Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

This video is an example of how students benefit from cross-curricular opportunities in learning. These Student Historians created an exceptional graph analysis combining their understanding of History and their knowledge of Mathematics to produce a project that thoroughly explains their awareness of the Big Picture ideas present in American during the Early 1800s. They were able to use a math graphic site to create a detailed graph, event though that wasn't a requirement.  My outcomes for students was that they understood the concepts of Nationalism and Sectionalism present in America during this time period and that they realized that there were events that led the United States to the Civil War. All students were able to show their understanding of these concepts, all were also able to do this in ways that made sense to them. Differentiated instruction enables students of all levels and abilities to shine. I will have more examples to share soon. #innovationforthewin

Student Historians began a thematic assessment yesterday. I have implemented this assessment for a few years now, adding more specifics each year. This assessment requires students to examine examples of growth and change in early American History, from the Presidency of George Washington to the Missouri Compromise.  Students ranked each of the events using a scale of -4 to +4 and explained their rankings. This is a sophisticated skill--they need to explain why, for example, a positive event that rated a 3 in their view wasn't a 4 but also wasn't an example of a negative change for the country. (They will also need to describe their positive events in terms of nationalism and the negative events will more than likely be examples of sectionalism, a concept that ultimately leads to the Civil War in the 1860s.)  When rankings were complete students received a graph and plotted their points. The next steps of this project completely take me out of my comfort zone--studen