5 Active Classroom Activities to Help Your Students Build Critical Thinking Skills

My last post was about quality novels to teach in the American history classroom.

When I implement a novel study in social studies, there are a few activities that really work for me in terms of aiding student comprehension.

A recent conversation with a seven-year-old has given me a lot to think about.

When I first started teaching history, it was difficult for me to incorporate reading passages in a productive and interesting way.

I have wondered, especially this past year, why many Americans dislike their government because they think it intrudes on their freedom, and why many Mexicans and Latin Americans mistrust their governments because they think they are corrupt and abuse their power.

Teachers frequently offer students multiple ways to learn vocabulary: vocabulary cards, quizzes, drawing, matching activities, and even games.

The flipped classroom allows students to build background knowledge outside school, freeing up time for more hands-on learning in the classroom.

It’s not a stretch to say that Hispanic/Latino students have an ancestral background in the subjects we teach.

Few would argue with the importance of vocabulary knowledge in all school subjects.