Thing 22: Teaching & Learning with Primary Sources

Wow, there is a lot available in this lesson - so many resources!

 I watched the Powtoon video on the difference between primary and secondary sources. I will use this as an introductory lesson with my 6th graders.  They are visiting Washington D.C. this June.  I started planning a lesson using Google Docs on the Lincoln Memorial for them to do prior to their visit.  

I found a photo collection of design proposals  for the memorial  in DocsTeach. Student will compare and contrast to what is looks like today.

DocsTeach Lincoln Memorial Proposals

 I'm going to pair these with a book on the history and construction of the memorial.  I also found other photos that show various renderings of the Lincoln statue.  Here is one.

LOC Lincoln Statue 

I also reviewed the Kid Citizen and Eagle Eye links.  I can use these with my younger students.  I watched the Eagle Eye video on Flags.  At first I was unsure about it, but by the end I saw that it came back around and did a good job tying the sources together and illustrating to viewers what to look for and types of questions to ask about primary sources.

I registered for DocsTeach and found a great lesson on Rosa Parks arrest record, along with sources about other women who also refused to give up their seats prior to Rosa Parks.  In the lesson there is a version of the arrest record with Rosa's name redacted.  I'm going to experiment with it on my library computers so it it displayed for each student and they can't click to show the entire record.   The objective of the lesson is to have the students figure out who it is.

Arrest Record

Thing 23: New AASL Standards

Working on Cool Tools on another snowy day in Rochester.  I saw a meme that there are 31 days until Spring - I hope they go by quickly!  I completed the exercise in Paige's article and marked on the framework what I am Doing, what I am Close on and those that I need to Improve. 

• For Doing - I have the most under engage across all domains, with the most being under Think.  
•  For Improve - There are quite a few marks under create and share.  The most being under the boxes create/include, grow/include, share/curate, and grow/curate.  
•  For Close - I didn't have as many marked close.  Grow/Inquire was the most marked category.

This exercise indicated to me that I need to provide my students with opportunities to research and engage in discussions about different perspectives.  It brings to mind a recent lesson.   I was reviewing with 4th and 5th graders Me on the Map skills - continent, country, state, city...

As soon as they saw the map of  North America with the US, Canada, and Mexico some students mentioned the wall and opinions started flying.  Some weren't even sure what the wall was. It led to a lesson about what a border was. Another lesson playing a presidential trivia game last week on Kahoot! led to lots of students sharing what they thought was the job of the president.  

These recent classes are perfect examples of Create/Inquire #2 - Devising and implementing a plan to fill knowledge gaps.

Looking  through the Tech Tools, I have used some - Adobe Spark and Do Ink.  Story Board that and Powtoon look doable for my students with available resources.  Both these tools work with Share/Inquire #4 and Share/Engage #2

Other thoughts on the Standards - I use an online planning tool - Planbook.  I haven't seen them as an option in that tool.  On my follow-up list.