Making History Mine Overview

I originally thought Making History Mine: Meaningful Connections for Grades 5-9 by Sarah Cooper focused on current events since I found out about it because of a conversation on the topic that also featured Kelly Gallagher's new Article of the Week video. When I received the book I was even more thrilled that it offered tips of integrating current events and so much more. Right now the full book is available to browse on-line on the Stenhouse website.

In my current position I will be teaching reading, writing, and social studies to middle schoolers. While I have a lot of experience and training with literacy and language learning, I have not had as much exposure to social studies education even though I always loved history. Earlier this year I started looking at my state's social studies curriculum maps for 6th-8th grade, and this summer I started more in depth planning to narrow down the standards to power standards and develop guiding questions and big ideas. Recent staff development helped me refine this process.

I still have a lot more work to do before school starts in the fall, so Cooper's book came at an opportune time and it is a perfect fit for the planning process that my school is already going through. Cooper explains, "The best answer I have found is to teach under the shelter of broad themes and global concepts, conveying ideas that connect content across topics and grade levels. With this approach, students are not focusing on the tiny details of history, although facts remain crucial to effective argumentation. Instead, adolescents see history through the eyes of individuals and then move outward to larger implications and patterns" (xi). By planning my 6-8 grade curriculum in such a manner I will have a scope and sequence that builds upon and supports the big ideas from one year to another. I will also be working with the 4/5th grade teachers to vertically align with them as well.

Making History Mine thoroughly explains seven components that Cooper thinks are conductive to creating students who think like historians and gain life-long lessons through the social studies content. I have too much excitement about this book to limit my reflections to just one post (it would get way too long), so watch back later in the week to see more thoughts on this great resource.