QUESTION: Global History Curriculum

[Jenny Osowski]

Question: Does anyone have good strategies on how to "slow down" the global curriculum and help kids to "go deeper" in their understanding of the course?

[Jeremy Greene]

Read Mike Schmoker, Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning.

IT is all about reading, writing and discussing more.

http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Authors/Mike-Schmoker.aspx?id=7726...

The Edweek server is often down, but I believe  the following link contains a book discussion:

www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2011/06/01/focus_bb.html

[Kimberly Hawks]

So I'm not 100% sure what you're looking for, but I do like how this website sets up their curriculum for worl history...it is more of a theme base so that you can dive deeper into certain areas. http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/

[Jenny Osowski]

Wow! What a fabulous site. Thanks for the tip.

[Jeremy Greene]

Also check out Heidi Roupp, Teaching World History in the 21st Century: A Resource Book - you can also check out my book discussion on H-world by searching the book title.

http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=Teaching+World+Hist... 

http://www.h-net.org/~world/

[Ryan Goble]

Jenny, have you thought about doing it thematically or as an interdisciplinary course with your language arts teachers?  I did this with my teachers in NYC and the kids really enjoyed it.  We also used a lot of graphic novels. You can ditch chronological instruction in favor of a theme (revolution, inequality, etc.) and have different groups of students become experts/teachers in different historical events within that theme. If you need theme ideas - check the ABC's of culture (listed here and here plus this poster). This NYT lesson plan gives some great examples on how you can use a theme to explore tons of historical periods - Revolt! Comparing Historical Revolutions

[Mary Fisher]

hi Jenny

I use a lot of primary and secondary sources when I teach a unit of work. Dates are great but they don't contribute anything to deep thinking; they just provide a time to "hang your hat" . Looking at sources makes students think in depth about what they are reading and seeing. go a little deeper however then just saying what do you see in this picture- ask them to think about how reliable the source is by considering who wrote it and what the purpose for writing it might have been, or to what extent does source 1 agree with source 2- I can provide an example if anyone wants one.

A technique I use with my younger students ( I teach history grades 8-12) is to propose a question or an answer and have them provide the questions: I recently completed a unit of work on the Black Death in Europe and I began the unit with : If the answer is the Black Death/plague what are the questions- my students loved the unit- we were able to get into the nitty gritty of the theme and I immediately knew what knowledge the students already had by the types of questions they wanted answers to.