Teaching History with Big Ideas

Teaching History with Big Ideas

As many of us struggle through this transition from chronological to thematic teaching of history one idea is to teach history using big ideas.  The link below is to the book, "Teaching History with Big Ideas," by Grant and Gradwell.  Not only does it present ideas about framing history in more engaging ways for our students but offers interesting case studies of teaching History to Honors classes and more.  Google Books offers the first 100+ pages of the book for free so take advantage!

Teaching History with Big Ideas

Writing with Colors Demonstration for History

Writing with Colors for History

Tom O'Toole, formerly of Waltham Public Schools, the current Humanities Director for Essex Tech visited Lawrence High School to present demonstration lessons in English and History.  Mr. O'Toole used Brenna Chalifour's US History II classroom to demonstrate how history teachers can use close reading and his system of color-coding the text to write exemplary open responses on MCAS.  

Several high schools on campus, notably HLD, utilized writing with colors last school year.  HLD students averaged a 2.75 score on the ELA open responses last year.  This was higher than the state average of 2.68.  

Here is the introduction to Mr. O'Toole's lesson on writing with colors which shows the text they were using (The Things they Carried by Tom O'Brien) and how the system he uses works.  

Mr. O'Toole goes on to demonstrate how to properly close read a text for an open response question with students.  The lesson is below.

Writing with Colors Close Reading Video

Finally, Mr. O'Toole shares with students anchor papers that illustrate what it entails to get a 4, 3, 2 and 1 on MCAS open response based on the question that was asked.  Below Mr. O'Toole breaks down a 4 with students in Ms. Chalifour's class.

 

Incorporating Zinn with a Gallery Walk: Kaitlin Torossian

Kaitlin Torossian

Years at LHS: 2
Courses Taught: US History I & US History II
Bio: Kaitlin is in her second year of teaching at PFA.  Prior to coming to PFA Kaitlin taught for several years in Connecticut at Platt High School in Meriden, Connecticut where she grew up.  Kaitlin moved to Lawrence a few years ago and taught at Up Academy prior to joining the faculty at PFA.  Kaitlin has experience as a coach and has been instrumental in bringing data analysis into the history department and at PFA.  She currently serves as facilitator for the 10th grade team at PFA and is a member of the History Curriculum Committee as well as a member of the NEASC Steering Committee.

Kaitlin, like many, has been struggling with incorporating the Young People's History of America by Howard Zinn into the daily curriculum.  Kaitlin utilized a chapter of Zinn on Westward Expansion to have students collaboratively take notes in an activity.  Each group created a poster and shared their work with the class in a gallery walk that you'll see in the video.  The lesson plan and handouts are attached in the email.

Also, for additional ideas on how to incorporate Zinn please see his website here that offers lesson plans for use with his books.

Close Reading for Vocabulary Comprehension: Lenny Provost

Lenny Provost

Years at LHS: 3
Courses Taught: World History, US History I
Bio: Lenny is in his third year of teaching at HHS.  Lenny came to education after working in the private sector.  He did his student teaching with Bryan Ibbitson at the middle school level and then came to HHS after his time there.  Lenny is involved with Team Adrenaline and has helped to build that program to a national contender at competitions.  Lenny is pursuing his ESL license through the PETALLS program at UMass Lowell currently.

Lenny offered to share how he uses close reading to teach vocabulary comprehension.  His classes typically start a new concept by skimming the reading and having students identify words that they don't understand in the context of the reading.  Here Lenny is working with one of his 11th grade World History classes in this type of activity.

Close Reading Information for ELLs

History Department Meeting

History Department Meeting 10-6-15

Our first campus-wide department meeting will take place Tuesday, October 6, 2015 from 8:00 to 9:29.  The meeting will begin in the lecture hall from 8:00-8:30 where as a group we will review some key information regarding curriculum, literacy and goals.  At 8:30 we will organize into our content groups and work in the library on establishing interventions for our identified learner centered problems.  

During the meeting students in our courses will be administered assessments.  Grade 10 students in US I & US II will take a diagnostic MCAS prompt on Boss Tweed.  The link to the assessment is here.  The prompt begins on page 33 (29 on the test) if you scroll down.  Grades 11 & 12 students will take an SAT essay prompt on Martin Luther King and his views on the Vietnam War.  While this prompt is difficult it is a good indicator of what we need to do to better prepare students for college readiness.  The essay prompt is here.  

Andrea Gobbi worked on a new graphic organizer that students with an IEP may use on the MCAS.  The document is shown below.  If you want you may have your students use the graphic organizer on the test if it is applicable to them.

I will be sending out an agenda for the meeting on Monday, October 5th to everyone.  Please be on the lookout for this.  All principals and APs have been notified regarding coverage for that day.  

Mr. Hayes' Essential Question Lesson

Jerry Hayes                   

School: PFA

Year at LHS: 14

Courses: US History II, Humanities & AP US History

Bio: I have been a teacher for 14 years, all at Lawrence High School. I was a baker for 32 years before becoming a teacher. I attended Middlesex Community College and UMass Lowell earning my BA in History. After becoming a teacher I earned my Master's in Teaching History from Salem State. I was born an raised in Lowell, MA where I still live with my wife Cindy.

Jerry Hayes has spent countless hours preparing to instruct using a thematic approach between last spring and this summer.  Jerry has been working with his students in the first few weeks to build their historical thinking skills specifically in the areas of sourcing, corroboration, contextualization, perspective, and now with this lesson is introducing the idea of essential questions.  Please see the video below where Jerry is able to introduce and break down with students what an essential question is.  His lesson plan and handouts are available as direct links in the email.  Here is also a link to an ASCD article on Essential Questions for those who might be struggling with the idea:

What Makes a Question Essential?

Updates

Updates and Reminders...

• Homework packet feedback was due at the end of last week for all electives and World History teachers.  If you have not sent in the feedback please get that back to me ASAP.
• We are going to delay the second round of homework packets until after our Department Meeting on October 6th
• On October 6th all students will be writing an open response in 10th grade, and an SAT essay for 11th and 12th grades.  These will be emailed to you the week before.  We will run Test Wiz for the responses to get quick feedback and results.
• Reminders
• The readers are only suggested materials for US I & US II.  It is not the required text.  If you feel there are better materials that fit the needs of your students please feel free to utilize those.  
• I have purchased a copy of an ELL text that is written in a graphic novel form for students.  If you would like access to that text please let me know and I can send you a copy of the book electronically.  
• All students should have been introduced to the essential question for the semester at this point, and the sub-essential questions for the quarter.  These will be the focus for our assessments so it is important students have a deep understanding of the question itself.

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events & Reminders...

World History & Electives Teachers...

Please remember to grade and send out your homework packet results to me by the end of this week.  It will require just a bulleted list of areas of concerns for students in the body of the email.  I will compile the results and share these with you all ASAP.  

Homework Packets...

Homework packets were delivered before school started electronically and in hard copy.  These were to be distributed to students.  The curriculum committee will be meeting tomorrow, September 9th, to discuss next steps with homework packets as well as common writing prompts.  An email will be sent tomorrow with updates.

Essential Questions...

For all US I & US II teachers please make sure to consistently remind students of the essential questions for each semester.  The CIA in October will be measuring students' ability to answer these questions.  In my initial round of walk throughs I have not seen the essential question posted either on worksheets or on the board visible for students.  

New Additions

History Department Welcomes Two New Teachers

This year we are welcoming two new teachers into the department.

Emily Manning will be teaching US Government and Psychology in HHS this year.  Last year she did her student-teaching in HLD under the tutelage of Nick Beauchamp.  After graduating she completed the year in PFA first as a BBE and then as a long-term substitute teaching US I & US Government.  

Stephanie Montes is joining the BMF history department.  A graduate of UMass Lowell and PFA '10.  Stephanie will be teaching US History II this year.  

Welcome!

Helpful Links to start the School Year

As we begin a new school year and a new curriculum it is important to reflect on our practices and examine potential areas of growth in our teaching practices.  Below are some resources that might offer new insight into an area you are struggling with, provide a new tool for you to use with students, or just offer an entertaining read!  Check them out

American Rhetoric
This website offers a catalog of important speeches in history, including almost the entire speech history of our current President, speeches from historical figures, movie speeches and more...

Formative Assessments
This post from Edutopia offers 53 new ways to use formative assessments in your classroom...

Teaching Controversial Topics
This article offers teacher perspectives on teaching controversy in the classroom.  One of the areas of support that was asked for last year was on this topic...

Actively Read
This website offers grade-level readings that you can edit to insert questions, annotate for students, and assign them over the internet.  It is a great new tool to check out, you'll just need to create a username and password...

History Department gets Data Wise

This coming school year the LHS History Department will be utilizing the Data Wise Improvement Plan to focus on literacy in the new thematic curriculum.  Teachers will be meeting 6 times throughout the year to examine student work and apply new instructional strategies to improve student achievement in a teacher-selected learner-centered problem.  This work will begin October 6th during period 1 where teachers will be grouped by content area and examine MCAS and SAT data for Lawrence High School to determine where students need to improve.  Teachers will then create SMART goals to guide their work for the year.  

History Department Chair Ryan Souliotis and PFA History teacher Kaitlin Torossian attended the Harvard Data Wise Institute along with Headmaster Michael Fiato, HHS Principal Paul Neal, HHS Assistant Principal Adam Johnson and Dean of Assessment Nicole St. Clair in June 2015.  While there the group learned more about integrating data into daily practices of the high school, improving
our meetings, and how to present data in a meaningful way to teachers.  Data Wise is a nationally recognized program that has helped hundreds of schools across the country in their improvement processes.  

Below please find the calendar as well as the content area groups teachers will be participating in:

History Department Meeting Schedule 2015-2016

October 6, 2015                        8:00-9:30

November 9, 2015                    2:55-4:00

February 1, 2016                      2:55-4:00

March 8, 2016                          8:00-9:30

April 25, 2016                          2:55-4:00

May 3, 2016                             8:00-9:30

Content Area Groups

US History I

Brenna Chalifour

Bryan Ibbitson

Andy Minihan

Michelle Gilman-Verzi

Andy Della Croce

US History II

Nicole Toothaker
Stephanie Montes

Kaitlin Torossian

Jerry Hayes

Michael Carpenito

Jonathan Cogswell

World History/Electives

Nick Beauchamp

Heath Churchill

Andrew Fonseca

Frank McLaughlin

Amanda Drugan

Lenny Provost

Emily Manning

Mel Berger

Rita Knowlton

Welcome!

Welcome to the Lawrence High School History Department Blog.  Over the course of the summer this page will be updated to include information about our pending transition to the thematic curriculum and become the inclusive home for all of your history related materials including assessment information, curriculum documents, reader information, unit plans and instructional strategy assistance.  Please frequent our site as we update it throughout the summer!