A Teacher's Curriculum Guide:
Introduction
Teaching with the Depot Museum's curriculum guide provides a rich opportunity to enhance your museum visit by bringing East Texas history into the classroom. Students can experience the excitement of our special heritage and culture through stories, visuals and activities. Lesson plans are geared for second through fourth grade.
Know-Want-Learn Strategy
A good way to determine what students already know about a topic and what direction the teacher should follow in responding to their existing knowledge is to use the K-W-L strategy.
The teacher will :
1. Introduce the topic ( example: East Texas Indians) and lead the students in brainstorming what they KNOW about the topic.
2. Have the students (individually or in groups) write what they think they KNOW about the topic on their worksheets.
3. Next, have students (individually or in groups) generate and record questions about what they WANT to learn on their worksheets.
4. Students then should read the text, jotting down answers as they go.
5. Help students LEARN the information by confirming the information they think they know.
6. Finally, engage students in a discussion of what they learned from reading. If they were unable to locate answers to their questions, students should be encouraged to continue their search using other sources of information.
Bring your unanswered questions with you to the museum when you visit and let the museum staff help with the answers.
