Why Reinvent the Wheel?

I've found a new social studies blogger whom I love! Jill Weber, who writes "A View of the Web," is a Kansas social studies teacher who taught middle school for thirteen years before this year switching to high school.

She is also an incredibly generous and thoughtful blogger, who somehow--between raising her own family and teaching--finds time to share ideas and strategies that have worked in her classroom.

Here is a sampling of posts:

Fake News of the Past: Historical Skills in Action. When her seventh graders seemed to be forgetting how (and why) to source documents, Jill came up with this review. (It involves a focus question ("which is more accurate: primary or secondary sources?"), analyzing documents in small groups, comparing group results with a very clever rotation, and full class discussion during which the students learn (drumroll, please) that the focus question was a trick question. They need to look critically at ALL sources.

Cutthroat History: Using Reality TV to Create Engaging Activities details how she used the concept of Cutthroat Kitchen to create an activity that had her seventh grade students creatively completing this task: "describe Shays Rebellion and its significance." It looked impossibly silly and wild--but a lot of fun and involved real learning--and adaptable to other topics.

Document Yelp Review asked high school juniors to rate (Yelp style) how persuasive a series of primary sources were (in this case, on temperance). As Jill explained, the activity "provided a different way for students to use their analysis of primary sources. Sometimes when we're working with documents daily, it can get to be the 'same old thing' and this activity allowed for team discussion, analysis, and a quick justification of their reasoning along with a connection to their world by calling it a "Yelp Review".

Polish It Up Day, Take 2 explains how and why Jill allows students to revise and resubmit assignments on the unit review day (but doesn't allow extra credit).


There's more over at Jill's blog! I suggest you check it out.