The fun part
Although many of my teaching methods classes appear to be utterly useless, I'm actually learning something in my History/Social Science class. Instead of a gazillion tiny projects due each week, we have a long-term project to build a two-week unit on an H/SS topic. I chose the transcontinental railroad, and I'm having a great time with this thing. I'm using eighth-grade standards which cover the political and financial implications of westward expansion and the physical, financial and economic factors in building a network of railroads. The transcontinental RR is also covered in elementary school and at that level they cover things like the ethnic make-up of the workers. I chose 8th grade because I've been doing my fieldwork in an eighth grade History class, so it seemed like it would be easier to "make it real."
Anyway, I've set up lessons to do things like:
Pretend you're an RR worker. Write a letter to your family describing the conditions.
Create an advertisement to bring in business along the RR route.
Transcontinental Railroad Monopoly with the properties being RR construction suppliers, RR lines and locations along the route.
If I ever get to actually teach this, it'll be great, but since most schools are cutting out history altogether in favor of the Mighty Standardized Test drilling, odds are short. A two-week unit is indulgent and most schools already have a curriculum set up, so no need to have the teacher actually create anything.
But it's fun to do as a methods class project.
Anyway, I've set up lessons to do things like:
Pretend you're an RR worker. Write a letter to your family describing the conditions.
Create an advertisement to bring in business along the RR route.
Transcontinental Railroad Monopoly with the properties being RR construction suppliers, RR lines and locations along the route.
If I ever get to actually teach this, it'll be great, but since most schools are cutting out history altogether in favor of the Mighty Standardized Test drilling, odds are short. A two-week unit is indulgent and most schools already have a curriculum set up, so no need to have the teacher actually create anything.
But it's fun to do as a methods class project.