I always enjoy hearing from teachers giving their experiences straight from the classroom. The two women were very inspiring and demonstrated that all it takes is an idea and some collaboration to add something significant to the school year. The activity they described had so many dynamic elements to it, and I wonder if there could be some touch/movement activities incorporated to it. Perhaps adding an “acting” activity, or modeling the pilgrims’ ships and the Native Americans’ homes out of clay would have added another hands-on element.
I really like the idea of taking simple concept that needs to be taught and using the time allotted to create a fun, engaging activity. The content must be taught either way, why not take some extra planning to make it truly memorable and provide long lasting knowledge? On looking at a couple websites, there are so many ideas to draw from. For example a simple lesson about “What is a map” and “What is a globe” could be turned into “Which is better?” or “Do we still need paper maps?” Rather than just showing the students maps and globes, they are making and defending an opinion which will hopefully stick with them over time. I also liked how clearly the lessons are scaffolded, from explaining the basic concepts, to letting the students interact with artifacts and sources, discussing the question, and learning how to construct an argument. I feel like after one or two activities structured in this way, students will be already be much more comfortable with this type of analytical thinking.