Though the class was three hours long, this is pretty much what I got out of it...
Group Work
We started out by talking about how to build a cooperative community in the classroom and that group work can help this. We were split up into groups and given a bag of paper cups that we had to use with our group to build the tallest tower of cups possible, and we couldn't talk.
After we did this activity, we debriefed it and discussed if there were leaders in each group or if everyone shared the responsibility, if there were ever frustrations, etc. We talked about the difference between being a leader (delegates responsibilities, is kind, etc) and bossy (usually ends up doing everything his or herself, usually isn't kind).
Discussed how you could do activities like this and then talk with class about what being bossy looks like and what being a leader sounds like. You could ask the class what someone in their group said that really helped them get to their goal.
Then we moved onto the readings and got into small groups to answer the questions "What is the role of history?" "How do you get history into the curriculum?" and find a short interesting passage from the reading.
My group discussed how you can use debates, guided discussions and primary sources to look at history. That there is a great importance in authenticity and looking at different perspectives. We discussed in our large group how history can be incorporated into the classroom through acting, dramatizations and really trying to get the students to experience the history so that it connects to their lives.
We looked at one another's posters and that was neat. We didn't really do much with that besides look at them...
Then we watched a video on a classroom at Santa Domingo Elementary with a male teacher teaching a history lesson to his class (I think they were first graders...)
The students had read a book on modern farming titled Heartland the previous week and drawn a picture with something that would only be used in modern times. Then they read the Ox-Cart Man and looked on the timeline, which had other dates and events on it, such as the birth of their parents, grandparents, great-great-grandparents, etc., and placed the time that the Ox-Cart Man takes place, on it. Students listened to the story and drew another picture of something that would only be around in past farms and then a final picture of something on a past and a modern farm.
The goal was to try and show how things change, or stay the same, in a certain area throughout history. Because the children had a connection to farming in their community and homes, the teacher chose to look at farming, but it could really be about anything.
Hmmm that's all I got, hope it helps!
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