Habits of Mind

Hello Fellow Teachers,

Some of you may or may not be familiar with the term Habits of Mind.  Habits of Mind is a social studies instruction technique.  This technique is well described in the book "Reading Like a Historian" by Sam Wineburg, Daisy Martin and Chauncey Monte-Sano.  "Habits of Mind" requires students to use critical thinking skills and become investigators of history.  Students are asked to identify their sources as primary or secondary and to identify the perspective of the writer.  Primary sources are often introduced to students to investigate with guiding questions in cooperative learning groups.

I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Sam Wineburg with some of his Stanford colleagues.  This  resonated with my teaching heart and soul.  Since this was my first year teaching 4th grade Nebraska studies, I had a few opportunities to put this into practice but knew in the back of my mind I would be looking to expand this technique into my classroom.

Of course one of the problems is finding primary sources to fit your needs.  The world wide web can be helpful.  You can access many historical archives through the internet including The Library of Congress.  While taking Nebraska Land Trails class, I visited Homestead National Monument in Beatrice.  Low and Behold!!! They had designed an educational activity using primary sources.  This involved looking at claim and proving up documents by homesteaders in Nebraska.  Perfect for 4th grade Nebraska History!  Since they have easy access to these documents, the educational director has agreed to help me find case studies for my students.  I am just ELATED!

During my graduate class, each of us were asked to research and present on the west migration from a perspective of a particular group.  I choose Afro-Americans.  We had the opportunity to go to Nebraska History Museum Archives.  I had the wonderful opportunity to read a autobiography of
one of the first Afro-American homesteaders in Nebraska, Robert Anderson.  Robert was a slave, Civil War soldier, Buffalo Soldier, homesteader who lost, train worker, and finally successful homesteader in Western Nebraska.  His autobiography is titled, "From Slavery to Affluence".
I will definitely be using this in my classroom.  I created a Globster to use in my classroom.
So I will share it with you as well.  I can use this in many ways: overview of Afro-American perspective or jigsawing to cooperative groups.  There are many links to internet sources.

http://amheckman.edu.glogster.com/afro-americans-westward-migration/

Happy History!