Best of, Middle School Edition 2019

Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history of IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. Go here for the high school teachers' responses. Stay tuned for elementary school teachers' responses. Read on for the responses from middle school teachers with some notes from me, in brackets.

Jennifer Graham, of Philipsburg, who teaches Montana history in 7th grade, wrote, "Mapping Montana, A-Z, THAT WAS THE BEST!  First time I did that this year and it was great.  The students loved it. " [Other teachers--who responded anonymously also listed this as their favorite lesson.] 

Teachers recommended Making an Atlatl [I was excited to see that someone not only used this new lesson of ours but that it was a favorite], Blood on the Marias: Understanding Different Points of View Related to the Baker Massacre of 1870 [one of my favorite lessons too], and Code Talker - A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two.

  

Another teacher shows Montana Mosaic episodes Chapter 6 on Federal Indian Policy, which focuses on the Relocation policy of the 1950s] and Chapter 4 Dislocation/Relocation, which focuses on the Boarding School experience. [Note each episode is less than 20 minutes. The accompanying user guides provide synopses, vocabulary definitions, and post-viewing questions. MHS donated the Montana Mosaic DVD to all public Montana school libraries. The episodes are also available on YouTube]] 

Playing for the World: The 1904 Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School Girls Basketball Team Model Teaching Unit [OPI donated the DVD that accompanies this teaching unit to all public Montana school libraries. The video is also available on YouTube]

Jennifer Hall, 7-8 Eureka, loves our Montana's Charlie Russell PowerPoints and lesson plans. 

Cindy Hatten, Colstrip, 6-8, wrote, "My favorite is the Governor’s Mansion footlocker [Original Governor’s Mansion: Home to the Stewart Family in Turbulent Times, 1913-1921]. I always use it around Christmas and involve the lives of the governors children and what they had done as far as games, presents and Christmas goodies." [Learn more about how to order this or other footlockers on our Hands-on History page.]  

April Wuelfing, Sheridan, 7 grade, wrote: "we used the [Montana: Stories of the Land] textbook's defensible space worksheet [the worksheet accompanies Chapter 12: Logging in the High Lonesome]. After that, I presented the class with more information (largely from California's legislation) on defensible space. This took an entire class period, to which the kids took some notes. The next day, I split the class in two and we had a friendly debate on whether or not home owners should be required to create defensible space around their homes. The kids loved it and did an excellent job presenting arguments for both!

Wendy Davis, Marion School, 6-8, wrote:  "Copper Kings--after learning about the 3 each student draws names of the 3 out of a hat and designs a wordle poster to display on the wall. Students have to go back to the biographies, textbook, handout, and notes to select specific details they want to stress.  We emphasize  descriptive adjectives and significant details in the displays. Not only do the students enjoy designing them, but they also remember the significant differences between the three men." [Wordle, "a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide" is so cool. I love the idea of incorporating it into a lesson.] 

Kathy Harvey, Vaughn School, grades 5-8, also taught about about the Copper Kings. [I hope she used material from Montana: Stories of the Land Chapter 10, "Politics and the Copper Kings," including the point of view worksheet we created with an excerpt from one of my favorite satirical pamphlets, "Helena's Social Supremacy," which is now available to download in its entirety from the Montana Memory Project!] 

Lauren McDonald, 6-8 Whitehall, wrote: "I use the 'Picturing the Past' lesson plan from Montana: Stories of the Land Chapter 11, 'The Early Reservation Years.' It's a great way for students to see the changes that occurred during the early reservation years. Students are so visual these days and movement always helps in a middle school setting.  I'm not sure it would be as effective if students weren't required to move around and observe different aspects.  I teach Montana History to 7th grade students and they're incredibly insightful with their observations as well as the following discussion.  I believe this is in part to the visual nature of this lesson as well as the guiding questions provided for students.  Many students struggle with how to perform a correct observation in this setting, but the lesson has provided a sheet of questions for the students to think about when observing each photograph." [The lesson, subtitled "Understanding Cultural Change and Continuity among Montana's Indians through Historic Photographs," can also be taught as a stand alone lesson--though I think it's even better to teach it in the context of the chapter.]  

Jim Martin, Missoula, 6-8, wrote:  "Not one particular lesson, but, connecting our American Indian culture and timeline as we work through the curriculum of ancient world history." I was curious to learn more so I contacted him for details. he explained that the "6th grade curriculum covers the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Greece, and Rome.  It is a tough subject for kids to connect to, and sometimes kids think it moves chronologically through time.  For example, they think that, when learning about Egypt, India hadn't been settled since we haven't covered it yet. ... So, I have a big timeline in the front of the classroom. It's made of yarn, and each civilization has its own line that runs parallel to the rest. This creates a visual to show that, 'while the pyramids are being built in Egypt ... meanwhile in India...' and shows kids that human development occurred simultaneously across the world achieving many of the same milestones; use of iron tools, developing complex religion, etc." The curriculum does not cover either North or South America and Jim wants to make sure that students understand that the people living here in ancient times had rich cultures of their own. He struggles with finding dates and details about what was going on before 1492. Although he recognizes that "each tribe is complex with its own history," his main goal is to make sure students understand the Americas as a whole was home to civilizations, so he includes events across the Americas on his timeline (rather than trying to be tribally specific.) "So, there are events from the Anasazi creating pottery, to Mississippian culture building mounds in the Ohio River valley, to petroglyphs being created in the Pryor Mountains, to the tribes settling the Mexico Valley.  The point is to show students that events and the efforts of human ingenuity occurred all over the globe, not just in these five pockets of the world."

It's not too late! If you have a lesson you think other teachers should know about, for any grade, drop me a line!