Menus in the Classroom (and not the ones you order food from)

This week has been an interesting experiment. Shelby Acevedo did these "menus" in her classroom and it worked so well, that I decided to try it as well. I was looking for a fun project for World War II that could incorporate much of the new technology. In years past, I have done the typical poster project, an ABC's of World War 2, even had students create PhotoStories. While I got some interesting projects, each student only became knowledgeable on their own topic. So this year....menus. What are menus? Menus are a series of assignments that the students can choose to do. There is a list of several 2 point options, 5 point options, and 8 point options. Students could choose which activities they wanted to do as long as their options added up to 10 points.
The students have been working on these for a week doing everything from presentations on proganda during World War II on Google Apps, creating study flashcards on StudyStack, reading Night by Elie Wiesel to complete a book study on Ning, using BrainPop to study major events, or using the Wii to simulate the landing on the beaches of Normandy for D-Day.
By being able to give students all these options, we are able to reach so many more students. Not only the auditory or visual learners but also the tactile-kinesthetic. Students are able to have a sense of empowerment in their learning and choose what most interested them, while still reviewing the necessary material to pass the exam. Differentiation of the material becomes easy as students are able to choose what best supports their needs. Students today are bombarded with changing technology everyday and we must as educators find a way to tap into that knowledge, draw them into the classroom and have every student engaged, teaching them both the content (in this case, US History) but also the 21st century skills to succeed in the future. While technology may not always be the answer, it should be a tool in our toolbox that is readily available if needed.

The War of Centers and World War 2

Sorry there haven't been posts in a little while. The joy of starting a new semester has slowed down and at least for me, I have finally slowed down to take a breath. We begin the semester with a small review of the New Deal and then begin World War 2, which is what I was looking for because I was finally going to get to incorporate all of the components of the PTL grant. Here is a quick run down of my centers. (I only used 3 netbooks for this exercise)

Center 1: Europe at War.
Our kids like many others don't remember what they learned in the past, so I felt it was important to give them a quick recap of the world events that led to the outbreak of World War II. They were able to watch a video on the netbooks, read a primary source, and then answer questions.

Center 2: The Holocaust
Students were able to read an excerpt from The Book Thief and view pictures of the Holocaust and interpret what the pictures were. They also had to discuss why they thought no one stopped the Nazis before it was too late.

Center 3: Pearl Harbor
Students again watched a video from Discovery Education and then read primary sources to analyze reasons for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and then explain the consequences.

Center 4: American Propaganda:
Students received copies of 10 different propaganda posters and had to analyze them for message, feeling, and impact.

Center 5: Japanese Internment
Students viewed a video on Japanese internment and then had to discuss whether or not civil rights can be taken away during times of war.

Center 6: Wii: Battles for the Pacific
Students were able to play the History Channel's Battles of the Pacific to attempt to get a message to General MacArthur in the Phillipines. They had to fight Japanese soldiers to get through.

Positives:
All the students were very engaged in the lesson and asked lots of great questions.
Students were able to use a variety of mediums to learn material and were able to use multiple levels of Bloom's to gain the understanding needed.

Negatives:
Volume on the netbooks had to be adjusted so that all three videos could play at the same time without disrupting the others.
Centers took longer than expected. They were given 15 minutes for each, 20 would have been better.

All in all, it was a great experience. With the resources provided online (Library Resources) the research was easy and setting up the centers was relatively painless. Teachers are often scared of centers because they are concerned with the amount of planning and need from the students. I actually found these days to be a breeze because all the students were engaged in their centers and with the quick turnaround there was not a lot of "down time" so the students were always looking forward. Great experience in all.

Aside from that, this experience has been awesome as working with three other outstanding teachers, I have gotten so many ideas and we are all able to adapt each others ideas to suit our classroom.

Next up for me- menus where students get to choose what they will get to study (Thanks Shelby!!) more details to come...................