2015 History Workshops and In-Service Opportunities
MOCHE Professional Development
The Missouri Council for History Education is launching a new initiative for K-12 social studies teachers designed to improve History Education in Missouri schools. Possible presentations are listed below. These can be refined to meet the needs of the teachers in your school or district. Presentations will be made by a two-person team, planned for either an entire professional development day or a half-day. Check on all that are of interest to you and provide contact information for the person who organizes professional development in your school or district. We will contact you soon.
Descriptions of the Professional Development Programs
Teaching the Common Core
Social Studies and Language Arts teachers share the responsibility to instruct students in meeting the Literacy Standards required by Missouri's Core Academic Standards. Constructing lessons that teach vital skills and processes through instruction in meaningful content is a challenge faced daily by history teachers. This workshop can help teachers meet this challenge. It can be planned for social studies or comm. arts teachers who seek practical, effective and coordinated instructional techniques focused on student expectations in alignment with the Common Core Standards.
Reading Like a Historian
Just because students can read does not mean they can read history in a meaningful way. Teachers of history need to instruct students in the required reading skills for history. This presentation will draw on the work of Sam Wineberg, Bob Bain, and Daisy Martin in teaching students to think and read like historians. While this may sound narrow, there are habits of mind gained from thinking and reading like historians that can benefit people pursuing all vocations.
Learning Specialist "On Call"
Determine the social studies skill(s) that are most challenging for your students and work with one of our learning specialists to determine teaching strategies tailored to their needs.
Learning to Write Like a Historian
Most of your students will not become historians, but all should be able to develop an opinion based on evidence, write an evidence-based persuasive essay and evaluate the source of that evidence. These are life-long skills that can be taught through good history lessons. This workshop will develop teaching strategies presented by Bob Bain at the 2011 MOCHE Annual Conference in St. Louis.
Instruction on Document-Based Essays for All Students
Advanced Placement teacher already instruct student for writing DBQs. In doing so, they address a number of the principles embodied in the Common Core. Instruction in the reading and writing skills necessary for writing quality DBQs can be adapted and useful for a wide range of students. This presentation will help teachers develop the necessary skills to do this.
Historian "On Call"
The content to be taught in a typical U.S. History class is often so extensive that the depth of knowledge needed to make a topic interesting and relevant eludes both teacher and student. You provide the topic and we will provide the historian to collaborate with you and your colleagues on what to teach and why.
Civil War in Missouri
Although Missouri is third on the list of states for number of violent confrontations during the Civil War, little is said about Missouri in the Civil War in commonly used texts and support materials. The presentation will offer information and strategies for infusing Missouri into your Civil War lessons.
Using the Past to Understand the Middle East Today
Events have antecedents. Making sense of the news from Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan and other key countries in the Middle East requires extensive knowledge of the history and cultures of the region. This workshop will help teachers focus on key concepts that need to be taught and recommend materials and strategies for that instruction.
What to Teach About China
Four thousand years of history involves far more than teachers can teach and students can learn in the instructional time available. This presentation will help teachers select the most significant information and concepts to be taught, provide a rationale for that learning and guide teachers to excellent resources to enhance their teaching about China.