B.A. Social Studies
In September, I was fortunate enough to be chosen for and attend “A Residential Weekend at Mount Vernon” for teachers from Missouri and Kentucky. I have participated in many professional development opportunities in the past and this one is at the top of the list. It was only four days, but was well organized, the group of teachers in attendance were top notch and passionate, and the scholars were professional historians AND passionate educators--a unique and integral combination for a program like this. The education team at the Washington Library does a terrific job providing a program that balances content with pedagogy--something that is often neglected at professional development opportunities which usually focus on one or the other. This post will focus on the same and is the basis for a presentation that I will co-present at the Missouri Council for the Social Studies Conference in February. I have also had a student-teacher this semester, but have stayed as busy as ever restructuring my government course using Project/Problem Based pedagogy throughout and working to become a stronger leader in and out of my district through this blog and the creation of this website. Along the way, I was able to go to the eighth grade because of a welcoming colleague to present a lesson on what I learned at Mount Vernon. As a teacher that has only junior and senior level courses this is a little intimidating, but I was excited to get out of my classroom and present the content that I gained from my time my experience. One of the key ideas that I took away from Mount Vernon was that there was more to George Washington than the typical person thinks about. To prove the point, ask yourself the question: “Who was George Washington?” Your answer? First United States president… General… The guy on the dollar bill… Maybe even the president of the Constitutional Convention… Before my experience at Mount Vernon, this was pretty much all that I ever thought of Washington, and I am actually quite ashamed as a historian that I would be so shallow. I asked the eighth graders this same question with predictable results. Here are some of the “faces” of Washington that the average person misses: landowner (THOUSANDS of acres), slave owner (a complex topic), westward expansionist (investor in a company to build a canal connecting the Potomac to the Mississippi), land speculator, technology aficionado (I’m convinced that he would have owned the latest iPhone for the sake of organization and efficiency), mill owner, distillery owner, progressive farmer, and one who valued education. Our eighth grade teacher does a great job teaching students to work through primary sources lending perfectly to what I wanted to do. I researched and found documents that displayed all of the different facets that I wanted to expose those students to and narrowed them down to key excerpts for them to digest. I annotated them with questions with the intent of teaching students the value of jotting notes while reading in order to analyze and understand text (See below or the "Identity of George Washington" tab). I was impressed with the ability of these students to take transcripts of letters from Washington as well as his Last Will and Testament and summarize the information. From that point, students completed a “George Washington was….” statement and had to cite their evidence from the readings as justification. In the end, they were given a coloring page portrait of Washington, and asked to fill in the background in a way that depicted his identity based on their assigned document. Obviously, the students seemed to get into this part and eventually, they presented their information to their classmates as the basis for other discussions about Washington and what the documents could tell us about the United States during his time. Student Examples: "Based on the primary source, George Washington was a/an....."The most impressive part from my perspective was how students were able to have discussions about some interesting topics. Slavery is a key topic that is also difficult to teach and for students to understand. The students that had the “slaveowner” document wrestled with the idea that Washington freed his slaves in his will, but not during his life. Others also saw that he was concerned for their health and education and most understood that his reasons were for the efficiency of Mount Vernon. They concluded that he was “a good slave owner,” “a hypocrite slaveowner,” and “a nice slave owner.” All of these conclusions led to interesting dialogue and class discussion based on the idea that "good" and "slave owner" don't typically fit together. Finally, I think that students really understood Washington’s identity as savvy business person and entrepreneur, a point that I really wanted to get across. When you discuss that he had a mill and distillery so that he could sell finished products along with diverse investments in raw materials and crops as well as progressive farming techniques it really opens students’ eyes to who he was as a private person. In the end, I think the students really grasped the idea that along with being the first president, war hero, and great leader, Washington was also very normal in the fact that he was a business person trying to make a profit and had other “regular” identities. This focus is important when looking at American History as a whole. Consensus historians often neglect many of these facets and and many of the Founding Fathers lose their human qualities. A lesson like this really helps students to understand that the founders of the United States were not gods, but real people with real issues, struggles, successes, and failures and allows them to connect and realize this fact. I think that’s key to getting students to understand and appreciate history as a story of individual experiences that culminate into the big picture. Personifying a figure with the historical stature like George Washington adds to their understanding of history and hopefully adds to student engagement and interest in the field. Hopefully this post will help you implement a little bit of "G.W." into your courses as a man of his time and a complex figure in the history of the United States. Lesson Documents:
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AuthorBrian Anton currently serves the Purdy R-II (Missouri) School District as the 7-12 Principal after working in the PK-12 Assistant Principal and Athletic Director roles for two years. In the 12 years prior to moving into administration, he served as an award-winning high school social studies teacher. Archives
September 2018
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