Welcome back to another Loves, Links, Reads, and Reviews – the monthly link roundup where I post my best Social Studies related finds from the internet and discuss all that I’ve been up to in the past month.
I can’t believe I took these pictures at the beginning of March, but I very much did. I was hoping to have some daffodils and tulips to photograph by the end of the month, but everything is still very much brown. We’ll be getting some temps in the high 60s soon, so everything will green up shortly.
Loves and Links
The 1950s Census is out! – You can search by name or enumeration district. Have fun trying to figure your enumeration district!
Kids Are Learning History From Video Games Now – I pretty sure that I have some students who passed the APUSH Exam because they played Assassin’s Creed. (I mean, I also taught them to write, but having a DBQ about the Cold War didn’t hurt.) This article confirms my anecdotal findings. Read on to find some of the benefits and caveats to learning history this way.
“Bicycle Face: a 19th-century health problem made up to scare women away from biking” – The article is older, but the story is timeless. It reminded me of the fact that men have always found creative ways to limit the movement and freedom of women. If only that creativity had been put to better use.
“History teacher remains in Mariupol, Ukraine, to care for children left behind” – The news out of Ukraine continues, and this story was both heartening and sad.
ColorNames – This website is a cute little creative time waster for those moments when you have a random amount of students for a random amount of time.
Rethinking How to Promote Reading Comprehension – This article is densely packed with details that make some important points. It discusses the complexity of reading comprehension and how comprehension is really tired with knowledge. Really, the findings should upend the way we’re teaching reading at the elementary levels right now, but it probably won’t.
I think I found the perfect teacher sweater. I’ve been a big fan of One Quince for the past year and I’ve received a couple of their items for Christmas. I have a TON of wool sweaters, but I decided that I wanted a cotton sweater for the in-between spring weather. (We get this weather all the time in upstate NY. It’s 35 degrees in the morning, but it reaches 70 degrees by mid-day.) I LOVE this sweater. It’s heavy and thick and such good quality. I know I’ll be wearing it again and again. I even bought one for my Mom for her birthday! (This is not an affiliate link. I just like the sweater.)
Peacefield History posts from this past month…
Teaching about Political Cartoons and Bias through Irish History – I was so happy to finally get a chance to talk about one of my favorite lessons of the school year. This lesson takes one topic – the Irish Famine and Emigration and combines it with some great skills practice discussing bias and political cartoons.
There were some fantastic YA and Middle-Grade books released this past month relating to history and historical fiction. You can click through the slideshow to check out the book covers and then click through to read the details from bookshop.org.
New Peacefield History Resources
At the beginning of this month, I was finally able to finish up my World War One Unit! I added an overview of the war that was written specifically for middle school students in a U.S. History class. This means that I really tried to focus on the basics of the war and leave out anything extraneous. I also added a pacing guide for the entire unit and a word wall. You can find them all at the links below.
World War One Overview – This lesson provides an overview of World War I from the U.S. perspective at a level meant for middle school students. Topics include militarism, imperialism, alliances, and nationalism (as they relate to WWI, a comparison of map of Europe before and after the war, wartime propaganda, trench warfare, the events that led the U.S. into the war, different groups involved with the war (including Native Americans, women, immigrants and Black Americans, the war on the homefront, and the ending of the war.
World War One Word Wall – Help your students build and retain key vocabulary terms with a visually appealing word wall. This resource includes 34 word wall terms related to World War I, vocabulary review strategies, and a review puzzle to support your students’ learning.
World War One – Full Unit Bundle – This bundle includes an inquiry focused on the contrast between Wilson’s actions at home vs. the ideals he laid out in the Fourteen Points. It also includes my overview of the unit, the World Wall, and a pacing guide for the full unit.
I was also able to put the finishing touches on my Roaring Twenties Unit.
The Prohibition Era – This lesson explores one of my students’ favorite topics – Prohibition. Students will complete questions related to a historical background reading, take a true/false quiz about some of the stranger facts relating to the Prohibition Era and then practice analyzing some primary source images.
Roaring Twenties 1920s Word Wall – This resource helps students build and retain key vocabulary terms. It includes 26 word wall terms related to Roaring Twenties, vocabulary review strategies, and a review puzzle to support students’ learning.
The Roaring Twenties – Summative Assessment – Cultural Artifact Project – With this summative assessment, students will be asked to reflect on the era of the 1920s as a time period of cultural change. They will identify five “artifacts” that reflected major cultural changes of the 1920s and then they will discuss the way in which those artifacts reflected cultural change through a Google Slides presentation or on paper.
The Roaring Twenties – Full Unit Bundle – This unit bundle contains standards-aligned and engaging student-centered lessons relating to the Roaring Twenties. Students will travel through the 1920s as time travelers and learn about events from the 1920s like Prohibition, new voting rights for women, and the Harlem Renaissance along with some of the more surprising events of the 1920s – like pole sitting or battles over straw hats. As a summative assessment, they will discuss all of the cultural changes that came about during the Roaring Twenties.
Finally, I updated my digital teacher planners with new dates for the 2022-2023 school year. If you’ve previously purchased a planning guide, you can just log into your account to download the updates. You can find the planners at these links.
Digital Teacher Planner Watercolor Theme
Digital Teacher Planner Succulent Theme
Digital Teacher Planner Geometric Theme
Digital Teacher Planner String Lights Theme
Reads and Reviews
I only managed one book this month (see the updates above), but it was a good one!
The Giver of Stars
Given what I knew of this author, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book. It turned out that I REALLY enjoyed this book. It was set during one of my favorite times periods in U.S. History - The Great Depression. The story centered around a traveling library that was created as part of the WPA and the women who ran that library. It represented the perfect combination of history and fiction. There was just enough history to reflect the reality of the time period, including, union organization (and union-busting), the WPA, and a heap of the social history of Kentuckian life of that time. Also, the story was sentimental and engaging without the hokeyness that often accompanies this type of fiction. One of my favorite books of the year thus far.
More info →
