http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=32&bhcp=1
The link above is a link for an interactive document analyzer containing four documents on the Mexican-American War. I'm currently creating a unit plan for another class on the Mexican-American war with the use of a primary source document reader; I think these documents in conjunction with the primary source document reader would provide a more interactive and entertaining experience for students. Additionally, this SAS Curriculum Pathways resource provides a few videos providing background on the war as well as a video providing directions on how to analyze primary source documents. I may even consider using this resource in conjunction with the unit plan I'm currently designing in order to give this idea a test run to see how effective it can actually be.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/timeline/index.cfm
This link was a link I found through Thinkfinity; I found it rather interesting. It's an interactive map of American History, provided by the National Museum of American History on behalf of the Smithsonian Institute. It provides an interesting overlay of Cultural and Political elements of American History in an organized format by year and era. I would use this in the social studies classroom; while I might not use this for a lesson, I think it would be a great resource at the beginning of the year for a U.S. History course for students to get a general idea of what they're going to be covering for the year. It's also a good way to keep student interest in what they're learning; sometimes interactive materials can help to break up the monotony in the classroom.
Mike, I like the link about the time line, I think it could be really useful. however, there are some flaws I could see in using it to go along with lessons, I agree it would be a better resource to use at the beginning, as a good overview of what you would cover. it could be useful during the year, if you used it right. the problem that I can see is that a major piece is broken up by "era" and if you are not teaching these in order, or have a different method it could be extremely confusing to students. however i think it is a good resource to provide them to keep them on track time wise. if they are able to use the time line to see that, for instance, Immigration, railroad expansion, and civil war all occurred at the same time, it would really put the entire grand scheme of american history into perspective for them, which could be really beneficial. you could even assign the time line for homework, asking students to use the time line to piece different parts of american history together, like what inventions were occurring during which political reforms, and what was happening culturally at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI believe that timelines are very useful as well. They keep time periods in perspective to allow students to understand what different events are occurring at the same time or throughout a period of time. This should be used at the beginning of a lesson or even at the end of learning a lot of material in order to keep it all in order.
ReplyDeleteHey Mike, as you know I too am currently working on a lesson plan for the U.S. war with Mexico. I took the same link you chose from SAS. I thought it was an interesting way of getting feedback from students, but it would have been much better if there was a way to adapt the questions they ask. Like you said, incorporating that source with the primary document reader we are using would be ideal, but it would be more beneficial if we could write in more essential questions.
ReplyDeleteThe second link of the time line was good, but not great. I feel like there this is a lot of information left off. It was good to see that recruitment poster for the war with Mexico, but in general I would figure the smithsonian would include more information.