Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum

Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum

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Learner Log

A place to explore teaching and learning

We The People: American Citizens, Forever Learners

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In recognition of Constitution Day, celebrated in schools on September 18th this year, use the following resources to explore the theme “Citizenship and the American Dream” with your students. See how this idea emerges from social studies to science to the arts.

History/Social Studies

On Constitution Day, we celebrate the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. The important Bill of Rights, ratified a few years later, comprised the first ten amendments to the Constitution. It guaranteed personal liberties including free speech and the right to trial by jury, while limiting the government’s ability to restrict our rights. Find resources for teaching the Constitution and Bill of Rights in elementary through high school classrooms on our blog.

Literature and Language Arts 

Literature serves as a starting point for discussions about social justice, community, and citizenship, as well as for empowering students to take action for change.

Use poetry to teach about the human condition. Help young people celebrate, value, and advocate for diversity by going beyond the tolerance and appreciation rhetoric. See educator Virginia Loh-Hagan’s blog post for resources and activities.

Maria Ruiz-Blanco discusses the novel, My Name is Maria Isabel with her students.

In Teaching Multicultural Literature: A Workshop for Middle Grades, learn techniques to engage students in critical discussions of race, class, and social justice. Activities center around works by Julia Alvarez, Langston Hughes, Joseph Bruchac, and many more.

See how elementary students blend literature with their own experiences of immigration. Watch Maria Ruiz-Blanco use discussions of the novel “My Name is Maria Isabel” as part of a year-long conversation on immigration with her students in Teaching Reading 3-5, classroom program 10, “Fostering Book Discussions.”

Mathematics

Elections are an integral part of our rights and responsibilities in the United States, and polls give us insights into where we stand on issues. Learn how polls are created and how the results are used to make inferences about the voting population in Against All Odds: Inside Statistics, unit 17.

Pastry Chef Joanne Chang at Flour Bakery in Boston, MA.

Science

For many, the American Dream is finding a way to turn passions, such as the science of baking and the science of animal welfare, into a career. Learn about the chemistry of baking with pastry chef Joanne Chang and her team at Flour Bakery in Boston, MA in this clip from Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions. See the full program in unit 10, “Acids and Bases- The Voyage of the Proton.”

Dr. Temple Grandin became an advocate for autism and for animal welfare, making changes to meat processing systems in the American cattle industry. In Neuroscience & the Classroom, she shares her success story. Born with autism, Dr. Grandin explains how her brain functions, and how her strengths have led her to a successful career as a professor of animal science at Colorado State University.

Arts and World Languages

The U.S. is often described as a mosaic of languages, cultures, and perspectives, which adds to the richness of American communities.

The Teaching Foreign Languages Workshop, session 8, “Engaging with Communities,” shows foreign language teachers tapping into the Hispanic and other cultures in their classrooms, schools, and communities to expose their students to languages and the great variety of American culture.

To be an American is to be at once part of a larger culture, and at the same time maintain an individual identity. Art Through Time explores the individual’s status in society in the theme “Portraits.” Featured artworks include Andy Warhol’s screen print of designer Diane von Furstenberg, Kehinde Wiley’s powerful portraits of African-American young men, and more.

(Editor’s Note: This post has been updated from the original post on August 14, 2017.)

Bringing the Gold to Class: 2018 Winter Olympics

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The year was 1924. From January 25th through February 5th, 10,004 paying spectators gathered in Chamonix, France to witness the first Winter Olympic Games. Two hundred and fifty eight athletes participated in 16 events, ranging from ice hockey to bobsleigh. Norway walked away as the victors, with 17 overall medals. The host country, France, placed ninth (just ahead of Belgium) with three bronze medals.

Fast forward to 2018, where the 23rd Winter Olympic Games are set to take place in PyeongChang, South Korea from February 9th through the 25th. Athletes from 90 nations, including the United States, will compete in 102 snow-filled events!

To celebrate the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, Annenberg Learner has resources available to get you and your students in an Olympic state of mind. Who knows – a future Olympian could be sitting right in your classroom! Ignite the (Olympic) flame in your students with these resources.

For those who use winter break to hit the slopes, Economics U$A’s Graphing Lab follows four friends who want to plan a ski trip, but haven’t assessed the risks or the cost. The lab uses a demand and market supply curve to figure out if the friends can afford the trip.

Pascal’s Triangle and the “hockey-stick” pattern.

Consider Pascal’s Triangle for the hockey enthusiasts who love a little math with their pucks. In Mathematics Illuminated, learn about a curious occurrence, a “hockey-stick” number pattern, which lives in Pascal’s Triangle.

In order for there to be a Winter Olympics, one crucial thing must be present: snow! In session six of Physical Science, take a closer look at why snowflakes have six sides and walk through the process of how snow forms on the molecular level.

Under the Chinese and German languages programs in Teaching Foreign Languages K-12: A Library of Classroom Practices, students talk sports, with a focus on vocabulary around the Olympics. Denise Tanner, who teaches German I in high school, leads her students in warm-up activities, followed by activities that have students make cultural comparisons between Germany and the U.S. Jie Gao, a middle school teacher of Mandarin Chinese, has her students learn the names and characters of eight sports.

The Olympics began as an ancient Greek tradition; it has since evolved into an international display of sportsmanship, honor and pride. In unit 25 of Bridging World History, see how the Olympics often reflect the social and political struggles of the time.

Five Ways to Inspire Creativity Across Disciplines: International Creativity Month

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Image Copyright Krisdog / 123RF

Encourage your students to take the intellectual roads less traveled this year and spur innovative problem solving during International Creativity Month! In addition to Education World’s list of classroom activities to celebrate International Creativity Month, Annenberg Learner has resources for teachers to inspire creative thinking in all subjects, year-round.

  1. In Connecting with the Arts: A Workshop for Middle Grades Teachers, program two, an interactive prompts teachers to identity their students’ needs before selecting which two school subjects they would like to integrate into their teaching. As a whole, the workshop has two goals: communicate using various art forms and identify the benefits of arts integration for early adolescents.
  2. In program five, teachers can build a bridge between disciplines. Creating interdisciplinary lesson plans shows students the importance in cross-disciplinary skills: from using the scientific method in a history setting to approaching a math word problem with literary devices.
  3. Make meaning of our relationship with the natural world – just as the Romantic poets did – in Art Through Time, program 10, “The Natural World.” Art and science may sometimes feel beyond our understanding, but using art to interpret the scientific processes around us has produced some of the world’s most poignant, memorable art.
  4. And there’s art in math, too! Symmetry, understood by mathematicians as a fundamental aspect of group theory, is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. In Mathematics Illuminated, unit 6, “The Beauty of Symmetry,” students can manipulate a wallpaper design to practice common geometric motions like glide and translate.
  5. Brain researchers say that a well-rested mind is more creatively inclined – watch the short clip that explores the connection between creativity and dreaming in The Brain, program 15, “REM Sleep and Dreaming.”

For more resources that inspire a little creative thinking across disciplines, visit our blog post on incorporating arts in all subjects. And as always, share the ways you’ve inspired creative thinking and solutions with us in the comments, on Facebook and Twitter (@AnnLearner).

Talking With Students About Human Rights

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Dinner in Des Moines photo by © Danny Wilcox Frazier of a resettled Syrian family gathering for Sunday dinner.

December 10 marks Human Rights Day. In 1948, The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – a document which proclaims unalienable rights (much like the Constitution) of every single human being, regardless of status. The document is available in over 500 languages and can be found here.

This year’s celebration will start a year-long campaign to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2018.

Although we have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the world continues to see human rights violations. Some recent examples include the migrant slave auctions in Libya and the Rohingya Muslims fleeing oppression in Myanmar.

Sometimes, making classroom connections between these events proves difficult because Libya and Myanmar are on the other side of the world. But the distance doesn’t take away from the graveness of these situations – and they can become part of the classroom discussion.

In our Essential Lens resource, the collection “Forced Displacement: Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice” highlights the 65 million people globally who have been displaced due to persecution, war, famine, and other conditions. While refugees have fled their home country with no intention to return, internally displaced persons (IDPs) have left their homes but have not crossed a border. The resource also explains the importance of programs that are set up to help refugees and IDPs resettle, ensuring that they have access to food, water, and medical care. Students can engage with photos of the displaced and complete activities that call for close examination of how the media documents the stories of the displaced.

Teaching ‘The Children of Willesden Lane’ includes the classroom video, “Introducing the ‘Universe of Obligation’” where 10th grade teacher Martina Grant prepares her students to read the biography “The Children of Willesden Lane.” The lesson asks students to confront a lingering question: what prompts some people to help others in a time of crisis, while other people turn away? Teachers can bring this question closer to home by asking students to think about September 11th and Hurricane Katrina, and how these events (as well as events from more recent memory) changed our country’s Universe of Obligation. In this same resource, 8th grade teacher Nancy Parrish discusses with students the concepts of “upstanders” and “bystanders”, both as individuals and as nations.

Honoring the First Americans – National American Indian Heritage Month

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Sioux Dog Feast, 1832-1837. Teton Dakota (Western Sioux). Oil on canvas. © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC / Art Resource (from America’s History in the Making)

Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, sought to one day recognize the contributions of the first Americans. The first Presidential proclamation came from Calvin Coolidge, who declared the second Saturday in May as American Indian Day. Seventy five years later, George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution which designated November 1990 as the first National American Indian Heritage Month.

To commemorate National American Indian Heritage Month, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the National Park Service, and other institutions have exhibits and collections on display, along with selected resources made available for teachers to use as well.

In addition to the aforementioned resources, Annenberg Learner has a handful of sources to supplement teaching Native American heritage in the classroom. Native American history is an important part of U.S. history; the following resources highlight its richness, struggles and triumphs.

The first unit of American Passages: Literary Survey, “Native Voices,” explores the deeply established oral tradition of Native Americans. Learn about prominent Native American authors, like Luci Tapahonso and Simon J. Ortiz (whose Acoma name is Hihdruutsi). Students can use the literary timeline to place when important native texts were published, along with historical contexts for those texts.

After Columbus’s initial arrival to the New World, encounters between Native American and Europeans dramatically altered the natives’ way of life. Use unit themes to specifically address how these changes affected Native Americans in America’s History in the Making, unit 2, “Mapping Initial Encounters.”

The struggles of Native Americans, Asian Americans, and blacks are placed in context of the traditional white Progressive movement in A Biography of America, program 19, “A Vital Progressivism.” The program includes a detailed timeline of accomplishments for minority groups in America, which includes the founding of the Society of American Indians in 1911.