Writing is pretty important to human development. That's a fact we can all agree on. But are we doing this subject justice? Are we miserably under-rating the importance of writing? I'm beginning to think we are not giving writing the importance it deserves in our classes, especially in Big History threshold 6. There is nothing we've done that has had a bigger impact than writing has on humanity. Writing leads to all technologies, and early humans came to writing naturally, amazing feat in itself, and it's perfection has accelerated learning in the most profound ways. I have a video here that makes me think we're not putting the correct emphasis on writing that we should in our history classes! If you do watch this video, you don't have to watch it all to see Finkel's humor. His absolute expertise is astounding.
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I have bookmarked these videos to check out this weekend, and just the first couple of seconds of Irving Finkel's vibe had me saving for later.
I haven't often thought about this, and I think you may have a point by looking at my activity to introduce writing to Freshman World History. We aren't supposed to teach this era in my state, but I do it anyway just to set up a larger context. I have them use my little daughter's playdough set to attempt to write out cuneiform messages.
This is not rigorous and may do a disservice to the more extensive subject of the roots of writing, which makes me think I am not putting the correct emphasis on it. It works as an excellent hook for a Monday, but it just operates to have students learn what we call cuneiform so they learn it was the first writing, and writing is important to history. I will check this out this weekend. I have Mesopotamia and early writing scheduled for early September, so this gives me time to look at that day's lesson. Thanks!
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I have bookmarked these videos to check out this weekend, and just the first couple of seconds of Irving Finkel's vibe had me saving for later.
I haven't often thought about this, and I think you may have a point by looking at my activity to introduce writing to Freshman World History. We aren't supposed to teach this era in my state, but I do it anyway just to set up a larger context. I have them use my little daughter's playdough set to attempt to write out cuneiform messages.
This is not rigorous and may do a disservice to the more extensive subject of the roots of writing, which makes me think I am not putting the correct emphasis on it. It works as an excellent hook for a Monday, but it just operates to have students learn what we call cuneiform so they learn it was the first writing, and writing is important to history. I will check this out this weekend. I have Mesopotamia and early writing scheduled for early September, so this gives me time to look at that day's lesson. Thanks!
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I'm NOT against play-dough in a high school class. I'm in. Love that hook idea!