A Rewarding and Demanding Lesson

By Kristen Gierman

Historical documents are tricky.  They are full of baggage.  Historical context.  Higher level vocabulary.  Perspective.  Author’s purpose.  You name it, they are HARD to digest.  But that is no reason to shy away from them in the classroom.  In fact, I sit here writing this blog because challenging my students to break down arguably the most difficult document they have seen thus far culminated in one of the most demanding yet rewarding lessons of the school year.

As my world history classes focus on the rise and fall of governments during the time period after World War I, we turned our attention to the Middle East.  What happened to the region after the Ottoman Empire came crashing down?  What role did the League of Nations play? How might this impact the region today?  These are all questions I wanted my students to consider, however, I did not want to simply answer that for them.  Instead, I wanted to release this responsibility of learning to the students.

This took some careful planning and pre-reading strategies to make it all come together.  To start the lesson, students were teamed up and competed in a Quizlet Live that included eight “difficult” terms they might not know or might not have ever seen yet would encounter during the course of the period.  Words like sovereignty, tutelage, and mandate are no walk in the park for any sophomore.  However, allowing students to work together to gain some familiarity with the terms shifted the conversation from “I have no idea what these mean” to eventually building some confidence in what used to be unknown or unrecognizable.  

After creating a historical context for the lesson, the students worked to decipher the potential meaning of the political cartoon seen below.

The claims produced by the students echoed the criticisms of the League of Nations’ decisions and ultimately set the stage for the Big Kahuna of this entire lesson...analyzing and understanding the language of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.  

For anyone, this would appear a daunting task but the students got after it!!  After modeling some word substitution thanks to the help of the Quizlet, the students worked with their partners to take each sentence and put it in words they could understand.  Not only did they strive to complete this challenge but I found them more engaged in the process and seeking my feedback to confirm their understanding of the text.  

I even laughed a bit as students, who regularly do not want to do work, busted it to prove to me that they were “Ivy League” material….only to conclude class by announcing their future attendance at Stanford University. :)

All jokes aside, it was rewarding to see the students grapple with their understanding of a document that was arguably “out of their reach.”  I am confident that they can make an argument as to why the mandates were created in the Middle East by the League of Nations and I look forward to the next step of the process where they connect these concepts to the rise of independence movements in the region.

Student Voice: Engaging Students

By Mark Heintz

I have been going around school stopping students at random to hear what they feel teacher's do that impacts their learning.  It is so important to continually ask the population we serve to get their feedback on what helps them master the content and skills we are trying to teach.  The responses have been so insightful into what works for each of the unique learners that enter our classroom and can continue to drive the methods we use to instruct them.  Once I captured the student's voice, I tracked down the teacher to share and get their input on the practice that was highlighted. 

The student I asked in the video highlights the way Mr. Janu hooks his students at the beginning of a unit that engages students and increases motivation to learn. 

Here is Mr. Janu's perspective on how and why he hooks his students in history.

Grading Practices and Student Engagement

By Kristen Gierman 

As teachers, we are constantly reflecting.  But as the semester winds down, we devote a particular attention to grades.  That’s not to say we do not notice the successes and less than of our students throughout the semester, but we are more in tune with the trends within the grading system as the semester nears its end.

This year I noticed a striking oddity when it came to my particular gradebook for World History.  The lowest category across all of my classes was reading.  Now that’s not to say that my students cannot read, dislike reading, or just avoid it altogether.  But perhaps there was a flaw in the way we were assessing it OR in the strategies students were using to be successful.

Put simply, the reading of our World History sophomores is elevated compared to that of the Human Geography freshmen.  While most would argue that this would seem or should be a natural progression in a school setting, what I mean by this is that the stakes are raised tremendously.  As a member of both the Human Geography and World History teams the past three years, I have noticed that students generally succeed or find reading in Human Geography “easy” because the curriculum is about the world that they live in and in doing so help create.  For instance, analyzing the impact the media has on stereotypes is a normal process because the students live it, feel it, and perhaps have strong opinions on the matter.  World History, on the other hand, asks students to take a trip to the past, analyze verbiage from a different time, and find interest in the unfamiliar.  Comparatively speaking, for a student the task of reading becomes more complex or daunting than ever.  


As a result, I have made it a personal goal to incorporate more document-based work in the classroom this semester.  I am doing so in the hopes that students experience growth in their reading skills and confidence.  Furthermore, it will also require that they become engaged in historical inquiry.  The usage of documents forces students to ask questions, collect evidence, and produce claims about the past.  The difficulty with document-based work is that it can be extremely complex and time consuming.  The benefit, as I have already seen, is that the students have become more engaged in the process and their learning has become more authentic as we continue to practice this skill regularly.  

Restorative Justice Practices in the Classroom

By Steve Lesniak

Restorative justice is a relatively new term being used in school settings across the country.  Call it what you want, but simply put, it is good practice.  Before I touch on how I use restorative justice in my classroom, it is important to understand how it connects to Senate Bill 100, passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 2015 and put into place for the 2016-17 school year.  SB 100 essentially prevents schools from issuing discipline to students without documentation of interventions along the way.  While this may not be much of a change for many school districts, there is another component of SB 100 that has had a more visible impact on schools.  Unless students put themselves or others in harms way, it is extremely difficult to issue an out-of-school suspension to a student.  As I take time to reflect on SB 100, I see how restorative justice complements its goals very well.  Ultimately, if a student is cutting class, the idea is not to issue an out-of-school suspension.  The logic just doesn’t make sense.  “You’ve been cutting class, so we are going to punish you by not allowing you to go to class.”  Doesn’t this just give the student what they want anyway?  Restorative justice forces that student to stay in school and make up the work he or she missed in class.  More importantly, if utilized correctly, restorative justice will change student behavior.  

In my classroom, like many classrooms, there are students who are lacking motivation or can be a distraction to themselves and their peers.  In the past, many teachers, including myself, would have simply dismissed the student and sent them to the dean.  While this might seem like a quick fix, it really creates more headaches for teachers.  Now, that student has missed the lesson for the day and certainly won’t master any objectives set forth.  How can we utilize restorative justice in the classroom?  First, it is important to build a relationship with students.  Many students who act out have often been met with scolding and ridicule by adults.  While it is sometimes necessary to discipline students, it is also imperative that students know that teachers care about them.  Many of our most troubled students have been beaten down by the education system, and they might have bigger issues going on at home.  Establishing a relationship and showing students that they are in a safe and caring environment will help them to trust that we have their best intentions at heart.   Once that relationship is established, I like to redirect students’ disruptive behavior to questions pertaining to our lesson.  When a student acts out in my World History class, I immediately ask that student, or the entire class, how the people living during the time period we are studying would have handled the situation.  For example, right now we are discussing Absolutism and the Divine Right of Kings.  A student in my class was talking while we were going over a quiz.  I asked the class to share how an absolute ruler might handle the situation of a student showing flagrant disrespect.  It sparked great discussion and was a great segue into our discussion on the Enlightenment.  

While many classes do not have a way to relate their content to disruptive behavior, there are still ways to talk to students and have them assess their own behavior.  Kicking students out of class without following up shows them that we don’t care about their education.  Problem solving and taking time to talk with students is a better way to establish that positive relationship. Equally as important, it teaches students how to improve their behavior and performance in school.  Some may call this restorative justice, while others may just call it good practice.  

Assessment as an Accurate Reflection of Grades

By Mark Heintz

I missed a few weeks of school due to the birth of my second son.  Meanwhile at school, the students continued their work on their understanding of the Classical Era in history.  Before my leave of absence, the students worked on thesis statements, short answer, and document work.  I had a good understanding on progress towards those skills.  Once I was away, their in class work and homework was geared towards content knowledge and mastery of the objectives of the Classical Era.

Here is a sample of one of the objective:

There is a lot of information about Buddhism in the classical era.  There are books written on just one aspect of the faith in the early years.  However, for the sake of this class, I codified the essentials.

For years, I have debated the best way to assess.  I worry about the validity of the test in its ability to assess a students knowledge of the core objectives.  I worry if it is too easy or too difficult.  But I have to make a decision.  For this assessment, its purpose was to test low level content knowledge.  Its targets were extremely clear.  In its design, I limited the use of academic vocabulary in the question stems.  I also limited the skills involved in the assessment, such as change over time, comparative, cause/effect, and periodization.  I wanted to test their content knowledge and that is what I tested.  Here are two sample questions:

The results were great! Prior to the summative assessment, the students took benchmark tests that assessed their understanding of the content knowledge.  From the student performance on the formative assessments, I thought they would do well.  In the end, the students felt the assessment to be fair and assessed what they were asked.

In the future, I wish to keep this type of assessment and add more essays and stimulus based assessments to test their skills.  I also would like to find a better way to communicate which standards they faltered on.  Also, I need to find a better way to put the score in the grade book.  Do I put the three big standards in the grade book? Do I put each objective in the grade book?   These are things that still need to be addressed.

A Student Perspective on AP US History Scoreboard

By Xochitl Soto, Junior at Elk Grove High School


 The AP US History teachers are using a new app in their classes to help students review for next month's AP exam.  Last week, the Collablab assisted the AP US History team in setting up the new app. The app is called MME Connect, and teachers are able to assign questions for formative review in preparation for their AP exam.  Since then, a student wrote a review of how it is impacting her prepare for the exam.  Here is that review:

I found the AP US History Scoreboard app to be very useful in the way that it offers many different types of review practice sets. The adaptive review is categorized into time periods and each time period has ‘learning missions’. I really like this because the learning missions are based on time and efficiency. For example when I'm short on time I would do the ten question set or the four question set, related to the time period, and each set has an adaptive setting that according to my confidence level it would repeat questions to assure that I've learned them. With a little more time I can sit down and to do the full assignment in one go. The Scoreboard app also includes multiple choice, short answer, document based and long essay exams; all of which I wouldn't have been able to thoroughly studied on my own. In my opinion, the app is a way better use of my time when studying for the AP test.

Peer Observation: Round 2 (Post 4/4)

Period 7
We had two visitors join us this period: Cliff Darnall and Courtney Lavand.  Though unplanned, the theme of our Period 7 observations was activating background knowledge.  In both Lindsey Bucciarelli's Human Geography class and Señora Carmen Ruiz-Bergman's AP Spanish class, we observed numerous methods of brainstorming to initiate discussions.

In Human Geography, we saw students developing lists in Notability of why people migrate.  There are the "Pushes" and "Pulls" of why people leave home or come to a desired land/country.  Students also took a matching quiz on Schoology to ensure student understanding of these various push/pull factors.  Then, students watched a 5 minute video clip summarizing the situation in Syria.  After the video, students were going to work on a Jigsaw in pairs to explore the different elements of migration.

        

In AP Spanish, we observed students exploring the facts of Halloween vs. Día de los muertos.  Students were watching a video describing some of the rituals of both celebrations and then were going to write a persuasive essay where they had to choose one day to celebrate.  

Following the observations, we discussed the different methods both teachers used to activate students' background knowledge on the subject manners.  We also talked about the use of Schoology and Notability to record (both written and verbal) student learning.

Period 8
Matt Bohnenkamp joined our group for observing Sr. Burrier-Sanchis and Lindsey Bucciarelli.  

In Sr. Burrier-Sanchis's AP Spanish Literature class, they were discussing the novel Into the Beautiful North.  Students were discussing various adjectives that they could use to describe the novel.  Following the quick discussion in pairs, Sr. Burrier-Sanchis showed students the website wordreference.com to use as a thesaurus for multiple languages.  

Observations in both classes sparked great brainstorming sessions about scaffolding and other connections on the CollabLab's dry erase wall!  Stop on down to check it out and add more ideas!

Peer Observation: Round 2 (Post 1/4)

Period 1
The second Peer Observation Day got off to a great start in Kristen Guth's freshman english class. Students were self-assessing on their speeches about a person who had a positive impact on their lives. Kristen recorded students' speeches on her iPad and was able to share the speeches with each  student through Google Drive. Students were then able to watch themselves and assess their speaking skills - rating themselves on volume, eye contact, posture, clarity, and preparation using a rubric.

 The self-assessment rubric also left room for students to provide examples or evidence for their rankings.

This outside perspective let students see themselves in a more objective manner, which presented a chance for them to see strengths and areas that may need improvement.  It was great seeing students self reflect in other subject areas and I have plenty of ideas for my classroom as a result. Thank you Kristen for letting us observe your classroom!


Period 2

A big Thank You to Tim Phillips and Beata Yormark for inviting us into their classrooms during 2nd period for our second Peer Observation Day. In Human Geography, we saw students engaging with the lesson by participating in a Schoology discussion about voluntary migration. It was a great way to get students to connect the concept to their own lives. It was particularly fun to watch Mr. Phillips' students explaining Schoology discussions to observing staff members. 

In Beata's math class, students were reviewing for a unit test by completing a Schoology checklist. It was empowering to see students all engaged and working at their own pace to review the material. We saw kids collaborating to review the material, asking good questions, and all advancing toward their learning goals. Students explained to observing staff members the importance of showing their work as they completed tasks in Notability. They truly took ownership of their learning.

We loved having Mary Beth Khoury and Marge Wojtas join us for our second Peer Observation Day. We hope others find the time to join us next time, too!

Video Reflection

By Mark Heintz

A few weeks ago, I posted on the creation of my first video.  You can read about it here.  I have since created about twenty videos that cover the age of imperialism, WWI, WWII, decolonization movements in India, South Africa, Ghana, and a number of other topics in the 20th century.

I commented on how making the videos made me feel like a historian.  While creating the videos, I have learned so much history. For instance, Chiquita Banana paid known terrorist groups in the 2000s to protect their interests in South America, or the history of the United Fruit Company massacre 

But the process of refining the information and providing visual examples has been challenging and really impactful in the classroom.  I have found when I make the video, I have such a clearer goal of what I want my students to know.  I have struggled with how to cover WORLD HISTORY in a year that is global.  Even if I use the AP standards, they are intentionally open ended to allow teachers to use different examples.  There is so much content, it is impossible to cover all of it in one year.   Having clear goals and information you wish your students to know, makes the class manageable for students and myself.

The students who watched the videos have a much higher retention of the content than from just reading the textbook.  They have visuals of the information.  Although there are great visuals in the textbook, they often skip over them in the reading.  When students see maps, charts, or pictures in the textbook, they are relieved because that means less reading on a page.  Having the images in the videos forces the students to see the visuals. 

Additionally, I created a quiz for each video and now have used the feedback function in Schoology. 

The feedback function on a quiz allows the user to provide instant feedback on why the answer is right or wrong.  Since I am creating these questions, I am providing a quick few words on why the answer choice is wrong. The students who have used it, found it to be a great resource if they comprehend the information.    

I still do not know how I am going to use these videos in the future. I am not sure if it will become the primary homework or just use as a supplement.  The videos take a lot of time to prepare and research, but are quick to make once I have all of the prep work finished. Also, the quizzes take time to make.  The whole process can be time consuming and I advise those wishing to start making videos that they should NOT have the goal of making all of them in one year. 

The students enjoy when I put a superhero or Star Wars character behind me.  They always seem to notice those changes depending on my location of where I film them.  

Historical Twitter Handles?

By Mark Heintz

The strategy below is a post reading strategy that is easy to implement and gets a lot out of the students.  I have posted about how my history classes usually begin with some sort of warm up relating to documents.  Sometimes they are pictures, but usually they are a reading.  You can read more about them here.

Recently, my students read a few short paragraphs on the British East India Company. I wanted to see how much my students understood from the reading.  At the end of the reading they were asked to create a twitter handle about the document and a tweet that showcased their understanding of the passage.  This was the first time I used this strategy and I wasn't sure how it would go.  But it turned out to be pretty great. Some of the examples were pretty hilarious or very informative.

 The great thing about this strategy was the effort and thought the students put into the task.  They were reading the passage over and over again to come up with something good.  As I walked around the class, I saw students go through several drafts to get to one that was worth sharing!  Several drafts! It was suppose to be a simple post reading exercise, but ended up being an exercise in mental gymnastic that students really cared about.  At the end, some examples were shared over AppleTV.   Give it a try yourself, and let me know how it goes!

Adding Tech to Writing Assignments

By Kim Miklusak

Last week I attended the CASE Conference (Council for American Studies Education).  The topic this year was storytelling, specifically how do we tell the stories of others and how do we honor the voices in our classroom.  You can check out the conference program here, but one session jumped out at me as a technology coach.

Klein & Bachman, American Studies teachers from New Trier, presented on how they combined a traditional research paper with iBooks.  What an interesting blend of technology to enhance learning!  The students went through all of the traditional steps of preparing for and writing a research paper.  When they finished, they imported their work into an iBook and added videos, photos, links, and quizzes to visually reference what they discussed in their paper.

For example, one student analyzed Disney princesses over time and their effects on women's roles in society.  After importing and formatting the research paper into iBooks, the student added photographs of Disney princesses with pop-up boxes of additional descriptions of the characters, video clips from Snow White demonstrating how subservient she was around the dwarfs' house, and even photographs of the author as a child dressed up in princess outfits!

While this project was done with a more extensive writing assignment, it seems that if a school had easy access to technology, this would be an interesting idea to enhance almost any writing assignment!