Applying Historical Learning to Modern Day Slavery

Students in Grade 9 History are now working on a research project on slavery. The end goal is to use a historical perspective on effective measures that helped end slavery in the past to interpret modern day slavery and then raise awareness. Students will be working as historians and using their conclusions to serve the community with more informed action ideas.

The projects will be soon available online and we expect it will generate thinking and discussion in our community!

Visual Thinking Supports Learning in History

Mr. Hardwicke's History of the Americas class experienced a different approach to learning about the US colonies. They explored visual thinking to represent, share and discuss their independent learning. Rachel Smith, in a TEDxUFM called Drawing in Class, explains visual note-taking as a  way to make a story or thinking visible. The idea in the History of the Americas class was to use images, symbols and relationships to represent and discuss main ideas in the topic.

Visuals were created in small groups using PiktoChart Infographics and shared for feedback. The benefit of PiktoChart over handwritten visual notes was the easy access to a library of ready images.  During an oral feedback session, groups were able to explain their visual representations and compare with different peer interpretations, to help review their Infographic. Jackie Gerstein makes this type of process explicit in a blog post called "Where is the reflection in the learning process"  with the following quote: "Do we want learners to be receivers and transmitters of knowledge or critical consumers and producers of it?". This quote therefore calls for a change in the one way presentation of information, either by teachers or students, towards multiway critical interactions.

An example of a group's Infographic focused on the Political aspects of Puritans is seen below. The lock symbol was used as a link to more detailed information. You can click here to see the Infographic online. This work was a collaboration between Mr. Hardwicke and the HS Academic Technology Coordinator, Mrs Meneghini.

 

Students raise awareness about modern-day slavery

Grade 9 students from the History of the Americas class have explored their understanding of the history of slavery and the struggle to abolish it, to reflect on whether similar events, ideas and institutions may help us today in abolishing modern slavery.

The result of the students work was collected on a public site called STOP Slavery, that was created to help raise awareness about the issue. The site and the projects were based on organizations that fight slavery today, like CNN Freedom Project. The projects use different types of technology to convey student ideas based on research and they can be explored by regions (North, Central and South America) and also by type of change factors (people, events and movements).

Each project had to include information about both the history of slavery and today's slavery in the region, a connection between past and present and any resolution for change in modern-day slavery that is rooted in history.

Below you can see some examples of student work. This project was a collaboration between the Grade 9 History teachers, Ms LaFrance and Mr. Dwyer, and the HS Academic Technology Coordinator, Mrs. Meneghini.

Please visit the STOP Slavery site  and help spread the word about modern-day slavery!
Click HERE to access.

STOP Slavery site

IB History Bloggers: Writing for a Global Audience

Image from Mrs. Slater's IB History website
http://mail.sumner.wednet.edu/~bryan_slater/?OpenItemURL=S03E4D6FE

Check out the student blogs for Ms. Petersen's IB History course. Students are sharing their learning on one of five countries (Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria or Iraq), and they are explaining their thinking in clear and interesting ways. Ms. Petersen has also encouraged them to "be provocative" with their ideas.

Syrias Business by Constaniator by Tico
The Perks of Being a History Nerd by Mari
Saudi Arabia by Tess
History Joy: IRAN by Julia
History with the investigator by Na Yeon
Instant Israel by Alvaro
Beyond the Country by Rigel
Inside Israel by Eliana Keinan
All About Iran by Mariana
Iranland by Larissa
Learning about Lebanon by Jorge
Taking Interest in Iraq by Isa
Israel Minute by Kyle

 Below are the grading criteria:


2 entries for each category
• nature of the government
• domestic policies
• opposition
• dissent
• Recommendations for policies
Researched
• Entries use sources that are attributed and if
quoted cited correctly
• Sources are either primary or up-to-date
secondary from respected authorities in the
field or news sources
• Uses 2 books
Well-written and clear
• Entries clearly convey the learning gleaned
from each source and any concerns about
sources
Creative
• Graphs or stats for at least one entry.
• Telling pictures for each entry.
• Revealing or interesting quote for each entry
• Video/Podcast links for at least one entry.
• Use at least 2 books to help research your blog-
cite from them.
• Can use screencasts
• Well-designed, inviting to the reader

Google Earth for Learning in History

Google Earth is well known for its amazing satellite views. But it is also a very powerful learning tool, allowing a large variety of multimedia information associated with location. The IB HL History I students experienced Google Earth as a learning tool while preparing for a debate on the Treaty of Versailles. Their task was to redraw the map after WWI based on the perspectives of the different countries negotiating the Treaty: France, Great Britain and USA. While redrawing the map, students had to provide justifications for the new borders using Google Earth placemarks that included text, images, videos and links to resources. Students worked collaboratively at two different levels. At first, that happened within the group representing a negotiating country as they split up the work to create the new borders. Then, as groups shared their maps with each other, the students had to look into the perspectives of the different countries to be prepared for the negotiation.

The use of laptops to create the maps was seamlessly weaved into the group work, as they supported discussion of the issues involved. Also during the debate, as students sat together within specialist topic groups or within country groups, the laptops were secondary to the lively discussion, serving as tools for reference and recording. This can be seen at the video below which shows the creation of maps with justifications, then the maps themselves and finally the debate. The result of the debate is a formal position paper with the resolutions form the mock Treaty of Versailles.

This project explores the ICT Standards of Creativity-Innovation and Communication-Collaboration, being the result of collaboration between the IB History HL I teacher, Mr. Stephenson, and the Academic Technology Coordinator, Ms. Meneghini.