Artifact Bag

I created an Artifact Bag on the Northwest Passage to be used in a 5th grade classroom. 

The artifacts : 

How do you make them look old?

I used this website for ideas

An artifact bag is a great way to engage students and make learning fun. Artifact bags are hands on and can be used for many topics related to social studies. This activity actively engages students reading, writing, and researching the questions that arose from the artifacts. Students work individually and together which creates a meaningful learning experience. Students will demonstrate cognitive comprehension, show a motivation for learning, be knowledge driven, and engage in relevant social interaction. 

The teacher must first model the lesson for her students. The teacher should use an artifact that does not relate to the artifacts the students will be researching. The teacher should share her thought process out loud to model the questions that students should be asking. 

My professor modeled the artifact bag activity by making artifact bags for our class and having us work together to analyze and understand the artifacts. 

Here is what we found

Cooperative Learning Henry Hudson Rap

Click here to see the rap

One of the groups for our cooperative learning lesson was given the assignment to create a rap about Henry Hudson.

This group worked together using the 5 elements of cooperative learning (Listed below) to create their rap!

Cooperative Learning is made up of 5 elements:

1. Positive Interdependence
-"We sink or swim together"
-Students are linked together so that one cannot succeed unless the group succeeds.

2. Promotive Interaction 

-Face-to-face interaction 

-Students must help each other and share recourses 

-They explain what they know and teach their classmates 

3. Individual and Group Accountability 

Individual Accountability

-Students are individually responsible for a certain part 

-The purpose is to make each group member stronger as an individual 

-Group members take responsibility for their work and shares their work with the rest of the group

Group Accountability 

-Group members are responsible for the work of their group mates 

-Team members hold each other accountable for their work and sharing their work  

4. Interpersonal Skills 

-Help each other achieve the common goal 

-Maintain positive working relationships 

5. Group Processing 

-Reflect on the groups's work 

-Reflect on interactions with each other 

Current Events

Melissa and I gave a presentation to our classmates on how to teach current events through fact and opinion.

Here's the link to our powerpoint!

Fact-
*Something that truly exists or happens
*A true piece of information

Opinion- 
*A brief, judgement, or way of thinking about something

How do you teach with fact and opinion? 

1. Give the students an article

2. Have the students read the article

3. Instruct student's to underline the facts and circle the opinions

You can model this for your students! 

Click here to read the article

Melissa and I used this article to demonstrate fact and opinion. This article is from the website Newsela which has hundreds of current events articles and the difficulty can be changed to allow for students to read at their level. We read sentences from the article out loud and asked our peers to tell us whether the statement was a fact or opinion. Newsela has an awesome feature where you can highlight text in different colors. For our demonstration we highlighted opinions in yellow and facts in purple. 

Here is an example from the article of an opinion: 

Here is an example from the article of a fact: 

We had our classmates reflect on what they learned about teaching fact and opinion on Melissa's blog. 

Click here to see what they said!

Why Study History?

Developing a historical perspective helps children to answer questions like: 

Who am I? 

What happened in the past? 

How am I connected to those in the past? 

How has the world changed and how might it change in the future? 

How do our personal stories reflect varying points of view to inform contemporary ideas and actions? 

 (NCSS, 1994b, p. 22). 

In kindergarden children begin to solve questions about the community or school using pictures from past years. They also learn about the people with local buildings and streets are named after. In their school years, children will learn, chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research capabilities, and historical issues analysis and discussion making. From 5th grade on students become able to be formal operational thinkers so they are able to analyze data into graphs, charts, graphic organizers. They are also able to reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration. They are able to analyze cause and effect with multiple causes. 

The Bradley Commissions states that learning history is "vital for all citizens in a democracy, because it provides the only avenue we have to reach an understanding of ourselves and of our society, in relation to the human condition over time, and how some things change and others continue" (Bradley Commission, 1987, p. 5). History helps children to develop cognitive skills. 

Want to learn more?

Interdependence of Nations

Nations that are interdependent upon each other benefit by trading.

Why do Nations trade?
Nations trade because they have something that other nations want and need and they need other recourses from other nations.

Is trading always fair?
Some nations have an advantage by providing a product that other nations can't provide. Some nations may provide their good or service better, faster, or in larger amounts giving them a comparative advantage.

What can go wrong?
Some people want tariffs to stop importing certain products. Some nations put trade barriers in place which slows international trade. This effects nations that did not raise tariffs.

Trade issues bring international consequences such as owed salaries and poor working conditions. Students who look at this will also be looking at civic ideals and values, and time, continuity, and change.

How does our country feel about trade?
The U.S. supports free trade without tariffs.

Click here for a great website on teaching trade to children

Fieldwork Experience

Monday was the final day that my partner Melissa and I taught the 5th grade class. We did a direct instruction lesson where the children were given created assignments to create with their groups. It was really awesome to see the children enjoying the experience of working in groups and each group made their specific project their own. I really enjoy seeing children enjoy learning which is why I know that I have picked the right career for me. Teaching these 3 lessons was so much fun! I really enjoyed every minute of it and although it was stressful, I'd love to do it again. I can't even imagine what it will be like in the future where I get to do this everyday. It felt amazing to be up in front of the classroom and to see the students learning the information that we were teaching. I know that a lot of mistakes were made during our 3 lessons but that's all part of the process. You must make mistakes in order to learned. I learned so much from watching the other groups and then from the feedback of my professor as well as my fellow classmates. One of my classmates told me that I had a "teacher personality" which was a great compliment. I can't wait until I can be up in front of the classroom again, I am so happy I had this experience.

First Day!

Today was day one of three for teaching this 5th grade class. It was my first experience teaching a whole class. Today's lesson was a direct instruction lesson on Samuel De Champlain, Henry Hudson, The Pilgrims and the Puritans. I thought that the lesson went really well and that my partner and I did a great job. I was very proud of the both of us and I felt the children learned some new things. Speaking with Dr. Smirnova after our lesson was a little discouraging because I thought we did great, when in reality we made tons of mistakes. It's okay! We are learning and this is the best way to learn. Overall I loved it! It was so much fun being in front of a class and teaching them. I've always wanted to be a teacher and it is an amazing feeling when I teach young minds. Day two is on Friday. We will be teaching an inquiry lesson on the Pilgrims. I'm super excited to teach again!