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Going to Work on the Civil War

Originally posted on April 7, 2011 by Shennan Hutton

Today we have our first meeting with the six teacher leaders who will be writing the Civil War unit. We are meeting online, which does present some challenges for communication. I’m sure we can surmount those difficulties, however, especially since this group of teachers seems to be so enthusiastic and accomplished.

All the teacher leaders teach 8th-grade U.S. History, and have worked as teacher leaders on History Project Teaching American History grants in the past. 

Survey Results: Where Do We Begin?

Originally posted on March 12, 2011 by Shennan Hutton

The Blueprint Needs Survey officially closed on Wednesday. As I was compiling the results, I thought you might like to see what your fellow teachers selected as priorities for development. This is the question: “We plan to design a state-of-the-art curriculum for all the History-Social Science Standards, but we can only do this gradually. Where should we begin? Which of the History Social-Science Content standards for your grade level most needs development and support?” 

Teachers on the Web

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Shennan Hutton

According to the Blueprint survey, most history teachers make significant use of the websites when they plan their lessons. We asked them what websites they used and what they liked about those websites, in order to help us build a better website to support the History Blueprint.

Academic Literacy 1

Originally posted on February 12, 2011 by Shennan Hutton

Academic Literacy
I’ve been reading a lot about academic literacy lately, as I try to get up to speed on this aspect of Blueprint. As a high school teacher and then a college lecturer, I never really knew much about literacy beyond the observation that many of my students struggle with it. They read and do not understand the words. A page of text defeats them. Twenty pages is out of the question. Or English is their second language and everything is overwhelming.

Needs for History

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Shennan Hutton

I’ve just finished sending out a survey to teachers who have attended past History Project events. The survey asks teachers and others interested in history-social science education about their current needs. We’re also asking teachers to advise us about the online tools that they find most useful. If you’d like to take the survey, click here. I’d be happy to receive your input and advice as well!

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