Teaching What Really Happened and 3 other interesting books you should be reading

Like many families, mine spends part of every evening re-hashing the day – sharing experiences, discussing current events, solving the world’s problems, and arguing whether the X-Men are actual super heroes.

Earlier this week, during a discussion about school, my daughter blurted out:

I really don’t do anything at school. I’m asked to learn stuff that doesn’t mean anything to me in ways that are incredibly boring.

She and I have had this discussion before. She plays the game very well – straight A’s, great test scores. She knows the rules. And the traditional view of school would suggest that because she has a nice GPA she actually knows something. But every time I hear about worksheets, answering questions at the end of the chapter, or high school students reading out loud from the textbook to one another, I’m not convinced. Research is telling all of us that these sorts of instructional strategies don’t impact long-term learning.

Tip of the Week: Ten Best Social Studies Stuffs of 2012

Yeah. I know. Stuffs. Probably not an actual word. But I use the word stuff a lot and it seemed to fit. I started thinking that I would write about my 10 favorite books of 2012. But wait. What about the great movies? And apps? And websites?

So . . . Stuffs. Plural of Stuff. Because 10 Best Stuff of 2012 didn’t sound right.

Call them whatever you want, here are the top ten things that I found useful, interesting, or just fun this past year. In no particular order.

Try out inklewriter – win an iTunes card!

Okay. I’ll be honest. I just found out about inklewriter but haven’t learned much about it yet. This week will be another busy conference week and I probably won’t have much time to play around with it.

So. You have homework. Go to inklewriter. Explore a bit. And report back here what you find out.

Some background. inklewriter is an online tool that lets you and your kids create interactive stories. You remember these, right? A story starts and after a few paragraphs, you are provided with two choices. You select a choice and the story branches off in that direction. A few paragraphs later, the story offers two new choices. The story continues to branch based on your choices.

The Clansman and books that shaped America

We’re in day two of a four day history geek fest. And it’s awesome.

Dr. Steven Hahn, Pulitzer Prize winning historian, and Bruce Lesh, teacher and author of Why Won’t You Just Tell Us the Answer, are working with 40 middle school teachers as part of our Century of Progress TAH grant project.

Did I say that it’s awesome?

Some very interesting conversations about Reconstruction, liberty, slavery, freedom, and American citizenship. We started with the question:

What is the opposite of slavery?

Very cool stuff. But, of course, with a roomful of history teachers, the conversation has meandered quite a bit. Part of the meandering has focused on the books and writings of the period and topic.

One of the books discussed has been The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. This is the book on which the incredibly racist movie Birth of a Nation is based.

And while the content of both book and movie has since been discredited, both had a huge impact on the country. Which raised a question in my head:

What books have had the most influence on American history?

A quick search found a very cool resource from the Library of Congress. The LOC has put together a list of books that they suggest shaped American history:

This list of “Books That Shaped America” is a starting point. It is not a register of the ‘best’ American books–although many of them fit that description. Rather, the list is intended to spark a national conversation on books written by Americans that have influenced our lives, whether they appear on this initial list or not.

The Clansman is not on the list but maybe it should be and the LOC is doing a cool thing by encouraging conversation about the list itself. You can view the list and comment yourself. My question?

What books would you add to the list? What books would you take off?

I think you could use this question throughout your instruction as you incorporate more fiction and non-fiction. Asking kids to rank and rate what they read seems like a great way to engage kids directly in the content.

What ya got?

OurStory – American History stories and activities

A project of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, OurStory is designed to help children and adults enjoy exploring history together through children’s literature, everyday objects, and hands-on activities.

The National Museum of American History and the National Center for Family Literacy are teaming up on OurStory projects. They are working together to help make reading historical fiction more fun and educational.

The OurStory programs are designed to:

• teach children about history through the use of objects, documents, oral histories, and quality children’s literature
• improve student attitudes about reading through exposure to quality children’s literature and the opportunity to own books
• Foster an environment in which participants of different generations and cultural backgrounds interact, share, learn from one another, and begin to see themselves as part of American history.
• Broaden participants’ understanding of the history of diverse communities and cultures within the United States.

You’ll find 20 different American history activity sets with recommended books, teaching materials, and engaging activities all focused around historical fiction. You can also find useful links to other history / literacy sites.

Handy stuff!