Back to school autobiography

The first few weeks of school is usually a blur of students adding and dropping, seating charts, interruptions by the intercom, etc etc.

It has always been our belief that the best way to navigate through these times is to get students excited about history. How do we do this? We’re so glad you asked!

History is merely a series of stories and no one likes stories more than kids. Whether it’s gossiping, talking about summer activities, excitement about upcoming events, kids are always telling stories. We try to get kids to understand that the school year will be spent on stories, it just so happens that most of them happened a long time.

We included for you an autobiography assignment that is ready to be used today. Let us know what you think!

Students as historians, back to school assignment

One of the greatest challenges that history teachers have is to make long-ago events relevant and interesting to 21st century students.

We’ve had a lot of success by beginning the year with a personal history assignment. We’ve done several versions of this lesson, sometimes having them write an autobiography as a way of understanding that history is merely a series of stories about the world, similar to their own lives. We’ve had them conduct an oral history interview with an elder they feel close to, in order to experience the process firsthand.

This time we are including a lesson that requires students to chose an event that has helped shaped who they are today, in order to differentiate significant moments in their own history.

For more classroom resources check out our catalog: http://multimedialearning.org/products.php

WWII Dr. Seuss Political Cartoon

Dr Seuss was a prolific artist and due to his children’s books is a wonderful cartoonist to use in the classroom during WWII.

His images feel familiar which put even the most unsure students at ease in analyzing political cartoons.

We have included a copy of his famous ostrich cartoon along with questions and answers.

For more on WWII check out our resources:

US History PowerPoints

• Causes of World War II
• World War II

World History PowerPoints

• Europe Between The Wars
• World War II

Check out our simulation games:

• Causes of World War II: Part 1
• Causes of World War II: Part 2
• Causes of World War II: Part 3

Foreign born American residents in history

We have included a chart that depicts the number of foreign-born residents in the United States from 1900-1990 along with questions and answers.

If you are looking for more information on this topic, please check out our Immigration and Urbanization PowerPoint.