J​​​​John Miller​

I am a big supporter of making through the entire curriculum. This may seem like a no brainer but I would say 90% of history teachers do not make it entirely through the curriculum. I manage to do this by lecturing at a minimum and testing in bulk as few times as possible. 

 

I believe that as a history teacher the skills and concepts are much more important than the content. Therefore I lecture the literal minimum. Students are asked to take notes during lecture. At the end of the year if students looked at their completed notes, they would find the Essential Knowledge from the framework word for word. With the remaining time I able to have group work  and teach critical thinking skills, organization, and historiography. I have gone as far as to flirt with the flipped classroom method which I have done during COVID. Some of my lectures can be seen below. 

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I am a big fan of organization being modeled in the classroom. Students are responsible for a notebook that holds every page handed to them in a given year (typically 90-100 for WHI and 110-120 for USVA). A table of contents is kept and this becomes an important part of SOL review. 

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I am personally opposed to high stakes assessments, however, they are the reality of today and I believe I put the kids in the best position to pass. Instead of your typical 8-12 large units tests throughout the year. I model my four units off of the reporting categories and spend the same percentage of time (for the year) as percentage on the test blueprint. These four tests have been given on a platform called linkit for the past two years. This program mimics the setup of the SOL. The test will have 40 multiple choice, 10 drap and drop geography, and 5 IDS. The length of the test, while challenging, especially for SPED students, prepares them for the SOL.