teaching the west and biography

TEACHING THE WEST AND BIOGRAPHY

Applying the content in our classes

Studying History

“History is not tidy. It contains conflicting narratives. Not all of the answers are known. Understanding requires active thinking. This is the brand of history that students want to inquire about, discover, and make their own.”

“History: Uncovering the Past Through Inquiry,” Kathleen Anderson Steeves.

Essential Question

Big Ideas

Disciplinary Concept

HI STORY

Topic specific Concepts Disciplinary

Concept Literature

Literacy Strategies

Teaching/LearningArchStrategies

Model developed by Kelly Long and Matt Downey, Drawing on Wiggins and McTighe, …

Overarching Understandings

assessments

Presentation Questions

After brief group discussion around topical questions:

What are the essential questions you might ask or answer after considering the topics we’ve encountered this week?

What “big ideas” have you gleaned from this week pertaining to the west, biography, gender, race and ethnicity?

Essential Questions for our Teaching

What are the large questions (overarching) that link this topic to others in a course?

What are the essential questions that students should be able to answer after study of this unit/topic?

How will you know they can answer those questions? In what ways can they show you what they know?

Essential Questions Is there such a thing as one true story about a

person’s life? How has the media helped to preserve and/or

create the sense of regional difference? What choices do biographers make and what

responsibility do they have to their reader? What is the relationship between the historical

reality of the west and the mythology of the west?

How do we balance the compelling aspects with the important story of a person’s life?

How is the perception of the western woman and the eastern woman different in the historical context?

Before Reading/Setting Learning in Motion

Anticipation Guide (a few short controversial statements with no

subordinate clauses) All women perform similar roles and social

tasks.Women exert influence primarily as the partner

to men.Women’s contributions to society are

overshadowed by men’s accomplishmentsCertain jobs are best done by women.Gender determines the roles people play in

society.

BKWL

Building background knowledgeinquiryphotos and imagesanticipation guidesshort excerptsbrief primary source documents

Chipeta “Quray’s Squaw” or “Queen of Utes”

Competing Interpretations

http://museumtrail.org/chipeta.asp

http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/lodo/chipeta.htm

http://chipeta.wordpress.com/

During Reading/Building Knowledge Phases

Use your own autobiography or a short biographical piece (Chipeta, Emily Griffith, Florence Roche, Sister Blandina …)

Interview another person about her/his past

Exchange autobiographies and “sources”Birth   

Education    Activities

Interpersonal relationships    Career goal

Working with Biography Instructions

Interview your partner Read their autobiography Add their source documents to your

collection of information (DO NOT explain the source document to your interviewer)

Write a short biography Give your written work back to your

partner for review Share out with the group the stories or

the process

Building Knowledge

What did you find most surprising in the account you read about this person?

In what ways was she similar to other people in her time and place?

In what ways was she unique and very different from others?

Is this a person you would pick as a friend and why?

Empathetic Writing Formats

Poetic response templatesWhere I Come FromI Am PoemBio poemCinquain

RAFT - Role, Audience, Format, Topic

After Reading/Extending the Learning

ChipetaWhat insights does her story offer about issues of race and immigration in the 19th century?Who were other important figures in her story?

Chief HosaChief QurayEvansPitkinMeekerAdams

After Reading/Extending the Learning

Emily Griffith -- Historical context Social Gospel Movement Jane Addams, Hull House Immigrant culture in America - -

Assimilation agenda City Beautiful Campaigns Social Darwinism

Extending the LearningDenver and other Places for map-based Inquiry

Central School Five Points Twenty-fourth Street School 1633 Humbolt Street 1521 Filmore Street Longfellow School 13th and Welton Capital Heights Presbyterian Church Fairmont Cemetery Kiwanis Club Colorado Education Association Number 9 Pearl Street – Denver Pinecliffe

Ideas for assessing knowledge

Create a FACEBOOK or MY Space profile Twitter your character for a week Make a calendar for a week in the life of

your character Fill in the personality head for a

biographical figure Design a Monument or a Stamp Write a Eulogy or Epitaph Venn Diagram

Resources for Educators

https://mollybrownteacherresources.pbworks.com