One driving force for us in social studies is to genuinely incorporate Document Based Questions (DBQ’s) into our lesson flow. With the new evaluation system now in place when we use DBQs it will punctuate and drive learning as well as being a great tool for us to provide evidence of the great things you are doing with your learners.
Resources can be found at https://wvsocialstudies.com/dbq/
https://wvsocialstudies.com/csos/
One driving force for us in social studies is to genuinely incorporate Document Based Questions (DBQ’s) into our lesson flow. With the new evaluation system now in place when we use DBQs it will punctuate and drive learning as well as being a great tool for us to provide evidence of the great things you are doing with your learners.
Resources can be found at https://wvsocialstudies.com/dbq/
Social studies promotes engaging participatory citizenship where global awareness of civic issues such as financial literacy, healthcare, domestic affairs, foreign policy and the environment are actively monitored and influenced by all citizens interacting internationally for the benefit of all mankind.
Social studies teachers and history aficionados now have a repository of resources to enhance learning about our state, nation, governments, world and culture -and indeed life itself! Use this site to gather tools to help others learn about our world.
Every aspect of all that is around us stems from the social sciences, and no matter what area drew you into teaching in this discipline you can use what sparked you to ignite learning in others. Those of us in the social sciences tend to have broad interests, and it often seems to us that all other subjects stem from our content. It is time for us to utilize the fact that we mesh so well with other disciplines to cross curricular boundaries to reach out and connect with all learners- no matter their interests.
The College and Career Readiness standards (SocStuStandards2016) allow us to “shove the dusty tomes aside” as we seize upon the use of materials that “make sense” as they are the very basis of our content. With a bold focus on primary and secondary sources, as we facilitate learners in to discovering the “why of what humanity” we will engage students in learning from their own perspective. Moving from the gregorian chant of “lecture-worksheet-test” will cause our classes to awake from a drowsy routine as they now will search for meaning when the task before them makes a connection. Supply learners with the facts and evidence and guide them to discover why our world developed as it has.
Remember that to our students in our classes “9/11” is just a page in history, as their young lives have centered around more modern newslines. What we personally have lived thorough is just a story to them, and we need to help students see the connections that occur in the timeline of history. We know nothing happens in isolation, but they have yet to discover that. Making figures and events of the past relevant to the learners of today is not difficult, as the key points of the past still shape what is happening round all of us daily. As we engage learners in these key points they will “dig up” the details that we normally would be lecturing on (and failing to reach many of them) and they will succeed as they will be learning by doing. We test differently, as memorization has given way to being able to problem solve, and this will be enhanced as we assess for mastery.
As we look at the new standards we see that ELA and social studies have meshed readings of primary and secondary documents and it is powerful to collaborate here to lead to genuine learning. It rests upon us all to be “reading and writing teachers” and we must convey to learners that it is within their ability to succeed. It is paramount that we make our content relevant to launch them into genuine learning, form which many will wander in a greater depth than they would have garnered from a well worn text. At our fingertips is a wealth of information that goes far beyond the dusty library shelves and encyclopedia volumes of yesteryear. Do not fear engaging them in discovering truths of the social sciences that we may not have memorized ourselves. Show them that we are all lifetime learners and return to the wonder and passion that drew you into the social sciences.
The burden of learning rests with the learner and it is our task to guide them in genuine higher order work. Change with the times or the times will pass you by! Our students of today have grown up in a different world from us, and if we are to best serve them we must be willing to speak a language they understand.
Thank you to everyone who has submitted a video so far! If you haven’t considered contributing a video for the WVDE / WVPB partnership, please do! WVDE is seeking 8-10 minute engaging educator-created instructional content from our own WV educators. Consider creating an 8-10 minute video of yourself teaching a lesson. Lessons should be standards-based, but for a general audience. You don’t need to call a lesson out as being, for example, an 8th grade topic, but you can still teach to the 8th grade standard. The lesson can cover a topic that spans grade levels, if the content crosses multiple grades. Lessons are needed for students K-12. You can see past episodes of Education Station here.
This updated how-to video includes great tips for creating videos. When your video is complete, please upload it to OneDrive and share the video link with Dustin Lambert (dllambert@k12.wv.us) and Erika Klose (eklose@k12.wv.us). Attached you’ll find instructions for uploading files to OneDrive directly from your phone. After you share the video, please email Dustin (dllambert@k12.wv.us) the standards that align to the video content. Videos will then be vetted by WVDE before being sent on to WVPB. Thank you for joining in this endeavor to reach ALL students together.
PBS Education Newsletter
Please find attached this week’s education newsletter from PBS. We appreciate our partnership with PBS and would like to thank Margaret Miller for being such a great resource to us and for joining in our weekly TEAMS meetings!
The full testing schedule is available at this link: Full AP® Exam Schedule
For more information please contact Karen Linville, or call the Office of Middle & Secondary Learning at 304-558-5325.
CANCELED: 2020 Advanced Placement® (AP®) Summer Institutes
The West Virginia Board of Education approved the following waiver at its April 8, 2020, meeting: Policy 2510 Assuring the Quality of Education, Regulations for Education Programs, Section Appendix B: This will allow Advanced Placement® (AP®) teachers who are required to attend an AP® Summer Institute during summer 2020 as part of their three-year rotation to waive attendance until their next scheduled year of rotation. All other AP® teachers would stay in their rotation years as scheduled. Please review this document for additional guidance.
For more information please contact Karen Linville, or call the Office of Middle & Secondary Learning at 304-558-5325.
Resource Title: West Virginia History in 2 Minutes Or Less
Description: Brian Casto, WV Studies teacher at Milton Middle School, has created 17 videos about WV for use in the classroom. He continues to upload videos. Please check out his YouTube channel to access his videos. In addition, Mr. Casto has been gracious to share the secret behind the creation of his work. He uses an app called Clips. Here is the link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clips/id1212699939
Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyNmi_6XxgesFZXHAkGFtpw/videos
The West Virginia Department of Education is seeking activities, ideas, lessons and solutions from West Virginia educators that meet the needs of the current remote learning situation. We know that West Virginia educators have risen to the occasion and are demonstrating creativity, collaboration and innovative practices to engage their students.
If you have an idea to share, please visit the West Virginia Educator Hub using the link below, and then complete the form to submit your activity, idea, lesson or solution to the West Virginia Department of Education. Submissions will be reviewed each week and featured on the West Virginia Educator Hub throughout the coming months. Please share your successes in this time of remote learning with your fellow educators.
If you have any questions about the West Virginia Educator Hub for Student Engagement or the process of submitting an activity, idea, lesson or solution, please let me know.
https://wvde.us/covid19/wv-educator-hub/
Please check out our resource page for a collection of lesson ideas and virtual experiences for students. https://wvde.us/covid19/resources/
National Constitution Center
Mondays from 12 –12:20 p.m. EDT for open-source professional development programs highlighting the Center’s free, online resources and strategies to support constitutional literacy education in the classroom or remotely. Online professional development programs are facilitated by a member of the Center’s education team and hosted on Zoom. Each week features different resources reflecting the topic of that week’s Scholar Exchanges.
Upcoming webinars include:
Register for any of these dates here.
Teaching American History
Title: Documents in Detail
Web-Link: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/programs/webinars/documents-in-detail/
Host: Teaching American History
Time/Date: April 22, 2020 and May 13, 2020; 7 PM
Audience: Teachers of American History
Description: Documents in Detail is TAH.org’s second webinar series, offering a close read and in-depth discussion of a single document in each episode. Scholars will discuss the ideas, historical context, purpose, speaker, audience, and use of language in each document, in order to help teachers gain a deeper understanding of one core document from American History. Requires free registration
Teaching Tolerance
Title: Teaching Tolerance
Web-Link: https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/webinars
Host: Teaching Tolerance
Time/Date: on-demand
Audience: all teachers
Description: Teaching Tolerance webinars offer helpful guidance and great ideas from our experienced teaching and learning specialists and from innovative educators in the Teaching Tolerance community. Watch these FREE on-demand webinars at your own pace and share them with colleagues!
National Archives
Title: Teaching the Big Picture: Incorporating Photographs into Lesson Plans about Native Communities
Web-Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeekezzFHcj1YC7N6r 1a7dGRzPXvhl5h1Ldr37ejJScNS8OdA/viewform
Host: National Archives
Time/Date: May 6, 2020; 7 PM
Audience: high school social studies educators
Description: Discover how to incorporate photographs from the National Archives into your lessons about American Indian communities. Participants will explore how to locate photographs in NARA holdings, the process of analyzing and interpreting primary source documents, and ways to contextualize the history depicted in the images.
This webinar is part of our Native American professional development series. Each program features new resources for locating and using Federal records related to American Indians and Alaska Natives. Requires free registration
Dustin Lambert, M.Ed.
Social Studies Resources 