, small doses - leads to amazing results!

Children are naturally curious! Make morning work fun by putting the creativity back into it! One morning I showed an antique mixer on the screen. My students, who did not know what it was, came up with ideas on everything from a pencil sharpener to a machine that cleaned dishes (far-fetched, but creative, nonetheless). (Later, as they discussed the photograph together, they came to the conclusion that the item was a "cake mixer." The cool part? They came to that conclusion entirely on their own! When they do not accurately draw the correct conclusion, they have fun listening to me share facts and details about the photograph. At that point, they are so involved and "into" the photograph that they are captivated by the information!) When I was using practice review pages as my morning work, my kids were not given creativity in their work. Now, they have the opportunity to put their own voice, flair, creativity, and sense of self into their morning work time!

I hope you enjoyed reading about our morning work routine. My See, Think, Wonder, Write pack contains 75 photographs that you can use as you implement this into your classroom! Please note, this pack is not only intended for morning work time - you can use it whenever and however you wish!

Fast Fact pages take the guesswork out for the teachers! Each photograph contains a Fast Fact sheet that you can use to guide your discussion of the photograph and teach your students some basic facts after they have completed their see, think, wonder, write activity.

Guiding questions for each step of the activity are included. Signs and posters can be printed out and used as visual reminders to help students stay on task.

Even kinders can use this pack! A blank template has been provided for children to draw their thinking. Beginning and intermediate templates have been included, as well.

Click HERE to check out my pack in my TpT store. Or, click on the picture below:

Are you looking for more engaging curriculum products for your students?

You can click on the video below to get a glimpse of some of my other creations!

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Is Your Morning Work Making Kids THINK? - Miss DeCarbo

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Take a minute and think about what your students do during their first ten or fifteen minutes of class. Are they getting started on their morning work? If we

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

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Explore the dynamics of our changing planet over the past three and a half decades.

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Voices of a People's History of the United States, 10th Anniversary Edition » Zinn Education Project

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Voices of a People's History of the United States, 10th Anniversary Edition » Zinn Education Project

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Voices of a People's History is the companion volume to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. For , Zinn and Arnove have selected testimonies to living history - speeches, letters, poems, songs - left by the people who make history happen but who usually are left out of history books. Zinn has written short introductions to the texts, which range in length from letters or poems of less than a page to entire speeches and essays that run several pages. Voices of a People's History is a symphony of our nation's original voices, rich in ideas and actions, the embodiment of the power of civil disobedience and dissent wherein lies our nation's true spirit of defiance and resilience.

Here in their own words are Frederick Douglass, George Jackson, Chief Joseph, Martin Luther King Jr., Plough Jogger, Sacco and Vanzetti, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Mark Twain, Paul Robeson, Cesar Chavez, Leonard Peltier, June Jordan, Walter Mosley, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Yolanda Huet-Vaughn, and Malcolm X, to name just a few of the hundreds of voices that appear in Voices of a People's History of the United States, edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove.

The 10th anniversary edition will feature new voices including whistleblower Chelsea Manning; Naomi Klein, speaking from the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Liberty Square; a member of Dream Defenders, a youth organization that confronts systemic racial inequality; members of the undocumented youth movement, who occupied, marched, and demonstrated in support of the DREAM Act; a member of the day laborers movement; and several critics of the Obama administration, including Glenn Greenwald, on governmental secrecy. [Publisher's description.]

ISBN: 9781609805920 | Published by Seven Stories Press.

Reviews

"Voices should be on every bookshelf. [It presents] the rich tradition of struggle in the United States, from the resistance to the conquest of the Americas in the era of Columbus through the protests today of soldiers and their families against the brutal invasion and occupation of Iraq." -Arundhati Roy

"In Voices of a People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn has given us our true story, the ongoing, not-so-secret narrative of race and class in America." -Russell Banks

"When I began work, five years ago, on what would become the present volume, Voices of a People's History of the United States, I wanted the voices of struggle, mostly absent from our history books, to be given the place they deserve. I wanted labor history, which has been the battleground, decade after decade, century after century, of an ongoing fight for human dignity, to come to the fore. And I wanted my readers to experience how at key moments in our history some of the bravest and most effective political acts were the sounds of the human voice itself.

"To omit or to minimize these voices of resistance is to create the idea that power only rests with those who have the guns, who possess the wealth, who own the newspapers and the television stations. I want to point out that people who seem to have no power, whether working people, people of color, or women-once they organize and protest and create movements-have a voice no government can suppress." -Howard Zinn, from the introduction

Excerpt

Included in Voices of a People's History is the full statement Paul Robeson intended to present when called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) on June 12, 1956. Robeson, who had been a fierce opponent of racism and the foreign policy of the United States, was not allowed to read his statement.

"It would be more fitting for me to question Walter, Eastland, and Dulles than for them to question me, for it is they who should be called to account for their conduct, not I. Why does Walter not investigate the truly "un-American" activities of Eastland and his gang, to whom the Constitution is a scrap of paper when invoked by the Negro people and to whom defiance of the Supreme Court is a racial duty? And how can Eastland pretend concern over the internal security of our country while he supports the most brutal assaults on fifteen million Americans by the white citizens councils and the Ku Klux Klan? When will Dulles explain his reckless irresponsible "brink of war" policy by which the world might have been destroyed?"

Book Preview

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Voices of a People's History of the United States, 10th Anniversary Edition " Zinn Education Project

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Voices of a People's History is the companion volume to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. For , Zinn and Arnove have selected testimonies to living history - speeches, letters, poems, songs - left by the people who make history happen but who usually are left out of history books.

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Make your own custom map of the World, United States, Europe, and 50+ different maps. Color an editable map and download it for free to use in your project.

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ClassHook | Educational Clips from Popular Media

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ClassHook | Educational Clips from Popular Media

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"ClassHook is the creative piece I've been looking for YEARS!! Anytime I see a clip in a movie that I could use, I try and make a mental note but usually have a hard time accessing the movie. Because I teach anatomy, there are SOOOO many possibilities. This is a fantastic site."

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ClassHook | Educational TV and Movie Clips

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Make learning relevant with educational scenes from TV shows & movies.

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(1) Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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(1) Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

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Newsela | Content and assessment platform

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Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.

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Reviews & Age Ratings - Best Movies, Books, Apps, Games for Kids

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Reviews & Age Ratings - Best Movies, Books, Apps, Games for Kids

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Jump to navigation

Parents and kids say

Russian brutality, kept interested but too much nudity

The movie is interesting with good story line but not a family movie as too violent, women are yet again sexualized. Too much nudity and sex scenes and inappropriate language for young minds in my opinion.

This book is definitely my new favorite! I love it so much! Ready Player One has such a great plot. Once I hit Chapter 6, I couldn't seem to put it down. I'm a huge fan of the '80s so it just made this book even better

Common Sense is grateful for the generous support of our foundation partners:

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Jump to navigation Russian brutality, kept interested but too much nudity The movie is interesting with good story line but not a family movie as too violent, women are yet again sexualized. Too much nudity and sex scenes and inappropriate language for young minds in my opinion.

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OER Project is a family of free, online social studies curricula. Aligned to state standards and easily adaptable.

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BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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Teachinghistory.org is designed to help K-12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) has created Teachinghistory.org with the goal of making history content, teaching strategies, resources, and research accessible.

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"PNC Christmas Price Index" and "Christmas Price Index" are registered marks of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. ("PNC") provides investment consulting and wealth management, fiduciary services, FDIC-insured banking products and services, and lending of funds to individual clients through PNC Bank, National Association ("PNC Bank"), which is a Member FDIC, and provides specific fiduciary and agency services to individual clients through PNC Delaware Trust Company or PNC Ohio Trust Company. PNC provides various discretionary and nondiscretionary investment, trustee, custody, consulting, and related services to institutional clients through PNC Bank. PNC does not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice unless, with respect to tax advice, PNC Bank has entered into a written tax services agreement. PNC Bank is not registered as a municipal advisor under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Investments: Not FDIC Insured. No Bank Guarantee. May Lose Value

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. ("PNC") uses the marketing names PNC Private Bank ® and PNC Private Bank Hawthorn ® to provide investment consulting and wealth management, fiduciary services, FDIC-insured banking products and services, and lending of funds to individual clients through PNC Bank, National Association ("PNC Bank"), which is a Member FDIC, and to provide specific fiduciary and agency services through PNC Delaware Trust Company or PNC Ohio Trust Company. PNC does not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice unless, with respect to tax advice, PNC Bank has entered into a written tax services agreement. PNC Bank is not registered as a municipal advisor under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

"PNC Private Bank," and "PNC Private Bank Hawthorn" are registered marks of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
Investments: Not FDIC Insured. No Bank Guarantee. May Lose Value.

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. ("PNC") uses the marketing name PNC Institutional AssetManagement® for the various discretionary and non-discretionary institutional investment, trustee,custody, consulting, and related services provided by PNC Bank, National Association ("PNC Bank"),which is a Member FDIC, and investment management activities conducted by PNC Capital Advisors,LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser and wholly-owned subsidiary of PNC Bank. PNC does not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice unless, with respect to tax advice, PNC Bank has entered into a written tax services agreement. PNC Bank is not registered as a municipal advisor under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

"PNC Institutional Asset Management" is a registered mark of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
Investments: Not FDIC Insured. No Bank Guarantee. May Lose Value.

"PNC Grow Up Great" is a registered mark of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc

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For the past 40 years, PNC computes the costs of the twelve gifts from the Christmas Carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with PNC Christmas Price Index.

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The Kid Should See This | Smart videos for curious minds of all ages: Science, art, nature, animals, space, technology, DIY, food, music, animation, and more

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The Kid Should See This | Smart videos for curious minds of all ages: Science, art, nature, animals, space, technology, DIY, food, music, animation, and more

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Stories & Lesson Plans | Global Oneness Project

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Stories & Lesson Plans | Global Oneness Project

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Forvo: the pronunciation dictionary. All the words in the world pronounced by native speakers

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Forvo: the pronunciation dictionary. All the words in the world pronounced by native speakers

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A mother of three, Homa Sabet Tavangar has 25+ years' experience helping governments create the conditions to spur global competitiveness, advising businesses on how to thrive abroad, talking to parents on raising global citizens, and training K-12 to adult educators on building global competencies and bringing the world into their classrooms.

In the acclaimed Growing Up Global, Tavangar shares her "parenting toolbox" to help give all children a vital global perspective. Through subsequent publications and projects, she has served as a leading voice in creating the conditions across learning environments and media to break barriers, and build global connections, social-emotional learning, equity, creativity and innovation.

The challenges of globalization, diversity, sustainability, and peace have never been greater. We need relevant, rigorous, empathy-building, 21st-Century education that helps make sense of these border-less issues and innovates around real human experiences. Homa's work shows that this need not be overly complicated and can begin anywhere, right now.

Featured Stories from the Blog

Earlier this month I was in Los Angeles for the public launch of one of the most exciting projects I've ever been fortunate enough to work on: A new children's animated series called Nina's World! The show is a sort of prequel to the Sprout network's long-running, popular GoodNight Show, starring the sparkling Michele Lepe... Unabashedly Excited to Announce...Nina's World! - Continue reading

"New Book Offers Advice On Raising Kids To Be Global Citizens." Homa visits the set of Philadelphia's NBC10 to share some easy-to-try resources and tips from Growing Up Global.

Praise from Jane to Rainn

From Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE - Founder, Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace:"Growing up Global' offers fascinating ideas for giving young people opportunities to become truly global citizens. Learning about the customs and culture of others around the globe enriches our lives so much and can only lead to better understanding and cooperation for generations to come. From Rainn Wilson: "The Office" star Rainn Wilson Tweeted to 2+ million Twitter followers:"RT @RainnWilson: Parents of future world citizens. Dig on this awesome new book that raises children to be at home in the world - http://bit.ly/j9jzh"

From Tony Wagner, author of Creating Innovators and The Global Achievement Gap "Homa Tavangar is one of those rare individuals who both speaks and writes eloquently about what it means to prepare young people to be true world citizens. She has much to offer community and civic leaders, parents, and educators and has my highest recommendation. Her book, Growing Up Global, makes a unique - and much-needed - contribution at the intersection of parenting, education and global know-how."
More Reviews →

Interested in having Growing Up Global come to life at your conference, school, church, workplace or benefit event?

Presentations include robust visual materials and address issues of global learning, diversity, team building, and more. Contact Homa to learn more about tailored presentations and why audiences are unanimously enthusiastic about them.

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A mother of three, Homa Sabet Tavangar has 25+ years' experience helping governments create the conditions to spur global competitiveness, advising businesses on how to thrive abroad, talking to parents on raising global citizens, and training K-12 to adult educators on building global competencies and bringing the world into their classrooms. In the acclaimed Growing Up Global, Tavangar shares her "parenting toolbox" to help give all children a vital global perspective.

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5 YouTube Channels That Rock! - History Gal

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5 YouTube Channels That Rock! - History Gal

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I am slightly obsessed with finding quality YouTube videos for Middle and High School Social Studies classes. Let's face it, there are A LOT of bad YouTube videos out there and it can be painful to find a video that is entertaining, yet educational.

So here's my list of 5 YouTube Channels you should check out, bookmark, and maybe even subscribe.

1. Crash Course - There's a video for just about every topic in US History, World History, Economics, Government, and even Psychology. They are entertaining and stuffed full with information about each topic. The videos are usually between 10-15 minutes long.

2. Mr. Betts Class - He has music videos for US and World History that are completely goofy, but with great content and students LOVE them!

3. Laughing Historically - Because who wouldn't want Third Parties explained by Star Wars?! Only venture here if you have some time on you hands because there are so many awesome videos here, you'll find yourself binge-watching them all!

4. Disney The American Presidents - So far, they have videos for George Washington, John Adams, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. Each run a little over 3 minutes long and your students will much rather watch these than that *cough* other president video you were going to show.

5. Vlog Brothers - Another great channel by John and Hank Green (yes, the Crash Course guys and how did I not connect that the Crash Course John Green is the same Fault in Our Stars John Green?! Anyway, I digress...). I am loving their current How to Vote in Every State series and their videos that explain complicated current events.

*Hopefully, you won't mind, but I've found more YouTube Channels that rock!*

6. Shmoop - Despite the weird name, Shmoop has lots of really fun and entertaining videos that you will LOVE to use in your class. In fact, I just had my students watch Shay's Rebellion by Shmoop :) Check out their playlists to see what you can use in your class!

7. John D. Ruddy - Lots of great videos like World War II in 7 Minutes and French Revolution in 9 Minutes that have fun illustrations and good content.

8. WWI Uncut on BBC - My inner history nerd is already trying to figure out how many of these videos I can fit into my World War I unit. Here are just a few of my favorites (and there are so many more that you should check out!): Why Trenches?, Surviving the U-Boats, Infections, and Dogfights.

9. Epic History TV - Lots of videos for World History like the Battle of Waterloo and The Russian Revolution and U.S. History teachers will love their 44 Presidents in 150 Seconds video!

10. Hip Hughes - Keith Hughes has a video for just about any topic you might need for U.S. History and his World History video collection keeps growing!

If you enjoyed this post, you should sign up for my monthly newsletter for more great ideas, tips, and exclusive freebies!

You might also like these blog posts:

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I am slightly obsessed with finding quality YouTube videos for Middle and High School Social Studies classes. Let's face it, there are A LOT of bad YouTube videos out there and it can be painful to find a video that is entertaining, yet educational.

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Five of the most important maps in history | All About History

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Five of the most important maps in history | All About History

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Babylonian town plan Hereford Mappa MundI

The world's oldest city plan is around 3,500 years old and shows part of the town of Nippur (in modern Iraq). It is inscribed on a clay tablet and shows the river Euphrates, several temples and part of the city walls.
Booth Poverty Map

The Hereford Mappa Mundi is the largest surviving medieval map (measuring around 1.58m X 1.33 metres). It has hundreds of place-names and pictures of fabulous creatures, but the compiler labelled Europe and Africa the wrong way round
Waldseemüller Map
Reformer Charles Booth's maps of poverty in Victorian London were among the first attempts to use maps to visualize social trends. The first volume showed that 35 per cent of the population of the East End lived in abject poverty.
Google Maps
The first map to use the term "America" for the New World was Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 world map. The single surviving copy is also the world's most expensive map; it was bought by the US Library of Congress in 2003 for $10 million.

Google Maps has captured 20 million petabytes of data (about 21 million gigabytes) since the application was launched in 2005. This would fill the hard-drives of around 40,000 average-capacity laptop computers.

The Times History of the World in Maps is out now, priced £50. Find out more at www.timesatlas.com

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Five of the most important maps in history | All About History

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Babylonian town plan Hereford Mappa MundI The world's oldest city plan is around 3,500 years old and shows part of the town of Nippur (in modern Iraq). It is inscribed on a clay tablet and shows the river Euphrates, several temples and part of the city walls.

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The world's oldest maps - Matador Network

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The world's oldest maps - Matador Network

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Matador is a travel and lifestyle brand redefining travel media with cutting edge adventure stories, photojournalism, and social commentary.

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Your name in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hieroglyphs, Runes, etc

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Your name in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hieroglyphs, Runes, etc

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Your name in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hieroglyphs, Runes, etc

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Links to website that show you how to write your name in a variety of alphabets/languages

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Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages

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Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages

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writing systems written language abjads abuguida alphabet syllabary syllabaries syllabics script glyph encoding multilingual hieroglyphs cuneiform rune accent diacritic unicode character chinese kanji hanzi hanja letter symbol foreign font phrase translation learning

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Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages

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A guide to alphabets and languages, with useful foreign phrases, tips on learning languages, language-related links, multilingual texts, and much more.

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Aw snap! Google Earth isn't supported on your browser. You may need to update your browser or use a different browser. Please see our system requirements for more information. Chrome is a great choice and you can download it here. Or if you're feeling adventurous, you can try Earth anyway by choosing an option below.

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Everybody loves Food? I also believe food is a great tool to teach students about geography. For teacher's a part of lesson planning is trying to find ways to get abstract material to relate to student's lives in some way. In geography food is a perfect vehicle. Our food systems are incredibly complex economic structures that touch every aspect of our world, and, of course, food is delicious! Food also sits at the nexus of science, technology, and cultural identity. I am really looking forward to experimenting with the occasional food lesson plan. To adopt a cliche, " the way to a student's mind is through their belly"

Notable Websites:

It seems that every school starts there cultural education with platos tipicos from around the world. I firmly believe this can be an exciting geography lesson. This site Edible Geography has given me many different ideas.

The Perennial Plate - Adventures in sustainable living. Well produced and amazingly beautiful travel videos on the food of place. Wonderful.

PBS's The History Kitchen - What was in Leonardo De Vinci's Kitchen? How about Hemingway?

NPR's The Salt - Interesting journalism pieces on food

Historian Rachael Laudan's blog is a wonderful read

Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, and Culture - An excellent exhibit by the American Museum of Natural History with great materials and teaching resources for all ages.

The Food Museum

Some Notable Books

A History of the World in Six Glasses by the former economist writer Tom Stoddage. How six common drinks-beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola-changed the world. (I highly recommend all of Mr. Stoddage's works and can't wait to read his latest: The Edible History of Mankind).

Four Fish by Paul Greenburg. The story of the four most common fish in our supermarkets. Excellent Journalism.

Research Resources

The Food and Agricultural organization of the United Nations (FAO) - A great resource with interesting reports, In particular the FAOstat database is full of fascinating information, and a good place for students to get lost exploring.

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Everybody loves Food? I also believe food is a great tool to teach students about geography. For teacher's a part of lesson planning is trying to find ways to get abstract material to relate to student's lives in some way. In geography food is a perfect vehicle.

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"Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, 'When I grow up I will go there.' - Joseph Conrad
Like Mr. Conrad I have always been fascinated by maps. Maps are one of the most important technologies humans have discovered. They not only store our collected knowledge and link our world together so it can function, but they also shape the very way we view our world. This page chronicles some of my favorite map-related sites/books/etc. Look for future updates. I am very excited to try out some fun map lesson plans, and plan to implement a student GIS project in the very near future.

Maps on the Web!

As always please take a look at the links on the sidebar. Today there are amazing map resources on the web and more are coming online every year. Below I have listed a few that I have found useful or simply interesting.

Strange Maps The always interesting blog, Big Think, has a subblog devoted to strange maps...

National Geographic Maps - The classic collection. All great map quests should begin here. I particularly love the ESRI supported GIS tool NatGeo Mapmaker. This is amazingly easy to use and I have had my 7th grade Ancient Civilization classes to use it.

David Rumsey's Historic Map Collection - I am not exactly sure who David Rumsey is, but this is endless hours of fun. Addendum, it appears that was only the beginning, there are lots more.

The CIA's World Fact Book - The CIA knows things, and they have maps to prove it.

Wired.Com's MapLabs. Simply awesome.

Teaching With Google Earth - I love Google Earth and thanks to this blog will be attempting some fun classroom activities.

Library of Congress's Panoramic Map Collection. Wow. This is a stunning collection of historic panoramic maps. I wish these were still in style I love them.

I haven't tried this, but MyHistro.com is a digital storytelling site that lets students tell stories through maps and timelines. I look forward to testing it out sometime soon. NatGeo has a similar platform Geostories which has some beautiful examples of well done geostories. (I assigned the Hominoid story as a review homework for a prehistory unit).

New York Times' Mapping America, Every City, Every Block - Wow. The NYtimes also has a great interactive Immigration explorer that I have used in my American Culture & History classes.

Google Maps Mania Google maps rules the world, and has saved me endless hours of driving in circles. This blog chronicles the latest and the greatest google hits. For more on great google mash-up sites see here.

And of course we can't forgot the grandaddy of GIS, ESRI. Despite it's relatively old interface it is still the most important Geographical Information System program around. The site has lots of links to resources and often has interesting tid bits such as this history of U.S. zip codes.

Links to even more great map sites here and here, including some fun game sites.

Books

Ghost Map: The story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic-and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World - This is a great story of when statistics met maps and saved lives, a critically important turning point in our global history.

The Mapmakers: The Story of the Great Pioneers in Cartography: From Antiquity to the Space Age
by John Noble Wilford.

Cartographia Mapping Civilizations Fascinating tour of some of the Library of Congress's most important maps.

Strange Maps An atlas of cartographic curiosities What it sounds like.

To the Ends of the Earth: 100 Maps that changed the world Well made, researched, and interesting throughout.

Transit Maps of the world I love transit and I love good transit maps.

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"Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration.