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Strategies: FAQ

What's On this Page?

1. Strategies Packets (linked above)

2. Videos on Instructional Strategies

3. Quotation Mingle Model Lessons for 3-11 Social Studies (scroll to bottom of the page to download)

4. Sample Lessons with Resources (scroll to the bottom of the page to download)

Strategy Videos 

Question Formulation Technique - Library of Congress

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The Question Formulation Technique helps students learn how to form a good question but also lends itself to helping students analyze sources, especially pictures and artifacts. The instructions can be found in the Strategies Packet you can download above.

I See I Think I Wonder - Middle School Example

"I See I Think I Wonder" Strategy is from Harvard's Project Zero. Instructions can be downloaded on the strategies packet above.

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This video is an excellent example of the strategy in progress with commentary from the teacher on how he approached it.

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This strategy can be used in ANY content area! Search Google and Youtube for a variety of examples!

I See I Think I Wonder - K-5 Example

"I See I Think I Wonder" Strategy is from Harvard's Project Zero. Instructions can be downloaded on the strategies packet above.

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This video is an excellent example of the strategy in progress in a 4th grade class. The teacher provides commentary and you can watch the students putting the strategy in action.

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This strategy can be used in ANY content area!

Philosophical Chairs

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This strategy is a discussion and text analysis strategy that can be used from 3rd to 12th grades! Students must read, take a position, defend their position, and debate. During debate, students can switch sides based on the quality of the arguments presented. This strategy can also be used in any content area.

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This video shows an example from a middle school perspective as well as some different resources you can use in this discussion. A simple Google search will garner a host of resources to help implement this in your classroom!

Strategies: News

Gallery Walk Strategy - Instructional Video

This video shows a Professional Development group learning the Gallery Walk Strategy. Using this strategy, teachers can help ensure student understanding of large amount of content in less time. It gets students moving, discussing, and writing.

Question Formulation Technique Middle/High School Example

What an excellent strategy to help students think deeper about a topic!

Slip or Trip Lesson

This is a video describing how to do the Slip or Trip lesson with your students. The Slip or Trip lesson teaches students how to make Claims, back them up with EVIDENCE, and REASON (the warrant) why the evidence proves their point. This is an excellent lesson to use before students have to write an argumentative letter, paper, or even paragraph. Helping your students learn how to prove their claim with evidence and reasoning is truly teaching them how to be an historian!

Strategies: News

Gallery Walk - Elementary School

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https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/gallery-walk#

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This video is an excellent example of how social studies/science can be taught simultaneously with ELA standards. Also useful for middle and high school teachers, this video shows one take on how a Gallery Walk can work - be creative and try it in your class! (You must copy and paste link as it will not upload to this site).

I Notice, I Wonder

In this short strategy, students write down or discuss everything they notice about a prompt and any questions they have. It can also be done as "I Notice, I Wonder, It reminds me of"

Think Pair Share - High School History 

An easy bell-ringer, a Think Pair Share can engage students, have them access prior knowledge, or even set the stage for an inquiry lesson.

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Carousel Brainstorming - Elementary Example

This strategy is great for introducing material OR reviewing material. It works with the Explore or Explain phase of the 5E format. It is adaptable to all grade levels and abilities. While this class seems too good to be true, remember this is just an example!

JIGSAW STRATEGY

INSTRUCTIONS

The JIGSAW is my favorite strategy for the Social Studies classroom. Students can learn a large amount of information in a shorter time frame and they work on reading, summarizing, and communicating during the activity. It can be done as an introduction to content or to dive deeper into certain themes/events/people in the content. It is appropriate for 4-12 classrooms and can be modified for K-3.

CLOSE READING - High School Social Studies

Close Reading is not just a strategy for ELA. It is a wonderful way to help students understand, summarize, and synthesize primary sources. It can be done on all levels 4-12, but this example looks at High School U.S. History.

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Resource: Stanford Univ. "Reading Like a Historian"

This video highlights the importance of the use of primary sources in the social studies and history classroom. Students are exposed to more text, enhancing both content literacy and overall literacy. Stanford University also has lessons and units that align with "Reading Like a Historian."

A Penny For Your Thoughts Debate

This video walks teachers through the Penny For Your Thoughts Instructional Activity. While this video is from Studies Weekly, the activity can be used with ANY debatable reading or topic.

Vocabulary Strategies from GADOE Social Studies

This video gives instructions and information on several vocabulary strategies that help students really THINK about the words and not just copy them down!

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Sample Lessons with Strategies

Quotation Mingle
K-3 Example

This example aligns with: SS3H1 A-B, but gives an idea of how this can work with struggling readers or K-1 readers. It gives a short sentence with a picture. In K-1, you could also just do pictures for the students to discuss and then read a text to them OR read a sentence out loud and let them discuss before you do a read aloud.

Quotation Mingle
Social Studies
"Trail of Tears"

This mingle was used in 4th grade for SS4H3. However, it could be used in 8th grade GA History or High School U.S. History just as well.

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The Quotation Mingle for the Trail of Tears really emphasizes the impact of westward expansion and forced relocation on American Indians. It uses a primary source - a journal from a soldier who accompanied the American Indians on their journey.

Quotation Mingle 

High School World History

Intro to the Renaissance

This Quotation Mingle uses a simple internet article. It could be done just as well with a chapter of the textbook or an article from Newsela. It corresponds with SSWH9a-d and has been used successfully in classes in our RESA this school year.

Below you can download mini-lessons using the strategies in our packet! You can use them, modify them, or just get inspired by them! Let me know if you would like help creating a lesson using one of the strategies by e-mailing me (Crystal Parten) at cparten@csraresa.org

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Strategies: News
Sample Lessons with Strategies

Listen, Think Respond Activity

Middle to High School

This strategy is a Read Aloud. The teacher reads a primary source selection aloud and has students answer questions every few lines (individually on paper/graphic organizer). This is a PRE-READING activity. After finishing the reading and having students answer the questions on their paper the class can discuss the source. Then, students can individually read the primary source as the read aloud would have prepared them for reading.

 

This sample uses FDR's Pearl Harbor speech. 

Listen, Think, Respond

Activity

Elementary School

This strategy is a Read Aloud. The teacher reads a primary source or a children's book and has students answer questions every few lines (individually on paper/graphic organizer). This is a PRE-READING activity. 

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This sample uses the children's book "Crow Boy."

20th Century Immigration and Urbanization

Notice/Wonder Gallery Walk

This document includes a variety of photographs by Jacob Riis and others who documented the history of immigration, urbanization, rural life and the effects of these on society in the early 20th century. These pictures can be used as a Notice Wonder activity, Gallery Walk, or used in presentations. They all came from Google searches and have just been put into a word document for ease. In my trainings we have used these two model a Gallery Walk on

SS5H1d, SSUSH11d/SSUSH13a,d

Below you can download mini-lessons using the strategies in our packet! You can use them, modify them, or just get inspired by them! Let me know if you would like help creating a lesson using one of the strategies by e-mailing me (Crystal Parten) at cparten@csraresa.org

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Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists High School Lesson Plan

This lesson plan focuses on reading primary sources, debating, and writing. 

Washington vs. DuBois Lesson Plan

This lesson plan focuses on reading primary sources, debating, and writing.

From the Protestant Reformation to Facebook Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is a writing lesson focused on comparing Martin Luther's 95 Theses to something going viral on Facebook in the modern world.

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