1. Clues to W’s Unlocking and connecting standards to the historical narrative. Anthony Fitzpatrick The American Institute for History Education

2. Catch my Campaign Dr. Yohuru Williams & Anthony Fitzpatrick

3. What are Clues to W’s? Clues to W’s is an activity for your classroom that will allow students to practice using context clues and research skills to connect individuals, groups, events, places and other things in state standards to the larger historical narrative.

4. We are vexed with a problem - We have to find a way to teach the state standards, but the resources available to us rarely match up – causing a situation where there is some great history that we have to try to find a way to teach AND link it into the national narrative. It’s not only a problem for teachers, so let’s use our classrooms and students to tackle this problem.

5. How to use Clues to W’s in your classroom. There is planning and investment on the part of the teacher in the beginning of the year. But through careful planning – students will becoming active learners and historical detectives. Exposing students to the 5 w’s has always been a cornerstone in our classrooms. Let’s have the W’s leap off of the page and allow students to immerse themselves into history.

6. Step 1 Identify a broad theme or topic that you’ll be teaching in class – The First Contact – Comparing Native American Tribes – Colonial Life – The French and Indian War – The Declaration of Independence – American Revolution

7. Step 2 Take out your state standards. Identify names, places, events, dates from the standards that correlate to the broad topic or theme.

8. Are you “limited” by your standards? Of course not! – Those names, dates and places that don’t fit naturally into your lessons are great with this strategy. – How about those little boxes of information in your textbook? Artists, books, inventions etc.

9. Step 3 For everything you pull out – find a who, what when, where, why. – (for people – link the w’s to the overall event you that they are linked with in the standards) – For “Why?” – indicate this persons SPEC significance to local, state and national history

10. Step 4 Locate and reproduce a source that links the topic to the broad theme: – Newspaper article – Textbook excerpt – Political cartoon – Movie/ video – Literature – image

11. Step 5 Create a heuristic clue the will allow students to unlock the answers to the “W’s” – The “Why?” happens later. – You can supply some of the “W’s” to the students to provide some scaffolding.

12. Step 6 Students will then utilize the worksheet to unlock the clues. The correct answers serve as the passcode. The teacher will check their work and then give them access to the primary source document

13. Step 7 Students will use the primary source document to link the singular event to the larger historical narrative of local, state, national, and world themes.

14. Let’s walk through an example and then we can try our hand at this. The ocean blue became a major trade route between old and new when this explorer sought to bring honor to The Bull and his wife and attain the 3 G’s. Look into your “crystal ball” and help his three ships find his “paniola”. Crack the code and use the document to discuss the SPEC significance of this topic.

15. The Documents: A chart representing the Colombian Exchange. The route map for Christopher Columbus’s voyage. The primary source document.

16. The Columbian Exchange is the larger issue.

17. How could we approach Bleeding Kansas? Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858. At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state. As such, Bleeding Kansas was a proxy war between Northerners and Southerners over the issue of slavery in the United States. The term "Bleeding Kansas" was coined by Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune; the events it encompasses directly presaged the American Civil War.

18. Missouri Compromise Could I use this image to create a clue?

19. Your turn! I’ve included just a bit of help from your standards. Pick one and let’s practice developing clues!!

20. Think about what you already teach... Take a brief moment to consider your standards. Think about the curriculum you teach. What figures, places, events can you do this with? Any documents you can think of?

21. Let’s 2.0 it with 21 st Century Skills How can we use technology and collaboration to efficiently and effectively solve problems and produce a dynamite finished product?

22. Collaboration Split up the heuristic clues and assign a piece to one member of a group. Each student is responsible for their piece. They come together and unlock the primary source document and research the significance together.

23. Further Collaboration Have students create a Clue for W assignment for each other. They check the progress of the other student’s work. **This works better after you’ve modeled it.

24. 2.0 Have students use moodle or a wiki page to leave the clues. Students can submit their answers via the same process. The primary source can be password protected. What else can we do?

25. The Finished Product What do we want our students to do with this information? How will they present the SPEC significance? Standard Essay, Biography, Newspaper account, political cartoon. Anything else?

26. Questions, Comments, Suggestions? Are there any ways this activity can be modified? What elements would you use or not use? Could you enhance this or make it more grade- level appropriate? Any other scaffolding methods?

27. Thank You! Look in your state standards and use them to activate student learning! afitzpatrick@aihe.info BUT WAIT... THERE’S MORE!!

28. With A Trace Connecting local, state, national and world history by finding treasures in your Backyard and Big History Anthony Fitzpatrick Vice President of Professional Development Services The American Institute for History Education

29. Catch my Campaign Dr. Yohuru Williams & Anthony Fitzpatrick

30. Oh to relax amongst the treasures that surround us...

31. Clue’s to W’s goes Live! While similar to Clue’s to W’s in that we’ll be using heuristic clues to unlock key points and we’ll connect the singular event to it’s SPEC significance: With a Trace takes you and your students off of the page and into the history that surrounds them!

32. Investigate the world around you. We are surrounded by history in our daily and recreational lives. Why not take the things we encounter and begin to notice it and use it’s existence as a gateway into our history classrooms.

33. What Might We Find? The SPECters of the past. – YES – we’re going to explore the world to find what history left behind and connect it to what we’re already teaching in the classroom!!!

34. Examples: Statues Bridge names Markers Memorials Street names Artifacts in museums Buildings

35. Doing this in your classroom Step 1: Find one of the examples above. Step 2: Research its history to find its SPEC significance to local, state, national, or world history. (ideally there would be a link to a larger era or period in history beyond local history) Step 3: Create a heuristic clue that is similar to Clue’s for W’s (but now geographic location can play a bigger role!)

36. Example: As Old Saint John walked through a rich port colony; he noticed a woman following in the footsteps of Clara Barton on four wheels. Although there was no fuhrer over the soldiers she helped – her life was inspiring to many who have strolled by her waters. Who was this inspiration and what was the SPEC significance of the place and organization in history.

37. Chavin – Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

38. Text on the plaque: ALMOST TOTALLY PARALYZED SHE EXCELLED ACADEMICALLY, PERFORMED ATHETICALLY AND IN HER PRIME SWAM 40 POOL LAPS DAILY. DURING W.W. II, SHE MET HER LOVE IN THIS HUT, THEN A MILITARY CANTEEN, SERVING AS A VOLUNTEER RED CROSS HOSTESS FROM HER WHEELCHAIR. THEY WERE MARRIED AND HE NECESSARILY BECAME HER LIFELONG LIFEGUARD, PROTECTOR AND LOVER. MAY CHAVIN’S BEAUTY, INTELLIGENCE AND COURAGE BE AN INSPIRATIONAL LIGHT TO ALL. DONATED BY CHAVIN’S WIDOWER – 1983

39. Significance American Red Cross – the founder was Clara Barton. During WWII – Puerto Rico was still a US Colony. It provides a wonderful way to remind students of a past unit (sometimes called the age of American Imperialism)

40. Your Turn! Using this powerpoint and the document; create a clue for your students! I have included images from your standards and location and around the country!

41. Anteitam

42. Some basic content: The Battle of Antietam was the culmination of the Maryland Campaign of 1862, the first invasion of the North by Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. In Kentucky and Missouri, Southern armies were also advancing as the tide of war flowed north. After Lee’s dramatic victory at the Second Battle of Manassas during the last two days of August, he wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis that “we cannot afford to be idle.” Lee wanted to keep the offensive and secure Southern independence through victory in the North; influence the fall mid-term elections; obtain much needed supplies; move the war out of Virginia, possibly into Pennsylvania; and to liberate Maryland, a Union state, but a slave-holding border state divided in its sympathies.

43. Missouri

44. In your own backyard! N 25° 47.603 W 080° 11.560 17R E 580938 N 2853050 The front is inscribed 1861 - 1865 Our Heroes The back is Inscribed "Erected by The Southern Cross Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to all who wore the grey. It is a duty we owe to posterity To see that our children shall know Virtues and become worthy of their sire"

45. Implementation part 2 Use the clue as a warm-up, do now, anticipatory set or closure activity in your class. It serves as a natural tie in to an upcoming lesson. The key is to make sure there is an explanation using SPEC to find SPECifics and why this bit of history left behind is SPECial.

46. More ways to do this... If you have a student that goes on vacation or spends a weekend in a special place – Have them go on a search for these things and create a virtual scavenger hunt for their classmates. Or have them do the research and you create the clue. They can ditch the book and use their camera and ipod as learning tools!

47. 21 st Century Skills! Take a virtual field trip or have your students follow a scavenger hunt when your on a real trip. With GPS technology they can truly create some great scavenger hunts for future classes or their classmates

48. Use the most influential media out there... You (tube) – Teachertube! i (pod) Wiki sites, moodle

49. Extension Search for primary sources to validate the significance of the monument or marker. – This isn’t always easy – so I’d use this judiciously as an extension.

50. afitzpatrick@aihe.info