The Time Traveler

With Thanksgiving break right around the corner, we wanted to drop a quick note to express our heartfelt gratitude for all your hard work this year. You guys rock!

We hope you take the time to kick back, relax, and enjoy some quality moments with your loved ones. You've earned it.

Our curriculum collaborations for the semester have wrapped up, and I must say, I am super excited with the progress thus far! Our primary objective with these collaborations was to craft meaningful and authentic performance tasks.

The Historical Thinking Task Force is gearing up for our second meeting. I can't wait to share these valuable insights with everyone.

A friendly reminder: make sure to submit your semester performance task template in the designated folder I shared by December 1st. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Using the book "Starting and Ending with Thinking in Social Studies", we have created one pagers to breakdown strategies focusing on Causation, Comparison, and Contextualization. All three will increase critical thinking and authentic engagement in the classroom .

Our mission is to collaboratively implement these practices into our UFD, fostering a dynamic and enriched learning experience for our students.

The Walnut Grove Honors World Geography team continues to focus their meetings on the importance tier one instruction and incorporating high-yield instructional strategies. Their goals this year is to increase student engagement and discussions about geography by incorporating writing, document analysis, and classroom dialogues.

Team Members: Hannah Cooper and Dave Ploog

The 7th Grade Texas History Team at Rushing is using UFDs to consistently focus their instruction around the Essential Standards and the Transfer Goals. The team creates authentic formative assessments to check on student understanding and then spirals in any misunderstandings during their next lesson.

Team Members: Shaina Styers, Collen Davidson, Jason Ford, Branson Clements, Mike Saccomanno

We are excited to shine a spotlight on exceptional collaborative teams across the district.

“The aim is to get the students actively involved in seeking evidence: their role is not simply to do tasks as decided by teachers, but to actively manage and understand their learning gains. This includes evaluating their own progress, being more responsible for their learning, and being involved with peers in learning together about gains in learning.” John Hattie

Teams across the district are using the Social Studies Playbook to get students engaged in the content and talking with their peers. Scroll down to see some amazing strategies in actions!

Hays 7th Grade Texas History students used dice dialogue as reteach activity for the causes of the Texas Revolution. Great discussion and collaboration!

Click here for the Dice Dialogue Instructional Strategy.

RHHS AP World History students took a deeper look on "How Barbaric are the Barbarians?" by using primary and secondary documents with the EKG Timeline Instructional Strategy.

Click here for the EKG Instructional Strategy.

6th Grade Reynolds used the Notice and Wonder strategy to have students analyze how Europe changed during World War I and World War II. Students did a gallery walk to look at different maps showing the boundary changes due to the conflict.

Click here for the Notice and Wonder Strategy

RHHS Government students used primary and secondary documents to determine if the Electoral College should be abolished. After document analysis, students had a chance to thrash out their opinions in a Philosophical Chairs Debate.

Click here for the Philosophical Chairs Instructional Strategy.

WGHS World Geography students did an alternative ending to a the "Is Brazil Wealthy?" by first analyzing documents and then participating in a Socratic Smackdown where they argued, defended, and justified their claim.

Click here for the Socratic Smackdown Instructional Strategy.

Hays 7th Grade Texas History students looked at four events leading up to the Texas Revolution to determine which one was MOST responsible for the Texas Revolution. Students used the Silent Debate strategy to record their evidence and arguments before discussing.

Click here for the Silent Debate Instructional Strategy.

RHHS AP Human Geography students participating in Speed Dating to determine countries would be a perfect match in their Population and Migration Unit.

Click here for the Speed Dating Instructional Strategy.

PHS World Geography students analyzed key events in Brazil's history and determined if the events brought end wealth or hindered it. Followed by discussion where they defended and justified their placement.

Click here for the Timeline with Attitude Instructional Strategy.

This month we added the following strategies!

• 3-2-1: To develop students' skills in map analysis, observation, inference, and summarization.
• Café Conversations (as seen on Oct 5th with Rachael Cummings): Students write responses; sketch visuals; write summaries on paper “tablecloths;” and roam to evaluate, add to, and discuss other’s ideas.

Social Studies C&I are working on fine tuning our Social Studies instructional playbook. We have created a short survey designed to understand how often you reference and implement the instructional playbook/strategies and how you access these resources.

Link to the Google Form Survey

The survey will only take a few minutes to complete, and your responses will remain confidential. Your honest feedback is incredibly important to us, and it will help us tailor the playbook to best serve teachers across the district.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey!

Interested in reading a book with bite size PD that can transform the classroom? "Small Moves, Big Gains: Teacher Habits That Help Kids to Talk More, Think More, and Achieve More" is perfect!

This resource provides educators with a clear and practical roadmap to enhance student outcomes. The book offers a collection of small, actionable strategies that demand minimal preparation, making them easily implementable in your classroom. These high-yield strategies are designed to benefit all types of learners across various content areas.

Want to try it out? We have created one-pagers that you can readily use to put these effective techniques into action!

Check Them Out Below:

• October 2023, September 2023, August 2023, May 2023, April 2023, March 2023, February 2023, January 2023; December 2022; November 2022; October 2022; September 2022; August 2022

If you need ANYTHING, please do not hesitate to reach out! We are here to support YOU!

Secondary Social Studies C&I

Andrea, Jessie and Mandy