Notes from the NCHE Conference

 I had the great privilege of attending the NCHE conference a few weeks ago.

I heard Glenn Wiebe talk about his new book, The Social Studies FIELD Guide: Strategies and Tools to Captivate Students, Cultivate Critical Thinking, and Create Engaged Citizens. His presentation reminded me how cool "hexagonal thinking" is. And I also learned how to make collaborative maps using Google My Maps.

Another strategy that I picked up from this conference (with apologies, because I didn't write down who shared them!): 

• After students read a nonfiction book, have them ask these three questions: 
  • What surprised me? 
  • What did the author think I already knew? 
  • What challenged, changed, or confirmed what I knew? 
• HIPPY is an acronym that students can use to analyze sources: 
  • Historical context
  • Intended audience
  • Purpose
  • Perspective
  • Y this matters

I also learned about some organizations that have created great resources:  

• The National September 11 Memorial and Museum offers virtual fieldtrips and lesson plans, including a three-part high school lesson Muslims in America after 9/11. 
• TeachRock has free lessons on using music (and related primary sources, like concert posters) to teach history. Note: It's not just rock music--they have a unit on post-Civil War America. As the presenters noted, one exciting aspect of using music as an avenue to study history is that it gets you away from a "great man/woman" framework, providing a "people's perspective" on historical events. The unit they presented focused on performer Josephine Baker's "homecoming" to St. Louis--and highlighted the on-the-ground fight for school desegregation that was happening there, two years before Brown v. Board of Education.
• RetroReport is an "independent nonprofit newsroom" that creates short documentaries and lesson plans that teachers can use for FREE (with registration).  
• The Fred Korematsu Institute offers lesson plans and other educational materials focused on Japanese American incarceration during World War II.

And I met some old friends, including the folks at the Right Question Institute, which focuses on teaching students how to ask their own questions. 

All and all, it was a very successful conference!