Tag: 21-A1

In most educational settings, history is often taught in a stale, immovable way. This was my experience until my junior and senior years of high school, when I was lucky enough to have several teachers who valued making history feel tangible and valuable to the lives of students. The main way my teachers created this feeling was by viewing the same historical event through multiple lenses. 

Prior to this point in my education, I had been taught that there was one true story of history, the only story. In my junior year History of the Americas class, my world was opened up to the truth and validity of multiple points of view for the same subject. This was introduced by analyzing the same historical events, such as Columbus’ conquest, banana republics, the Mexican-American War, etc. from perspectives of multiple sides. We analyzed first- and second-person accounts, historical texts and timelines, and even incorporated examination of magical realism literature to strive to reach a fuller picture of how history can mold the experiences of many different people in varying ways. History did not feel dry or perfunctory, but instead took on so much emotion and connectedness.

My teachers never discouraged us from sharing our own perspectives as well, allowing us to partake in history and therefore making it more important to our own lives. This was particularly important during the subjects of the 9/11 attacks and the Arab-Israeli conflict. We would often have discussions before a unit, where we would discuss what we knew about a subject, maybe with an introductory overview taking place first to help aid the discussion. This also allowed my teachers some form of assessment in order to scaffold knowledge into the class based on what was already known about the subjects. Discussion or debate often led to a lot of emotion over the topics, and I appreciate that my teachers never shied away from facilitating difficult conversations. 

For me, what was most impactful from those classes were the reviews at the end, which were often written assessments of what we had learned, what affected us the most, and what questions we still had. From seeing many perspectives on a historical event, it made me feel the validity of my own point of view and those of my peers, knowing that history did not exist in some untouchable place in the world. The amount of freedom we were afforded really bolstered our autonomy in terms of Self-Determination Theory, and made us value ourselves and our place in history. 

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This post is quite difficult for me for a few different reasons. Frankly, I don’t remember that much from my history classes, or specifically, what “design elements” “worked” “for me”. What I mean by that is I was the epitome of the intrinsically motivated learner, almost to a fault. If there was something I didn’t care for, I didn’t want to know it, and there wasn’t much a teacher could to do get me to learn or retain the knowledge. On the other hand, if I was interested in the subject (and I was very much interested in history) then I would dive head first into the deep end, with little regard to what the teacher had planned.

I’m sure my AP U.S. History teacher used a variety of different methods to teach her class; she was a nationally recognized teacher who literally wrote the AP U.S. exams and graded the extended response questions every year (she might have even graded your essay response, if you took the A.P. U.S. History test in the past 2 decades). But by my junior year, I already knew that I would be majoring in history, so a lot of the activities she did outside of straight up lectures I didn’t really care for. I remember we had imaginary debates, but I didn’t like those, and typically didn’t do too well on them either. I think we had one or two group projects/presentations, but once again, I didn’t like working with others at the time since I just wanted to read, discuss said readings, and be lectured to.

Now A.P. European History was a different beast altogether. For one, it consisted primarily of soon to be history, political science, and international relations majors, so those that were in the course were in it because this was part of their potential field of study. Second, the teacher billed it as an actual college course, and he designed it like one, which meant reading assignments, discussions of said readings in class followed by lectures, and the periodic paper due every so often. This was the type of class I responded best to.

While it is interesting the two classes used vastly different formats, it makes sense when one considers the type of students that were in the rooms. As previously mentioned, the Euro class was made up of students that tended to be intrinsically motivated learners. When it came to history. A.P. U.S., on the other hand, was decidedly not so. U.S. history is a mandatory class in most, if not all, of the country, and those who are on the A.P. track would obviously chose the college level course over the standard variety. Also, in my high school, there was an SAT test prep component to this particular A.P. course, to encourage those on that track to enroll in the class.

So, these two factors meant that the course attracted a wider audience, and thus the need to use different activities and “design elements” to cater to the diverse learning styles and intelligences that populated the U.S. class. It makes sense that it would be this way, as Euro was a much more specialized class. I think ultimately one needs to teach to the audience that the class consists of, and catering the techniques used to the students in the room. These two classes in my high school did this with great success,  and is something all teachers should and could do to make their teaching and instruction more effective.

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I remember very little from my high school history courses. I remember heavy textbooks, and dry lectures. I remember the exhaustion of memorizing names and dates, without the reward of retaining them. The most important thing I learned from those classes was what NOT to do.

I was lucky enough to have gone to a history magnet middle school, and the excitement and curiosity instilled in me there kept me afloat during the arduous sessions of high school classes. Once one discovers the magic and power of history, the light never goes out.

My middle school experience was powerful and successful because it focused on absolute historical immersion. We worked in teams, and each team would represent a certain group of individuals at a time. For example, during the unit on Ancient Greece, the teams were Greek City States; ‘Athens,’ ‘Sparta,’ ‘Delphi,’ ‘Corinth,’ etc. Each team would explore real historical figures from their City State and adopt this person as their identity for the unit. We would hold mock gatherings, listen to music of the period, study art, read literature. Even our other subjects revolved around whatever unit we were studying. I’ll once again use Greece as an example. We studied math and science with Pythagorus, Archimedes, and Aristotle. We read Homer and Herodotus. We performed plays (the un-explicit versions, of course) of Sophocles and Euripides.

Our entire class would journey to the past for the unit (we had three each year, changing teams with each unit) and become part of whatever world we were learning about. Every moment was an adventure on our personal ‘Magic School Bus.’ It really was as if history were coming alive.

We students had the structure of a time and place, and the total freedom to explore it. This autonomy allowed us to deep dive into subjects that interested us personally, while still sticking to curriculum. We were given primary, secondary, and tertiary resources, but we were also taught to discover our own- developing and exploring our opinions. I find this balance of structure and autonomy key in my learning experience. By bringing people, places, and events to life, I was able to connect to them and care about them. I remember more from my middle school days than my high school days because in the former, history became real. It held weight and context. History was real, tangible, and therefor, significant and fascinating. Where high school was rule and blind information, middle school was guidance and discovery.

I fully intend to bring these techniques of immersion into my classroom, and truly make history alive.

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When reflecting on my high school history courses, one specific learning experience never fails to stand out amongst the rest. This experience developed my overall interest in history and gave me the opportunity to engage in historical thinking in ways I never had before.

In my senior year of high school, I took a two-period course simply titled “Humanities”. One period was dedicated to studying historical events, and the other exposed us to literature related to these events. For example, one of our first units focused on ancient civilizations. We would spend one part of the class gaining overall background knowledge on these civilizations. In the other half, we would read texts from this time period, such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, and relate the texts to the background we had built prior.

Throughout the year-long course, we were made to complete one major assignment from which the majority of our final grade was based upon. For this assignment, we were asked to think of a specific person, concept, place, or event from any point in the past to write an academic paper about. The first half of the year was dedicated to research. We were expected to find copious amounts of primary and secondary sources that helped us not only understand our topic, but also gave us enough understanding so that we could make a hypothesis about the topic from which we could explore. For example, I first chose to study Akhenaten, an Egyptian pharaoh. As I gained knowledge about this person, I developed the hypothesis that Akhenaten’s rejection of polytheism to pursue the worship of the sun god, Aten, was a direct influence on the creation of Judaism.

We spent the second half of the year writing and rewriting our papers. We reviewed one another’s and quickly came to understand the content of every other students’ writing. Towards the end of the year, we presented our work at a conference where the students of other schools were present. When we were not presenting, we sat through other’s presentations and engaged in academic discussion with the presenter.

This experience was the most engaging and effective work I participated in throughout my academic career. After years of learning from others, I was finally able to choose something that I was interested in without any restrictions on what I chose. I was then able to conduct the research that I believed was the most relevant to my own learning. Then, I was able to form my own ideas and opinions, strengthen these with research, and teach others what I knew and how I got there. The end product was something I was extremely proud of and confident in. Five years after the completion of this assignment, and I can still confidently defend my thesis. I believe the autonomy and the support I was given throughout the project made it successful.

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