Pen & Paper

At the beginning of this school year, one of my goals was to delimit the usage of paper as much as possible. Ideally, I envisioned a paper-free classroom.

However, experience has suggested to me that it is unwise to promote such a drastic revolution.

My students are accustomed to working with pen and paper. Many of them feel comfortable with this medium.

It is beneficial for the kids to read from a paper and not always from a screen; to write with a pencil and not always with a keyboard. Cursive is a dying art. It would be unfortunate to witness the art of printing follow the same demise.

There needs to remain a balance between traditional methods and emerging methods of communication.

With this in mind, I present Mr. Dowling's website. This site has a great collection of printable worksheets concerning various history topics. Each package consists of a study guide, which is a brief overview of the topic, accompanied by corresponding questions.

I printed Mr. Dowling's study guide for Ancient Rome. It includes a five page synopsis of the era, along with about 80 questions based on information found within the reading. The questions promote a nice blend of thinking skills: from basic fact finding to applied reasoning.

Photo by Ocell.