Best High School Lessons

 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.

Chelsea Johnson, who teachers 9-12 social studies in Missoula, had her students create a discussion guide for the documentary Native Ball.

Chris Clairmont, who teaches social studies, PE and health at Superior High School, wrote: "I had my students in both my Native American History and Montana History classes create atlatls and arrows. I made a target on a sheet of insulation and we spent a couple of class periods trying to feed our 'tribe' by harvesting a mammoth." [Perhaps he used Making an Atlatl.]

A Missoula teacher taught a lesson on Butte labor history and incorporated unionization and also the Chinese Exclusion Laws and used the court testimony from Chinese business leaders. [Find an excerpt of Hum Fay's testimony here.]

A Billings teacher did the Montana Constitutional Convention Yearbook Project with her class. [I love this lesson, created by Bigfork teacher Cynthia Wilondek and was excited to see it being used!]         

Belgrade teacher Deb McLaughlin (9-12 social studies) wrote:

"For my semester assessment/final the student do a brochure. All the brown signs along the highway and the National Historical sites are available on the web. My student pick one and write a brochure that would write the "rest of the story" to the signs. I ask them to think about what is not being said, or how the geography of the area contributed to the history that the sign is explaining. There are several more prompts but the idea is: What would a enhance a tourist historical knowledge? Think that the brochure is attached to the sign and the tourist will take it with them. They create it using a provided brochure template. I have had the most amazing results. Students have done the "Medicine Tree in Dillon",  "The Drowning of the Governor in Ft. Benton" The Toston Bridge in Toston and last but not least "Ekalaka in Ekalaka " I encourage them to pick off the beaten track places and year after year they have taken me on the most wonderful travels across Montana."

Denise Rutledge with the State School for the Deaf and Blind in Great Falls recommends Ken Burns' new series, The American Buffalo, from PBS. [Explore accompanying educational resources from Montana PBS.]  

A teacher in NW Montana wrote: "I always use the Mapping Montana, A to Z lesson as a great way to build classroom culture and familiarize students with locations across the state." [Note: Teachers use this lesson from grades 4 up, so if you do this in high school, make sure that students haven't already done it in lower grades.]

Mary Zuchowski, who teaches grades 6-12 in Frazer, wrote:

"Tribal Constitutions represented as a comic strip. Students are presented with various video/interviews about the Native tribes of Montana to begin discussion of what they may know or not. Then, they take time to research the various Montana tribal constitutions, and from the research they gather, they create a comic strip to educate their classmates. The comic strips were also hung on a bulletin board for classmates to observe. The lesson plan was used from the OPI website [Montana Tribal Governments] and then adapted to my classroom."    

Kim Konan, who teaches social studies and family and consumer science in Dillon, recommends teaching Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan. She also teaches her students how to make Butte pasties and about their history (which sounds interesting and delicious.) [Here's the Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan Study Guide and here's an excerpt of Book One, which provides a child's eye view of the mining frontier.]

Stay tuned for middle school and elementary school favorite lessons. And it's never too late! If you have a favorite resource, strategy, or lesson to share, send it to me and I'll share it.