Do your students struggle with reading the textbook?

Two summers ago, the Montana Historical Society invited Dr. Tammy Elser, who teaches in the education department at Salish Kootenai College (SKC), to give a workshop on helping students (and especially struggling readers) read and understand informational text. It was one of the best workshops I have ever attended and I have been integrating the strategies I learned that day into almost every lesson or unit plan I've written since.

We filmed the workshop and Tammy, with the help of colleagues like Christy Mock-Stutz at the Montana Office of Public Instruction, transformed the workshop into a four credit, self-paced online course for the Teacher Learning Hub.

Targeted at teachers of fourth through eighth grade, the course uses Montana: Stories of the Land and ancillary IEFA content to demonstrates ways to help any reader by modifying lesson structure, teaching and modeling comprehension strategies, and employing fix-up strategies when comprehension breaks down.

This is a readings methods course--which is something that most social studies teachers can use, especially with the increased emphasis on reading across the curriculum and the adoption of curriculum standards that emphasize literacy in history/social studies (along with science and technical subjects.) It was certainly information I found useful.

You can take Supporting Readers with Textbooks for 4 OPI renewal units on the Teacher Learning Hub at no charge (but registration is required.) While you are there, you may want to check out some of their other offerings.

Time Travel: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

When she was in grade school, my daughter loved the Good Times Travel Agency books by Linda Bailey. The Binkerton Twins would travel back in time, and it was never what they expected (for example, they became serfs, rather than a lord and lady, when they visited the Middle Ages and they were shocked by the hard work and poor living conditions.) Perhaps that's why I was smitten by this activity from one of my favorite social studies bloggers, Russell Tarr: "Design a 'Time Travel Holiday' to see a period from different viewpoints."

Tarr's initial exercise is simple: "When introducing students to a particular historical time and place, get them to research different geographical locations associated with it. The class should then produce a travel brochure designed to persuade holidaymakers about all the wonderful things to expect if they take a time-travelling vacation." 

What I thought was brilliant was his followup activity: "to force students to assess the period from a negative perspective, ask them to write a dramatic complaint letter [to the travel agency] outlining all the horrible sights, sounds and smells they experienced" during their "holiday from Hell." 

In his post, Tarr expands on variations of this activity (and provides details for visiting the sites of Ancient Rome).

I, of course, started thinking about how the activity could be applied to Montana. Certainly, students could promote "time travel" adventures to the romantic Old West, promoting a steamboat trip up the Missouri or Yellowstone rivers, a visit to a gold rush town, or to the cattle frontier of eastern Montana. Then tourists could complain about the lack of fresh fruit, being forced to push their stagecoach out of the mud, or the tedium of a steamboat voyage.

These time traveler assignments are good examples of RAFT writing. RAFT stands for role, audience, format, topic. In a RAFT assignment students take on a Role (in this case, promotional travel agent or unhappy customer), and write for an Audience (potential customer or misleading travel agent), adopt a Format (brochure or letter), and focus on a Topic (life in the assigned place and historical era). We have a RAFT-based lesson plan on Montana during World War I. If you want to learn more about RAFT or get some other suggestions for RAFT assignments I recommend these earlier posts. 

What Tarr's assignment does so well though is insisting that students take on two roles, one that looks at the positive and one that looks at the negative. I can imagine this dual approach beyond his original time travel tourism trope. For example, fliers recruiting homesteaders or men to work in the Butte mines matched by letters home from miners or homesteaders. Or letters from the same miner or homesteader--one back to family members during the journey anticipating the opportunities to be found and another after they had settled in. (Or in the case of homesteading, one during the wet years and the other during the drought.)

There are lots of possibilities here, so I hope you take it and run. If you do, I'd love to hear how you used it and how your students responded.

Hands-on History Made Easy

I’m not sure why, but we’re getting fewer requests for our hands-on history footlockers than we have in years past. So if you want to reserve a footlocker, now’s the time. Footlockers are free to order, except for the cost of sending the trunk on to the next user. That cost depends on weight and distance but averages around $40.

All footlockers come with user guides that you can download even without ordering the trunk. The user guides contain lesson plans (many of which can be used without ordering the footlocker) and narratives written on a fourth grade level.

So why bring a footlocker into your classroom? These traveling trunks are chock-full of interesting replicas, photographs, and artifacts that help bring history alive. Students of all ages absolutely love them.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Coming to Montana: Immigrants from Around the World. This footlocker showcases the culture, countries, traditions, and foodways of Montana's immigrants through reproduction clothing, toys, and activities. Artifacts include a Hmong story cloth, Norwegian hardanger, Swedish rosette iron, Basque bones, a Hutterite dress, a Chinese Mahjong set, Catholic medallions, a German Protestant Bible and a Jewish Menorah, an Irish drum, and trowel of the type Croatian stone masons would have used, a Chinese hat, and more.

The Home Fires: Montana and World War II. This footlocker describes aspects of everyday life in Montana during the 1941-1945 war years. Illustrates little-known government projects such as the Fort Missoula Alien Detention Center and Civilian Public Service Camps. Artifacts include military uniforms, a set of dog tags, propaganda posters, historic photographs, shadow boxes that display metals, ration coupons, and materials issued to servicemen and women, and more.

Original Governor’s Mansion: Home to the Stewart Family in Turbulent Times, 1913-1921. This footlocker investigates life and politics, 1913-1921, as well as the history and architecture of a magnificent building. With historic games (old maid, Parcheesi, and pick up sticks), Victrola records and a small model Victrola, calling cards and a calling card tray, a fully stocked sewing basket with a darning egg, embroidery scissors and hoop, a small braided rug and rag ball, napkin rings and cloth napkins, historic photos, and many more items, this footlocker is perfect for teaching what life was like for kids at the turn of the last century.  

Montana State Symbols. A few weeks ago, I wrote a whole post on this footlocker, which provides students the opportunity to explore hands-on educational activities to gain a greater appreciation of our state's symbols and their meanings. My favorite objects are the cast of a grizzly bear paw print (I couldn’t believe how big a grizzly paw is), the sapphire exhibit, and the singing stuffed meadowlark.

Oral History in the Classroom Mini Footlocker. One of the few footlockers designed for older students, this trunk includes eight Sony IC Audio Recorders, batteries and chargers, useful reference material, and detailed lesson plans for creating a classroom-based oral history project.

You can view all of our footlockers, preview the user guides, and make reservations online. Still have questions? Contact Katie White at kwhite@mt.gov or 406-444-9553.

P.S. Thanksgiving is so early this year! If you are looking for teaching ideas, check out these two past posts. This one mostly focuses on having students answer the research question "What has Changed and What Has Remained the Same" while this guest post from OPI Indian Education Specialist Mike Jetty includes links to IEFA lessons around the holiday. 

More IEFA Resources

In response to my recent post, IEFA Resources for Your Classroom, Harlem teacher Wendy Maratita shared a link for large maps: www.tribalnationsmaps.com. She said, "These maps are wonderful and he gives a little discount for teachers. They are pricey but very nice." 

I also came across a few new resources for learning and teaching more about the Métis.

The first is The Métis of British Columbia: Culture, History, and the Contemporary Community. It's an online version of a DVD project created to help disseminate information on Métis history and culture that includes many short videos. There are two main sections: Culture, History, and Dance, and Music and Dance. Although it is from Canada the material is relevant to Montana as well. 

The second is from The Gabriel Dumont Institute's "Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture." This site has so much material that it is a bit daunting, but I particularly liked this lesson plan on finger weaving, which include instructional videos.   

Finally, the Métis Nation British Columbia created a cross curricular unit on the Métis for fourth grade. In addition to readings, links and lesson plans, it has a great list of picture books that librarians might want to consider for their libraries. 

If you have other IEFA resources you'd think people should know about, please let me know!

P.S. Don't forget to vote tomorrow if you haven't already cast your ballot. Democracy works best when we all participate.

Make Your Voice Heard

Guest Post by Colet Bartow

The research and review phase for Social Studies, Technology, Library Media, Career and Technical Education/Workplace Competencies, and Computer Science standards has begun and will continue through April 2019. 

Please follow the links below to review information on each of these content areas and then respond to the surveys you are interested in or have expertise with.  Please share this information with teachers, trustees, parents, or any stakeholder who can provide thoughtful feedback.

• Computer Science
• Career and Vocational Technical Education and Workplace Competencies
• Technology and Library Media/Information Literacy
• Social Studies

After reviewing the resources, each survey will take about 10-15 minutes of your time to complete.  Thank you in advance for providing feedback that ensures that Montana’s content standards reflect your priorities and best thinking in these content areas.

For questions or more information, contact Colet Bartow, Director of Content Standards and Instruction, cbartow@mt.gov.

New and Improved... the Symbols of Montana Footlocker

My colleague and partner in crime Deb Mitchell and I are slowly, ever so slowly revamping our Hands-on History footlockers, writing new lessons that align better to the Common Core and promote historical thinking skills, finding new objects with which to wow your students, digitizing images to make the material more usable for those who can't bring the actual trunk to their classrooms, and improving the teacher and student narratives and other material included in the footlocker user guides.

We are delighted to unveil the most recent footlocker we've revised: Montana State Symbols. In this case, we've changed almost everything, including the title (the old footlocker was called "Treasure Chest: A Look at the Montana State Symbols"). We've added lots of new objects, including tribal nations' flags, gemstones, grizzly bear fur, a mounted mourning cloak butterfly, and a sample of Scobey soil (our newest state symbol).

We've also included nine new lessons:

• Lesson 1, "I Have, Who Has," offers an introduction to Montana's state symbols through a fast-paced game.
• Lesson 2, "Tribal Seals and Flags," is based entirely on OPI's Indian Education Division's unit Crossing Boundaries through Art: Seals of Montana Tribal Nations.
• Lesson 3, "State Seal and Flag," offers students an opportunity to redesign the state flag after learning about the principles of flag design.
• Lesson 4, "Montana's State Songs," has students analyzing the state song, melody, and lullaby before writing their own songs celebrating Montana.
• Lesson 5, "Montana's State Animal," has two parts. Part 1 teaches students to identify grizzly bears and be safe around all bears. Part 2 asks them to contrast Chief Plenty Coups' and Captain Meriwether Lewis's perspectives on grizzlies.  
• Lesson 6, "Gift of the Bitterroot," uses a beautifully illustrated traditional story to learn about the importance of Montana's state flower to the Salish and Pend d'Oreille people. 
• Lesson 7, "The Montana State Fossil," has students research, campaign, and then vote for a class fossil. In so doing they won't just learn about Montana's rich fossil finds, they'll also gain a thorough understanding of the election process. (Perfect for this November!)  
• Lesson 8, "Learning about Montana Sapphires," shares information that will surprise and delight your class gem hounds
• Lesson 9, "Creating a Museum of Montana Symbols," provides a step-by-step guide to creating a classroom exhibit on Montana's state symbols to share with parents or other classes. 

Here are some of the things I love best about the new lesson plans and footlocker:

1. It's reading and writing intensive. I took a class from reading specialist Tammy Elser two summers ago and we integrated many of the strategies I learned from her into these lesson plans, including "write your way in/write your way out," "hosting a tea party," and having students create picture summaries of complex passages.

2. The lesson plans are classroom tested and much improved from the feedback we received. My thanks to all who answered my call for guinea pigs and took the time to write such thoughtful evaluations.

3. You can do seven of the lesson plans without ordering the trunk. We know not everyone can order this footlocker who'd like to use it. Issues of schedule and budget get in the way (footlockers are free, except for shipping to the next venue, but that's still a cost.) That's why we put as many of the resources (including the PowerPoints and, of course, the lesson plans) online as we could--so that teachers who can't get the footlocker can still use the material.

4. The objects in the footlocker are so fabulous, you will want to order it anyway. This footlocker is object rich. The sapphire exhibit, donated to us by Fine Gems International, and the life-size grizzly bear paw cast are my favorite objects, but students will also love the stuffed animals (a trout and a meadowlark, whose sings its song when pressed), and the model of the Maiasaura nest.

Check out the User Guide and then submit your reservation. And let us know what you think of the new and (hopefully) improved product. We love hearing from you.

IEFA Resources for Your Classroom

A few years ago, we created a story-based tour of our permanent exhibit Neither Empty nor Unknown: Montana at the Time of Lewis and Clark, using Crow and Blackfeet stories. At that time, we also pulled together a lesson plan with pre- and post-tour lessons and discussion questions. And we provided PowerPoints, so that classes too far away to visit us in Helena could still take the tour virtually. The material was fantastic but the organization was confusing. So we've fixed that. 

• Here is a link to the Virtual Tour (along with the post tour lessons.)
• Here is the material to use if you are taking the tour at the museum. 
• And here is the information you'll need to schedule this or any other tour at the Montana Historical Society.

Since I'm featuring Neither Empty Nor Unknown, this seems like a good time to share some other interesting IEFA news and resources that have come across my desk.

Did you know? Montanatribes.org has updated activities and resources, and is now mobile friendly.

Every year, the University of Montana’s School of Journalism publishes Native News, an annual look into issues facing Montana’s tribes. The 2018 edition looks into the topic of self-governance and how the people are working to resolve issues surrounding self-governance. One article visits Rocky Boy High School’s Helping Hands Program, while another article visits the Dakota language program at Fort Peck Community College. 

I really liked this 6-minute video, "A Conversation With Native Americans on Race," which the New York Times editorial department broadcast on Op Docs, its "channel for short opinion documentaries, produced by independent filmmakers."

Native Land is a site trying to map indigenous territories in the U.S. and Canada. It is, as its creator explains, "a work in progress." (He's also eager for feedback.) There are some things I think won't ring true for Montana tribes (for example, the Salish and Kootenai don't have distinct territories on the map.) But it is a useful tool for sparking discussion and worth checking out. Type in the name of your town and see what comes up.

Here are some other intriguing articles I thought some of you might find useful, for your own edification or to use with your high school classes:

• "The discovery of a map made by a Native American is reshaping thinking about the Lewis  Clark expedition," History News Network, April 25, 2018.
• "When, How Did the First Americans Arrive? It’s Complicated, National Geographic, June 9, 2018 (Essential Understanding #3, anyone?)

And finally, as you look forward to Thanksgiving, check out this article from Indian Country Today article, November 23, 2017: "What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale." 

P.S. Halloween is coming which makes this a good time to remind students of the #cultureNOTcostume movement. See for example this Teen Vogue video. Many other resources exist on the internet. 


P.P.S. Want more ideas for teaching about American Indians? Tune into the National Museum of the American Indian's free webcast, "Transforming Teaching and Learning about American Indians," on

Thursday, November 1, from noon-3:30 p.m. Mountain (2:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m. EDT). Learn more and find a link to view here.