Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

Today my Student Historians started to create a One-Pager. One-Pagers are new to me, but English Language Arts teachers have been using them for some time. These graphic organizers promote deep learning and creativity, and is a meaningful way to have students show what they know. The focus of our One-Pager is Thomas Paine's "Common Sense". Students translated six quotes yesterday, rewrote them into 21st Century language, and discussed these tricky meanings together as a class. These primary source quotes are now at the heart of the One-Pager. My Historians needed to select one of the quotes and bring it to life in their project. A template isn't necessary for One-Pagers but I believe at this point in the year my students need the structure a template provides. I found out that most of my students (like me!) had never created One-Pagers before. I searched and searched last night for a One-Pager template that was free and easily accessible, but had no luck.  I ...

There is so much happening in our classroom this month! US History students are learning about the work of historians through the Stanford History Education Group's "Thinking Like a Historian" series. This program is serving to add to our academic language in the classroom this year. We are also studying the pre-Revolution and the Revolutionary War. Our study centers around "March Madness"-style brackets.  Student groups are analyzing people, places, ideas, and events of the time period through seeding and regional tournaments. The ranking necessary to complete these regionals isn't easy! Students develop their rankings and topics independently, then they need to prove to their group mates the importance between, for example, a three seed versus a six seed. The elimination rounds are full of animated voices and students scrambling to locate factual justifications in our materials and create an agreed-upon set of topics and a winner. The first two ...

The school year is off to a great start! My US History 8 students are starting the year learning the academic vocabulary we will refer to throughout the course.  The Thinking Like a Historian plans from the Stanford History Education Group are an excellent resource, their class activities are student-centered and relevant. These history terms will be supplemented with a few concepts from AP classes, too. I am making a Word Wall and we will add to it throughout the year. I am greatly enjoying my first time teaching the Language Support-History class, too. These students from Grades 6, 7, and 8 are so eager to learn! We've started our study with learning about maps and directions. We've used Google Earth and Google Maps to research the streets in our city and how to give directions. These lessons will support tomorrow's first field trip--we are taking a tour of our city! We are going to the Library, Police Station, City Hall, and Civic Center. It will be exciting t...