“Novelinks…’Briar Rose’”

Here’s a link to my daughter’s “Novelink” site for the book Briar Rose.  
Briar Rose is an adolescent novel about a Holocaust survivor who recounts her experiences in storytelling form (told to her granddaughter).  It is a facinating look at one of history’s darker chapters, and the heroic journey of one woman through it. 
“This novel is a [...]

Read Full Post »

Resources for Social Studies- Topic: Afghanistan-Soviet War

I recently had the opportunity to research and report on a topic of choice within the curriculum of Central Asian History.  As a Middle Grades Education major with a concentration in Social Studies, I feel it’s important to keep abreast of timely subjects that will interest my students and at the same time connect to [...]

Read Full Post »

BYU-Utah 2006…”The answered Prayer” :for Dr. T.

 
A legendary moment in BYU-U of U history…

Read Full Post »

Unit 4: Course Summary

One of the most important skills I acquired from this course wasn’t really apparent to me when we began.  The technical aspects of developing a blog and gathering the resources were two factors that I hadn’t considered when I started the course.  I feel that this experience will benefit me as an educator in trying [...]

Read Full Post »

Unit 4 Lesson Plan: A Visit to Colonial North Carolina

This lesson plan, found on the University of North Carolina’s School of Education’s Learn NC website, aligns with Goal 1 of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Standard Course of Study for grade eight Social Studies.
 
A Visit to Colonial North Carolina explores accounts of early explorers to the southeast region of America, and [...]

Read Full Post »

Unit 4 Lesson Plan: N.C. The Rip Van Winkle State

This lesson plan, found on the University of North Carolina’s School of Education’s Learn NC website aligns with Goal 3 of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Standard Course of Study for grade eight Social Studies and Goal(s) 1, 2, and 5 for grade eight Language Arts. 
 
The lesson involves students reading Washington Irving’s [...]

Read Full Post »

Unit 4 Summary of Lesson Plan Resources

The lesson plan resources available for middle grades curriculum offer a wide variety of options in each subject area. I looked specifically for Social Studies plans, namely North Carolina or American History. 
 
I found some of the provided links a little too complicated to navigate.  The Read, Write, Think site was one that I thought [...]

Read Full Post »

Unit 4 Summary: A Professional Development Initiative for Developing Approaches to Vocabulary Instruction with Secondary Mathematics, Art, Science, and English Teachers

This article outlined an initiative implemented in Alleghany County, North Carolina that focused on professional development for teachers to assist them in implementing effective vocabulary instruction, and increasing the amount and type of reading students are assigned in content areas of instruction. 
 
An important point that is stressed in the article is the idea that [...]

Read Full Post »

Unit 4 Summary: The Multigenre Paper: Increasing Interest, Motivation, and Functionality in Research

Margaret R. Moulton’s article about a Multigenre research project taught to college students provides information on a great learning strategy that could be applied to other levels of education.  Moulton, who was teaching at a southwestern U.S. college experimented with having her students produce Multigenre projects (ones that include several different literary genres compiled together [...]

Read Full Post »

Instructional Strategies Summary

Chris Smithey
 
For some of us (teacher candidates) finding good instructional strategies that can be implemented in the classroom may be as difficult as finding the moose in the picture above.  In searching for strategies for use in social studies curriculum, I found a few resources that I would implement in my classroom.  I concentrated my [...]

Read Full Post »