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Academic Proficiency
By:Alyssa Matz
In 7th- and 8th-grade Social Studies, students have been working on a variety of history fluency activities designed to help them quickly retrieve historical information and apply it to a variety of tasks. While fluency practice can sometimes be repetitive, we’ve created fun activities to start class with. These 4-5 minute activities are quick and help students strengthen essential skills, such as map making, chronological thinking, vocabulary building, and cause and effect reasoning. When students can quickly retrieve information, they have the capacity to apply it to more complex thinking.
Mapping Mondays-Students review major concepts of each unit as they recreate a map to tell the story of the settlement of the United States. We begin with the Old World and New World, identify reasons for European exploration and settlements in the Americas, identify and label important physical geography of the United States, and identify important events and draw their impact as we move West.
Timeline Tuesdays-Students use mnemonic devices, such as My Cat Just Vomited Purple Marshmallows (Magna Carta, Jamestown, Virginia, Plymouth, Massachusetts) to identify important events that led to changes in the colonists' thinking about government.
Word Wednesdays- Students use the alphabet to list as many unit-related words that start with the corresponding letter. ( Limited Government, Mayflower Compact, Salutary Neglect)
Test Prep Thursday-Test your knowledge! Students are given a content problem from any past units we’ve covered to see if they can quickly answer it.
Fun Day Friday- On Fridays, we play a game to review content covered for the week. A favorite is vocabulary charades; during each round, students have specific tasks. Round 1: students must describe the word; round 2: draw a picture to represent the word or idea; round 3: students may only use one word to describe the term or idea.
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