The week of October 31st was the week of firsts in American History class. I tried a new lesson for Halloween this year and students began to write their first Document Based Question (DBQ) written response. Before I begin to explain the events over the past week, please remember that next Tuesday is election day and students will have the day off from school.
On Monday, October 31st students participated in a Breakout session based on the Salem Witch Trials. I designed this lesson based on the popular Escape Rooms that have appeared throughout the Pittsburgh area. In addition, I utilized resources from Breakoutut Edu. If you are not aware of Breakout Edu please be sure to check out their website at this link! Essentially students were provided with a scenario, which required that a wooden box be opened that was placed in the center of the room. In order to complete this task, students first needed to locate three other locked boxes and solve different clues to open their contents. All the clues required students to recall prior information based on the Salem Witch Trials. Students had a great time and showed strong collaboration as they worked as an entire class period to complete the task. A fan favorite was definitely using the UV flash lights to locate clues that were written in invisible ink. On Tuesday and Wednesday students completed their document analysis of the remaining primary and secondary sources that related to the Salem Witch Trials. To help students in their analysis, I used several iPad applications to help “bring these documents to life”. For example, I created an old map of Salem Village on a large piece of bulletin board paper that utilized the augmented reality application Aurasma to display the map’s key. I used the Thing-Link applications to not only display the image in color but to provide hotspots for the students to explore more closely. In addition, I used the sound cloud platform to record Mrs. Hartnett and myself acting out an examination of an accused witch. As the students analyzed these primary and secondary sources, they recorded their findings in the Document Analysis Case File on eBackpack. Thursday, November 3rd was Career Day at Elizabeth Forward Middle School. Guest speakers introduced the students of the 8th grade to several different careers from an array of careers. A special shout out to Alicia Schmidt from Steel Center for coming and speaking to my class about the awesome opportunities that students can take advantage of at Steel Center. On Thursday and Friday students began to use their Document Analysis Case File on eBackpack to complete an outline for their DBQ written response. The outline provided students a step-by-step instruction on how to craft a DBQ written response. Students then used their completed outlines to write their rough draft. I am very excited to see the final outcomes of these DBQ written response because students have put in a lot of hard work and effort into the entire process!
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Mr. Steve Hartnett
Mr. Hartnett will update the Room 212 Blog with classroom updates on a regular basis. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @ MrHartnett212 Archives
July 2019
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