The Columbian Exchange
Two Frameworks
Why You Should Read The Rest:
As you would expect, the Columbian Exchange dominates Unit 1 of the American History I curriculum. What you might not expect, is that NCDPI has a really great methodology and resources for teaching it. The two frameworks described below can be widely applied to the study of history and the social studies.
The PERSIA Graphic Organizer:
Teach the Strands:
When you navigate to the page (linked above), go ahead and skip down to page 28 to see the beginning of the HS section. Beginning here you are going to find all you need for two, three, or even four very high level lessons (days depend on the nature of how students demonstrate learning).
Varied levels of guided questions are provided allowing you to differentiate within and between classes without additional planning time. Vetted hyperlinks appear on page 29 titled "Resources" and the content is sufficient (with reasonable student effort and skill at navigating web content) to complete the work.
Teams of students collaborate to complete the elements of the PERSIA framework:
You can find that break down of the elements with greater elaboration on page 2 of the DPI Doc and see an example of a completed graphic organizer on page 30.
Once student groups have completed their PERSIA organizer; they answer the "Big" question you assigned their group siting specific evidence for support. Critical Thinking Questions 1 & 2 are awesome for you high flying students.
THE APPART Graphic Organizers:
Teach Critical Document Interpretation:
This resource instructs teacher in using the APPARTS graphic organizer to guide teams of students to critically interpret historical documents. DPI has provided 6 documents (5 of 6 are visual for weaker readers) with accompanying low level questions.
Once student teams complete the questions they are directed to complete the APPARTS organizer. This break down of the elements that make up APPARTS is taken from page 6 of the full DPI document.
When all groups are complete assign big questions (provided on page 37-38) as you did for the PERSIA framework and allow time for a gallery walk.
In an honor's level course, consider having a round table discussion in which team members assume the thoughts of the creator of their assigned document.
I see this as a great lesson but potentially a way to tackle many major parts of curriculum. I have been working on something very similar to the APPARTS structure for a lesson I want to try during the late Antebellum - early war period. I'll expound on that soon.
Thanks for reading...
Please email wherring@ncmcs.net if you want to contribute an article or resource!
