Best of, High School Edition

Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history or IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. Here are the responses from high school teachers with some notes from me in brackets. You can find the elementary teachers' responses here and middle school teachers' responses here.

Denise Routledge, who teaches at the School for the Deaf and Blind in Great Falls, wrote: "I love using the collection of Birthright poetry from the IEFA resources. I can easily have the poems embossed into Braille and accessible for all students. We study the theme of a poem and then write our own based on that theme and style/formatting. We record ourselves reading them and then put them into a slideshow to listen to everyone’s perspectives on the poem. One of my favorites to use is “If I Lived in That House”. We can then pair a picture of the house with our recording of our poems in the slideshow. You can adapt it and have them describe their own house (and what typically goes on in a day in a life within their family and home) or have them do some research and locate images of traditional Native American dwellings and write the poem based on traditions and events that would have gone along with that specific tribe within their dwelling. Loads of possibilities!"

Vicky Nytes, who teaches at Superior High School, wrote: "I am really appreciating the continued addition of the history of Blacks in Montana. The website (while can be somewhat difficult to maneuver) has really great stories, images, and shows the continuing role that Blacks have played in Montana. The addition of Hidden Stories: Montana's Black Past documentary adds to our understanding.

Laura Monosmith, who teaches at Pine Hills in Miles City, highly recommends Visual Thinking Strategies, which she uses in her World, U.S. and government classes.

Sara Belke, who teaches English in Butte, wrote: "I taught The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and utilized a comic strip activity to have the students highlight what they learned about the characters and their experiences."

Some teachers chose to share anonymously: 

Local history integration into Montana history milestones. [I'm guessing this teacher asks students to examine local history when the class is studying homesteading, World War II, etc. One of my favorite examples of this type of project is detailed in this lesson plan: Local Experiences of World War I Lesson Plan, which asks students to conduct and share original research on ways the war impacted the people of their own county.]

Women's Suffrage lesson on Hazel Hunkins, a suffragist from Billings. "I used the QFocus lesson technique I learned from the Right Question Institute and took materials from the Hazel Hunkins lesson plan."