1. Unlocking and connecting standards to the historical narrative.
Clues to W’s
Unlocking and connecting standards to the historical narrative.

2. What are Clues to W’s?
Clues to W’s is an activity for your classroom that will allow students to practice using context clues and research skills to connect individuals, groups, events, places and other things in state standards to the larger historical narrative.

3. We are vexed with a problem -
We have to find a way to teach the state standards, but the resources available to us rarely match up – causing a situation where there is some great history that we have to try to find a way to teach AND link it into the national narrative.
It’s not only a problem for teachers, so let’s use our classrooms and students to tackle this problem.

4. How to use Clues to W’s in your classroom.
There is planning and investment on the part of the teacher in the beginning of the year. But through careful planning – students will becoming active learners and historical detectives.
Exposing students to the 5 w’s has always been a cornerstone in our classrooms. Let’s have the W’s leap off of the page and allow students to immerse themselves into history.

5. Step 1
Identify a broad theme or topic that you’ll be teaching in class
The First Contact
Colonial Life
The French and Indian War
The Declaration of Independence
American Revolution

6. Step 2 Take out your state standards.
Identify names, places, events, dates from the standards that correlate to the broad topic or theme.

7. Are you “limited” by your standards?
Of course not!
Those names, dates and places that don’t fit naturally into your lessons are great with this strategy.
How about those little boxes of information in your textbook? Artists, books, inventions etc.

8. Step 3
For everything you pull out – find a who, what when, where, why.
(for people – link the w’s to the overall event you that they are linked with in the standards)
For “Why?” – indicate this persons SPEC significance to local, state and national history

9. Step 4
Locate and reproduce a source that links the topic to the broad theme:
Newspaper article
Textbook excerpt
Political cartoon
Movie/ video
Literature
image

10. Step 5
Create a heuristic clue the will allow students to unlock the answers to the “W’s”
The “Why?” happens later.
You can supply some of the “W’s” to the students to provide some scaffolding.

11. Step 6 Students will then utilize the worksheet to unlock the clues.
The correct answers serve as the passcode.
The teacher will check their work and then give them access to the primary source document

12. Step 7
Students will use the primary source document to link the singular event to the larger historical narrative of local, state, national, and world themes.

13. Let’s walk through an example and then we can try our hand at this.
The ocean blue became a major trade route between old and new when this explorer sought to bring honor to The Bull and his wife and attain the 3 G’s.
Look into your “crystal ball” and help his three ships find his “paniola”.
Crack the code and use the document to discuss the SPEC significance of this topic.

14. The Documents:
The First Globalization chart representing the Colombian Exchange (CICERO Unit 2->Activities->Historical Maps->The First Globalization)
A route map for Christopher Columbus’s voyage.
Primary Source: Christopher Columbus’ Letter to the King and Queen of Spain, 1494 (CICERO Unit 2->Primary Sources->Speeches and Correspondence ->Christopher Columbus' Letter to the King, 1494)

15. The Columbian Exchange is the larger issue.

16. Back at home . . . Take a brief moment to look at your standards.
(some have more to look through that others)
What figures, places, events can you do this with?
Any documents you can think of?

17. Let’s 2.0 it with 21st Century Skills
How can we use technology and collaboration to efficiently and effectively solve problems and produce a dynamite finished product?

18. Collaboration
Split up the heuristic clues and assign a piece to one member of a group. Each student is responsible for their piece.
They come together and unlock the primary source document and research the significance together.

19. Further Collaboration
Have students create a Clue for W assignment for each other. They check the progress of the other student’s work.
**This works better after you’ve modeled it.

20. 2.0
Have students use moodle or a wiki page to leave the clues. Students can submit their answers via the same process.
The primary source can be password protected.
What else can we do?

21. The Finished Product
What do we want our students to do with this information?
How will they present the SPEC significance?
Standard Essay, Biography, Newspaper account, political cartoon.
Anything else?

22. Questions, Comments, Suggestions?
Are there any ways this activity can be modified?
What elements would you use or not use?
Could you enhance this or make it more grade-level appropriate?
Any other scaffolding methods?

23. Thank You!
Look in your state standards and use them to activate student learning!