A former English teacher, Megan Kelly is eager to discover how she can incorporate the learning power of storytelling into history units. As a first step she created a transmedia storytelling experience that had summer camp students exploring where ‘history’ comes from.
In classes like social studies and science, students are expected to do complex nonfiction reading. How can we ensure they’ll process and retain the content for future use? History/ELA teacher Megan Kelly shares fun activities to help kids think more deeply about information text.
Back to School / Wide Open Learning
by Megan Kelly · Published 08/22/2021 · Last modified 09/19/2021
Sharing Identity Slides can be the first step in building a classroom community of acceptance, risk-taking, growth, and reflection. Megan Kelly is excited that she and her sixth graders can start on that path with a simple activity that also assesses skills in three areas.
When the goal of argumentation is to learn from each other, the task becomes less competitive and more enriching. SS/ELA teacher Megan Kelly uses games to help students build socratic skills as they consider perspectives, identify their audiences, and argue with insight.
Systems Thinking / Wide Open Learning
by Megan Kelly · Published 03/02/2021 · Last modified 03/03/2021
If we want kids to transfer and integrate their learning, they need thinking strategies they can apply in many situations. In her school, writes Megan Kelly, as students acquire ‘systems thinking’ skills, they begin to discover interconnectedness everywhere they look.
For Megan Kelly’s Ancient Civilizations unit, Grade 7 gamers played her “Ancient” adaptation of Apples to Apples (see her tips), Galactic Mappers and Inhabitation. Along the way they created continents and civilizations, and learned systems thinking and plenty of content.
In social studies we want students to visualize the relationships between historical events and be able to think chronologically. Megan Kelly has 6th graders begin with personal timelines. Other teaching tools include videos, a history card game, memes and manipulatives.
When middle grades kids look back to this time, Megan Kelly wants them to remember finding refuge in books. In this post she highlights graphic novels, short stories, mysteries and more she plans to share with her students to help them feel good and reduce their stress.
As schools enter another month of virtual learning, Megan Kelly has implemented elements of The EduProtocol Field Guide by Hebern and Corippo. Many of the free tools and activities translate easily into online practice, allowing her to create time-efficient new routines.
Whether your classes dive into poetry in April or throughout the year, teacher Megan Kelly has lots of activities to enrich your students’ experience. Her latest unit has kids collaborating on visual analysis, horoscope haiku, matching teachers to their poems, and more.
