history – Jonathan Keck

A Reflection on Assessment: My Journey through CEP813

At the heart of assessment is identifying what students know and don’t know and shaping classroom experiences to deepen student learning. I began CEP813 “Electronic Assessment for Teaching and Learning” with this fundamental view. Over the last several months, my understanding of assessments has deepened in exciting and frustrating ways. I began seeing assessments as […]

A Critical Evaluation of History Gamification

Dungeons and Dragons-style gameplay is a natural form that lends itself to the Twine platform. Immersive storytelling is compelling, especially when one gets to make their own choices on how the story unfolds. This is especially true of young learners tackling abstract concepts from hundreds of years ago as the discipline of history demands. I […]

Gamifying the History Classroom: A Black Death Choice Simulation

History class does not need to be boring, despite the stereotype in pop-culture. Indeed, who can forget the infamous scene from Farris Bueller’s Day Off and the cringe-worthy monotone economics lecture from Ben Stein? History does not need to be like this. One can still have depths of information, insight, and skill-development while having fun […]

ASSESSMENT CREATION AND CANVAS

Designing creative assessments and facilitating critical thinking through choice in the mode and expression of learning is fundamental to my approach in this assessment. I have been developing an assessment checklist to assist in designing learning experiences and assessments that align with these values. This assignment was designed for AP World History and World History […]

Formative Assessment Design 2.0: Building Students Toward a Better DBQ by Focusing on Image Analysis

Context and Purpose As I’ve written before, Document Based Question (DBQ) is critical for the Social Science student and provides the ultimate application of historical thinking and reasoning. It requires that students read various sources and understand them such that they can cobble together enough information from multiple sources to respond to a question. Ultimately, […]

Effectively Teaching Critical Thinking through Document Analysis: Formative Assessment, Backward Design, and the DBQ

The Document Based Question or DBQ is not often used in the average Social Science and History classroom. Advanced Placement (AP) classes use them as part of the learning and assessment process to prepare students for the AP Exam. Nevertheless, the average student and curriculum ought to use more DBQs however challenging they may be. […]

A PASSION FOR CREATIVE HISTORY TEACHING

Starting out as a teacher, I went right back to that which I had become accustomed. Throughout college, professors would assign reading and then in class would tell us about the text in two hour lectures. I loved it. I enjoyed reading. I enjoyed talking about history. And so did most of the other students […]

INQUIRY BASED LEARNING AND THE HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY CLASSROOM

The now iconic scene of the monotone economics teacher played by Ben Stein in Farris Bueller’s Day Off hilariously encapsulated the collective experience High Schoolers endured in a Social Science classroom—perhaps any class. The premise of the film strikes a chord with many students: school is boring, and we’d rather feign sickness than attend. As […]

FLIPGRID AND DYSGRAPHIA MODIFICATION

Flipgrid fever has struck many teachers. One need only check the hashtags #flipgridfever to catch a glimpse of the excitement. In the age of Snapchat, memes, and gifs, students can often feel disengaged with old-school handouts. Flipgrid is an app used on Microsoft, Apple, and Google products that allow teachers to create digital classrooms for […]

ASSESSING CREATIVITY: A REFLECTION ON GRADING MAKER PROJECTS

“How am I going to grade this?” That was the first thought that came to mind once the creative and fun designs lay on my desk. This was the first time I used a Design and Making activity in my AP World History class. I was so excited and eager to design and implement this […]