Student Engagement
Political Cartoons
These primary sources are generally easy for students to understand, as they are completely visual. They are also an excellent way to get students thinking about how people felt during a historical period or how they felt about a certain historical event. It is also a good way to teach metaphors, sarcasm, and social and political commentary.
Document Analysis
Primary sources are important to any history class and so analyzing these documents is equally important. By following a template when analyzing these documents, you give students a structure to follow, showing them exactly what you want to know and what they should be looking for in a given document.
Storyboard
A storyboard, with a premade template, is a good way to help students focus as they read through a narrative portion of the textbook. By illustrating the main points of a narrative and putting them in the correct order while the students are reading the text, they can better understand and retain what they are reading. In addition, they have an easy source to go back to later on.
Café Conversations
Giving students a particular identity, one tied to the topic at hand, and allowing them to discuss with other students with their own identities gives students and opportunity to understand the past in a very personal way. Allowing them to experience what it was like for people in history is a powerful way to get students to connect to the history of the lesson. In addition, it can help build the bonds in a classroom.
Human Timeline
In this activity, each student (or pair of students) is given a specific historical event that they represent. Then, along with other students who represent other events, they must physically make a timeline of the lesson. This gives students something active to do and if they can associate their peers with a certain period of time or important event, it can help them recall it when it comes time to assess.
Online Interactives
Playing an online game that happens to also correspond with the topic of the lesson is a powerful tool to further a student’s learning. It gives students a hands-on approach to learning and allows them to take the process into their own hands. It is a different experience for the student than simply reading about the events that are played out in the interactive, they actually get to be a part of it.
Web Quest
The web quest is like a set of reading notes but it is not limited to a single textbook. Instead, it can span the entire internet. While the students are looking for information, they are only searching in whatever the teacher has chosen for them. This means that the students do all of the learning instead incessantly searching for the one or two key words in a question. It also gives them a chance to move outside of the book and the traditional classroom environment.
Digital Collaboration
Using tools provided by Intel (other sources are available), teachers can give their students digital applications that they can use to engage the lesson. There is visual ranking, showing evidence, seeing reason, and a shared class workspace. Since the teacher creates it all, it lines up with the lesson. Since students work together to use these tools, they can learn the lesson together and students that excel can aid students that struggle.
These primary sources are generally easy for students to understand, as they are completely visual. They are also an excellent way to get students thinking about how people felt during a historical period or how they felt about a certain historical event. It is also a good way to teach metaphors, sarcasm, and social and political commentary.
Document Analysis
Primary sources are important to any history class and so analyzing these documents is equally important. By following a template when analyzing these documents, you give students a structure to follow, showing them exactly what you want to know and what they should be looking for in a given document.
Storyboard
A storyboard, with a premade template, is a good way to help students focus as they read through a narrative portion of the textbook. By illustrating the main points of a narrative and putting them in the correct order while the students are reading the text, they can better understand and retain what they are reading. In addition, they have an easy source to go back to later on.
Café Conversations
Giving students a particular identity, one tied to the topic at hand, and allowing them to discuss with other students with their own identities gives students and opportunity to understand the past in a very personal way. Allowing them to experience what it was like for people in history is a powerful way to get students to connect to the history of the lesson. In addition, it can help build the bonds in a classroom.
Human Timeline
In this activity, each student (or pair of students) is given a specific historical event that they represent. Then, along with other students who represent other events, they must physically make a timeline of the lesson. This gives students something active to do and if they can associate their peers with a certain period of time or important event, it can help them recall it when it comes time to assess.
Online Interactives
Playing an online game that happens to also correspond with the topic of the lesson is a powerful tool to further a student’s learning. It gives students a hands-on approach to learning and allows them to take the process into their own hands. It is a different experience for the student than simply reading about the events that are played out in the interactive, they actually get to be a part of it.
Web Quest
The web quest is like a set of reading notes but it is not limited to a single textbook. Instead, it can span the entire internet. While the students are looking for information, they are only searching in whatever the teacher has chosen for them. This means that the students do all of the learning instead incessantly searching for the one or two key words in a question. It also gives them a chance to move outside of the book and the traditional classroom environment.
Digital Collaboration
Using tools provided by Intel (other sources are available), teachers can give their students digital applications that they can use to engage the lesson. There is visual ranking, showing evidence, seeing reason, and a shared class workspace. Since the teacher creates it all, it lines up with the lesson. Since students work together to use these tools, they can learn the lesson together and students that excel can aid students that struggle.