January 23, 2025
Embedded Files
Breakfast and lunch will be provided!
Welcome to the Third Annual West Texas Social Studies Congress!
2025 Digital Program
The Education Service Center- Region 19 is proud to host the third annual West Texas Social Studies Congress. This year's slogan is Stories of the Past, Lessons for the Future: Elevating Literacy in Social Studies.
The Education Service Center- Region 19 is proud to host the third annual West Texas Social Studies Congress. This year's slogan is Stories of the Past, Lessons for the Future: Elevating Literacy in Social Studies.
Venue
Head Start Multipurpose Center
11670 Chito Samaniego Dr., El Paso, TX 79936
Program Schedule
Keynote Address
The Simplicity on the Other Side of Complexity: The Four Question Method and Historical Thinking Skills”
Social Studies teachers agree that we want students to actually think about the content they’re learning, but most of the tools that claim to help us do that don’t work very well. Lists of historical thinking skills are too long or too general to be useful to classroom teachers, and too often don’t make good intellectual sense. The Four Question Method is different. It respects the complexity of our disciplines, but boils social studies thinking down to four specific skills used to answer four specific questions. In their keynote address, Jon Bassett, Gary Shiffman and Renee Blackmon will demonstrate how 4QM creates “the simplicity on the other side of complexity” for both teachers and students.
Dr. Jon Bassett wanted to be a history teacher ever since he was in middle school. He began his career at a Catholic girls high school in the South Bronx (Saint Pius V), then spent over twenty years in the Boston suburbs, at Dover-Sherborn Regional High School and Newton North High School, where he served as chair of the history department and helped found the Newton Teacher Residency. In 2018 Jon returned to urban classrooms, and currently teaches world history at the Match Charter Public High School in Boston. Jon has taught students in grades nine through twelve and on every academic level, and has won two teaching awards. He has a B.A. in history from Columbia, an M.A.T. in history teaching from Brown, and an Ed.D. in curriculum and teaching from Boston University.
Renee Blackmon has been in the social studies educator community for over thirty years. She has experience as a teacher, instructional coach, and curriculum creator. She currently is enjoying the opportunity to learn through collaboration with her 4QM partners producing high quality social studies specific educational materials and training. When time allows she is usually quilting. When money permits she is often off on another travel adventure.
Dr. Gary Shiffman became a high school teacher at age 39. That summer he interned at Madison Park High School in Boston. In the fall, he began teaching 9th and 10th graders at Newton North High School, where Jon Bassett had hired him on a lark. He taught at Newton North for four years and then became Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator (a.k.a. department chair) at Brookline High School, where his two daughters, his wife (Class of ’80), and his friend Jon (Class of ’84) all attended. After seventeen years in that position, he stepped down to devote himself full time to spreading the word about the Four Question Method. Gary has a B.A. in Political Science from SUNY Binghamton, a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan, and is a former Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego.
From Story To Judgment is an overview of the Four Question Method, with practical advice about how to make it come to life in the classroom. Each chapter focuses on one of the Four Questions, and gives specific teaching examples from U.S. and world history. This is the foundational text for 4QM Teaching.
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