Session+3+Activities+&+Ideas


 * Here is a lesson I use to teach Westward Expansion in my U.S. History class. Basically, students analyze resources at the Library of Congress. There are maps, journals, etc. The final product is a Museum Exhibit students create. The higher-level thinking comes in when students have to CREATE their own artifacts for the exhibit based on the real artifacts they analyze. It has been very successful. Click here to check it out.
 * Here is an idea for World History teachers. One of the units I cover is on the civilizations/empires of the Middle East. My curriculum is thematic and so we focus on several enduring themes in history that connect to students live today. During this unit a major connection I make is with the origin of law. I have students analyze excerpts of Hammurabi's Code. Next, I ask students to work in groups to "rewrite" the code so that it would make sense for residents of Fort Fairfield. I have some analysis questions I usually use before student begin rewriting the code. They can be reached by clicking [|LawAnalysisQuestions.doc].
 * I plan to use the following site when I do the Vietnam War with my Honors history students. There are a lot of inquiry questions as well as synthesizing information. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/vietnam_menu.cfm
 * For my seventh grade students, I will have students look at the two ancient Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta. I will use the website Athens vs. Sparta where students will analyze the two city-states. Students will then need to decide which city-state they would like to visit or travel to. They would then be asked to create a travel brochure in which they would have to highlight desirable aspects and persuade readers to why they should visit that particular city-state.
 * My least favorite unit to teach covers the U.S. Constitution. There are some great ideas on the ICivics site with unit/lesson plans covering all aspects of the Constitution as well as Civic awareness and responsibilities. It includes several web quests and practical application activities. Several great culminating activities are centered around persuasive writing. If there is something missing it would be original documents. Problem solved if you turn to the footnote site with 70 plus million documents. Particularly interesting would be the voting records of the Constitutional Convention and the correspondence of George Washington.
 * For my 8th grade social studies classes, I have students make a NoteShare notebook that covers a section of a chapter. In the past, I have used chapters involving Native Americans of the Plains and Southwest. Students are shown how to create and build a Noteshare notebook, and are also provided Websites to go to find pictures and information to add to it. Students are also taught how to cite the images and information they find, as well as how to include Web links into their notebooks. Here is a site that I feel would be helping to do this project in the future. [|Native American]