Category: Classroom Teaching, Critical Exploration, Programs

Our First Teacher Workshop … in the Participants’ Own Words

Our first, three-day teacher workshop, “Critical Exploration in the Grade 4 – 12 Humanities Classroom:  An Introduction,” held in August, was focused on poetry as well as on history. …

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Category: Classroom Teaching, Critical Exploration

The “Real Game” of Research: An Exploratory Project for Middle School

What does it really mean to be a researcher? When we assign students a research project, how can we make the experience as authentic and engaging as possible? …

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Category: Critical Exploration, Programs

Introduction to the August Teacher Workshop

In addition to finding interesting materials, Critical Explorers and the people who have inspired it have developed ways of asking questions, listening to and responding to students, and looking at students’ work. …

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Category: Classroom Teaching, Critical Exploration, Investigations

Strategies for Ancient (and Other) History Explorations (Part II)

(Creating Reconstructions) The primary texts of ancient history, even in translation, can be difficult for students to read and comprehend. When writing styles, vocabularies, or cultural references have changed, primary documents only a few centuries or decades old can seem almost as inaccessible. How can we help students make sense of these sources? …

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Category: Classroom Teaching, Critical Exploration, Investigations

Strategies for Ancient (and Other) History Explorations (Part I)

(Developing Characters) Here at Critical Explorers, we’ve temporarily paused work on publishing to the website the remaining sections of the Slavery and Reconstruction resources in order to take advantage of an opportunity further to develop our soon-to-be-published Ancient Greece investigation. …

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Category: Critical Exploration

Adventures of Pinocchio: Becoming a Real Learner

Pinocchio, the engaging marionette in Carlo Collodi’s nineteenth-century children’s classic, longed to be a real little boy.  Already, Pinocchio was no ordinary puppet. …

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Category: Critical Exploration, News, Website

Talks from the Launch Party, Part III

I am so happy to see you all here! Welcome, and thank you very much for celebrating this important moment with us. The over-arching purpose of Critical Explorers is to promote the having of wonderful ideas in public schools. …

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Category: Critical Exploration, News

Talks from the Launch Party, Part II

I want to thank all of you for your support of this work.  All through its development I have been dependent on colleagues who shared the same goals for teachers and kids, and encouraged me in the way I was trying to go about it. …

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Category: Critical Exploration, News

Talks from the Launch Party, Part I

… I’m very proud to be a part of this gathering – to enter with you into this remarkable moment that is both a culmination and a beginning. We’ve called this a “launch” party, and I think that metaphor works because what we’re launching is a vessel …

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Category: Classroom Teaching, Critical Exploration

Conversations and Community

Sometimes I’m lucky enough to overhear a conversation that fits a question I’ve been carrying around. Maybe due to my sense of murkiness on the topic, I’m drawn to listen but reluctant to join. If I’m really lucky, the conversation helps clarify my thinking…

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