Matt Baird teachers SLA-ers 11th grade American History. He and I sat down this summer to think about how he could re-frame American History so that we could create an even more direct sense of urgency on why American history can be such a powerful field of study for high school students. Both of us believe that we teach history so that kids can make sense of the world they live in, and therefore, be more informed and active and engaged citizens of that world. That’s not exactly a revolutionary concept, and there are many, many social studies teachers who share that view.
So if that is one of the primary underlying tenets for teaching the class, the question becomes how do you structure the class to engender that sense of urgency? We tossed around this idea, with the idea that the 11th grade theme at SLA is “Change” —
What if we started an American History class with an analysis of the present day? What if we asked students to examine present day society through several intersecting lenses such as the political lens, the demographic lens, the economic lens and the geo-political lens. Kids could start the year reading commentary on the world we live in now from a variety perspectives. That opening unit could serve as frame to now examine our history. Then, as the class dove into our country’s history, there would be a deep context for always examining the events of the past through the lens of questioning how that has shaped the nation we are today. I could even imagine a culminating unit where students had to look forward with a vision of where we are going from here and how and why.
I think – I hope – a class with this frame would deeply communicate the idea of active history for students, and it would solve the classic problem of the American History class that treats American History as stopping sometime between World War II and the Civil Rights Movement. And most importantly, I think the class could – done right – center on the students themselves. A class like this is not about the dusty dates of history, but about their lives – our lives – our country today, seen through the lens of time.
Thoughts?
I think the approach is worth trying. I do think it takes a strong teacher to provide a variety of viewpoints of today for discussion without the approach becoming politicized. With my government classes I have typically worked with students with strategies to avoid confirmation bias and to really listen to other points of view. It seems to me that sort of approach would be essential from the start.
I’m trying to design an American history class for the first time. What I’ve decided to do is use the first quarter to do American history during the students’ lifetimes, so from 1998 til today. We’ll cover roughly two years each week, and then culminate in a project where each student describes “My America” and connects the way he or she sees the country to recent events. Then for the rest of the year we will leap back and explore different themes – military history, political history, social history, economic history, and so on, The plan is, each quarter the students will revisit their vision of contemporary America and connect it to more and more events of the past. I’m hoping the constant revisiting of time periods will help students build connections. We shall see.
This is a good approach, now do something similar with math. Fewer political overtones, but just as many real world applications.
No disrespect meant to the last commenter, but the ‘real world’ is rarely devoid of politics, no matter what subject you are studying. I obviously see what you mean in the area of math that it can be talked about in a purer context. Maybe accidentally, the politics would give you more student buy-in as they weighed the options and were brainstorming around the constraints of the situation. It also made me think of the Engineers Without Borders group whose goal is to solve an international engineering challenge (…and not in spite of the the politics but more often because of them)
Excellent thoughts on ways teachers can make the study of history more meaningful and relevant to our students. I really focused in on the following line: “What if we asked students to examine present day society through several intersecting lenses such as the political lens, the demographic lens, the economic lens and the geo-political lens.” As a former social studies teacher, I am extremely passionate about quality and engaging learning experiences for our students. My quick reply turned into a blog post on lenses and perspectives:
http://joelschleicher.blogspot.com/2014/08/teaching-history-through-different.html
I like where you are heading with it. I teach American History thematically in a PBL school. We are using Zinn’s graphic novel to look at 9/11 and current terrorism, such as ISIS as a reaction to American patterns of meddling going back to Manifest Destiny and the Spanish American War (the most difficult topic to make relevant to students in my experience). I like how Zinn shows a pattern of American aggressiveness in foreign policy.
Later in the year, I plan to use the situation in Ukraine to have students ask the question of whether or not the Cold War is over and look back at it. Civil rights is easy with #Ferguson and so many other issues. But I am going to make a special effort to make Civil Rights history local this year. I think finding local connections to history topics is as important as making connections to current events.
Israel and Palestine also leads to questions of American Imperialism/ Intervention. Asking students what America’s current role in the world should be is also an interesting question.
If you never talk about current events in U.S. History then as the kids say, “You’re doing it wrong.”
I once read the book “Don’t Know Much About History” backwards. I wanted to start with the present day (since our history classes had NEVER gotten that far) and see if I could figure out how the present had been influenced by what preceded it. I think this is a terrific idea.
absolutely love it and wish you all the very best! this is exactly what history classes should look like and i applaud you in your efforts to bring about a dialogue between and with your students on the past and present. hope you continue to share your story 🙂
Actually doing this — though in the reverse and with younger students. We are looking at the beginning of the twentieth century — at all the issues and themes that faced the US in that period. The latter part of the 19th and beginning of the twentieth century was an explosive period in terms of change and movement and many of the issues link very closely with what is happening in the modern world. So I am having my Middle Schooler read/think about/discuss the relationships and similarities between the issues as they existed in the early 20th century with what is happening now…
If students are invited to investigate that “Political means having to do with government, and politics as a struggle for power” rather than party politics, it makes so much sense to examine history as an interconnected, causal, correlated, continuous story rather than episodic circumstances to memorize … in what other way can we expect understanding if students cannot empathize?