The Schedule

Students are citizens of their classrooms, community and world. Civic dispositions are key to building successful communities. Explore how inquiry based learning and the investigation of primary sources can be used to teach, practice and evaluate civic behaviors with young learners. Investigating historical decision-makers, including, but not limited to, Kayashuta, Ona Judge, Justice John Marshall Harlan and Wilma Rudolph, can help students envision civic behaviors and empathize with the continued struggle to practice them. In this session, educators will learn four different strategies for integrating civic dispositions into existing curriculum units and everyday classroom routines. Educators will engage in inquiry, learn about relevant research, and be introduced to more than 20 free curriculum units for K-5 learners. By using Private i History Detectives materials, educators will think critically about what civic dispositions are necessary for building a better future.

Elementary, college, teacher training, administrators
U.S. history, civics/government, diversity issues, elementary issues, frameworks/assessment, multi-disciplinary

Power of "place" in student learning.  Like primary sources, primary "places" help students to relate in a personal way to events of the past and to promote a deeper understanding of history as a series of human events.  In exploring primary places, students are compelled to literally (and personally) envision historic events, as well as the actors and ideas at play therein, thereby promoting an individualized frame of reference for further student thinking and exploration.  Primary places - such as the Old State House, Old South Meeting House, Old North Church, and many others - can thus inspire students to richer civic education and engagement, and to more readily see themselves as present-day actors in the ongoing experiment that is democracy.  Importantly, this workshop will raise educators' awareness of the value, in the civic education context, of primary "spaces" within their own communities.  With this in mind, Old State, Old North, and Old South serve as examples of "primary" spaces, providing a jumping off point for the examination and discussion of civic spaces, generally, and their place of value in the context of teaching history, social studies, and civics.   RevSpaces will present this workshop in concert with Old North Illuminated and a consulting partner, The Civics Workshop.

Middle, high school
U.S. history, world history, literature

Given the post pandemic wellness issues facing teachers and school districts, one of the many concerns facing educators is the disinterest and what many teachers have stated as “entitled” students. How can we teach through this kind of environment?

For middle and high school teachers primarily, we recommend that an emphasis on civic values and civic behaviors can change student attitudes and create positive civic dispositions. Our workshop will focus on activities that you can use with your students that can lead directly in transforming your classroom from disinterest to active engagement and collaboration and respectful behavior. By understanding certain terminology, their intent, their interactive dependency, and the need for student participation, the classroom will become a learning atmosphere where your teaching and their learning can take place with smiles, effort, and cooperation. Furthermore, because we are social studies teachers, we will demonstrate that the purpose of government is based on the happiness of its people according to Aristotle, Cicero, John Adams, and others!

Come join us on this HAPPY journey!

In addition, we will inform you about FREE professional development for grade 4 through grade 8 teachers which will include a summer institute and follow up meetings. We can also discuss our recognized genuine assessment tool that gives students a real say in their learning.

Middle, high school, teacher training
Civics and government, character education

Workshop description coming soon!

The OER Project is a completely free, high-quality, comprehensive World History curriculum. But it’s more than that! OER Project offers a plethora of instructional tools and resources that can be used across the social studies disciplines. Reading? We got you. Writing? We got you! Skills for thinking like a historian? Oh, we definitely got you! This session is for secondary social studies educators looking to add additional items to their toolbox that promote student engagement, readiness, and achievement!

High school
World History, multi-disciplinary

Schools need to prepare learners for active participation in democracy, helping them build knowledge, hone skills, and cultivate attitudes and dispositions they can draw upon effectively in pursuit of authentic and civic goals. This holistic approach to civic development, which we call deeper civic learning, calls for the cultivation of civic knowledge, skills, and attitudes and dispositions, and it requires new thinking about assessment. What does credible evidence of deeper civic learning look like, and how can we gather it in ways that support learning and promote equity? Using our own grade 8 civics curriculum and assessment toolkit as an example, we propose that assessing deeper civic learning requires attention to three forms of alignment: 1) Alignment of the curriculum and assessment around core learning outcomes; 2) Alignment of learning methods with assessment methods; 3) Alignment of formative and summative assessment methods; and 4) Alignment of evidence of assessment validity with intended uses of assessments. We will conclude by presenting recommendations for the development of assessments for deeper civic learning, as well as by describing how to access and appropriately use our own assessment toolkit.

Middle, high school
Civics/government, frameworks/assessment

Can’t they just Google it? No! The age of deep fakes, untraceable AI and oversaturation of information, misinformation, and outright lies accepted as truth (especially via social media) has made it clear that teaching students to become critical thinkers, and critical consumers of information is more urgent than ever. This session, offered from the perspective of veteran secondary educators, as well as a curriculum director’s perspective, will focus on inquiry-driven pedagogy and project-based learning as levers for creating critical thinkers and consumers. We will explore practical strategies and resources such as those from iCivics, the Center for Civic Online Reasoning from SHEG, powerful databases such as InfoBase, and much more. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and to share their learning and will leave with resources and tips to effectively tackle this challenging area of our work.

Middle, high school, teacher training, administration
U.S. history, world history, civics/government, international studies

In the spring of 2018 North Andover High School in North Andover, MA created a History Learning Lab where students can learn and experience history through object based learning and lessons. The goal of the lab is to move the teaching of history away from a more traditional lecture, notes, worksheet approach and have students develop an excitement of learning history through objects, pictures, and other resources. Breaking down objects and learning historical thinking skills to put objects in historical context are more meaningful than simply hearing them in a lecture or reading about them in a textbook. The presentation will go over the history of object based learning and the rationale for the lab. We will then explore some of the ways we have integrated object based lessons into our curriculum. The objective of the presentation will be to show how object based learning and lessons can be used in a variety of classes. At the end of this presentation we hope that other teachers will see the value of object based learning and hopefully come away with some ideas or strategies that they can use in their classrooms.

Middle, high school, teacher training
U.S. history, world history, education issues, multi-disciplinary, museum education