MIX IT UP WITH A SCRAMBLE!

Mix it up with a scavenger hunt on caffeine!  That's what a scramble is all about.

This reading strategy engages students by having them moving around from station.  Here is how it works.

My 8th-grade students were learning about slave life in the United States.  The reading content is heavy, along with high-level vocabulary words such as antebellum and manumission. So, it's going to be challenging for my kids, but I knew they can do it!

During this scramble, my students work in teams.  I encourage them to share information with each other.  However, my expectations are very clear about this; sharing means verbalizing the information by explaining their answers.  Not taking another worksheet and simply copying the information onto another worksheet.

To monitor progress, students gather information onto some kind of sheet to prove they have discovered the important information.  For the scramble, students are working to complete a worksheet with fill-in the blank statements and short answer questions about the short readings at each of the stations.

But in a scramble the content is mixed-up.  Because of this, students must read (and re-read) the information at each station to understand the information AND the context of the information. Then, they check their worksheet if the information is what they are seeking.  But there is more...

There is duplicate information in the scramble stations.  So as students move from station to station, they will discover the information is repeated.  To make it more interesting, I change the font on the information sheets so it looks different.  So students can't just glance at the station to see if it is the

same information; students must read it.

HELPFUL HINTS:

• When creating the information sheets for each station, it is important to make them short, no long than two paragraphs.  If a student  (especially struggling readers) approached a station with more than eight sentences, there is NO WAY he/she will read it.  Remember, this a kind of mad dash to find information, but students will be exposed to the information multiple times. 

• Always finish the worksheet with one or two open-ended questions - I call these my "Thinking
  
  Cap Questions"  These questions require students to synthesize information from the scramble.  So, for this scramble, my Thinking Cap Question was, "On a scale of one to ten how you rate the treatment of American slaves.  One is very bad and ten is super nice.  Please explain your answer".

• Make it into a game.  Sometimes I have teams compete with each other to be the first to correctly complete the worksheet.  For this scramble, I did not do this.

CONCLUSION - To ensure all the students have the correct information, as a class I review the information.  Also, I have students share their Thinking Cap Question answer with the class.  Sometimes these discussions really get deep into the content and it engages students. 

The Herringbone Reading Strategy

 The Herringbone Reading Strategy

WHAT IS IT?
The Herringbone is a graphic organizer that helps students to determine the supportive details and the main idea of an article by requiring them to determine the who, what, when, where, why and how of the article. Students answer each of these questions by filling out a diagram that resembles a herringbone pattern. 

WHAT THE STUDENTS READ? 
Students were learning about slave life in the United States before the Civil War.  The aspect students focused on were five different slave rebellions.

PROCEDURE
Students read five different information texts as it related to slave rebellions.  Instead of having all students read all five texts, students read in a think-pair-and-share format. Students were allowed completed the assignment in small groups, no more than two or three students or work independently. Then students completed the Herringbone diagram.  

As I introduced the Herringbone Reading Strategy, I explained to the students how important it is to read the entire article first, then answer the questions on the Herringbone worksheet.

Next, the Herringbone worksheet was completed, and students wrote a paragraph summary of the article.

Finally, with the Herringbone worksheet completed, students shared information about their rebellion with another student.  I ensured students shared their information with other students who read about a different slave rebellion.

As a closing, students shared with the entire class a short summary of the rebellion they read.

REFLECTION
In the beginning, some students struggled to find answers for parts of the Herringbone worksheet (answering who, what, when, where, why and how).  However, it helped students to understand the purpose of the Herringbone once they understood the layering of the questions.  First, they answer who the article is about.  Then what did the person (or people) do?  How did the person (or people) do their task?  When did the person (or people) do the action, and so on.

Also, it is imperative for students to know, like writing, close reading is a process too.  To read deep takes skill and time.  And I do not believe my students understand this.  So next time I will present this reading strategy as a process to achieve deeper understanding of the text, rather than an encumbrance step.

MODIFICATION
In the morning classes, I gave the students the Herringbone Reading Strategy worksheet and their reading materials at the same time. But I discovered this was a mistake.  Even though I instructed students to read first, THEN complete the questions on the Herringbone worksheet many of the students did not do this.  Instead, students completed the Herringbone worksheet AS they read the first time.  Even though students completed the assignment sooner, they were skipping the process of re-reading for important information and details.  So, later I handed out the reading material first.  Once I saw the students complete annotation on their reading,  I gave them the Herringbone worksheet to complete.  This slowed down the reading process and allowed for deeper understanding of the material.

I was impressed with the student's ability to comprehend the main ideas of their articles since they were written for an older audience. The Herringbone allowed students to slow down and focus on the details, rather than rushing through the reading.

PIE the Reading Strategy

Strategy #1 - P.I.E.

WHAT IS IT?
P.I.E. is a pre-reading strategy that stands for Persuade, Inform or  Entertain.  This gives students a reason to read - as they read for content, they need to discover what is the purpose of the text.  Is it to persuade, inform, or entertain the reader?

WHAT THE STUDENTS READ? 
Students read an entire informational page of text about Samuel Slater - the Father of the American Revolution.

PROCEDURE
Before reading, I introduced PIE to the students with an anticipatory question - "What do PIE and reading have in common?"  The students discussed in their small groups some possible connections and then they shared with the class some possible answers.

I explained the PIE strategy and we began reading.  Also, I reminded students they need to decide if Slater was a traitor and an American hero.  So, they had another purpose for reading this assignment.

I read most of the text to the students as they silently read with me.  I checked for understanding every so often, stopping and asking questions.

After we completed the reading, students discussed in their small groups the purpose of the text, then students shared as a class possible answers.
Then, students completed a reading guide over the same text; answer fill-in the black and open-ended questions.

Finally, we checked for understanding and students shared their thoughts about Slater being a traitor or an American hero in small groups.

REFLECTION
The students correctly identified this text as being informational.  When asked to justify their answers, some students identified the vocabulary used (neutral) and/or how the author simply presented the information to the students.

As students were walking out of class, I overheard one student say to another that "Today's class was FUN!" To which I wonder, did this strategy really make that much of an impact?

Finally, upon reflection of the kind of text I use in my class (US History), I discovered I use mostly informational text.  So, what might happen if I used more persuading texts?  Or, better yet, more entertaining texts such as song lyrics, poems, or funny stories in my class?  Might this engage students more?

Looking for an Engaging Kennedy Resource?

Looking for an engaging Kennedy Resource?

Over the summer I was flipping through my Amazon Prime video account and I discovered an AWESOME video resource for US History Teacher.

It's a four part series covering the life of President Kennedy.  The series is simply entitled JFK, created by PBS for their American Experience series. Each part does an outstanding job going in depth AND being engaging for your students.  There are black and white and color home movies of the Kennedys, interviews of people who worked directly with the Kennedys, and relatives who saw historical events first hand.  At the same time, it's not glory-be- all John Kennedy.  The series is pretty much a fair assessment of his life and the presidency.

Again, this series is on Amazon Prime right now.

Also, if you interested in showing these videos to your class, then feel free to use my movie guides I created for this series.  The guides can be found here.   Each guide includes fill-in the blank and short answer questions, post viewing questions, and make-up question for absent students who missed the classroom discussions.

Finally, feel free to visit my TpT store for all your other social studies needs.  I have it all here!

Take care and have a SUPER year!

James

USING MOVIES IN THE CLASSROOM - YES? or NO?

Some teachers believe showing movies in their classroom is passive learning, or something they might do only the day before a long break like Winter or Spring Break.  In short, not worthy of their time...

But, for me  - I say YES! I see movies in the discipline of History as an excellent opportunity to get engage kids and help them understand the content better. And here's why -

1) Movies bring visuals to ALL those abstract ideas.  Kids can see and hear about the working conditions of the textile mills or see how the water frame or the cotton gin works, they will remember it.  It also allows them "hang" all that information about the water frame or cotton gin on.  Thereby further build their understanding of the subject.

2) Historical movies are engaging.  Let's face it, who doesn't like a good movie?  Even historical fiction movies underscore important and key concepts.  Some historical fiction movie I showed in my US History class are:

• Uncle Tom's Cabin - No better way to drive home those important concepts of slave life before the American Civil War.

• All Quiet on the Western Front - This power story underscores life on the front lines, the loss of innocents, and the waste of war.

• All The Presidents Men - Let's face it, Watergate is very confusing for many students.  So many people involved, the twists and turns.  But, I used this movie before we learn about the Watergate.  It helps students learn the over all scope and give them visuals to understand who the main characters were.

3) Making reference to the movie.  When I use a movie in the classroom, I find the kids and myself making references to it so many times.  When a student it studying for a test or trying to recall a concept, I woulds day, "Remember when..." and they quickly recall and make the connections from the movie to an academic activity. 

Finally, movies can be another important tool for you to use in the classroom.  And to help you, please feel free to check out all the movie guides at the Social Studies Super Store website.  Click here to get your movie guides.