Teachers

Description

Identity charts are a tool that can help learners consider the many factors that shape who we are as individuals and as communities. Utilize identity charts to deepen learners’ comprehension of themselves, groups, nations, and historical and literary figures. Sharing their identity charts with peers can help learners build relationships and break down stereotypes. In this way, identity charts can be used as a useful classroom community-building tool.

Implementation

Brainstorm: Prior to creating identity charts, require that the class discuss categories that we ponder when thinking about the query, “Who am I really?” If it doesn’t come up in the conversation as you generate your group list of categories, prompt learners with questions that help them think about the following ideas:

• Some facets of our identities are consistent over our lives; others change as we gain skills and have different roles in life.
• Some facets of our identities feel very central to who we are, no matter where we are; others may feel more like background or depend on the situation.
• Some facets of our identities are descriptions that others put on us. It is often helpful to show learners a completed identity chart before they create one of their own.

Alternatively, you could begin this learning activity by having learners create identity charts for themselves. If you plan to require that they share their identity charts with a partner or in groups, they must know in advance. Any learners who don’t feel comfortable sharing their identity charts can elaborate on one or two facets of their identity but keep their charts private. After discussing their charts, learners can create a list of the categories they have used to describe themselves and then apply this same list of categories as a guide when creating identity charts for other people or groups.

Create Identity Charts for a Person or Group: First, ask learners to write the name of the character, figure, group, or nation in the center of a piece of paper. Then learners can look through the content for evidence that helps them answer the question: “Who is this person/group?” Encourage learners to include quotations from the content on their identity charts, as well as their interpretations of the character or figure based on their reading. Learners can complete identity charts individually or in small groups. Alternatively, learners could contribute ideas to a class version of an identity chart that you keep on the classroom wall.

Utilize Identity Charts to Track New Learning: Reviewing and revising identity charts during a unit is one way to help learners keep track of their learning.

Modifications

Starburst Identity Chart: Utilize a starburst identity chart to help learners visualize the difference between factors that they feel make up their identities (arrows pointing out from the middle) versus labels that others place on them (arrows pointing into the middle). Because we may agree with several of the ways that the outside world views us and disagree with others, there may be some overlapping ideas between the two sets of arrows. Learners can also utilize examples from content to create starburst identity Charts for characters and historical figures to help express the complexity of their identities. 

Prioritizing Factors on Identity Charts: After learners create an identity chart, you can ask them to select the five items they think are most significant in shaping this person or group’s identity. As learners compare their lists, this often deepens their comprehension of the person being studied.

Identity and Context: Personal and group identities are composed of multiple factors, some having more significance in particular contexts. To help learners appreciate this concept, you may ask them to think about the five factors that are most significant to shaping their identity in one context, such as school, and then in another context, such as home or with friends.

Description

In a learning activity based on the living images method, learners work in groups to recreate historical photographs by performing a series of “freeze frames” that captures the moments depicted in the photos. Such an activity helps learners develop a deeper comprehension of a particular moment in history, while providing them with an opportunity to practice collaborating with their peers as they brainstorm, direct, and perform their scenes.

Implementation

1. Select Images: Find a compendium of photos that reveal valuable information about the time the class is studying. These pictures must have enough figures so that each member of the group is involved in each “living image.” Usually, instructors give groups of learners a set of four to six photos. This learning activity works best if groups receive different pictures. Through the performances, learners learn about the images that the other groups have been assigned. While this method is often used with pictures, you could also use paintings, political cartoons, or other photos for the activity, as long as the images contain people.
2. Provide Learners with Directions: Here are directions you can put on the board or print out for learners to refer to as they engage with this activity.

Examine each image, separately, and answer the following queries:

• What is the context of this image? When and where was it taken?
• What do you see? In particular, what do you observe about the people in this image? Who are they? How are they feeling? What are they thinking?
• What does this image reveal about the time?

After answering these questions for each image, create a “living image” for each one. A living image reimagines the scene from the picture in a real-life environment. Think of yourself as actors who must presume the physical positions, gestures, and facial expressions of the figures in the photo. Each image must have a director who helps to organize the scene. The image must be a freeze-frame, where actors hold their position for at least ten seconds.

After you have developed your living images, figure out which order you would like to display your creations. Next, work on transitioning from one image to the next so that your group can present these images seamlessly to their classmates.

Modify these instructions to fit your own classroom needs. To help groups work more autonomously through these steps, you may want to have them assign roles.

3. Learners Perform: Next, groups share their work with the entire class. Groups must present their living images in silence. The class interprets the scenes as they see them. After each group presents, they must take questions from the class. Between performances, learners can record what they learned about the historical time from seeing these living images.
4. Debrief: After each group has performed, you can facilitate a class discussion about what the living images reveal about the time. Learners may arrive at different interpretations of what they viewed. Encourage learners to utilize evidence to defend their interpretations and invite learners to change their interpretations as they hear their peers’ ideas.
5. Learners Reflect: Allow learners to write in their journals about their experience with this activity.

Modifications

1. Abridged Version: Instead of having groups act out several images, you could assign one photograph to each group.
2. Learners Find Their Images: Instead of selecting images for learners, you could add a research component to this exercise by having learners find and select their photographs. The assignment could include adequately citing sources and explaining the significance of the image or images they chose.
3. Add Music: To highlight the feelings expressed by each image, you could have learners select music to accompany their performance.

Description

Direct instruction is an instructor-centered approach in which the instructor uses simple, straightforward language to explain concepts to learners. The instructor is in full control of the pace, content, and structure of the lesson at all times, and learners are required to follow.

Advantages

• Provides clear and direct knowledge to learners.
• It is sometimes the only way to teach something, especially when introducing a new idea.

Disadvantages

• Learners cannot reconcile their knowledge and skills with direct instruction alone. Direct instruction must be followed by other teaching strategies that involve more active learning, so learners can practice and demonstrate their knowledge.

Implementation

1. Introduction/Review: You set the stage for learning. This is the opening of the lesson, and it’s intended to engage learners, get their attention, and activate their prior knowledge.
2. Present the new material: Utilize clear and guided instructions, so learners can begin absorbing the new material. The lesson content must be carefully organized step-by-step, with the steps building on each other.
3. Guided practice: Here, the instructor and learners practice the concept together. The student attempts the skill with the assistance of the instructor and other learners.
4. Feedback and correctives: If learners don’t understand the lesson material, the instructor corrects them and gives feedback.
5. Independent practice: After guided practice and receiving positive feedback, learners are ready to apply the new learning material on their own.
6. Evaluation/review: Check whether your learners know everything before moving on to a new concept that builds upon what they’ve just learned.

Description

Project-based learning requires learners to spend an extended period on a single project to gain in-depth knowledge about the task. As such, project-based learning usually involves more complex situation and is designed to challenge learners more than problem-based learning in which learners are developing a solution to a problem. Projects must be of interest to the learners and give them the freedom to go in-depth.

Advantages

• Learners have the opportunity to become “experts” on topics. By going in-depth on an item, learners may become very knowledgeable and feel empowered.
• A balance is struck between ensuring that learners focus on curriculum-linked projects and giving learners the latitude to explore the details of a subject that is of personal interest to them.

Disadvantages

• Learners tend to have increased freedom using this approach. So, learners need to learn self-regulation skills before beginning the task.
• Project-based learning is time-consuming and can take weeks and even months to complete.

Implementation

1. The instructor assigns learners a research question, such as “What are the key characteristics of mammals?”
2. Learners work in small groups to come up with an idea for a poster, diagram, or presentation project on the topic.
3. The instructor approves or asks for amendments to learners’ proposed projects.
4. Learners are provided a series of lessons over two weeks in computer labs and in resource-rich classrooms to complete their projects.
5. The instructor checks in intermittently to ensure standards are upheld and to motivate learners to improve upon their projects.
6. The project concludes with learners presenting their projects to their parents.

Description

The close reading protocol method asks learners to carefully and purposefully read and reread a text. When learners “close read,” they concentrate on the author’s message, what the author’s purpose is, what the words mean, and what the format of the content tells us. This approach ensures that learners understand what they’ve read. We ask learners to carefully investigate the content to make connections to essential questions about history, human behavior, and ourselves. Skillful close reading is also a crucial foundation in helping learners to develop the ability to back up their claims in class discussions and writing assignments with corroborating evidence. A typical close reading activity utilizes some or all of the steps in the implementation section below.

Implementation

1. Read Aloud Text: You or a confident learner reader can read the content aloud. Learners must follow along with the reading. Ask learners to circle unfamiliar words as they listen. After the read-aloud, as learners share these words with the class, decide which words to define instantly to limit confusion and which descriptions you want learners to uncover through careful reading.
2. Learners Read Silently: Ask learners to read silently and write down words or phrases that seem striking to them for any number of reasons: because they are strange, interesting, confusing, funny, troubling, challenging, etc. Share some of these as a class. Particular questions to ask learners at this stage of the reading are:
   • What can you deduce about the author of this content?
   • How is the content formatted?
   • Does this format make it easy or difficult to make meaning?
   • Does this format tell us anything about the author’s style or purpose?
3. Learners Answer Text-Dependent Questions: In small groups, have learners read the content in chunks and answer a set of content-dependent questions. Content-dependent questions are those that can be answered based only on careful analysis of the content itself.
4. Learners Create a Visual Image: In small groups, have learners create a visual image on paper that captures the essence of the content. Ask learners to include a three-word or one-sentence summary of each section of content. Groups can be given either the entire content or parts of the content for this section of the close read.
5. Learners Participate in a Gallery Walk: Ask learners to complete a gallery walk of the pictures that have been created.
6. Transition to Discussion: Consider organizing a class discussion so that learners can make connections beyond the content. This discussion can be informal, or it can utilize the format of the Socratic Seminar or Save the Last Word for Me strategies. You can prepare some questions, use the essential questions from the classroom, or have learners create the questions for a discussion. To do this, you may guide the learners by asking them to find connections between the essential questions and the content or to write questions based on what resonates with them.

Description

A chunking activity involves breaking down a complicated text into more manageable pieces and having learners rewrite these “chunks” in their own words. You can utilize this method with challenging texts of any length. Chunking helps learners identify keywords and ideas, develops their ability to summarize, and makes it easier for them to organize and synthesize information.

Implementation

1. Preparation: Chunking can be used with challenging content of any length. A paragraph can be chunked into expressions and sentences, while a reading of several pages can be chunked into paragraphs or sections. It is often helpful to have learners record information regarding each “chunk” in a graphic organizer, which you must create in advance.
2. Review of Reading Strategies: Before having learners work on paraphrasing the content, it is helpful to go over specific decoding strategies. You may want to post the following reminders on the board:
   • Circle unfamiliar words.
   • Use context clues to help define words.
   • Look up the meaning of words that are unfamiliar.
   • Write synonyms for unfamiliar new words in the content.
   • Underline essential places and people and identify them.
   • Read aloud.
   • Read multiple times.
3. Chunk the Text: “Chunking the text” means breaking the content down into smaller parts. Sometimes, instructors chunk the text in advance for learners, especially if this is the first time they have used this method. Other times, instructors ask learners to chunk the text. Learners can work on chunking texts with partners or on their own. Depending on the learners’ reading level, the lengths of chunks can fluctuate. A struggling reader will probably work with phrases rather than sentences. A more reliable reader can often work with longer pieces.
4. Learners Summarize Meaning: Learners must rewrite “chunks” in their own words. By the end of this activity, learners must have a summarized version of the original text.
5. Assess and Share: Summarized content can be used to assess learners’ comprehension and reading ability. You can also have learners compare their versions of the content. This step often leads to interesting conversations about interpretation—how people can often find various meanings in the same words.

Modifications

1. Identify and Define Key Words: To help learners move from reading the content to paraphrasing, ask them first to identify and define the keywords found in that chunk. You can add space to a graphic organizer for this part of the activity.
2. Create a Visual: To improve comprehension of ideas, have learners visually represent the selected chunk as a picture or symbol. They can create a symbol or image, or they can find one in a magazine or online.
3. Paragraph Shrinking: To help learners clarify main ideas, ask them to summarize the meaning of a paragraph in ten words or less.
4. Identify Significance and Connections: After learners summarize a portion of the content, ask them to respond to these ideas. Questions you may use to prompt their thinking include: What do these ideas remind you of? What questions do they raise? Why is this idea important? To whom?
5. Jigsaw Chunking: You can divide longer content into parts and have groups work on summarizing a paragraph or two each. Groups can reveal the meaning of their part with the class by utilizing the Jigsaw method or by having small-group presentations. This variation works well with content that has divided parts, such as the Bill of Rights because learners need to be able to summarize their section without having read prior sections.

Description

Graphic organizers that use a drawing of an individual, along with queries connected to the individual’s symbolic qualities, are called character maps. They can be used to trigger reflection on fictional or historical people.

Implementation

1. Select a Fictional or Historical Character: You can base this learning experience on a character or historical figure in any resource that you believe will prompt engagement and excitement from your learners. Once you have chosen the character, give learners time to read, watch, or observe.
2. Learners Create Character Map: Learners use evidence from documents, images, video clips, and other resources to respond to the following prompts as they annotate the illustration:
   • Head: How does this person view their society?
   • Mouth: What is this person articulating?
   • Heart: How does this person feel?
   • Hands: What has this person done in their lives, what choices have they made?
   • Feet: What may be some outcomes of this person’s choices?
3. Debrief: After completing their character maps, learners can place them in the classroom and participate in a brief gallery walk to see what their classmates have made and reflect on the similarities, differences, and patterns in their character maps.

Description

Learners need an awareness of different perspectives to understand past events. The Café Conversation method helps learners practice vantage points by requiring them to represent a particular point of view in a small-group conversation. By participating in a conversation with people who represent other backgrounds and experiences, learners become more aware of the role that many factors play in developing one’s historical or political attitudes and perspectives. Use the Café Conversations activity as an assessment tool or to prepare learners to write an essay about a specific past event.

Implementation

1. Prepare Personalities and Topic for Conversation: Select five to ten “personalities” that reflect the various political attitudes and backgrounds during the period of history you are studying. The individuals you select to represent different attitudes can be real people or aggregates of real people. For every personality, create a brief biography that contains information such as gender, age, family status, occupation, education level, and significant life events. Next, select an issue or event applicable to the period that you want all of these personalities to discuss. For instance, they can consider whom they will vote for in an upcoming election, or they may explain how war is affecting their lives.
2. Learners Prepare for Conversation: Assign each learner a particular personality to represent. Give learners the applicable background information or biography to read. Once they read this background information, you may have learners create an identity chart for their character. Then ask learners to hypothesize how this person would feel about the situation,  the question, or event they will be discussing during the Café Conversation. Often, instructors have learners work on this step in small groups with other learners who have been given the same person to represent in the discussion. To ensure that learners accurately represent their person’s point of view, before the Café Conversation begins, you may review a worksheet that learners are required to complete or have a brief check-in with groups.
3. The Café Conversation: During the Café Conversation, learners represent their assigned personality in a discussion about the assigned topic. The conversation must begin with learners introducing themselves. Then one member announces the conversation starter. It can be as simple as, “So I heard that ___ is happening. What do you think about this?” Conversations typically last at least 20 minutes, but they can run much longer. Before beginning these conversations, it is essential to go over the instructions about how to disagree courteously and stay on topic. Here are two main ways you can format Café Conversations:
   • Jigsaw: Divide the learners into groups so that each group has learners representing various personalities. Many Café Conversations will be occurring concurrently. If one group finishes early, you can let them go around the room and listen to the conversations other groups are having.
   • Fishbowl: Make a circle of chairs in the center of the room. The number of chairs must represent the number of assigned personalities. Invite one member from each group to join the conversation. The rest of the class watches the conversation. At certain moments, you can announce “Switch,” meaning that another group member replaces a learner in the “fishbowl.” Or you can allow learners to “tap” a group member on the muster when they want a turn to speak.
4. Learners Reflect in Journals: After the Café Conversations have wrapped up, ask learners to compose a journal entry reflecting on their experience. Possible journal entry prompts include:
   • How do you think your character felt hearing these various perspectives?
   • How did it feel for you to participate in the Café Conversation? During what part of the conversation, did you feel most comfortable? Least comfortable? Why do you think that is?
   • What did you learn about this moment in history from participating in this activity?
   • What did you learn about yourself or about human behavior from participating in this activity?
5. Debrief: Allow learners to debrief this activity. You could convene a class discussion, starting with the question, “What did you learn from this activity?”

Modifications

1. Add a Research Component: Assign a historical figure and have learners research this person’s background. It is helpful to provide learners with guidelines, such as a list of questions that outline the information you expect them to find. Learners can complete this research independently or in small groups.
2. Literature-Based Café: Instead of focusing on personalities in a specific period, you can format it around characters from a novel or from stories you have read. The focus of the conversation could be a situation or event from a book, or it can be a question related to human nature.

Description

“Who am I?” is a question on the minds of many teenagers. This activity helps learners clarify essential elements of their identities by writing a poem about themselves or a historical or literary figure. Bio-poems help learners get beyond the aspects of personality that are often more obvious by asking them to focus on factors that shape identities, such as experiences, relationships, hopes, and interests. By providing a structure for learners to think more critically about an individual’s traits, skills, and character, bio-poems are a way for learners to demonstrate what they know about historical or literary figures. Having learners share their bio-poems is a great way to build peer relationships and foster a cohesive classroom community.

Implementation

1. Prepare: Select the focus of the bio-poem. Learners typically write bio-poems about themselves, but the poems can also be written about historical or literary figures. You can assign learners a specific individual to use as the focus of the bio-poem, or you can allow learners to select an individual applicable to the current unit of study. Select what you want to be included in the bio-poem.
2. Learners Brainstorm: Before they begin writing, it is helpful to allow learners to brainstorm ideas they may include.
3. Learners Write Their Poems: Explain the format of a bio-poem to your learners. You can also share a sample bio-poem.
4. Learners Share Poems: There are many ways that learners can present their bio-poems. They could post them around the room as part of a gallery walk, for instance, or share them with a partner. Or you may want to try one of these sharing strategies:
   • Learners can present their bio-poems to the whole class. Each reader is assigned a “responder.” After the bio-poem is read, the responder has to comment about something that they thought was interesting or surprising.
   • Ask learners to pass their poems to their neighbors. Give time for a thorough reading. Have learners silently write comments or questions in the margin. Every three to five minutes, have learners pass the poems on to the next person. Repeat as time allows. At the end of the allotted time, learners must have a poem filled with comments and questions. Be sure to remind learners about expectations for appropriate feedback.

Description

The character charts method involves using graphic organizers to help learners organize information about characters in a story. Completed character charts are useful tools for studying for exams. They’re often used to record information about literary characters.

Implementation

1. Decide the Learning Outcome of Character Charts: There are many reasons to have learners utilize character charts. Here are some:
   • To help learners more deeply understand characters in a story or novel.
   • To help learners master the skill of looking for content evidence.
   • To ensure accountability.
   • To help learners prepare for an essay or project.
   • As a tool to measure learners’ comprehension of the content.
2. Prepare the Chart: Which characters would you like learners to focus on? What information would you want learners to track? Must learners track multiple characters or follow one character?
3. Structure of the Character Chart Activity: Learners can work on character charts individually or in small groups. Often, instructors, have learners share information on character charts using the Jigsaw teaching method. Sometimes, learners complete charts as a whole-class activity. Maybe you can organize this activity as a gallery walk, where a sheet for each character is posted on the wall, and learners walk around the room filling in information on the various charts.