Michael Mitchell

I have 18 years experience teaching United States History, ten years experience teaching Advanced Placement U.S. History, and 18 years total teaching experience.

Primary Source Analysis My teaching style is to integrate high-level thinking and questioning with substantial use of primary sources. I use primary source activities to expand content through student-led inquiry. Students work in small groups of three, with each student analyzing a different (edited but unabridged) document tied to the same guiding question. After reading and citing evidence, they “teach” their source to the group, then work together to build a thesis and supporting evidence. To push higher-level thinking, I also mix in: Comparing tone, purpose, and bias across sources. Identifying counter-evidence that challenges their thesis. Asking deeper questions like: Whose voice is missing? Why was this written? How does it complicate the story we’ve learned? Presenting their synthesis in different formats (debate, editorial, argument chart, etc.). Each packet starts with clear instructions and ends with a group product that forces them to source, corroborate, and contextualize—just like historians. Quizzes: At the beginning of each unit, students are given a key terms list. Halfway through the unit, they are quizzed on these terms. I find that this provides a vital foundation; once students know the key terms, they can then see how they interconnect within history. Each quiz is 25 questions in a matching format. Tests: For each unit, I provide a study guide for the unit test. These study guides align with the unit lectures, and the tests align with the study guides and key terms lists. Each test contains 45 multiple choice questions (some straighforward, some based on stimuli such as quotes, charts, political cartoons, etc.), 25 matching questions to review the key terms again, and five short essay prompts (students choose three).

1. Top pass rate on Advanced Placement U.S. History Exam in school district (2012-present, career 84% pass rate). 2. Top student growth on state exam for American History 1 in school district (2013-present, according to EVAAS index). 3. Top student growth on state exam for American History 2 in school district (2016-present, according to EVAAS index). 4. Voted "Reader's Choice Best High School Teacher" by local newspaper (2015). 5. National Board Certified Teacher (2014-present).