A Principal's Reflections

MAY 15, 2013

Students that participate in this experience travel to Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic as they learn firsthand about one of the most traumatic events in human history. Mr. Stipel took the group to the former Lostice synagogue and gave them the history of the Jews in Lostice. Lostice is a town of about 3,000 people.

Heritage 326

Heritage Artifacts High School History 326

Thrive in Grade Five

MARCH 9, 2025

Activity #2 – Allow Students to Read Lesser-Known History Stories The personal stories behind famous leaders and events make history come to life. We can orally share history stories with our students, but we can also provide stories as enrichment activities for early finishers.

Social Studies 130

Social Studies Classroom Management Museum History 130

TCI

NOVEMBER 12, 2024

history instruction is essential for developing informed, engaged citizens who can navigate the complexities of modern society. Fordham Institute evaluated the state-of-state standards for civics and history across all fifty states. History in elementary and middle school; also require at least one year of U.S.

Civics 98

Civics Teaching Civic Engagement Social Studies 98

Zinn Education Project

APRIL 6, 2025

Make visible the history that we are defending the right to teach with mini-lessons. Mini-lessons also serve as an affirmation that we defy censorship by teaching this “banned history” in a public space. The events in the visual display are drawn from a more detailed timeline at the Civil Rights Teaching website.

History 52

History Critical Thinking Tradition Teaching 52

Teaching American History

MARCH 11, 2025

By August 2024 she would complete her degree in the Master of Arts in American History and Government (MAHG ) program, giving her time for such an endeavor. Since the disruption of schooling during COVID, shes also spent time catching students up on critical thinking skills. All the courses are immediately impactful.

Government 96

Government Controversial Topics American History Civics 96

Moler's Musing

MARCH 1, 2025

The combination of these strategies helped students interact with history in meaningful ways while reinforcing critical thinking and writingexactly the kind of skills they need as we approach testing season. What does this headline tell us about how history is remembered? Who was upset by this, and why?

History 122

History Critical Thinking Government Research 122

A Principal's Reflections

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Image credit: [link] A Biology Teacher’s Thoughts on Critical Literacy by Lynne Torpie Science teachers can tend to be myopic, focusing on acquiring content detail and teaching the steps of the scientific method instead of fostering the investigative, critical thinking and written communication skills that embody real-world scientific endeavors.

Museum 316

Museum Archiving Social Studies History 316

Moler's Musing

JANUARY 24, 2025

This week in 8th-grade social studies, we brought history to life with engaging EduProtocols that helped students dive deep into the Early Republic and key moments like the Whiskey Rebellion. Wrapping Up with Gimkit We ended the class with a Gimkit featuring nine questions I pulled from the summative assessment for this unit.

Government 131

Government Social Studies Leadership History 131

Leah Cleary

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

We like it because it sharpens their critical thinking, recall, and contextualization skills. Its easy to implement and works across various subjects, not just history. Here’s the basic idea: Students recap three prior events or concepts relevant to todays topic. Caption: “THREE Popes, ONE Church?

Library 59

Library Critical Thinking History 59

Moler's Musing

MARCH 8, 2025

One of the biggest challenges in history education is engaging students in meaningful analysis while encouraging collaboration and critical thinking. Comparing their topic to a related historical event or figure. Depth & Complexity: Ethics: Was the event just or unjust? What were its consequences?

Primary Sources 52

Primary Sources History Critical Thinking History Education 52

Moler's Musing

MARCH 10, 2025

Ethics : Have students create two sketchesone that supports an event and one that critiques it. A history class sketching the Industrial Revolution might also examine how innovations in machinery affected economic systems and scientific advancements. Rules : Students depict who created the rules and who had to follow them.

Critical Thinking 75

Critical Thinking History Economics Education 75

Moler's Musing

APRIL 17, 2025

Sketch and Tell : We processed key events and concepts visuallysimple drawings, one-sentence blurbs. Thats literacy not just reading and writing, but digital reasoning, critical thinking, and adaptability. Not ideal, but it forced me to think fast and strip things back to what mattered. It wasnt perfect. And it was real.

History 89

History Critical Thinking Education 89

Moler's Musing

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

The who, what, when, and where of the event. This task linked abstract governmental weaknesses to a real-world crisis, helping students see how the Articles’ limitations played out in history. This activity combined creativity and critical thinking, but as expected, many students didn’t finish this part. Shays’ Rebellion.

Government 131

Government Lesson Plan Critical Thinking History 131

Catlin Tucker

JUNE 16, 2024

Providing students with choices to transfer and apply their learning encourages deeper thinking and enhances their ability to communicate their understanding effectively. These choices promote active engagement, critical thinking, and the ability to connect and apply concepts in various contexts.

Social Science 152

Social Science Artifacts Museum History 152

Passion for Social Studies

JANUARY 14, 2024

Students will be sure to understand monumental events after completing this lesson. WW II and Cold War Unit The world has undergone so many significant events. They need to think deeply about the past and apply their critical thinking skills. So, this lesson provides everything students need.

Lesson Plan 130

Lesson Plan Critical Thinking History Social Studies 130

ED Surge

MARCH 26, 2024

It’s just more complex and time consuming, he says, to gauge how much a student has learned about, say, how to weigh two competing views of a historical event in an essay assignment. It’s really contingent on hours of the day and human buy-in,” he says. Cote is not alone in pinning hopes on AI to help the teaching of civics.

Civics 134

Civics Controversial Topics Education Social Studies 134

The Hechinger Report

SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

No matter whether elementary teachers return to physical or virtual classrooms, this will be a year for the history books. What’s less clear is how prepared elementary school teachers are to put these seismic events into context. At most of these institutions, the deficiency is not about a lack of sufficient credit hours.

K-12 127

K-12 Civics Social Studies Geography 127

Students of History

JANUARY 10, 2023

Many teachers avoid bringing current events into the classroom and often for good reason. However, current events are a great way to connect your curriculum to the real world and work on social studies skills. So, I encourage you to try - when relevant - to bring some current events into your lessons.

Social Studies 52

Social Studies Civics Critical Thinking World History 52

Moler's Musing

OCTOBER 26, 2024

Each protocol helped keep the energy high while pushing students to think critically about the events leading up to the American Revolution. Of Parents and Children”: Bringing the Revolution Home In this lesson, the premise is simple but effective—compare historical events to everyday situations that students can relate to.

Primary Sources 126

Primary Sources History Government Critical Thinking 126

ED Surge

JULY 21, 2022

Dear Bonni, I'll be teaching a course on the history of Ireland later this year. Seeing as how art has been such a big part of Irish history and culture, I was thinking about something artistic in some way, but how on earth do I grade something creative? What do I do? I feel weird about testing them on genocide.”

Primary Sources 125

Primary Sources History World History Digital Resources 125

C3 Teachers

MARCH 14, 2025

These pilot experiences were invaluable we observed firsthand how students engaged in compelling questions, analyzed primary sources, and developed their own interpretations of historical events. Teachers grew as facilitators of inquiry, fostering discussions, debates, and deep analytical thinking** among students. IDM does just that.

Social Studies 40

Social Studies Public School Primary Sources Civic Engagement 40

Catlin Tucker

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

This routine aims to scaffold the thinking process by breaking it down into manageable chunks, thereby facilitating rich classroom conversations or introspective thinking. The routine can be applied to various situations, from analyzing a piece of art to discussing a historical event.

Primary Sources 143

Primary Sources History Cultures Cultural Studies 143

Catlin Tucker

AUGUST 15, 2023

This routine fosters critical thinking and enhances the meaningful integration of new learning into an individual’s cognitive framework. Using Connect, Extend, Challenge at the Secondary Level Literary Analysis Connect: Have students relate a theme or character trait from a novel to current events or personal experiences.

Geography 133

Geography Economics Critical Thinking Cultures 133

Students of History

MAY 25, 2023

History is a tapestry of interconnected events, people, and ideas. Helping students to make connections in your curriculum is a powerful way to deepen their understanding of history and to see its connection to the world today. As you can imagine, are sometimes challenging, but fun for advanced or AP level history students.

History 52

History Critical Thinking Middle School Research Skills 52

Dangerously Irrelevant

MAY 31, 2017

It also offers a YouTube channel on which historians discuss their work , making history come alive for contemporary youth. The UC Davis California History Social Science Project frames current events within their historical context , connecting students’ present to the past. government as well.

Social Studies 76

Social Studies Teaching Archiving Geography 76

Moler's Musing

AUGUST 23, 2024

I had students choose an Olympic event they would gold medal in and one non-Olympic event they would gold medal in. I was ready to move into content and the question of “Why do we study history?” For my original lesson on “Why do we study history?” This took about 20-25 minutes.

Artifacts 100

Artifacts History Social Studies Lesson Plan 100

Students of History

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

If you're a US History teacher looking for PDF worksheets for your high school or middle school classroom, I have tons to share, including this 30+ page packet of free engaging assignments you can download and start using right away. Each US History unit also include thorough 9-page worksheets packets for every unit in the curriculum.

History 52

History Primary Sources Lesson Plan American History 52

ED Surge

OCTOBER 7, 2024

Creative thinking leads the list, followed by analytical or critical thinking. English language arts and history teachers have long excelled at teaching context by helping students understand the background and culture surrounding texts or historical events.

Advocacy 121

Advocacy Project-Based Learning Tradition Economics 121

Moler's Musing

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

The Thick Slide provided a perfect opportunity for students to creatively showcase their understanding and articulate the big picture of why exploration was such a significant period in European history. Overall, the class blended technology, creativity, and critical thinking to help students deepen their understanding of exploration.

Primary Sources 128

Primary Sources Artifacts Geography Lesson Plan 128

ED Surge

JANUARY 18, 2023

They see the same events unfolding as the rest of us: the grim climate figures, lack of social mobility and the chipping away of democratic cornerstones. But current events continued to weigh on me. I’m tired of living through history,” a student complained. We’re also teaching the Doomer Generation.

Elementary School 98

Elementary School Critical Thinking History Public School 98

Zinn Education Project

JUNE 6, 2024

This year, from Seattle, Washington, to Miami, Florida, and many towns and cities in between, educators will host more than 170 grassroots events on Saturday, June 8 and throughout the month. I was teaching for critical thinking. This was 2021, and Iowa had just passed its history censorship law.

Teaching 86

Teaching Social Justice Library Heritage 86

Digital Promise

JUNE 13, 2018

According to the Future of Jobs Report by the World Economic Forum, creativity is one of the top three most important skills for future workers, along with complex problem solving and critical thinking. They can research art, history, nature, foreign countries, science fiction – and the list goes on.

Middle School 84

Middle School Critical Thinking Economics History 84

The Hechinger Report

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

Last week I sat on a panel as part of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the education think tank Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE). The event brought more than a hundred people to Seattle, Wash., Consequently, students don’t have to spend hours memorizing formulas and moments in history.

Humanities 111

Humanities K-12 Civics Professional Development 111

Leah Cleary

FEBRUARY 4, 2024

Socratic Seminars bring history to life. They encourage students to critically analyze the causes and effects of historical events beyond dates and facts. It’s an approach that fosters a deeper, interactive engagement with history, making it more impactful and memorable.

Library 52

Library Critical Thinking History Social Studies 52

Leah Cleary

FEBRUARY 4, 2024

Socratic Seminars bring history to life. They encourage students to critically analyze the causes and effects of historical events beyond dates and facts. It’s an approach that fosters a deeper, interactive engagement with history, making it more impactful and memorable.

Library 52

Library Critical Thinking History Social Studies 52

Moler's Musing

MARCH 21, 2025

This week was all about using EduProtocols to deepen understanding and get students thinking critically about history. From Parafly for paraphrasing complex texts to Thick Slides for sequencing and comparing key events, we focused on meaningful engagement. What made people think they could build a perfect society there?

Local History 52

Local History History Economics Critical Thinking 52

Moler's Musing

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

It was great to see them apply their critical thinking skills to a visual source, reinforcing the concept of mercantilism and its connection to colonization. It was harder than they expected—many of the clues were tricky, and they had to really dig into their critical thinking skills to figure them out.

Geography 122

Geography Critical Thinking Tradition Middle School 122