Thursday, May 7, 2009

Creating a Historical Thesis

As you continue your work on your Content Institute Presentation, I wanted to give you some information on creating a historical thesis. When you are creating your presentation, remember that you are providing a justification for the study of this material. Here's some information to guide your quest from the Writing Center at the University of Minnesota:

"While a thesis or main point is a typical feature of writing in most academic disciplines, the thesis in history writing is essential. A thesis makes history writing what it is: a meaningful interpretation of the past rather than a simple list of things that happened.

The thesis states the overall claim of a historical essay—a good claim in history tells the reader what historical evidence says and why what it says is significant in some larger context. It usually appears as the last sentence or two in the introductory section of a paper, and it should serve as a point of reference for readers to understand the writer’s main point about a historical subject and its significance. All subsequent analysis in the body of the essay should serve to forward the thesis statement."

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Unit Topic Ideas

As we find ourselves apart during these weeks between weekends 1 and 2, I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that we are still a class, but just physically separated. In efforts to help foster our cohesiveness, the unit topics are posted here for each student. This was Jane's idea so that we could pass along information that may work for someone else's unit topic.

If your topic is listed incorrectly, please post a comment and I'll update the list.
Sarah Grade 3 Important Massachusetts Figures
Cindy Grade 1 Famous African Americans
Jody Grade 5 African Americans
Cathy Grade 5 Events Leading Up to the American Revolution
Lauren Gr. 4/5 Regions or Elections (still deciding)
Kelly Grade 4 Regions of the US
Kelli Grade 3 Boston Tea Party, important figures
April Grade 3 Community- Newburyport culture & buildings
Danielle Grade 3 Newburyport Fishing History & Geography
Kristina Grade 1 Past, Present, Future- time passage & important Americans
& K.Lee
Eli Grade 2 Working America & Bill of Rights
Colleen Grade 5 Continents, Resources & Homes
Tiffany Grade 3 Pilgrims
Deirdre Grade 4 Merrimack Valley & Its History (textiles)

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Amesbury Cohort Weekend 1


Our first weekend in Amesbury was a hot one! We've gone geocaching, examined the State Frameworks, brainstormed ways to address the Multiple Intelligences, reviewed an incredible Wiki book listing and examined a variety of software in a state of the art Mac lab (thanks Cindy!)
Here are our class blogs:
Deirdre
I'll add to more to this when I'm back home...

Monday, August 4, 2008

Final Units

Here are the final units that you have created. Each unit is a pdf file that contains all of your lessons, assessments, rubrics and research papers.

aimeesunit.pdfmashasunit.pdf
juliesunit.pdf

Friday, August 1, 2008

Our Field Trip

Thursday was a great outing along the Black Heritage Trail and the Freedom Trail. Here's a video I made of our trip. I hope you enjoy it!


video

Labels:

Monday, July 21, 2008

ELA and Social Studies Links

Today, 7/21 is a day devoted to examining the ELA and Social Studies strands and viewing cross curricular ties. Some of the things we'll be doing today can be found on the following sites:
Foldables Wiki
More Teacher Created Foldables
US History Foldables
Map Graphic
History Foldables (huge resource!)
US History Review with Foldables
A Stand Up Circle Book

Thoughts from the week of 7/14


We began our week with a discussion of primary sources and their importance in the elementary social studies classroom. Kathy Schrock's slideshow provided the clear definition, "actual records that have survived from the past, such as letters, photographs, videos, and articles of clothing". Sites like the Library of Congress' American Memory project provide a large assortment of resources. For example, today in history on July 21, 1861 was the first battle of Bull Run. This photograph taken in 1862 shows the destruction.
On Tuesday we struck the streets of Cambridge in search of 42 degrees 22.585 North and 71 degrees 07.055 West.


We found a multicache in our geocache adventure that took us through Harvard's campus, back through Lesley and into a Cambridge neighborhood.



Thursday we shared cultural biographies. This was truly a great class. I am always throughly amazed with your descriptions of your cultural selves and how much you have to bring to your classroom. Not to mention a day of great food!