Using Glogster to create virtual posters allows students to work on posters which can include video, hyperlinks and even music. These posters are interactive and help student hone their technology skills by creating content rather than just consuming it. The ideal situation for this activity is when there is access to the school’s chromebooks which the students can then use to create these posters in class. These virtual poster can then be saved by student and used to review an shared amongst each other.
The interpretation of political cartoons is a vital skill in the study of history. These cartoons can provide a snapshot into the past as they reflect what the creator saw in society. The interpretation of these documents is important for students to understand and by exposing them to them at different times of history they can better understand the mood of the time. Provided with the cartoon and a checklist which list things students should look for in these documents such as the year of its creation, any text that is included, any metaphors or symbols they see in use they can then work in groups to bring all these things together to decipher its meaning.
This activity is very similar to a parliamentary debate in style with the major changes coming in the way time is allotted and the way the whole class is aimed at being included. There are various adaptations that can be made in order to increase participation or enhance the quality of the discussion. For instance the topic can be given out in advance and students can be chosen at random to talk, the number of speakers and response times can also be increased. Topics for this activity should be interesting and able to generate good discussions, the instructor should act as moderator and make sure everything remains civil.
Using a variety of student created work such as posters or other sources such as photographs or documents students are given a chance to study all of them in a gallery style. The classroom in this activity is set up so it allows for students to move around and keeps the flow from one station to another easy. The goal of this activity is to engage students with the items being displayed this can be done by asking that students take notes while viewing or fill out handouts where specific information is required.
This strategy is helpful in the reading and organizing or difficult text. It helps students obtain meaning from text by breaking them up into smaller more manageable pieces. The modeling by the instructor is important as students have to know what is expected that they do to the text, the teacher will model the decoding strategies such as highlighting unknown words, using context to make meaning of a passage and summarizing each chunk into their own words. An important part of this activity is the group discussion that occurs in which two or more students compare their annotations and summaries and compare their work.
A variety of tools that help students make visual relations between ideas, places or terms. The purpose of this is to help students organize information in a visual way, these are great aids that help keep complicated ideas in order. The way in which these are constructed either as a handout by the teacher or by the student matters greatly as there are different types that function differently from each other. The goal here is to make sure they help keep the student organize and are helpful to obtaining and reviewing the information.
Document analysis is another great strategy for the social studies field as it allows for students to do a better job at studying sources. The process is simple to follow and with enough practice it can be used often and efficiently. The way in which this strategy works is that students and the teacher follow steps in analyzing documents. For example first we would identify the author of the work, when was this written, by who and for whom, what type of document is it, what does the document say and why is it important. This activity can work with all sorts of documents such as primary sources, this activity can also works with groups in which they help each other analyze the document.
Is strategy is similar to that of the political cartoon analysis in that we take an image but in this case we make it come to life. The way this is done by asking questions specific to a photograph and then have students act the scene out this allows them to experience the scene and have a better understanding of it. This is then followed by a gallery walk like exercise which can be paired with a graphic organizer.