1_1+Pre+Columbian+America

Welcome to the Wiki page for Era 1, Part 1!

The Mini-institute on this topic was held on February 11, 2011. The purpose of this wiki page is to allow those who attended the opportunity to pool resources and ideas gleaned from that institute. Feel free to post lesson plans, project ideas, or other ways that you have integrated the material or methods learned at this day's sessions into your classroom. What worked, or did not work? What materials have you discovered were most helpful? Or least helpful? What material (photos, documents, videos, etc) do you wish you had more of? And who has found some to recommend?

If you have never used a wiki before, do not worry. Most have not! Just click on the giant pencil icon that says "EDIT" to begin adding your contributions to this project. Do not forget that creating a classroom project based on these institutes, and being observed during the project, can all count towards the completion of your Professional Development Plan (PDP).

Below are embedded some poems written by Anderson County Students in response to some of the ideas presented in this session.

media type="custom" key="8974552" These poems were created by two fifth grade classes at Claxton Elementary School in Anderson County where I serve as Literacy Coach. After attending the workshop on Feb. 11, 2011, I returned to school and put together a series of lessons that inspired these poems. I used the primary source documents we have available thanks to Suzi Schmidt, our county's Social Studies curriculum specialist. We studied photos from the era of slavery and Reconstruction that included slaves working, beaten slaves, slaves being helped to freedom by Union soldiers, and more. We did a photo analysis activity in small groups similar to what we did at the workshop. I then shared the poem "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyons, which I found in a collection called __Naming the World__ by Nancie Atwell. After that I gave students similar directions to those we received at the workshop to use historical perspective and write as if trying to understand the perspective of a slave or former slave. These poems were the result. Students represent Mrs. Lucy VanCleve's class and Mr. Travis Webb's class at our school. Jo Ellen Frick