National Environmental Education Week (April 14-20)

Posted on April 16, 2013 Written by Annenberg Learner Staff 1 Comment

HabPlanet_earthDiscuss current and future environmental problems, including possible solutions, with your students. The following resources provide ideas for science, social studies, and literature classrooms:

 

 

 

  1. Hear thought-provoking views and research findings from experts in the field, including entomologist E.O. Wilson in The Habitable Planet, unit 13 video, “Looking Forward: Our Global Experiment.”
  2. Two interactives in The Habitable Planet allow you and your students to manage an energy crisis. The Carbon Lab explores how human influence on carbon output affects the future health of the Earth’s atmosphere.  In the Energy Lab interactive, try developing a portfolio of energy resources that cuts back on CO2 and considers the pros and cons of multiple sources of energy.
  3. Gage Reeves asks his 5th graders to relate their reading about global warming and climate change to events and products in their community in Teaching Reading 3-5 Workshop, classroom program 13, “Reading Across the Curriculum.”
  4. Consider the possible conflicts that arise when living in a future society affected by significant global warming and other challenges by reading “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler.  The Expanding Canon: Teaching Multicultural Literature, session 7, “Critical Pedagogy,” includes an audio clip of the author and a synopsis of the story.
  5. Learn about where oil comes from, how it is extracted and used for energy, and the effects of using oil as an energy source on the environment in Earth Revealed, program 26, “Living With Earth, Part II.”
  6. Explore environmental mysteries like the causes of ice ages and consider how life shapes the earth in Planet Earth, program 3, “The Climate Puzzle,” and program 7, “Fate of the Earth.”
  7. Economic stories show how pollution is a “negative externality” that can have serious consequences for economic efficiency in Economics U$A, unit 8, “Pollution and the Environment.”
  8. The World of Chemistry, program 17, “The Precious Envelope,” explains ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect on the earth’s atmosphere.


Filed Under: Literature & Language Arts, Science & Nature, Social Studies & History, Special Days Tagged: , , , , , , ,

A Jazz Festival in Your Classroom

Posted on April 9, 2013 Written by Donelle Blubaugh Leave a Comment

World of Music_jazzAs the weather warms, jazz festivals will be springing up all over. Why not celebrate spring and Jazz Appreciation Month this April by holding a jazz festival in your classroom? A key word search for “jazz” on learner.org returns a host of resources that you can use to guide your students to appreciate this uniquely American musical genre and to understand its influence on culture here and around the world.

For example, American Passages: A Literary Survey, unit 11, “Modernist Portraits,” describes the dramatic social and cultural changes that Americans experienced during the years between World War I and World War II.  Jazz provided the soundtrack for these changes and had a profound influence on visual artists, poets, and novelists who sought to capture its images and rhythms. Use the American Passages archives to find audio and visual artifacts from the Jazz Age that illustrate the innovation and energy of musicians and writers such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Jacob Lawrence.

Try asking students how structure, improvisation, and collaboration—aspects of jazz adopted by so many artists working during the modernist period—can be applied in their world. The Problem-Based Learning activities included in unit 11 could be presented as a way to put a jazz spin on collaborative projects in school.

Jazz up this historical exploration by inviting a local performer or your school’s jazz ensemble to play for your students and to discuss the unique interaction of structure, improvisation, and collaboration in jazz. Or check out Exploring the World of Music, program 11, “Composers and Improvisers.”  At 9:09 you’ll find a great discussion from saxophonist Joshua Redman about the role of improvisation in jazz. In program 10, “The Shape of Music,” the segment that begins at 8:52 illustrates why collaboration is essential to improvisation in a group performance.

What are other ways to use jazz to inspire learning in the classroom? I’d love to hear your improvisations!

 

Filed Under: Literature & Language Arts, Social Studies & History, Special Days, The Arts Tagged: , , , ,

Where in the World: A Story of a Geologist’s Ingenuity

Posted on March 15, 2013 Written by Annenberg Learner Staff Leave a Comment

Do you know where this is? Both pictures are of the same island. The first photo shows a normal, peaceful day and the second shows a volcanic eruption that threatened this bustling fishing harbor. Follow this link to Power of Place, program 6, “Challenges in the Hinterlands,” for an amazing story of a geologist’s ingenuity that saved the harbor. (see 19:16 to 21:06 in the video)

Power of Place_IcelandBoat

Power of place_IcelandEruption

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Social Studies & History Tagged: , ,

Monday Motivation: Use Music to Teach Social Studies

Posted on March 11, 2013 Written by Annenberg Learner Staff Leave a Comment

bio of america_23_elvisHow can you use music to enhance your social studies lessons? Here are some ideas:

1. The Middle Ages: Early music provides an echo of the past, allowing students to connect to people, cultures, and arts from long ago. Using The Middle Ages interactive, students test their ears by determining which of the instruments used by medieval musicians match the sounds they hear.

2. The Renaissance: Elementary music specialist Sylvia Bookhardt teaches students about Renaissance society in The Arts in Every Classroom, “Teaching Music.”

3. The Holocaust: The series Teaching ‘The Children of Willesden Lane’ offers resources to help middle and high school students better comprehend survivor Lisa Jura’s story of loss, resilience, and ultimate triumph. Mona Golabek, Jura’s daughter, wrote The Children of Willesden Lane to honor her mother, who was spared the cruelty of the death camps thanks to the Kindertransport (children’s transport). In all, the operation saved nearly 10,000 children. Music played a central role in Lisa Jura’s life and is integrated into this memoir. Find the music downloads here.

4. The Fifties: Explore an emerging American teenage culture, including the influence of the transistor radio and a young man named Elvis Presley, in A Biography of America, unit 23, “The Fifties.”

Filed Under: Monday Motivation, Social Studies & History, Strategic Classrooms, The Arts

Writing Activity: Travel the Globe with Latitude Shoes

Posted on February 28, 2013 Written by Annenberg Learner Staff Leave a Comment

JN_latitude_shoesCheck out this writing project that’s a fun way to learn about latitude. Kathy Corn recently participated with her students at Mills River, Sugarloaf, and Hillandale Elementary schools in North Carolina.

 

 

 

 

“People everywhere are invited to put on a pair of Latitude Shoes and go for a ride. What would you see if you traveled around the world at your latitude? Write a story about your 24-hour adventure.

  • How fast and how far will you go?
  • Who lives at your latitude?
  • What countries will you visit?
  • What languages will you hear?
  • What seasons do you experience and what clothes do you need?
  • Everyone has the same photoperiod at your latitude, how does the climate compare?”

On the Journey North Web site, the page for this activity includes materials for the full activity; the science, reading and writing, and geography standards connections; a link to share your students’ stories; and a gallery of students’ illustrations and writing. This assignment could be used to assess what students have learned during Journey North’s Mystery Class.

Filed Under: Journey North, Lesson Plans and Activities, Science & Nature, Social Studies & History Tagged: , , , , , ,

Langston Hughes in Focus

Posted on February 19, 2013 Written by Annenberg Learner Staff Leave a Comment

LangstonHughes_Teaching Multicultural Lit_6

Writer Langston Hughes believed that art should be accessible to all. He used his poetic voice to speak to all Americans about racial, political, and economic justice. Biographer Arnold Rampersad wrote of Hughes, “His art was firmly rooted in race pride and race feeling, even as he cherished his freedom as an artist…” Use the following resources to introduce students to Hughes’ life and works, and to inspire students to use poetry and art as a means to both explore their heritage and call for public attention to larger issues within their communities.

 

  • See Teaching Multicultural Literature, workshop 6, “Historical and Cultural Context – Langston Hughes and Christopher Moore.” Stanlee Brimberg’s 7th graders learn about the experiences of African slaves in early New York, examine texts by Hughes, and create postage stamps to commemorate the African Burial Ground Memorial.
  • View the hour-long video on Langston Hughes in Voices & Visions.  Interviews, music, and dance performances convey his work and influence, discussed by James Baldwin and biographer Arnold Rampersad.
  • Hughes is a featured poet in the video for American Passages, unit 10, “Rhythms in Poetry.” Discover more about the author’s life and work and find teaching tips and questions for classroom study of Hughes’ poetry.

 

Filed Under: Literature & Language Arts, Social Studies & History, Special Days Tagged: , , , ,

Happy Presidents Day

Posted on February 15, 2013 Written by Annenberg Learner Staff Leave a Comment

photo by Instructional Resources Corporation

It’s already February and you’ve been working hard for your students. We hope you enjoy your day off on Monday, Presidents Day!

If you are teaching about the presidents of the United States, search Learner.org for free resources or check out our Pinterest board on Presidents for ideas.

 

Filed Under: Social Studies & History Tagged:

Who Freed the Slaves: Using Primary Sources as Evidence

Posted on February 12, 2013 Written by Kathy Checkley Leave a Comment

PrimarySources_LincolnConsidering Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation

In elementary school I learned that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. I held on to that belief for many years. It wasn’t until college that I was forced to confront what was, for me, an uncomfortable reality: preserving the union was Lincoln’s overarching objective, not emancipation.

It’s been 150 years since Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Despite his misgivings–and in spite of more convenient motivations that may have spurred his action—the proclamation was a key step toward ending “that peculiar institution” in the South.

It wasn’t the only step, however, as we learn in workshop 4 of the Primary Sources: Workshops in American History series. A convergence of events would ultimately end slavery.

The video in this workshop features teachers as students and asks them to study primary source documents to find evidence to support their points of view. Early in the video, teachers are asked to consider what Lincoln believed. As you watch the video, consider the different perspectives these teachers have. Was freeing the slaves a tactic? Or, as one teacher believes, did Lincoln act on a moral imperative? What happens when the teachers examine the primary source document?

How might this approach to teaching history be used with students? How might you ask students to report their conclusions?

Analyzing Primary Sources

As the Primary Sources workshops show, using primary source documents can give us a deeper understanding of historical events. You can also use primary source documents from the Civil War era to spur students’ imaginations.

As we learn in Artifacts & Fiction: A Workshop in American Literature, analyzing artifacts requires students to ask questions, explore possible answers, and draw conclusions.

A terrific tool to get you started is the Pair Finder. Select a literary movement and a discipline. The Pair Finder will provide an artifact, such as a painting, a photograph, or a commonly used item. When I paired Slavery and Freedom with Ritual Artifacts, for example, a picture of a painting that appeared on flags of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) was provided.

Use images like this to inspire a creative response in your students. For example, your students could assume the role of a newly freed slave and express how they feel when they see the flag and the men marching behind it. Ask students to write a journal entry to describe their thoughts and feelings.

Explore the Pair Finder and other primary source documents you find, and think about how you can incorporate these documents into your lessons.

Bringing it Full Circle

It has been a long time since I was in elementary school. It may not be fair to say, but I’m not sure my teachers were interested in exploring Abraham Lincoln’s contradictions. Why do you think the teachers in the Primary Sources video were willing to wrestle with that reality? How will their students benefit?

I, like one teacher in the video, still hold to the belief that Lincoln did, at his very core, abhor slavery and was shrewd enough to gradually introduce the idea of emancipation to a torn nation.

What do you believe? And what is your evidence?

Filed Under: Social Studies & History, Special Days Tagged: , , , ,

Exploring African-American Culture Through Slavery’s Sorrow Songs

Posted on February 5, 2013 Written by Donelle Blubaugh Leave a Comment

AmPass_7_sorrowsongs_blogBlack History Month is a great time to celebrate the achievements of African-American writers, artists, musicians, scientists, and religious and political leaders. It’s also a great time to learn about and reflect on the historical and cultural contexts from which these achievements emerged. One way is to take a journey into the rich and vibrant culture that developed in African-American slave communities in the face of horrific oppression and adversity.

For example, a close look at slave spirituals called Sorrow Songs reveals an awe-inspiring story of hope, collaboration, ingenuity, and an unstoppable hunger for freedom.

The Sorrow Songs are not the songs played by slave musicians at an owner’s social gathering and they’re not the hymns sung during formal church services. Nor are they the great slave narratives of Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs, written to galvanize the abolitionist cause. Most slaves would not have been able to read the narratives even if they had access to them.

Instead, the Sorrow Songs were created collaboratively by the slave community for the slave community. They were current events bulletins and teaching tools. How did the community know that many escaped slaves were crossing into the Union? “Many Thousands Gone.” How did a runaway avoid being detected by dogs? “Wade in the Water.” How did the word get out about a secret meeting? “Steal Away to Jesus.“ The songs connected European Christian imagery with the slaves’ spiritual values. They poked fun at the masters and eased labor. In other words, in a depraved world where humans were allowed to own humans, the slaves created beauty and meaning that they alone owned. “Slavery and Freedom,” unit 7 of American Passages: A Literary Survey,  provides context and content for this exploration.

Find ideas for connecting this remarkable story to other aspects of slave community culture or to the emergence of gospel and jazz music in the unit’s Author Activities page. Students could try collaborating on music and lyrics for a Sorrow Song of their own or revise an existing song to reflect a current event. Students may also make connections to how other oppressed groups have used music or other arts to subvert oppressors.

What stories from Black History will you be exploring with your students this month?

Filed Under: Literature & Language Arts, Social Studies & History, Special Days, The Arts Tagged: , ,

‘Common Sense’ for the Common Core

Posted on January 18, 2013 Written by Donelle Blubaugh Leave a Comment

Primary Sources_wkshp2If you are a high school English/language arts or American history teacher, chances are that you are actively involved in developing curriculum guides and teaching strategies for addressing the Common Core State Standards for reading and understanding primary source documents. While the standards don’t specify instructional approaches, the end goal is clear:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.9 Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.

Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense is considered a key exhibit in our nation’s collection of founding documents and the CCSS authors list it as an exemplar text for 11th and 12th grades. Historians credit the document with launching the movement to seek independence from the British monarchy sooner rather than later. It is a tightly structured and forceful argument that provides educators with a platform for guiding students through the process of critical analysis.

Workshop 2, “Common Sense and the American Revolution: The Power of the Printed Word” of the series Primary Sources: Workshops in American History places the 48-page document in a powerful context that amplifies its significance in events leading to independence.

Did you know that Thomas Paine had been in the colonies only a few weeks before he took pen to parchment? Prior to the publication of Common Sense, the colonists were seeking reconciliation with England, not independence. The first published argument for independence, Common Sense became the 18th century equivalent of an international best seller. Consider how the events leading to independence might have been different if Benjamin Franklin had not persuaded a 39-year-old former tax collector to seek work in the colonies.

Take a look at how teacher Andrew Sullivan adapted what he learned from the workshop to create an activity that engages students with key concepts within Common Sense.  You will also find links to additional primary source documents such as the James County, Virginia, Statement of Independence. These documents encourage thoughtful comparison of Paine’s argument to, and open a window onto colonist’s involvement in, decisions made by the Second Continental Congress.

What instructional strategies are you employing to help your students use and understand primary source documents such as Common Sense?

Filed Under: Social Studies & History Tagged: , , , ,
« Older Posts