The Need to Move on

    The past week has been relatively uneventful. My thoughts have been preoccupied with things far from the classroom; I feel like I only touch ground when I am actually teaching.
    There's a girl in my class who wants to switch to the other Humanities teacher. She feels that my class is going to fast for her. I know that in this very blog I've discussed the pros and cons of project based learning- whether it really is better to sacrifice breadth for depth, and whether it is even possible. I've tried to find some balance by analyzing the regents and focusing on a small group of key events, concepts, individuals. We ignoring huge sections of the test. All I want is to feel that we've covered enough so that they can pass. But it's still too fast for this student.
    I met with her today to discuss the move. She told me that she needs to slow down in order to really learn something. The other teacher, her ninth grade humanities teacher, does mostly long term projects that are often student initiated. To give you a sense of his pace, I'm finishing up the French Revolution today, his students are working on the middle ages. He goes for depth. I go for balance. I don't know if either of us are getting breadth.
    She'll probably change classes. She's not a bad kid, a little bit lazy. She has an IEP, therefore she's been diagnosed as a slower or atypical learner. I've tried to structure my class so that there's a lot of projects, I revisit a lot of information from multiple perspectives, take into account all the learning styles and multiple intelligences in the classroom, but still it's not enough for her. According to her. She admits that she's learned a lot in the class.
    One of my professors from the university where I'm doing my masters visited my school today. We talked about teaching historical concepts like "agency" and "change over time" and how I had assumed that these were common-sensical concepts for everyone. But now I'm learning that they aren't. Not all students have a sense of how events form a narrative of causes and effects, and not all students understand how people can initiate change. My professor told me, "If they can learn just one thing from history that would help them in their personal lives, it would be the idea of agency- what it means to be an agent of change."
    But many students feel that they can't change, and that history is something that just happens, not something that is made. Is it the their age or the age they live in?

Comments

[Miss Profe]

Hi. I just discovered your blog, and I like what I have read.

About the student who may change sections: Don't lose heart. As hard as it is to feel rejected, and, come on, you know what I'm talking about, realize it's not you. I commend the student for her self-advocacy, and for recognizing that another teacher's approach will suit her better. If all of our students were similarly equipped.

As for the teaching of history, I think what we often don't recognize is that our students' connection to past events is weak, for a whole host of reasons. Concepts which should in fact be, as you say, common-sensical, aren't, which makes me wonder what is going on in those history classes before the students get to you. There should be a fund of knowledge, and perhaps, this is where you may need to begin in order to give your students the foundation they need to do the things you would like for them to be able to do. I have learned with each passing year that I am able to assume less and less.

As far as students feeling that they cannot change things, expose them to movements and events in which youth were a significant component. The Civil Rights Movement comes immediately to mind. There was also a recent movement of students at a school in NYC to create a Slavery History Walk, and the public backlash they encountered. Go online to Rethinking Schools. If you search the archives, you'll find the story there.

I teach at a school which is a Coalition for Essential Schools school, and as part of its philosophy, it stresses depth over breadth, or, less is more. This seems to work for the population of students who attend the school: mid-range, fairly motivated overall, but a fairly significant number of students with special learning needs, and a few very highly motivated and bright students. The less is more and the breadth over depth, and the focus on projects and long-term assignments, seems to work better for the students with special learning needs. Personally, I'd like to be able to present more material, but, I am finding that is often too overwhelming for many of my students.

I hope that there is something in all of this that you find helpful. It's 4:30 am, and I hope my response is coherent.:)

Be well,
Miss Profe