The United States declared independence in 1776, and we celebrate it on July 4th every year. But the land areas that make up the United States today weren't necessarily the same as they were back then. So I thought it would be interesting to create a map showing when each
Imagine students using an atlas equipped with annotation tools to create color-coded map labels that describe the hows and whys of inquiry-based learning. Consider a project asking students to identify the local, regional, or international origin of the food they eat. They could document each meal on an annotated map. Creating
Active (close, engaged) reading involves analyzing the meaning and context of new content. According to ASCD, the goal of close reading is to uncover many layers of meaning. But first students must grasp the functional meaning of each word and reference in the text. Writing centers at George Mason and many other universities offer
Too often both students and teachers overlook the tools that technology offers to assist in the active reading process. Online tools that streamline the challenging steps in close/active reading give teachers the opportunity to engage as coaches, helping students to explore the layers of meaning in a text. For instance, try Explore!
Did you know Explore! Primary Sources has over 250 original text and audio resources? Presented in an online lesson format with historical context and comprehension questions, these primary sources encourage active reading and analysis. The collection, provided for free along with all of the resources from Curriculum Pathways, stretches across four centuries.
Tap into student interest in athletic competitions with these sports themed lessons. Creating and Annotating Maps Our Interactive Atlas (also available in Spanish) is a great tool for project-based learning. Using our map and annotation tools, students demonstrate mastery of content while engaging their research and writing skills. Consider the following sports related activities:
Hey NCSS 2017 attendees! Don't let STEM classes have all the fun. It is time to add some sizzle to the challenging critical thinking task outlined in the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. Explore: Primary Sources offers a collection of over 250 FREE text and audio resources
The world’s largest and most comprehensive social studies professional development conference is NCSS. This year's gathering of teaching professionals from across the country offers a perfect opportunity to showcase the latest FREE online social studies lessons from Curriculum Pathways. It offers 600+ free social studies tools and resources, each addressing the enhanced rigor and critical
Editor's Note: Justin Allar teaches social studies at Clay-Battelle Middle/High School in Blackville, West Virginia. In this guest post, he describes how Curriculum Pathways resources meet the critical-thinking needs of his social studies students. This is the second in a series of blog posts written by West Virginia educators sharing how they have integrated digital content
Labor Day is somewhat of a lost holiday. We enjoy the long weekend, but its significance is a bit muddled. This is particularly true for students. Essentially, Labor Day is just a Monday off that helps to break up the start of the school year. Curriculum Pathways social studies resources
The popular flipped classroom approach features students watching a teacher’s video lecture at home and working on practice problems in class. We want to stretch that model by giving students online tools that streamline the challenging steps in the close reading process. Following the case study approach used in Curriculum
Want an overview of how to create HyperDocs for both individual lessons and units? At ISTE 2017, we'll use the Understanding by Design process to explore free online content resources designed to challenge critical thinking skills. For example, we’ll listen to the primary-source audiotapes of President Kennedy negotiating the 1962 integration of
The 250+ document-based lessons in Explore: Primary Sources have a new feature! You probably knew that this rich collection of historically contextualized primary sources (many with audio and images) spans four centuries and provides comprehension questions to encourage active reading and analysis. And you no doubt also knew that the collection
The English language arts team is having so much fun with Buried Treasures, I've decided to unearth one of the lesser-known but fantastic features of the Interactive Atlas: the printable Map Library. First, a bit of background. In developing the Interactive Atlas, we looked at how social studies teachers—particularly in the middle
A recent issue of Astronomy magazine mentioned Kepler's third law of planetary motion, which states "the square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the Sun" (Astronomy, Dec 2016, p. 17). The article included a graph (shown at the right) that shows
After a summer of working with Curriculum Pathways, my list of awesome EdTech resources has grown considerably. As all teachers know, one of the best ways to add tools to our toolboxes comes from time with our peers, time to explore and plan--both of which are in short supply during
If a picture is worth 1000 words, then the layers of nuance and meaning in a political cartoon (often with some strategically placed text) must be worth at least 10,000. Those primary source text documents we love to throw at students are great, but political cartoons can offer a change
Bedtime stories and Disney movies are great, but how do you get young readers to start embracing nonfiction, historical fiction, or even primary sources? And how should parents and educators introduce them to these new genres? Explore! Primary Sources is the brand new repository of original text and audio, provided
My social studies teacher, Mrs. Rupert, had a favorite response to sleepy, disengaged students: "Not to decide ... is to decide." Turns out it is a quote from Harvard Professor Harvey Cox, but she adopted it as her mantra. Back in the 1980s in western Pennsylvania, disco and Reaganomics were the
The groundbreaking popularity of Hamilton: An American Musical serves to remind educators of music's powerful role in learning. Songs often enhance learning with infectious, foot-tapping messages that merge with the beating of our hearts and pumping of our blood to engage a wider spectrum of the brain. But how does
When students need a quick introduction to a new social studies topic, or an engaging online activity that won’t take the entire class period to finish, I call it a "Goldilocks” moment: are there online resources out there that are not too small (in substance) and not too big (in
Explore! Primary Sources is the brand new repository of over 250 original text and audio, provided with historical context and comprehension questions to encourage active reading and analysis. The primary-source collection stretches across four centuries. It includes founding documents, Constitutional amendments, speeches, letters, patriotic songs, personal letters, Oval Office conversations,
Why is the history of women singled out and celebrated with Women's History Month? Dr. Myra Pollack Sadker, a pioneer researcher who documented gender bias in American schools, summed it up well when she noted that “each time a girl opens a book and reads a womanless history, she learns
As you celebrate Women’s History Month, consider the prescient advice Abigail Adams gave to her husband John. She could have saved us all that time getting the 19th Amendment passed. “I long to hear that you have declared an independency—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which
In honor of Black History Month, let’s showcase a few African American mathematicians who have made their mark in the teaching profession. Elbert Frank Cox (1895-1969) was the first black person in the world to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics. In 1917, Cox earned his undergraduate degree from the University of
Historian Carter G. Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. In 1915 he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), to promote the scientific study of black life and history.
It’s the time of year that festive fêtes and seasonal soirees fill calendars. But, as any host or hostess knows, planning and executing a party is hard work. Preparations can stretch weeks as every facet of location, decoration, food, and entertainment is considered – all to ensure a memorable time
Although I currently work as a statistician, my original training was in mathematics. In many mathematical fields there is a result that is so profound that it earns the name "The Fundamental Theorem of [Topic Area]." A fundamental theorem is a deep (often surprising) result that connects two or more
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are all the rage today. Some people see free online courses as a convenient way to introduce statistical concepts to tens of thousands of students who would not otherwise have an opportunity to learn about data analysis. Whereas 2013 is the International Year of Statistics,
In this International Year of Statistics, I'd like to describe the major role of statistics in public health advances. In our modern society, it is sometimes difficult to recall the huge advances in health and medicine in the 20th century. To name a few: penicillin was discovered in 1928, risk
