Final Chicago Blog

The Chicago adventure was great. I was concerned that even though I was building on my own knowledge that I would not be able to bring many things back to may classroom, but I was wrong. As we visited the sites I thought of many different ways that I could bring the topics back to my classroom. The hard part became which one I would choose to do my lesson on.

The easiest topic to bring into my classroom is Lincoln. I have several ideas to implement in my classroom from Dr. Sarah Marcus from the Presidential Museum. I will be able to use the different activities we completed with some modifications for my third graders.  The next easiest would be to look at works of art and bring out the historical story. This will help the students to start thinking about the topic we will start discussing a topic or to wind up the topic that had been discussed and to see what they can connect to the picture from what they learned. Thanks Jonathan for taking us to another art museum and providing us with an excellent guide. The next time I am in Wisconsin visiting I may take the train down and visit the museum again.  Frank Lloyd Wright and architecture would be another good way to compare cities how they are different and the same. I can also have the students look at the detailing on buildings and discuss what influence the design came from.

The hardest topic I thought would be progressivism but I found a small section on Jane Addams in my social studies book. The chapter called “People and Their Local Government” begins with a story about Hull House and Jane Addams and the first section in the chapter talks about leaders in the community using Addams as an example.  I was thinking that Pullman would be difficult to discuss but I was thinking I could probably discuss the differences between Pullman as an owned town versus that of a town that has elected officials and people own their own homes and businesses.

The only topic I am having problems fitting into my grade level is Hay Market Square but I found away to expose the students to the event in a book by Michael Burgan in the We The People series called The Haymarket Square Tragedy. I could have the students read the book in reading groups as we got close to the first of May.

I found the topics we covered on the trip to surprisingly to be introduced in tiny portions in my social studies textbook and the other things we covered can be easily added in different ways in other parts of my curriculum. My knowledge of these topics has increased greatly and I will be able to share this knowledge with my students as we cover these topics