Teaching History with Mrs. Byars

Last time, I shared how I plan using the new C3 Framework and the California HSS Framework that was adopted in 2016. Today I want to talk about one of the four main components of the framework and how I work to incorporate it in my classroom: Civics and Citizenship. The Framework states: From the earliest grade levels, students learn the kind of behavior that is necessary for the functioning of a democratic society in which everyone’s fundamental human rights are respected. They learn sportsmanship, fair play, sharing, respect, integrity, and taking turns. They should be given opportunities to lead and to follow. They should learn how to select leaders and how to resolve disputes rationally. They should learn about the value of due process in dealing with infractions, and they should learn to respect the rights of the minority even if this minority is only a single, dissenting voice and to recognize the dignity of every person. These democratic values should be taught in the class...

I love our history department and I love how committed my colleagues are to creating engaging lessons for our students. Recently, I've been working with my department on how best to approach the three massive documents California Social Science teachers are supposed to incorporate in their classrooms.  This slide deck reviews how I approach the new California Framework and the existing California State Standards.  What I have found most useful are these planning sheets ( Grade 8 , Grade 10 ) I use when working through what I've used in the past and comparing it to what the Framework asks teachers to now focus on.  I plan to create another deck with resources on how to mix the framework, content standards, and the CCSS Literacy Standards but for now feel free to check out this deck ! It works kind of like a Hyperdoc so feel free to click the links and engage in the activities.

There are so many amazing new ways students can share what they've learned and create incredible projects, videos, websites, and presentations to show what they've learned. This is a quick list of 5 I've used this year that my students and I really liked. I won't go into too much detail about each product, this more of a whirlwind tour then an in-depth tutorial. Enjoy!  If you live anywhere on social media, even if you spent like 5 seconds on twitter this year, you probably already know about this one. It's not my favorite (and to be honest, my students don't LOVE it) but it has a ton of potential and has some really amazing features.  How It Works:  Students record up to 5 minute long videos reacting to a prompt. Students can comment and react to each other (but those features can be turned off) feels like instagram of videos but is self contained (you control who has access to the grid and can post.). What I like about it: It feels like s...

Over the past few weeks my World History students have been hard at work on research projects in class class, it was a project I had designed with concepts like Genius Hour and 20% Time in mind but I also knew that I was too far behind in the year to allow my students to just study anything they wanted as both those concepts promote. So I took the things I love about Genius Hour and I applied them to a content specific research project:  Students would reflect daily on their work.  Students would have choice on what they researched (as long as it fell into the realm of World War II). Students would work on this only in class and would get ample time devoted to this task alone.  Students would have total choice in the final product they created from their research. Even knowing that I was limiting their area of study to anything World War II was daunting, part of me worried there wasn't enough buy in, that students would not be able to find something they...