If you are teaching, you are using videos. And the Minnesota Historical Society has a variety of videos available for you, to help you get familiar with their resources and be ready to share them with your students!
“Discover new teaching practices and refresh your pedagogy with these short videos aimed to give introductions to new or modernized teaching ideas, strategies, and social studies skills. Released monthly, the videos will range in topics such as introductions to primary source instruction to literacy practices in the social studies. Watch this page, Facebook, or subscribe to the e-Newsletter for new videos.”
Concept-Based Instruction
Concept-Based Instruction
Segment 1: What is Concept-Based Learning?
Concept-based learning helps students focus on “life’s big ideas” which are applicable to other situations. Learn why concept-based learning is important and how concepts differ from knowledge and skills.
Length: 9 min.
Presenter: Ryan Higbea
Concept-Based Instruction
Segment 2: Finding Concepts within Benchmarks
Learn a process to identify the concept within Minnesota social studies benchmarks and write a concept statement. Walk through three examples, making sure that each concept statement is “TAUT” (timeless, abstract, universal, and transferrable.)
Length: 5 min.
Presenter: Ryan Higbea
Concept-Based Instruction
Segment 3: When to Incorporate Concepts
Concepts should drive curriculum, instruction, and assesment. Walk through examples of a concept-based unit plan, lesson, and assessment that you can use in your classroom.
Length: 12 min.
Presenter: Ryan Higbea
There are also a lot of very interesting online resources available here. Here are a few of them:
 Listen to stories of immigrant and refugee groups, including Hmong, Khmer, Asian Indian, Somali and Tibetan. Explore these communities further through photographs, maps, timelines, and classroom activities. |
 Find primary and secondary sources about the Civil War, including collections items, documents, books, podcasts and more. |
 Letters from three brothers fighting in the Civil War. Digital images of some of the most interesting letters from the collection are online. Typed transcripts have been created to make the letters easier to read.
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 Search for photographs, three dimensional and archaeological objects, artwork, oral histories, moving images, maps, and more. A single search can display items across many of our collections. |
 Primary sources about the 1920 lynching of three young black men in Duluth. Search historical documents and listen to oral history interviews of blacks who lived in Duluth around the time of the lynchings. Designed for older students. |
 Explore Minnesota’s early industries of logging, farming and milling in this interactive graphic novel.
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There are also all sorts of primary source kits you can get for your classroom, in many topics. Here are a few:
 World War I: American Experiences of WarUse primary sources in your classroom to analyze Americans’ experiences during World War I.
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 American Indian Termination and RelocationUse primary sources in your classroom to analyze American Indian experiences during mid-century tribal change and relocation.
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 Mapping Community ChangeUse primary sources in your classroom to analyze how communities change with decreasing population, urban change, and suburban development.
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 War Photographs 1861–2011Use primary sources in your classroom to analyze how photographs tell the different stories of changing warfare from the Civil War to recent wars.
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 Objects of the Fur TradeUse primary sources in your classroom to analyze objects. The objects included are from the North American Fur Trade.
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 Setting the Stage for Civil RightsUse primary sources in your classroom to analyze how African Americans fought for civil rights in the early 20th century. |