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School has, among its many roles, the duty to improve society. It is not to perpetuate the societal patterns of oppression and exploitation inherent in what the perennialists may call our “traditions”. School must reconstruct society.  The purpose of education should not be to prepare students to pass a test requiring them to memorize what those in power have determined to be required (a tenet of the essentialists). Education should guide students in problem-solving, in order to prepare our students to be the next generation of leaders who strive to end social injustices and inequalities. My philosophy is shaped by my understanding of the progressives and reconstructionists, that we educate for change and social reform.

To assure that schools serve all students well, the priority must be on a society-centered education that is designed from the bottom up, addressing the needs of all social classes. Curriculum and standards must not be concrete; they must be constantly reexamined. They should evolve to ensure relevance and applicability to the world beyond the classroom. Following a key part of Critical Theory, schools serve children well when pedagogy and curriculum reflect egalitarian goals. When this is accomplished, the children will then serve society well, by developing their civic competence and becoming active and informed citizens in our nation.

The students are our problem-solvers of the future. Their role is to identify problems, formulate questions, actively seek information to be applied to their studies, work cooperatively, incorporating and synthesizing information from a variety of sources, and appreciate the diversity of views they encounter in order to foster their social understanding. The role of the teacher changes from activity to activity. The teacher acts as a content expert, as a pedagogical guide, a project director, a research leader and as an agent of change. The teacher must model for the students the habits of mind and behaviors they seek to instill in their students.

Educational resources and opportunities must be equal across all parts of society. It is not acceptable for one school to have ample access to current technology, while another is using outdated technology, or none at all. Teacher training must be designed so that all teachers will be successful with all types of students. Benchmark measures and assessments must be constructed so that all students have the ability to display mastery. If one school is deemed “failing” it shows more about our educational system and our society as a whole than it does about this one school.

Paulo Freire wrote in Pedagogy of the Oppressed “those who authentically commit themselves to the people must reexamine themselves constantly.” The progressive-reconstructionist teacher must adhere to this guideline. We must constantly reflect upon our work as a teacher. We must never stop asking ourselves, “What am I teaching?” “Why am I teaching this?” “Why am I teaching this, this way?”

“Why does any of this even matter?”

Essential Questions can sometimes just sound like an “education-ese” phrase, that a teacher only says when they think an administrator is listening. Or something to post on a board, to cover your bases during a formal observation. I don’t think of them in this way. I think of Essential Questions as being the prompts that I actually want to write about and discuss. They do not have to be just another district mandate. They can excite!

Step 1. What is it that you are teaching your students right now? Why are you teaching them this? Create an Essential Question about this. If you are having trouble answering the second question, I would consider rethinking teaching this topic at all. Why devote precious class time to topics that we cannot justify the significance of? Just a thought…

Essential Questions in the history class are questions that are based in the specific content the teacher seeks to deliver, but their answers expand out into society, culture, and/or student lives and student understanding of the world they inhabit. There should never be a “right” answer to an Essential Question. In a constructivist way, the students formulating their own unique answers to the Essential Question will aid their own unique understanding of the historical content.

An example of an Essential Question combined with a standard-based content question that I use with my students guides our investigation of the Declaration of Independence. Content-wise, I desire for my students to understand what the Declaration says about Natural Rights and the ideals of a democratic government that rules with the consent of the governed, and receives its power from the consent of the governed. This is complicated and abstract thinking for eight graders who have not yet been dunked in a civic education. How can I get my students into this topic? Into these themes? Why should they even matter?

On Monday students are first presented the Content Question: “What does the Declaration of Independence declare about Natural Rights and the purpose of government?” My students know that I do not expect them to be able to answer the content question on Monday. All of our activities during the week are coordinated to best guide the students to be able to answer the question on Friday. Most students need a little prompting as to what a Natural Right might constitute, and definitely need to time to unpack the question of government’s purpose. They need to first see what beliefs they already have before they can make sense of anyone else’s – ummm, especially Enlightenment influenced schools of political thought.

The Essential Question comes next, as a way to open up the implicit meanings of the Content Question, and invite the students into the themes we will be discussing during the week. In this case, the Essential Question is simply, “What do you feel is an example of a “Natural” or “Unalienable Right? Or, what do you consider to be something that all men, women and children deserve to have the right to?”

This question may seem difficult at first for some of my students because it is something that these 13-14 year olds have not actually pondered. There is nothing wrong with a student struggling during this opening Quickwrite activity. The students are usually given three to four minutes to silently think and compose a response. they need not worry about grammar, organization and structure at this point. They simply write. As the students are composing I wander around the room encouraging those who seem stumped to fight through the what is blocking them. Often these students need just to hear an example of what a Natural Right is for me. Or to reassure that, if they choose, no one else will ever see this Quickwrite except for them. Smiling, I implore them to breathe life into their thoughts, put them on paper, you are safe here! The more we do Quickwrites on Essential Questions, the more comfortable the students feel with the initial struggle of an abstract prompt. Struggle is essential! It is great!

When the time is up, I open the class up for a discussion. Some classes require me to share with the them what my answer to the Essential Question would be before they feel comfortable sharing; other classes readily volunteer to read their Quickwrite. After hearing some student responses, we begin to talk about what Thomas Jefferson thought were our Natural Rights. I love to see the reactions of students who declare themselves, “That is like what I wrote, too!”

Some students agree with the declaration, some disagree. The students are evaluating Jefferson’s proclamation that we are all entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Yes, I said it. My students are evaluating Jefferson!

What is accomplished here is that students have made a personal connection to the historical content by becoming their own “expert” in a way. They quickly philosophized about their own Natural Rights before learning what is actually written in the Declaration of Independence. Thus, while diving deeper into the actual text of the Declaration and engaging in high level dialogue concerning its implications, my students do not feel totally lost or overwhelmed. They take this new content knowledge and fit it into their own understanding. The historical content is made relevant because the students interact with it not just as “students” but , in a way, as “equals”.

Last year, I set a goal for myself to find ways to incorporate Web 2.0 technology into my curriculum. I dabbled a bit with Edmodo, but with only two of my classes, as a way to get the feel for it. This year, I use Edmodo with all of my classes. And, I couldn’t be happier with the results so far. I am still searching for new ways to incorporate Edmodo into my classroom routines.

Edmodo is a free, secure, social learning platform for teachers, students, schools and districts. It has the look of Facebook (which is an instant attraction for my 8th grade students).

Here are the ways/reasons I have used Edmodo thus far:

1. To make it easier for students to contact me when they are at home, struggling with questions about assignments/projects, etc.

2. For students to share links and resources they have found related to the content we explore in class.

3. For students to turn in finished pieces of writing – paperlessly!

4. To build a class community of learning that extends beyond the walls of the classroom.

5. To post instructions for assignments that students can always access. (IE, no more making extra photocopies of handouts for the students that tend to lose things.)

6. To post links to enrichment assignments/resources.

7. To conduct online and paperless quizzes for an engaging assessment.

8. To award students with personalized “badges” celebrating their strengths and interests.

9. To be continued…

Maybe that last example is a stretch. But I think I made my point.

To show my students that each source viewed in class, whether it is a secondary or primary text or visual, undoubtedly contains amounts of perspective and bias. Detecting this point of view in a source is the first skill my students must acquire when evaluating a source.

During our week long focus on the events of 1760s and 1770s that created a feeling of revolution among the patriots in the colonies, I find the best jump-in point to evaluate sources being a discussion on the Boston Massacre. And most importantly, was this momentous event actually a “massacre”?

First, we investigate this famous Paul Revere-crafted image:

Students are quick to notice the organized formation the British soldiers stand in and that they appear the be ordered to fire upon the defenseless colonists by their commander, who stands behind the soldiers. Some students will also not that it appears that some of the British soldiers might actually being smiling while shooting. From this picture, the title, “The Bloody Massacre” definitely seems appropriate.

Next, I tell my students that this was created by the famous patriot, Paul Revere. What might have been his perspective upon this event? What motivation might he have had in creating this print that would appear in newspapers all along the colonies?

The key part of this activity follows. I ask my students to evaluate the credibility and historical accuracy of this print by reading three other, brief accounts of the Boston Massacre. First, we read together as a class the short description of the event from our textbook, which does a decent job portraying this event as more of a riot than an actual massacre.

After discussing a primary source together (the Revere print), and reading a secondary source aloud (the textbook), the students are ready to read and judge two other sources detailing the event.

My students read a British account of the event, and alternate view of the event.

Finally, students are ready to respond to my prompt, which asks them to evaluate these sources:

The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British soldiers on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. Read the two alternate and opposing perspectives on the Boston Massacre and compare them with how the event was portrayed in Paul Revere’s famous engraving. Which of the three sources seems the most believable to you? Why?

The first time I employ this Thinking Like a Historian strategy is on the second day of school. I present to my students an excerpt from Martin Luther’s King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Most students are familiar with this to varying degrees. However, through an initial questioning round, to gauge their prior knowledge, I can detect some large gaps in their understanding. Perfect!

I created a 5 question process for investigating any and all documents with my students. At first we work together, with the source, to formulate responses to these prompts:

1. What is the title of the document?

2. Who created the document?

3. When was the document created?

4. What does the document show/say? (one sentence summary)

5. What insights about this period can you infer from the document?

It is with Question 5 that my students are doing the critical work of Thinking Like a Historian. They create a list of their insights about America in 1963 from the document. With each insight, or assertion, the students must defend with evidence from the source. In this case, they will utilize direct quotes from King, and/or utilize the prior knowledge they already have on the Civil Rights Movement.

To reinforce this process, I repeat the steps again the following week, as we begin our journey through the content standards for 8th grade – the 13 colonies. I present to my students a selection of 10 primary source visuals and texts all displaying colonial attitudes towards religion (from the Mindsparks DBQ program). Together, whole group, we investigate one source – an image of a Quaker minister preaching to Native Americans. We go step by step through the 5 Questions. Again, with Question 5, I can see the insights my students form from examining the source. Possible responses included, “Religion must have been very important to colonists, because they go out into Native American communities to talk about religion.” My students learn early that every insight needs a “because” in it, otherwise, others might not think your insight is credible.

Next, my students work in small groups to choose two more documents from the collection, and work through the 5 Questions together. Cooperatively, they must struggle to form meaning from the sources, and test their assumptions against one another.

After each group has finished examining two more sources, we can review their findings as a class. This is my students’ first chance to do the real work of the historian – to present their insights to an audience, and be prepared to defend their findings with evidence.

One strategy I have developed to deepen visual thinking in my students is the Picture Investigation. There are crucial moments in the curriculum when the best way to teach a historical concept is by “showing” the history to students.

The first opportunity for this in my 8th grade US History curriculum is in my attempt to describe the pure evil, horror, racism, and greed that was the Middle Passage, the nightmare Atlantic ocean crossing endured by enslaved Africans. This is not a simple issue to teach to fourteen year olds. Nothing about slavery is easy to teach to students, but we history teachers cannot shy away from the difficult parts. It is precisely these parts that need to be strengthened in our curriculum.

The theme for my first week of instruction is the reasons for, and the development of the 13 colonies into three distinct regions – New England, Middle and Southern. One key concept I want my students to understand is why the plantation system of slavery only really develops in the Southern colonies. We examine geographical, climate and economic reasons to explain this. What is missing from this examination is the actual importation of the enslaved Africans. I do not want my students to see the plantation system of slavery as a beneficial, viable and acceptable colonial economic system. They must be shown more. (Note: My students will also spend time investigating the plantation system of slavery later in the year, as we approach the Civil War by contrasting the North and the South in the mid-1800s)

The Picture Investigation of the Middle Passage is centered around four images (all found through a Google Image search for the Middle Passage):

1. An illustration of captured Africans being led to the coast, in West Africa.

2. An illustration of Africans sitting on the deck of a slave ship.

3. A diagram of the cargo space of a slave ship.

4. An advertisement from the colonies announcing the auction of slaves.

The images are shown in this order, one at a time, as we progress through spiraling questions to bring the students into the historical content. With each picture I begin with simple, surface level questions – usually always this one first, “List three things you see in this image.” The students are to silently respond in their notebooks. I am very clear about not wanting students to just shout their answers out loud. As I progress into more difficult questions, I want all students investigating the images themselves, writing down their answers, and participating in our discussion when I call on them. I know that every student can participate in the discussion, because every student has already written down their answer in their notebook.

The students are all engaged in activities like this. They all want to dissect the images, hoping to find the perfect answer to the question I pose. In these moments, when their focus is at its zenith, I will bring in short excerpts from strong primary sources, to add depth to the images. An example of this is when we are investigating the diagram of the slave ship’s cargo space.

Students are quick to describe basically what they are looking at. But not all students can immediately imagine how horrific a situation a picture like this implies. I ask them to either close their eyes or remain looking at the picture while I read to them a brief part from Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography, a part concerning conditions aboard a ship such as this.

“At last, when the ship we were in had got in all her cargo, they made ready with many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck, so that we could not see how they managed the vessel. But this disappointment was the least of my sorrow. The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.”

It takes just about the whole period to go through these steps with these four pictures. The students are engaged for the entire time. They are investigating. They are thinking critically, as my questions build upon each other. I believe that certain topics in the curriculum like the Middle Passage deserve a strategy such as Picture Investigation, to guide students towards a higher level of historical understanding than a textbook reading alone would produce.

As August will no doubt turn to September, teachers should be making resolutions. Education resolutions. The New (School) Year’s Resolutions. After a summer break away from the classroom, we should be rested and recharged. We are ready to begin the real year anew. To greet the new faces and challenges that await us with our most energetic smile. We need to take advantage of this energy and focus it towards making new strides in our teaching. We must create our own personal resolutions for the new school year.

My New (School) Year’s Resolutions

1. Improve the efficacy and efficiency of our history department meetings. As history department chair, I want to design and facilitate better meetings, based upon collaboration, classroom improvement, student achievement, accountability and trust.

2. Develop better intervention strategies to catch students who are slipping. I must improve the way I help students who are not mastering my standards. These students need my special attention, even on a daily basis, in ways that will not hold back those who are mastering the content.

3. Write with my students. This is a National Writing Project hallmark. I have dramatically increased the frequency and diversity of opportunities for my students to write in class ever since becoming a Writing Project Fellow in 2009. However, I have not always heeded this Writing Project standard – write with your students!

4. Continue developing the use of Web 2.0 tools in my curriculum. Last year I implemented a Wikispace  and utilized Edmodo with my students. This year I need to expand upon the use of these two technology tools, as well as continue researching new digital tools to better engage my students.

The students’ reading of the textbook must be supplemented with primary sources. Our students deserve the opportunity to investigate REAL HISTORY. Importantly, students deserve to be shown more than one perspective.

After my students have read about the Boston Tea Party from the secondary source, they are ready for the primary sources. I want to show my students the polar contrast between the fervor of the Boston patriots and the fear of the loyalists, whose person and property were being targeted by colonial revolutionary mobs such as the Sons of Liberty.

To better see the patriots’ perspective, we read “A General Huzzah From Griffin’s Wharf” as told by George Hewes http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2005_winter_spring/boston_tea_party.htm a participant at the Boston Tea Party. The language is challenging for my students so I read this aloud with careful and strategic enunciation and gesture. I then ask my students to describe the scene themselves, whether through writing (a list, a brief timeline of events), an organizer (a flow-chart), or illustration (story-board, comic strip).

This source will reinforce the content understanding my students have from our work first with the textbook, of how parliamentary actions in Britain were directly causing escalating revolutionary responses in the colonies. However, students must understand that not all colonists, much less than half in some places, considered themselves patriots, striving for complete autonomy from the British crown. What then about the colonists who remained loyal to the King? What was their perspective on the actions of the 1770s?

Next, we read “Curse All Tratiors” from a loyalist woman, Anne Hulton http://instruct.westvalley.edu/kelly/History17a_on_campus/Readings/Hulton.htm This will display a contrasting point of view concerning the tensions of the 1770s. After a brief class discussion students can compare and contrast the feelings of Hewes and Hulton. Combining these two perspectives with the first reading of the textbook gives students a much more well-rounded view of this colonial society.

Students are now ready to write. Ask students to assume either the point of view of a Patriot or a Loyalist, and describe the Boston Tea Party from the first-person point of view of their character.

The history textbook does serve a purpose. However, inspiring my students to write is not one. We use the textbook in class to build content knowledge schema, to prepare my students for the more advanced critical thinking that will follow. After reading a section from the textbook, my students are ready to investigate primary sources, just as historians do. They are ready for the Real.

In examining primary sources, students are engaged in the work of real historians. They are developing the habits of mind for disciplinary literacy, for thinking like a historian, for DOING history. When historians write, they do not sit down with a textbook. They go to the archives, they investigate and explore, looking for confirmation or criticism of the perspective they are forming. They seek out multiple points of view of a topic or event, in various formats – letters, legislation, speeches, visuals. Through this work, the historian (publishing university professor or 8th grader in my class) is ready to write.

I will use this blog to demonstrate examples and lesson plans for what it means to Write from the Real.