More on Fire

Last week I wrote about finding a teachable moment in this year's awful forest fires.  Some readers responded with suggestions: 

Dalene Normand, of Frenchtown, suggested these fire resources: 

• The Forest Service Fire Lab in Missoula has a Fire Works trunk that educators can use to teach about forest fires    

• Also, there is an IEFA lesson plan: Fire on the Land for middle school age that deals with Native use of fire for land management.  

Suzanne Thomason recommended Boy Wonder and the Big Burns by Chris Petersen.  He is a photographer and relates his experience with his autistic son and the Glacier fires of 2001.  Lots of pictures, a quick read, mostly about the fires with just enough information about autism spectrum disorders tucked in.  Excellent potential for teacher meetings.

Brenda Johnston, who teaches high school English in Browning, described the project her students are doing: "My students have been working on this very thing.  They read an article from the New York Times, which included vocabulary work and literacy skills, ending by writing a summary.  JoAnne Grandstaff then came in and talked with all of the students about fire.  She is a Kickapoo tribal member, and they are the keepers of fire, so she talked about how we show respect for fire.  The kids then read about the Great Hinckley Fire of 1894, again practicing comprehension skills. Today I am reading "The Fire Keeper" from Joseph Bruchac's Keepers of the Earth.  We will wrap it up next week with a writing assignment.

Finally, Karen Reinhart, from the Yellowstone Gateway Museum in Livingston invited teachers to bring their students to see their fire exhibit: "On Fire: Structural and Wildland Fire." "The exhibit includes stories of early day firefighting and firefighters, and also the 1988 fires in Yellowstone and the more recent, 2012 Pine Creek Fire. Safety tips, too." For those far from Livingston, she suggested that there may be other museums with resources worth tapping into, "like the smokejumper museum/visitor center in Missoula."

Teaching with Maps and Other Primary Sources

I had an amazing time about a week ago at the workshop "Teaching with Primary Sources: Understanding How Our Past Paints our Future" in Great Falls. 

The good news for you is that presenters Kathy Hoyt and Ruth Ferris will be reprising the workshop October 6-7 at Miles Community College in Miles City, so you too have an opportunity to participate! 

Here were a few of my highlights: 

1. Putting together "map puzzles." Kathy printed some historic maps, including this 1879 map of Montana Territory. She cut them into puzzle pieces and laminated them. Assembling the maps required us to slow down and LOOK--which in turn raised lots of questions.

2. Kathy then gave us clear overheads and had us trace today's reservations from the regular Montana highway map. We put those on top of the 1879 reservations for a hands-on look at the shrinking reservations. 

3. We had time to explore Library of Congress resources. I found this amazing 1851 map, created by Father De Smet, of the Upper Great Plains and Rocky Mountains showing Indian territories as he understood them.

4. I learned a new trick for navigating the Library of Congress's gargantuan collections. Use Google! Search using the key words plus "Library of Congress" to get relevant hits.

5. I was introduced to a new primary source graphic organizer: C.L.U.E., which asks students to "Check it over" (especially looking for author, date, and type of source), "Look at the historical setting (context)," Understand the author's message" (tone and purpose), and Examine closely. (I wish the graphic organizer asked about audience--but otherwise I thought it could be very useful.) 

6. I learned more about Breakout Games. We were faced with a box locked with several locks (a directional lock, a letter lock, a three number lock, and a 4 number lock) and were given a number of clues (including primary sources) relating to homesteading and the novel Hattie Big Sky. We had a great time finding the information we needed to unlock our box. There are online Breakout games too: I haven't seen any on Montana history, but I really enjoyed doing this one on Langston Hughes. One of the creators, Tom Mullaney, designed a template for teachers interested in making their own digital breakouts. If anyone creates a Montana history related digital breakout, let me know! I'd love to check it out.

7. I learned several other simple and effective ways to integrate primary sources--especially in elementary classrooms. Playing "I Spy" for example.

I'll be digesting the two days and working to integrate some of these new practices into future lesson plans. If you can make it to Miles City, I highly recommend signing up for the October workshop. It was well worth the time. Otherwise, try some of the ideas above and let me know how they work with your students.

Can we find a teachable moment through the smoke?

If you are on Facebook, I bet your feed is filled with stories about the fires. Mine is.

These articles brought to mind a post I wrote awhile back about using disasters as a way to engage students in larger questions. 

It also made me wonder if this year’s fire season offers a “teachable moment.” If so, here are some resources for teaching about fire and fire history. Most are taken from the Montana: Stories of the Land Teachers Guide and Companion Website, Chapter 12. 

• Tales of the 1910 Fire is an exhibit, including a first-hand account of the fires by a forest ranger, created by Archives & Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library.
• The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes' "Fire of the Land" website is a great resource in itself and includes links to many additional resources.
• The US Forest Service has gathered information on the history of smoke jumping.
• The Great 1910 Fire is a website that has transcribed newspaper articles, lists of fire victims and photographs.
• There's also been much written about the Mann Gulch fire, the most beautiful contribution being Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire. US Forest Service History also dedicates a page on its website to the deadly 1949 episode. 

Interested in changes how fire policy has changed since 1910? We created this bibliography for National History Day students, but it’s a good starting point for any researcher.  Other interesting sources include:

• NOVA’s Fire Wars 
• National Park Service Fire Timeline
• “Forest Fire in Washington State”
• Articles in the Missoulian, by Shery Devlin, on the Big Burn. To find these online type “Big Burn of 1910 Sherry Devlin” into the Missoulian’s “Advanced Search.”

Wildfires and the appropriate response to them are also at the center of policy debates. 

• What should the government’s approach be toward fire protection in the Wildland-Urban Interface?
• How do state and federal policies affect fires? (Recently, Senator Daines called for more logging to prevent fires and Senator Tester called for action to slow climate change.)
• What are the budget implications of increasing forest fires and how should we pay for fire fighting?

Consider asking students to research and then write (and/or present) policy briefs to your local legislator and/or county commissioners on one of these issues. (Former middle school teacher Jim Schulz said having students present decision-makers with their research—and proposed solutions—to current problems was the all-time best activity he ever did with his students.)

 
If you do end up exploring fire in a meaningful way in your classroom, I'd love to learn what you did and how it went. And in the meantime, I'm sure you join me in wishing for snow.

Teachers' Choice: Favorite High School Lesson Plans

You've seen the elementary and middle school teachers' responses to the question, “Describe (in brief) the best Montana history or IEFA lesson or project or resource you taught this year--the one you will make time for next year no matter what.” As promised, here are the answers we received from high school teachers to the same question. [I've added links where I could find them and a few comments in brackets.] 

Janessa Parenteau in Froid taught Playing for the World: The 1904 Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School Girls Basketball Team. 

Jane Kolstad, a special education and alternative school teacher in Glasgow, recommends "Counting Coup:  Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond, by Joe Medicine Crow. She wrote: "I supplement with the lessons from the OPI website.  I also like to do some lessons with the book:  Land of the Nakoda which is in reference to the Assiniboine Indians who are native to this area.  

Betty Bennett, who teaches English in Missoula, wrote, "I use several every year, but I am especially committed to using "Blood on the Marias" at the end of our unit on Fools Crow by James Welch.  It is also a great starting point for additional "history detective" work.  My students are much more interested in novels that are based on historical events."

Power teacher Shelly Vick wrote: "7 Essentials Understandings illustrated on tipis.  Didn't expect it to go well but the students loved it."

Jennifer Ogden, art teacher in Victor, used The Art of Storytelling: Plains Indian Perspectives (a unit on pictographic art).

One teacher wrote: "I took bits and pieces of Native American speeches and then had my students try and match them up with the time period and personality of who said them. It is a fun exercise for my students and it gets them talking about the personalities and culture of Native American society.

One teacher used our "Cavalry on the Frontier footlocker."  [Our footlockers, though designed for 4th grade, are often successfully adapted to high school. More information on the footlocker program here.]

Another teacher said, "The one the kids enjoyed the most was my flint and steel fire starting hands-on lesson."


A principal was proud of his teachers' collaborative project on Glacier National Park: "The English teacher and the art teacher took a field trip to Glacier National Park.  The art side of the project is ledger art and the English side was place-based learning with an emphasis on the Salish perspective." [A good related resource is our hands-on history footlocker--Land of Many Stories: The People and Histories of Glacier National Park. Though designed for fourth grade, it is easily adaptable to upper grades.]

And and another teacher wrote, "Lewis and Clark: Journals on the Yellowstone and visit to forts/confluence."

Several teachers mentioned topics they focused on (The link to resources are mine):

• WWI in Montana 
• The Copper Kings (see Montana: Stories of the Land Chapter 10 and Montana Mosaic, Chapter 1)
• Fur Trade Game (No idea what this is, but I'm intrigued)
• Code Talkers  
• Gold mining in Montana (Lots of resources under Mining History Lesson Plans and Resources and on the Chapter 6 page for Montana: Stories of the Land)
• Chinese in Montana

Last but not least, a teacher wrote that she does a "Sense of Place" unit. It reminded me of the work Montana Heritage Project teachers used to do. I am so glad this type of community studies continues, so I asked her for details. She wrote: 

Students need to have a solid, personal history foundation, before venturing out to impact the world. I have discovered that students know very little about their own family history, and or community present and past. My students know where to get the best $2 fries in town, but have no idea about the soaking pools, museum, Artist Society or local politics. They know nothing, or very little, about the rich history of the valley.

I start with some personal history, such as their first name. Why were they given that name? What does it mean? Are there others in the family with the same name? Learning about their last name also provides a plethora of family history.

Many of our rural kids have stories tied to their land. How long has it been in the family? Homesteaders or a recent purchase…has the land always raised cattle, pigs, wheat or barley? Is there a family cemetery? Where was the nearest school, store or post office. 

I like to have students research the various professions within the family tree. Again, this provides an interesting look at each student’s personal history.

A tour around town (ours is small) where students can discuss, list or write about any knowledge they have about the town, now and in the past. Once that is done I have them talk to family members and or community members to glean their information about town. Sometimes this turns into oral histories for the museum.

Do you have a favorite lesson or resource you'd like to share? It's not too late--let me know what it is and I will share it with the group. Among the suggestions for how to improve Teaching Montana History was to posts more about what teachers were doing (both successes and failures). So email me so we can make that happen! 

Struggling Readers and Informational Text

We were lucky beyond measure to host a workshop with reading specialist and SKC professor Tammy Elser in June. It had an unwieldy title, "Struggling Readers and Content Area Textbooks: Making Montana: Stories of the Land Accessible to All," but many of the strategies Tammy featured were quick and easy to implement. In fact, several of our resources now incorporate them.

Takeaways

Tammy introduced us to "Takeaway" bookmarks--a tool for teaching students how to summarize (she said that the idea was inspired by SKC graduate Taylor Crawford). Modeled on the one Tammy created for Chapter 8 of Montana: Stories of the Land, we created “Takeaway” bookmarks for every chapter--and posted them on the Educator Resources pages of the Montana: Stories of the Land Companion Website. Before starting a chapter, print and cut out these bookmarks and distribute them to your students. Ask them to use the available space on the Takeaway to summarize the GIST of what they learn from reading each subsection of the chapter. Remind them that they don’t have much room, so they’ll need to think before they write down the most important idea they want to take away from the section. 

Write Your Way In/Write Your Way Out

While Tammy featured this strategy at the workshop, her friend Julie Saylor actually introduced me to it a few years ago. Julie worked with us to design the Original Governor's Mansion footlocker and used the strategy with great success in several lessons. The strategy is extremely simple to implement. Start with a question central to the lesson (if you are using Montana: Stories of the Land, you can modify one of the "Read to Find Out" statements.)

In the first lesson of the Original Governor's Mansion footlocker, Julie provided the following prompt: What was life like for Montana children in the years 1900–1920? Describe what you might know from stories and reading and what you imagine. What did their homes look like? What did their schools look like? Where (and what) did children play? What type of clothing did they wear? Don’t stop writing for five minutes! (Tammy suggests only writing for three minutes. Do what works for your class.)

After providing the prompt, let them know that they will be thinking hard and writing for five minutes nonstop, as soon as you say, “Go!” You will be using a timer and they must keep on going, not lifting their pencils until the five minutes are up. If they are stuck for what to write next, encourage them to write, “I am thinking!” until they think of more to say. Remind them they can use their imaginations! Create a sense of urgency! For this exercise, they should not be concerned with their spelling, etc. They should just think and pour out their thoughts on paper. When the timer goes off at the end of five minutes, tell students to draw a line where they stopped.

After completing the chapter, lesson or unit, have your students "Write their way out" on the same question, using the same method of non-stop writing (only three minutes this time around.) When we classroom tested this technique in Jodi Delaney's fourth-fifth grade class, she said that students who had struggled to write a sentence proudly filled a page. 

Tea Party
Perhaps some of you already use this powerful pre-reading strategy, which "allows students to predict what they think will happen in the text as they make inferences, see casual relationships, compare and contrast, practice sequencing, and draw on their prior experiences." If not, I recommend trying it.

At the Struggling Readers workshop, Tammy gave us each an index card with a short section of text (in this case from the 1855 Hellgate Treaty, using part of a lesson created by Arlee teacher Shawn Orr). She didn't tell us anything about the text. Instead, she had us read our snippet to ourselves and write a very short summary of it (no more than 20 words--in a classroom, you might want to do this with partners). After we copied our  summary on the back of the card, we "tea partied." We walked around and shared our cards with other members of the class. We read our snippet and summary aloud to our partner (while they followed along silently). Then we listened while our partner did the same. By the end of the tea party, I'd read my part of the treaty 4 times, had mastered some difficult technical language, and had begun to put the pieces together by listening/reading other sections. We don't have any lessons that use this strategy yet, but you can bet we will soon.

I'm pleased to say that Tammy is planning on working with OPI to create an online HUB course based on the workshop she gave for us. I'll let you know when it goes live--likely sometime next spring.

Do you have a great reading strategy? Please email me: I'd love to learn about it.

More Eastern Montana Professional Development Opportunities

I'm delighted to announce that we are cosponsoring two workshops in Glendive in cooperation with the Prairie View Curriculum Consortium.

On Wednesday, September 27, 2017, from 10-3, award-winning educator Jim Schulz will lead a workshop for grades 4-7 educators: "Bringing History Alive." At this workshop, teachers will spend the morning exploring what life was like for Montana Indians during the pre- and early contact periods. The afternoon will showcase lesson plans from the hands-on history footlocker "Coming to Montana: Immigrants from Around the World."  Teachers will leave with interactive ready-to-go lessons they can immediately use in their classrooms.

Then, on Thursday, September 28, 10-3, Jim will will lead a workshop for grade 7-12 teachers: "Teaching Hard History." During this workshop, teachers will spend the morning looking at how war affected Montana and Montanans, using a readers’ theater script “Letters Home from Montanans at War” and introducing new resources the MT Historical Society has created for the World War I Centennial.  The afternoon will focus on Indian Education for All, showcasing lesson plans that use primary sources to investigate Montana’s Indian history.  Teachers will leave with interactive ready-to-go lessons they can immediately use in their classrooms.

Those of you who have attended Jim's "Crossing Discipline" workshops know what a great presenter he is. This is a chance to work with him and gain exposure to entirely different content.

Both workshops will be held at the PVSS Building, 30 Hwy. 200 S in Glendive. Participants will earn 5 renewal credits. Lunch will be provided (and it will be a working lunch).

To register for either (or both) workshops, email Kim Stanton with your name, school, grade level, cell phone--in case the workshop is cancelled--and the name of the session you are registering for.

On the way home from Glendive, Jim will be offering the tried and true "Crossing Disciplines: Social Studies, Art, and the Common Core" in Hardin on September 29, and Livingston on September 30. More details about those workshops here. 

For those of you in Western Montana, there's still time to register for the Montana History Conference, or at least the Thursday, September 21, Educator Workshop. Looking forward! It's going to be dynamite.

Teachers' Choice: Favorite Middle School Lessons

Last week I shared the answers that elementary teachers gave to the question “Describe (in brief) the best Montana history or IEFA lesson or project or resource your taught this year--the one you will make time for next year no matter what.” Today, I'll share middle school teachers' answers to the same question. I've added links to likely lesson plans and additional information in brackets. High school teachers' responses coming soon. 

Cindy Hatten. who teaches 6-8 grades Colstrip, shared three favorites: The Original Governor's Mansion footlocker,[scroll down for the link to the User Guide], The Railroads Transform Montana PowerPoint lesson plan, and the Women at Work lesson plan.

Jennifer Hall, who teaches 8th grade in Eureka, wrote: "Mapping MT: A-Z, Girl from the Gulches lessons, Charlie Russell on Indians and Gallery Walk and many more."

Laura Dukart, 8th grade MT history in Wibaux, also loves Mapping Montana: "Students "travel" to towns they select in alphabetical order, noting the mileage between each, and facts about each town."

Jennifer Graham, who teaches 7-12 history in Philipsburg, writes: "A field trip to the [Montana Historical Society] Museum. It is always worth it!!!  I love how it brings to life the textbook and everything we have talked about all year long."

Power teacher Shelly Vick wrote: "7 Essentials Understandings illustrated on tipis.  Didn't expect it to go well but the students loved it."

Jennifer Ogden, K-12 art teacher in Victor, recommends "The Art of Storytelling." [We sent packets of this unit on pictographic art to every public school library and also put the material on our website for download.]

Sunny Real Bird, a Ronan 7th grade math teacher, recommends "traditional games." [Here's a Traditional Games Unit from OPI.]

Other teachers replied anonymously: 

 "FIRST-Teaching about Ledger Art and then making our own ledger art from ledger paper. SECOND-I will definitely check out the Lewis and Clark trunk again."

"Charlie Russell and VTS."

"The trial of Henry Plummer- students draw for prosecution or defense. We use multiple sources and put Mr. Plummer on Trial."

"Making parfleche bags."

"Lewis and Clark: Journals on the Yellowstone and visit to forts/confluence."

"Sense of Place lessons...learning about the community, (right now and in the past)."

Do you have a favorite lesson you'd like to share? It's not too late. Email me with details and I'll share it with the group. 

OPI Site Redesign

In my August 28 post, I put out a plea for folks to let me know when they found broken links on our site. That's still in effect, with one caveat.

The Montana Office of Public Instruction has just launched a redesigned website. This means that the links we have provided to OPI’s resources no longer work. We are working to fix them as quickly as we can. 

If you find a broken link to an OPI resource, for the short term, I recommend using the "search" function on their main web page as well as Montana Teach, where it looks as if many of the curriculum resources have been moved. I know they are still building the Montana Teach and Indian Education Division's pages and are adding additional resources every day.

The material OPI puts out is top notch--so the extra digging is worth it. My new favorite OPI resource is "Crossing Boundaries through Art: Seals of Montana Tribal Nations" (grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12). Give it a look--and please be patient as we clean up our site and lesson plans.