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| Sample Activities |
| Curriculum Goals: *Variety in curriculum. *Curriculum tailored to educational standards and multiple intelligences. *Incorporation of sensory details into curriculum. *Establish and encourage student engagement. *Curriculum will support a context in which to understand academic information. *Curriculum will establish relevance, relating past events and far off events to the events that make up students' daily lives. |
| Classroom activities: The following activities are a few examples of classroom activities which reflect how I put my curriculum goals into action. Please note that my classroom activities emphasize variety, engagement, and educational standards. Linguistic Activities: *Classroom Strategy: Review for Speed Explaination: students have cards spread out on their desks in front of them. Information that matches the cards is then projected in the front of the room and students sort the cards in order with the information in the front. This is repeated, each time in a different order, for a desired amount of time, or until the students feel comfortable. Objective: Review for Speed is a good memorization technique and engages the students by forcing all students to be directly involved with the content of the class. Note: the Review for Speed can also be modified by changing the information projected in the front. Using information that is not an exact match will help the students think critically about the terms spread out in front of them. *Linguistic Activity Example: Extension activity -- 1920's Slang Logical-Mathematical: *Classroom Strategy: Extension Activity -- Morse Code Explaination: students practice translating morse code from the code to paper, then from paper to code. Objective: an extension of the curriculum. Experiencing morse code will help the students humanize the curriculum content. Since extension activities are not directly found in the educational standards, extension activities should be done only when all necessary educational standards are accounted for within a given unit. *Logical-Mathematical Activity Example: Progressive Policies Comparison Chart Bodily-Kinesthetic: *Classroom Strategy: Reenact Events / Settings Explaination: students stand, sit, or move in strategic places to symbolize past events or conditions. Example: a box is taped on the ground to show how "big" most 19th century apartments were in New York City. A number of students are then asked to sit or lay in the box. Students are then told this is the number of people who would be living in an area of that size. Objective: bodily-kinesthetic involvement. Such activities, when possible, are invaluable because they involve the students in many different ways. *Bodily-Kinesthetic Activity Example: Immigration Simulation Explaination: students play the parts of immigrants coming into the country. The rest of the students in the class are broken up into groups and play the part of the immigration boards deciding who gets into the country. Spatial: *Classroom Strategy: Create Cartoons Explaination: students are asked to create their own cartoons from past events. The cartoons should use multiple frames and tell a historical event accurately. Objective: students should visualize past events and directly engage and interpret historical knowledge. *Spatial Activity Example: Power Point Notes Musical: *Classroom Strategy: Power Point Notes with Music Explaination: Power Points are created that include historical music. Objective: involve the students, using an auditory medium. *Musical Activity Example: Internet Scavenger Search Interpersonal: *Classroom Strategy: Think-Pair-Share Explaination: students are asked a question, then given time to consider that question individually. Students then discuss their thoughts with a partner. Lastly, the groups of partners share their discussions with the rest of the class. Objective: Think-Pair-Share involves the students on many different levels. Students need to think critically about a question, then practice communication techniques to share their thoughts. *Interpersonal Activity Example: Class Debate -- AIDS in Africa Intrapersonal: *Classroom Strategy: Journal Entries Explaination: students are given a set amount of time to journal on a given topic. After journaling, students then share some of their responses and a short class discussion ensues. Objective: students are given time to consider their opinions and write them down. This strategy asks students to practice their writing skills, but the primary objective is that students are forced to commit their opinions to paper. When the short discussion follows, students are much more likely to share their opinions and thoughts if they are already committed. *Intrapersonal Activity Example: What's Your Political Compass? Explaination: a personal ideological survey. Students complete this survey in order to compare their own ideological opinions to other political concepts such as communism, democracy, dictatorship, capitalism, socialism, theocracy, etc. |