TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jun 19, 2022
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
Open-Ended Social Studies - Thomas Kenning
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): 1600s (20), 1700s (36), 1800s (75), 20th century (62), american revolution (80), civil war (136), colonial america (93), colonization (20), gettysburg (15), gettysburg address (12), native americans (96), OER (43), washington (27), westward expansion (39)
In the Classroom
This site is an excellent addition to any middle or high school social studies curriculum. Bookmark this site to include with your other lesson resources. Use individual lessons to supplement your lessons through a new viewpoint since many of the tasks encourage students to think of history through the eyes of a traveler. Each lesson begins with a series of focus questions to keep in mind throughout the article. Engage students in learning and provide support for focusing on important information using Read Ahead, reviewed here. This handy tool lets you transform any text into a guided reading activity that highlights critical components of the text. As students collaborate on learning activities, enhance learning by using Notejoy, reviewed here, as a collaborative note-taking tool. Ask students to add the preview questions listed before the lesson and any other focus points, then share ideas and responses in Notejoy throughout the reading and discussions of the content. As a final learning extension, ask students to use Open-Ended Social Studies as a model for telling history through the eyes of a storyteller or from the perspective of one location. Use Vizzio, reviewed here, to create interactive timelines using animated maps. Include text descriptions, images, and videos as part of your interactive timelines.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Critical Thinking Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): critical thinking (120), media literacy (108), problem solving (225)
In the Classroom
Help your students to practice critical thinking skills using these engaging resources. Share these resources with your colleagues and school parents by emailing the page or sharing the link from your school web page and in your school newsletter.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Problem-Based Learning Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): Problem Based Learning (12), problem solving (225), STEM (287)
In the Classroom
Help your students to practice problem-solving skills using these engaging resources. Share these resources with your colleagues and school parents by emailing the page or sharing the link from your school web page and in your school newsletter.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Thinkalong - Conneticut Public
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): critical thinking (120), debate (42), inquiry (24), media literacy (108), news (228), persuasive writing (58), Research (85)
In the Classroom
Whether teaching in a classroom or online, scan the included PDF or Word documents into Google Classroom or your school student/teacher platform to share and assign to students. Enhance student learning by asking students to use highlighting and note-taking tools within their word document to provide documentation for their responses. To prepare students for Common Core Assessments on evidence and arguments, have them choose a popular topic, research it (with the materials provided) so they can provide evidence for their stance when writing about their opinion or to refute another's. The debate section is the perfect opportunity to teach students about countering an opposing opinion, deciding which is the strongest point, and then teach them how to address concerns of others in their writing or debate. For example, they can concede it is a valid point and then counter with another strong argument. Consider sharing the activities found on this site with your peers as a model for redesigning lessons you already use in your classroom (for online learning during absences and crises?). Use Padlet, reviewed here, to collaborate and share ideas, activities, and resources as you work toward incorporating inquiry lessons into your classrooms.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Big6 - Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): problem solving (225), teaching strategies (46)
In the Classroom
Share ideas from this site with peers as part of your professional development sessions. Consider creating a monthly building-wide schedule using the suggestions provided on the site. Include your ideas with parents through your website to teach them along with you and your students on methods for working through any type of decision. Use technology resources to reinforce and reflect upon the Big6 and Super3 decision-making processes. For example, use Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here to create digital posters for each of the strategies. Include suggestions on ways for students to be successful within each strategy. Provide resources for students to match strategies such as planning. Read Write Think, reviewed here, has a large number of student interactives including a Cube Creator, reviewed here, Book Cover Creator, reviewed here, and an Essay Map, reviewed here, that provides students assistance in planning writing assignments. As students learn about and become familiar with the Big6 and Super3 process, ask them to share their ideas and reflect upon learning using blogs created with Edublog, reviewed here. Have students share their knowledge with others using a video explainer tool like Google Slides, reviewed here. Be sure to share student reflections and explainers on your class website for parents and others to view!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Case Maker - Bean Creative
Grades
6 to 8tag(s): black history (130), civil rights (200), constitution (93), democracy (21), elections (82), freedom of speech (14), immigrants (34), immigration (68), inquiry (24), media literacy (108), politics (116), racism (79), Research (85), world war 2 (160)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free materials on this site to encourage debate and discussion within your current civics lessons and lessons on civil rights and racism. Introduce Case Maker by showing the class the student introductory video. Each lesson includes primary sources to use when responding to prompts; ask students to find and share additional primary sources to include in their response to each question. Instead of just creating a list of additional resources, engage students and augment classroom technology use by sharing additional resources using Padlet, reviewed here. Padlet offers features for adding comments; ask students to use this feature to indicate important information found on the document. Enhance learning by finding and sharing videos that support the topic being discussed. Use edpuzzle, reviewed here, to add comments and question prompts for students. Upon completing student projects, extend learning by having stidents share their thoughts through a podcast featuring students' challenge solutions. Be sure to include a group of students in each podcast featuring various points of view and their backup documentation. Try using Acast, reviewed here, to create student podcasts.Comments
Great variety of resources!Toni, , Grades: 5 - 8
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Project Look Sharp - Project Look Sharp, Ithaca College
Grades
K to 12tag(s): american revolution (80), climate change (93), critical thinking (120), environment (246), martin luther king (45), media literacy (108), middle east (49), nutrition (135), OER (43), presidents (136), russia (35), social media (53)
In the Classroom
Become acquainted with these free curriculum kits and lessons to integrate media literacy within content already taught in the classroom. As you teach lessons found on the site, incorporate technology to enhance learning and build student understanding by using Word Ahead, reviewed here, or WordSift, reviewed here, to introduce and develop vocabulary as a prereading strategy or older students can use either as they are reading. Incorporate images with annotations to help students understand "big picture" ideas using Image Annotator, reviewed here. For younger students create a Image Annotator as a class to add text, video, and more to images. Ask older students to create their own Image Annotator sharing information learned throughout your lessons. Be sure to share all of your images on your class website for students to view at any time. To transform classroom technology use and as a culminating activity, use a digital book creation tool like Book Creator, reviewed here, as an alternative assessment to quizzes or tests. Include student-created writing, Annotated images, and add videos with student commentary within each book. Be sure to provide students with your rubric to use as a guide before turning in digital books. Find many ideas for implementing rubrics for assessment along with examples and online tools at TeachersFirst Rubrics to the Rescue, reviewed here. Whether students work individually or in groups, be sure to share your new digital library related to your lesson topic with students to review and revisit at any time!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Media Literacy - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): critical thinking (120), cyberbullying (40), digital citizenship (89), evaluating sources (28), internet safety (112), media literacy (108), news (228), primary sources (119), professional development (403), social media (53)
In the Classroom
Today's messages come in many forms and literacy can no longer refer simply to the ability to read and write. Prepare your students to be literate citizens with this collection. Many are ideal for whole-group instruction, while others would work best on individual devices. Read the reviews to find classroom use ideas with each review. Although the list of tools is mainly geared towards grades 4-8, there are a few resources for the primary grades.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Extreme Event - Koshland Science Museum
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): critical thinking (120), disasters (37), earthquakes (45), floods (10), game based learning (183), hurricanes (32), logic (162), problem solving (225)
In the Classroom
Use the materials found on Extreme Event as a hands-on lesson in problem-solving, short and long term planning, and building community. Use an online tool such as Interactive Three Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast different strategies needed to solve problems in different crisis situations. Challenge students to create a brochure or newsletter sharing their findings. Are you integrating technology in your class? Instead of the traditional paper brochure, enhance student learning by using Marq, reviewed here, or if you are more experienced use Sway, reviewed here, and create a newsletter. If you complete this activity with different classes, share results from the different games as part of your discussions on your problem-solving decisions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Critical Thinking Puzzles - Eldhose Baby
Grades
8 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): logic (162), problem solving (225), puzzles (144)
In the Classroom
Bookmark and use Critical Thinking Puzzles in your classroom throughout the year for problem solving and logic activities. Have students or groups collect ideas and findings using Padlet, reviewed here. The Padlet application creates free online bulletin boards. If your students (or you) have trouble figuring out a solution, post the problem on your classroom bulletin board and revisit throughout the year. View the comments privately, to see if you can give your students "a clue." Why not post a "question of the week" on your class website, using a link to this page! Challenge your gifted students to create their own critical thinking puzzles to share with the class. Create an online book of puzzles using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. (Have them include the solutions in the back of the online book.)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quandary - Learning Games Network
Grades
3 to 9tag(s): creativity (92), critical thinking (120), ethics (21), game based learning (183), social and emotional learning (98)
In the Classroom
Try this activity on your interactive whiteboard (or projector). Create a quick poll (with no membership required) using Poll Everywhere, reviewed here, to view students' choices of actions to take throughout the game. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create videos using Adobe Creative Cloud Express Video Maker, reviewed here, explaining what they learned and sharing them on a site such as TeacherTube, reviewed here, to explain the decision-making process for different scenarios.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Thought Questions - Marc and Angel Hack Life
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): critical thinking (120), writing (323), writing prompts (60)
In the Classroom
This is the perfect site to start your students' day or end your day with them. Use these questions as writing prompts or quick writes. Penzu, reviewed here, is a quick and easy blog tool to replace paper and pencil and enhance learning. You may want to ask students to choose their favorite and form small groups to discuss their answers. Post some of the same questions on bulletin boards. Discussing or debating these questions would be a powerful community builder at the beginning of the year or when forming new small groups. To avoid the advertising, have your question on the screen before projecting it on your screen or whiteboard. If your class includes gifted students, they may react well to such thought-provokers. Encourage them to collect favorite prompts and responses in an "idea bin" such as Lino, reviewed here, to use at times when they are ahead of the class or need extra writing challenges.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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5 Minute Mystery - Mystery Competition, LLC
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): critical thinking (120), mysteries (20), reading comprehension (150), short stories (18)
In the Classroom
Use your projector or interactive whiteboard to show your students the directions for getting points by selecting the correct clues and solving the mystery. To begin with, as a class, read a mystery and discuss what the clues might be and whether they implicate or exonerate each suspect. Once the students have volunteered their ideas for which sentences are clues, submit them to see the score. The program will highlight the answers you should have had, if you got any wrong. Model for your students a discussion about why those are the correct answers and why the ones they submitted weren't. Eventually they can have this discussion by themselves in small groups. Those of you with multiple classes will want to create a league for each class. Eventually you can have small groups of students compete against each other by creating leagues. Have your students come to consensus about the clue sentences and who the real perpetrator is by voting using Tricider, or Vevox.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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