Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

The iMovies are completed. As I'm viewing them I'm struck at the talent and creativity of my Student Historians.  Groups of students studied one year of the war, ranked three events from that year they believe impacted the end of the war, found primary source documents from each of these events (including at least one Mathew Brady photograph), drafted explanations of the events, and composed and explained an original piece of music on GarageBand. Their music compositions needed to exemplify  the tone of their year of the war.  I will share projects over the next few days, here is one outstanding example. Bravo students!

It's time for a change. I will be teaching a new (to me) class in the fall. I'm going to be the Language Support-History teacher in our building. I will have 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade English Learners in my class and together we will study both World and US History.  I couldn't be more excited! This class will combine my backgrounds in teaching History, Foreign Language (German), and my deep passion for character education for the first time in my career.  The year will begin with a study of our world, moving into learning about North America, the United States, our state of Michigan, our city, and our school. I will learn from and collaborate closely with two amazing educators, our school ELL Coordinator and ELL Parapro. Our District-level English Language Coordinator is outstanding and I can already tell we will work very well together, too. We have some exciting plans and I'm starting to formulate ideas and possibilities for day-to-day activities.   ...

The last month of school is upon us. For 8th Grade teachers in a 6th-8th Grade Middle School this isn't just the end of the school year, it's the end of Middle School for our students.  This time of year always brings on a range of emotions for my students--they're happy, nervous, excited, unsure. Change, even good change, can be a challenge. Processing these feelings isn't easy but I hope the next few weeks will bring some help by asking my students to complete a LEGACY Reflection. This is the third year my students have written these reflections and the second year all 8th Graders in the building are completing them. I've enjoyed going into all of the classes to begin this project.  My hope is that I successfully plant the idea in our students that they are the ones that set the tone for their Middle School legacy. This can and should be empowering.   The first reflection centered around a definition of legacy and a focus on leadership. Stu...

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--stude...

I've been utilizing blackout poetry as a means of assessing knowledge for a few years now  because it's one of the best ways to assess deep understanding of a topic. Yesterday's classwork was no exception. I've never used music from the hit musical "Hamilton" in my classroom before. I've wanted to but planning lessons seemed daunting because, frankly, many of the songs aren't student-friendly. I located a friendly version and decided to take the plunge--I'm so glad I did! We listened to and annotated the song two days ago and then wrote our poems yesterday. We are studying the New Nation and the seeds of discord surrounding Hamilton and Jefferson. The song "Cabinet Battle #1" tells the story of the negotiations into paying off state debts in the Northern states, creating the National Bank, and the creation of Washington DC (exciting, right?) I've never particularly cared for teaching this time period but I do now, thanks t...

Student Historians recently presented their National History Day projects to our school community. Thanks to the support from our 6th and 7th Grade Social Studies teachers, 8th Grade students were able to successfully defend their theses to their peers. The 7th Graders can see what they will be asked to do next year and the 6th Graders can use these projects as a spring board for their student-centered projects they will complete within the next month. Each grade reflected on the event and related it to what they knew, as well. It was also a wonderful community-building activity. National History Day projects are so meaningful to me because they are, at heart, Genius Hour projects within the content area of History. I promised myself this year's focus would be on helping students hone their passions and I believe this was achieved. Middle Schoolers need to find who they are and what they're about. Delving into what's important to them will help on their journe...