Laura Halstied serves the K20 Educational and Community Center as a Social Studies Online Learning Writer. Halstied and the fellow instructional design team work to develop high-quality social studies curriculum for K12 schools that can be used in a face-to-face, hybrid, or fully online platforms that support the mission of the K20 Center and its projects. Halstied also develops social studies lessons aligned to the Oklahoma Academic Standards that is accessible for implementation by any teacher. Her mission is to create lessons that help students become informed citizens.
In this lesson, students will examine President Hoover's response to the Great Depression and how that affected the presidential election of 1932. Students will analyze videos, Great Depression slang, and a reading to determine the reasons that Hoover did not win reelection for president. Students will... Read more »
The Great Depression and President Hoover
This strategy involves analyzing and illustrating primary source documents or passages of text. Several primary sources or passages are given randomly to students. Students first analyze, then create an illustration. Students then analyze each primary source or passage and attempt to match the posted... Read more »
This strategy involves students' sharing thoughts and ideas on a topic while encouraging movement. Students are given the chance to listen to the opinions of their classmates and then to reflect on the value of listening and learning from different viewpoints. Read more »
Wakelet is a free platform that allows users to save, organize, present, and share content from the internet. Read more »
In this lesson, students will examine why the Cold War came to an end. Students view a video with footage from the fall of the Berlin Wall, look for reasons the Cold War ended by analyzing data and Why-Lighting a reading, and extend their understanding by creating a pie chart in groups that detail the... Read more »
End of the Cold War
How can instructional strategies be modified and changed to fit classroom needs? In this interactive session, participants explore how the 3-2-1 instructional strategy is flexible enough to fit the needs of any content area. Read more »
Chemix is an educational app that allows for the creation of science lab diagrams for subjects like chemistry, biology, and physics. Read more »
Mercury Reader is a Chrome extension that removes advertisements from web pages to create a decluttered and distraction-free reading view. Read more »
In this lesson, students are introduced to the concept of federalism. Students will begin by analyzing statements about governmental power, then reading a short narrative to locate references to the government's role in our daily lives. Students will then watch a video about federalism, complete a graphic... Read more »
An Introduction to Federalism
In this lesson, students discuss and analyze the ways in which genetics and the environment play a role in human development. Students participate in a Four Corners activity, a Card Sort, and an article analysis, and then extend their learning by viewing a video about an experiment that separated triplets... Read more »
Nature vs. Nurture