In an effort to turn my class into more of a lab, I’ve built a makerspace for students to try lots of different ways to develop their historical thinking and writing skills. While my students really enjoyed building their empires like gingerbread houses, the mini-essay comparison tended to fall a bit flat.
Given the choice of a blank doc or worksheet, my students will always choose to work on sticky notes, mini dry erase boards or other types of manipulatives. To help their comparative essay body paragraphs, I created this template for students to help them take their notes on land-based empires from 1450-1750. I'm using the writing template for the first time this week, and will post as my students engage with this support.
How do you engage your reluctant writers?
