Presentation Strategies

           Political Cartoon

http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/21733
Political Cartoons are, I believe, a great primary source in order to get the feeling and “other” perspective during the time period. Already this year, using political cartoons I have witnessed those who are not normally interested in the class to be more engaged in their own learning via interpretation of the cartoon. It almost seems unimaginable not to use political cartoons in a history classroom.

                  Storyboard

https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/storyboard-teaching-strategy
The Storyboard is a great way of keeping students thinking about the main ideas of the unit. During the Revolutionary era there is a storyboard idea entitled, Road to Revolution, and the main points allowed students to truly see that the American Revolution was not only political, but had economic and social reasoning as well.

                                    Communication Strategies

                Four Corners

https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategy/four-corners 
Four Corners can be used in so many different ways. The best part is that once students are in their corner (rather the strongly disagree, disagree, agree, or strongly agrees) students have the opportunity to discuss their perspective with the group and then learn the rationale behind their classmates who chose a different corner/perspective.

             Graffiti Boards

https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/graffiti-boards
The Graffiti Boards can be difficult if the teacher does not have good classroom management skills. However, this is a great way for any kind of feedback. First, the teacher can see how the unit is going and ask students for ideas for the next unit or to even check in with students’ progress on the topic at hand (progress monitoring).

                                 Organization Strategies

                     Timeline

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/
strategy/strategy033.shtml
The fantastic idea behind the timeline is the fact that it can be broken into many different parts and ideas. First, you can have an economic timeline and then place it over a political timeline and have students compare the two. Secondly, there can just be one timeline where everything (political, economic, social, etc.) is listed on the one timeline to show students the chaos going on at the time. There are so many ideas behind the timeline; it can even be done via pictures that represent the idea.

                 Chunking

https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategy/chunking
Chunking is important in organizing text that may be difficult for students in order for them to make sense of it later. The importance of chunking is to allow the students to find the important connections between words and big ideas. This also allows students to sharpen their paraphrasing skills.

                 Interaction Strategies & Collaboration Strategies

   Simulation and Interactive

http://www.uen.org/7-12interactives/social_studies
.shtml#US
Allows students to become a part of the story. Interacting with a the website to discover more information and learn how events unfolded.

Project Bases Learning

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education
/k12/project-design/unit-plans/grade-index.html
What is great about this site is the way in which one can search for Project Based Learning ideas. Either by grade, subject, or in combination. Project Based Learning focuses on teaching in a way that students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.

                                    Collection Strategies

Finding Primary Sources

http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/history/resources/
pubs/usingprimarysources
The importance of primary sources in history cannot be described. Thus, having students understand how to evaluate sources is just as important. This site allows students to read articles that give step-by-step understanding and what makes primary sources valuable and relevant. The links provided on the page give even more insight for students.  

Document Analysis

https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/document-analysis-templates
The above site gives students a way to evaluate documents and their significance in history (rather primary or secondary). The site also focuses students’ attention on the author’s purpose, main ideas, etc.