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RE: Teaching Civil Rights
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From: Giffard, Sue <SGiffard_at_ecfs.org>
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:54:24 -0400
I agree, Monica. Perhaps because I am a librarian and not an historian, I f ocus on events in the civil rights movement as a story, and I try to tell t hat story, with the aid of documentary film, in a way that allows my studen ts to connect emotionally with the people in that story, their choices and how/why they might have acted in the way that they did. Much of the rest of it works as a kind of scaffolding in order to make sense of the story, but I doubt they hold onto many of the facts (except for the fact fiends, as y ou say). My hope is that they come away with some sense of the richness and human drama of the movement. What I've noticed over the years is that once we begin this unit, there is a sharpness to students' attention, as though they understand that what I'm sharing with them is something real and impo rtant, and, with a few exceptions, they act in class as though the material matters to them.
Sue Giffard Ethical Culture School New York, NY 10023 sgiffard_at_ecfs.org (212)712-6292
"Perhaps the only victory available
the victory of the heart over its own inclinations for despair, revenge and hatred." (Leonard Cohen, Septembe r 24, 2009)
________________________________________
From: Monica Edinger
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 11:26 AM To: CCBC message posting Subject: Re:
Teaching Civil Rights
(This just went to Tony yesterday because I hadn't clipped enough of his or iginal query, but I'm resending it to the list because I'm guessing others might be interested too.)
Sadly, I don't think history gets a lot of attention in these days of overf ocus on testing for reading and math. And I think it is hard to generalize throughout the country because it really depends on the local situation. I have heard of public school teachers still able to do creative teaching a nd others who cannot. All depends.
That said I also want to go on my teacher soapbox and suggest that a few th ings should be kept in mind when considering what children know and how the y know it. (I teach fourth grade and wrote a few books for teachers on tea ching history.) So even if kids have been exposed to something historical a nd even exposed to it well they still may not remember it well a few years later. Or even at all. I teach fourth grade in a very good school and teac hers are constantly shocked, shocked at what the kids don't know. They may , for example have learned something about Jim Crow (indeed most likely whe n discussing King or Parks) and forgotten it. Last year I did an assembly for grades 5-6 with a group of students focusing on Betsy Partridge's March ing for Freedom, but that doesn't meant the kids will hold on to it well.
Facts about history be it Jim Crow or the Holocaust or Vietnam or the Middl e Ages are tricky. I believe strongly that kids hold on to historical info rmation when they are invested in learning about it. They have to care. A nd too often they are given it in ways that are not worth caring about (unl ess you are a fact fiend:). I recently debated with Marc Aronson about the significance of the latest NAEP which focused on history. (My blog post ab out our debate is here: http://medinger.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/in-the-cla ssroom-nothing-but-the-facts/) I took a look at the fourth grade questions and there were so many facts that I bet those teachers just taught to the test and the kids got no depth and no historical understanding.
My suggestion is to just not expect them to know much or anything and take it from there.
Monica
-- Monica Edinger 600 West 111th Street Apt 2A New York NY 10025 educating alice _at_medinger on twitter My Huffington Post Blog
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:54:24 -0400
I agree, Monica. Perhaps because I am a librarian and not an historian, I f ocus on events in the civil rights movement as a story, and I try to tell t hat story, with the aid of documentary film, in a way that allows my studen ts to connect emotionally with the people in that story, their choices and how/why they might have acted in the way that they did. Much of the rest of it works as a kind of scaffolding in order to make sense of the story, but I doubt they hold onto many of the facts (except for the fact fiends, as y ou say). My hope is that they come away with some sense of the richness and human drama of the movement. What I've noticed over the years is that once we begin this unit, there is a sharpness to students' attention, as though they understand that what I'm sharing with them is something real and impo rtant, and, with a few exceptions, they act in class as though the material matters to them.
Sue Giffard Ethical Culture School New York, NY 10023 sgiffard_at_ecfs.org (212)712-6292
"Perhaps the only victory available
the victory of the heart over its own inclinations for despair, revenge and hatred." (Leonard Cohen, Septembe r 24, 2009)
________________________________________
From: Monica Edinger
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 11:26 AM To: CCBC message posting Subject: Re:
Teaching Civil Rights
(This just went to Tony yesterday because I hadn't clipped enough of his or iginal query, but I'm resending it to the list because I'm guessing others might be interested too.)
Sadly, I don't think history gets a lot of attention in these days of overf ocus on testing for reading and math. And I think it is hard to generalize throughout the country because it really depends on the local situation. I have heard of public school teachers still able to do creative teaching a nd others who cannot. All depends.
That said I also want to go on my teacher soapbox and suggest that a few th ings should be kept in mind when considering what children know and how the y know it. (I teach fourth grade and wrote a few books for teachers on tea ching history.) So even if kids have been exposed to something historical a nd even exposed to it well they still may not remember it well a few years later. Or even at all. I teach fourth grade in a very good school and teac hers are constantly shocked, shocked at what the kids don't know. They may , for example have learned something about Jim Crow (indeed most likely whe n discussing King or Parks) and forgotten it. Last year I did an assembly for grades 5-6 with a group of students focusing on Betsy Partridge's March ing for Freedom, but that doesn't meant the kids will hold on to it well.
Facts about history be it Jim Crow or the Holocaust or Vietnam or the Middl e Ages are tricky. I believe strongly that kids hold on to historical info rmation when they are invested in learning about it. They have to care. A nd too often they are given it in ways that are not worth caring about (unl ess you are a fact fiend:). I recently debated with Marc Aronson about the significance of the latest NAEP which focused on history. (My blog post ab out our debate is here: http://medinger.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/in-the-cla ssroom-nothing-but-the-facts/) I took a look at the fourth grade questions and there were so many facts that I bet those teachers just taught to the test and the kids got no depth and no historical understanding.
My suggestion is to just not expect them to know much or anything and take it from there.
Monica
-- Monica Edinger 600 West 111th Street Apt 2A New York NY 10025 educating alice _at_medinger on twitter My Huffington Post Blog
---Received on Sat 30 Jul 2011 03:54:24 PM CDT
