 TCI eNews
October 2007
In this issue:
- Bert's Blog: How do you Tweak TCI Lessons?
- Classroom Spotlight: Pursuing American Ideals in High School
- History Alive! Reaches out to Challenged Students
- Funding Tips
- Join us at NCSS in San Diego, CA
Bert's Blog: How do you Tweak TCI Lessons?
 In his latest blog, Bert Bower, TCI's CEO
and founder, reflects on how TCI is different--we are the only major
publisher that creates lessons for teachers, by teachers. At TCI we
recognize the art form of teaching, and therefore encourage teachers to
modify TCI lessons. Learn about how we are developing our latest
program, Government Alive! Power, Politics, and You to ensure
that the lessons are flexible. If you want to learn even more details
about our leader's double-life (classroom teacher by day, TCI CEO and
President by night), read about his classroom modifications and decide
what you think. Bert asks, "Do you have any special adaptations to TCI
lessons that have made a difference in your classroom?" Join in the conversation and
share your insights. Bert wants to hear from you.
 Classroom
Spotlight: Pursuing American Ideals in High
School Last week TCI employees had the pleasure of spending the day in
Sheri Pavelka's classroom at San Pedro Senior High School. We checked in
with Sheri and her students about how her class was doing with TCI's new
high school program.
Some of the quotes from students include:
-
"You get to argue until
you figure out what really happened - all of us take
different notes on historical events based on how we see
it."
-
"We get to see what was happening from the
eyes of people like us - that were
there."
- "It's not like other classes
where you just listen to the teacher and have to memorize facts for the
test, we HAVE to talk and figure it out for ourselves."
In the spirit of this eNews edition
about modifying TCI lessons in your classroom, we asked Sheri how she
adapts History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals to better fit her
students' needs. Sheri discovered that Chapter 2: Defining and
Debating American's Founding Ideals needed a slight change for her
students. For the portion of the lesson in which students review placards
and write their observations on their handouts, Sheri found it worked
better to use the placards as digital transparencies and conduct a Visual
Discovery activity as a group.
For more fresh ideas on modifying TCI lessons
in the classroom, please visit the latest threads our four discussion
groups:
History Alive! Reaches out to Challenged
Students
By Cathy Hix, Guest Contributor
Teaching in a diverse school system, I often
have the opportunity to work with English language learners who have
exited from support classes. However, last year, in an effort to improve
state test scores, it was decided that our English language learners (ELL)
still in support programs would be placed in the general education
American Studies classes. Even as a veteran teacher, that caused me some
concern as my heterogeneous classes would include special education,
gifted, ELL, and average learners. Despite this challenge, I knew that I
had the History Alive! The United States program and was ready to
teach all these students.
My students responded enthusiastically to the
lessons. I implemented some support systems to help my challenged
learners. First, I hung a word wall in the room and posted and discussed
all important vocabulary. Then, I annotated and highlighted several
History Alive! The United States Student Editions to aid
challenged learners locate information. I took unit key concepts and
created a study guide that I distributed at the beginning of each unit.
Students were encouraged to use the study guide to create flash cards to
help them review. Most importantly, I worked with students to help make
the Interactive Student Notebook their learning tool. With the many
opportunities for the use of multiple intelligences in the notebook, my
challenged learners embraced these notebooks as their link to
learning.
On the spring state tests, only two of my
thirty challenged learners did not receive passing scores, but they missed
by only five points. On end of year surveys of what helped them learn best
in American Studies, my students' most frequent answers were the notebook
and the hands-on activities. Thanks to an array of engaging
strategies, I was able to use History Alive! to reach a multitude
of learners and help enthusiastic and engaged students be
successful.
Join us at NCSS in San Diego,
CA
We'll be at the annual NCSS conference in San
Diego, CA from November 30 to December 2. We'll be presenting two
preconference clinics on November 29th: History Alive! Making
History Your Students' Favorite Subject and History Alive! Pursuing
American Ideals. We are also sponsoring a new event at NCSS -
Students Doing Social Studies on December 1. See our upcoming events for a complete list of NCSS
sessions.
Want to do lunch? Come join us on Friday,
December 1 from noon to 2pm for an immersion into History Alive!
Pursuing American Ideals. Learn about the powerful writing elements
woven throughout this standards-based program and how you can teach
American History in an exciting and interactive way.
On Saturday, December 2 from noon to 2pm
we'll be hosting a Government Alive! luncheon. Come preview our
under-development high school program. You'll experience an immersion
lesson for Chapter 9: Public Opinion and the Media.
Both lunches require an RSVP to TCI. Call us
today at 800-497-6138, ext. 0 to arrange to attend one of
our lunches.
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