B.A. Social Studies
In Missouri, we are seeing the first new state assessments being developed in the social studies in over ten years. I have been fortunate to be a part of the process in the two most recent stages by developing items and working in the content and bias review of those items. The process is difficult work and I can honestly say that I left each day ready to hit the pillow. With all of that said, I have been asked by multiple people to share some takeaways from the process and how it has helped me to prepare my students for the new assessments being piloted this year. Here are my tips: This process began when the state of Missouri evaluated and changed from the Course/Grade Level Expectations (CLE’s) of old to the new Missouri Learning Standards (MLS). This is where quality instruction begins. I encourage you to dive in, and I mean really dive in, to the new standards. In government specifically, I think that you will notice a major shift to include much more history regarding the development of the Constitution compared to the previous standards. This is a major challenge for us in the government classroom as the 9-12 standards do not address the history of the Constitution and Early Republic. There is a major void here that government teachers and schools will need to address. How will we fill in these gaps in the curriculum? I have started teaching more of that history directly into my class, and as a result of my students lacking exposure over the course of three years (8th-11th grade) to that history, I have to assume that that they do not have any background regarding that information. A ton of reteaching is involved, but is necessary if we want to work to be successful on that all important government EOC. With all of this being said, there is plenty of room for discussion pertaining to the processes and principles of government in both world and United States history courses, but this will need to be a serious discussion among departments and curriculum coordinators in districts statewide. In the end, we are asking social studies teachers and departments to prepare students for the government EOC as a result of it being the lone state assessment in the subject in K-12. As it does with any part of our students’ educations, it takes a team effort to ensure that students are prepared for success. Sitting through the process of both writing and reviewing items over the course of two different sessions, the most significant tool used to determine content was the item specifications provided by DESE (click here to find them). In the item writing portion, they were the starting point for development and then in the content and bias review items were compared with them. Specifically, the content limits/assessment boundaries were the most used resource in the room. You need to download them and have them easily accessible for each standard in order to best understand what you need to be providing for your students in regard to content. The specs also inform educators what types of items and stimulus (sometimes specifically) that students will need to be exposed to prior to the assessment. Gone are the days of the fifty item multiple choice test. The multiple choice option is only one of many that item writers have at their disposal. The options for assessment types seem to be endless and students can expect to label images using drag and drop, use drop down fill in the blank items, complete open-ended items, and hot text among others. We will need to prepare our students for this new wave of technology-enhanced questions in order to ensure that they have the highest opportunity to be successful. In order to address this concern, I have started using the Schoology (who I am in no way endorsing) assessment technology-enhanced items. There are other tools available with these capabilities (see this post from “The Techie Teacher”), but I would encourage you to be sure that you are finding and using one to best prepare your students. We need to be preparing our students with the same style of assessment items in order to best overcome what is a potential barrier for success. We do not want our students, our teachers, buildings, and districts to be labeled as less than proficient if the issue is assessment taking ability over the content and curriculum skills. Gone are the days of cramming facts into our students heads--knowing that the First Amendment contains the five freedoms is far from demonstrating an understanding of how they are protected and applied. A significant takeaway for me was that it will be necessary to expect students to move beyond the memorization of facts and concepts. Expect items to vary regarding Depth of Knowledge (DOK) level. In the past, the multiple choice items have reached to achieve level two, but you will see that some items, due to the technology capabilities will climb higher on the new assessment. There is a focus on historical thinking skills and how they can be assessed. Students will be asked to apply their DOK level one knowledge in order to address the items at a high level. None of this is to say that we can move to the higher orders without having the base knowledge, but there is going to have to be a focus in our classes on preparing past the basics.
Due to the chronological distance that our students have from 9/11, they often struggle to connect to that day personally. In most cases, they understand the general events surrounding the terrorist attacks and the mass number of casualties, but tend to be disconnected from the impact on individual lives and families. When I had the opportunity to study September 11th at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York with Gilder Lehrman over the summer, I focused on creating a lesson that would help my students make a more meaningful, personal, and emotional connection to the events surrounding that day. Every year our school district remembers 9/11 with a brief flag raising ceremony that always touches me and many of our faculty and staff members, but as I look around at our student body, they generally go through the motions and don’t necessarily understand the gravity and impact that the day that we are remembering had on the United States and the world. I was not directly impacted by the events that day, but watched them live from the classroom where I currently teach (second seat, second row) as a high school senior and was indirectly impacted by the economic, social, and military consequences of the attack on the country. It is the central historical event in my lifetime and the one that shook the world. It’s almost cliche to say that the world isn’t and never will be the same as before that day, but the older I get, the more I understand that statement. Spending five days in New York only enhanced my curiosity and emotional connection to that day. My most significant takeaways from my time spent at the memorial and museum were the number of names engraved into the memorial and the sheer size of the site and footprint of the World Trade Center. I searched for a way to help my students understand the scope of the attack in terms of the material (the twin towers and other buildings) and immaterial (the lives lost on that day). Our students are often introduced to film footage and summaries of the events of that day, but in most circumstances are not connected to it with any emotion. I grappled over the first three to four days with how to communicate the sheer size of the terrorist attacks while portraying each of the 2,996 people murdered that day as individuals. One of the centerpieces of the museum is the Ladder Company 3 fire truck. It is a unique piece that offers so many different interpretations of the event. Size, individuality, sacrifice and randomness each come to mind when reflecting on the artifact as it sits in the void between the footprints of the towers on the lowest floor (bedrock) of the museum. The massive truck suffered major damage, proving that the event was one of large scale. The question about who was on or travelled to the Trade Center on it also comes to mind immediately as they were taking significant risk to save lives. Finally, the truck can be divided into two segments, the rear, where there is moderate damage, and the front, which is absolutely destroyed and is recognizable only as large mangled pieces of metal, showing the randomness of the damage as a result of the attacks. As I walked through the museum multiple times, this piece continued to resonate with me and I kept coming back to it and eventually decided to turn it into an activity for my students to experience. I photographed the truck--not from the typical perspective of taking in the whole, but in segments from one of its rear wheels and tires, then consecutively backing away slowly providing more information to my students for them to analyze until I reached the line between the moderate damage in the rear and complete destruction in the front. These photos were going to be released to my students in the same way in the classroom activity. The activity was still missing the personal connection that I felt with the truck though. In order to find that meaning for myself and my students, I made my way to the memorial and found the names of each firefighter from Ladder Company 3 that died sacrificing their lives in order to save others. The classroom activity began and ended with these photos. When displaying the photos of the engraved names in the memorial, I provided no background, I simply asked my students to find a sheet of paper and tell me what they saw and next, to tell me what they thought. Most of them stated, “names,” then after being asked to provide more detail, they added a bit--”engraved names,” “somebody being remembered for some reason,” and others noticed the drops of water on the pieces of stone. Simply stated though, those names meant nothing to them at the beginning of the activity. The next photo reveals only one of the rear wheels and tires on the truck. It is a bit obvious that it’s a fire truck, leading students to make some basic assumptions. There is very little damage to this tire, only a patch and a small bit of damage in the right side of the photo reveal that there might be something out of the ordinary taking place. The second photo releases the second wheel and tire--it shows more damage as the tire is flat and the wheel damaged. After each of these photos are released the questions “what do you see?” and “what do you think/wonder?” were asked to the students who documented their answers on their paper throughout the entire activity. The next two photos reveal the rear half of the truck slowly. The first displaying the back ⅔ of it, and the second showing the entirety of the rear half of the truck. It is evident at this point that there was major damage to the truck. Students were then asked the same questions as above, but then an additional question, “what would your experience have been if you were here at the moment that this happened?” Then to clarify, “what would you be seeing, smelling, hearing, touching?” Finally, the students were instructed to draw or explain what they think the front end of the truck looks like. It is typically completely different to what the actual information released to them is in the next photo. In the final photo, the entirety of the fire truck was released to the students. In one class, there were gasps, and I think this makes it hit home that the damage was major and they begin asking themselves about the firefighters and making that connection. The same questions were asked, including the one about the experience. To drive the point home, I asked them to compare their experiences between the front and rear of the truck and in another to put themselves at the rear of the truck with their best friend standing at the front of the truck--this drives home the point of the randomness of the events that took place that day. If they were standing near the rear, they would have had a decent chance of living, but would have probably been injured, but if they were only three feet away, those chances of living were greatly diminished. After students were given a moment to process the entire scene, the photos of the names were then presented to them again and they were asked, “now what do these names mean to you?” This was one of the more emotional days in my ten years as a classroom teacher. I think that if you put yourself through the process honestly, you will feel the same way that they did. I was so proud of my students for working through the process and noticing the details, then processing what they felt afterward in a blog post where they shared their experiences throughout this activity. It created an atmosphere of curiosity about the event and we decompressed by opening the floor to questions about the day, the memorial, and the museum. Overall, the activity accomplished the goals of providing personal insight and emotion to the event and changed many perspectives on the events surrounding 9/11. Student Blog Posts: Reflections on 9/11 ActivityBased on my reflection of the development and implementation of PBL into my classroom last year, I have decided that one of my two key focuses for this year is to improve and implement stronger inquiry based strategies into my curriculum (the other being student blogging--a subject for a future post). The intent of making this change is to allow my students to have better control over their learning and to begin thinking of research as a continuous inquiry process with the end goal of justifying their opinions and supporting them with evidence. Last year as I developed my project/problem based curriculum I began each unit by providing my students with their “essential question” that would drive their learning for the duration. To begin, we broke down the question into many smaller or more detailed ones. In general, students struggled through the process because they did not understand the purpose of it. I explained it as part of the research process and in general, they played along, looking for the specific number of questions that I assigned for them to put together. We created questions as a group, and in general, the students came up with decent ones, but after all of that, I took those questions, and chose which ones met my needs regarding curriculum and content. I found that I was artificially having my students drive inquiry and we never came back to their questions after developing them. After reading Make Just One Change from the Right Question Institute (RightQuestion.org), I found a new method to try to drive this inquiry process and actually provide my students to take more control of their learning by allowing them to drive the research process more completely. In general, the only variation that I made was changing my essential question into a statement that I decided to introduce to my students as a hypothesis for them to prove or disprove. For example, in my government course, my first unit essential question last year was, “What are the most significant principles of American Government and what are their origins?” I changed that to the statement/hypothesis, “The ideas put into the Constitution by the Delegates at the Constitutional Convention were original.” We spent a week on the process of developing our driving questions. In the end, each class now has developed their own research question, from which each group will begin their research. My students were challenged and highly engaged throughout the entirety of the week and I’m excited to see where it takes us. Here is a summary of the first week of the process and implementation specifically. I encourage you to give it a shot! Day 1: Introduce the “Question Focus” and the “Rules for Questioning” from the Right Question Institute. The Right Question Institute (RightQuestion.org) has gone into great depth to develop a Question Formulation Technique (QFT) which is the basis for the development of this portion of our unit in class. I used their rules for developing questions for students to follow which include the following:
Though I didn’t use their QFT to a tee, I did follow the basic direction that they provide and their rules briefly explaining the purpose of the rules in this activity. Next, I introduced the Question Focus to each class. In the government course, it is “The ideas put into the Constitution by the delegates at the Constitutional Convention were original” and in economics it is “The economy is in better shape now than at the beginning of President Obama’s administration.” In the introduction to how each statement should be used in regard to question development, I explained that the students’ job was to prove or disprove the statement using credible research including data for the economics course and primary sources for the government one and that their questions should drive their research. Finally, the students, in groups of two or three, were provided with as much time as needed to develop questions based on the focus statement. It is a process full of ebbs and flows, students struggled getting through the first few questions, but went through highly productive spurts along the way. As I circulated the room in many cases, they were struggling, then when I came back around they had five or ten more questions down. The key to making this process work is to be involved and constantly remind the students of the rules. In general this can be done in a light hearted way and the process is pretty collaborative and enjoyable for the students. Day 2: Prioritize the Questions and Place on Brainstorming Wall To begin the second day, students were asked to prioritize their questions based on the idea that they were developing them to use in their research, reminding them that their goal was to prove or disprove the Question Focus. In order to help them with this process, in their groups, students evaluated each one individually. Upon completion of that step, they were assigned with the task of choosing their top five and writing them on a note card in Sharpie that was eventually taped to the wall (in our hallway due to space restrictions and wanting to offer audience for their work). Students were also asked to evaluate on their process of developing the questions and to write a blog post to share their thoughts. In those blogs, students acknowledged the challenge and the thinking skills that it took to develop those questions. Days 3-4: Creating the Class Research Question: The final phase of class inquiry consisted of two sections, top question selection, then another round of prioritization. To begin the process of narrowing our research focus, each group was offered the opportunity to vote for the three “best research questions” on the brainstorm wall which now included all of the classes’ top questions using a sharpie to dot their votes. Each group also chose the #1 question that they saw on the wall that they thought would be the best to start research. From that point, the top questions that each group decided was the best were written on the board and shared with each class. From there, they evaluated each one, ranking them from most important for beginning research to the least important of the ones on the board. Each group provided their number for each question and the numbers were averaged to come up with the starting question for the class to begin researching. At this point, each class has decided on their own research direction based on their entire class contribution combined with the contributions of the other section of the course. It is interesting to note that each class chose a different question to begin their research.
Day 5: Introduction to Researching the Questions At this point, the students have understood that this course will be made up of sustained inquiry as a part of their project based units. Therefore, they understood that they were not done asking questions. Although we had narrowed our research focus, I still wanted to offer them the opportunity to personalize the question if they did not necessarily agree that it was the “best one.” For this reason, students were asked to evaluate the class question, then break it down into five more detailed research questions. Finally, students divided up those questions among their group members and were set to begin their basic research with the caveat that they were expected not to answer those questions, but to begin creating a database of people, places, things, documents, ideas, etc. that will direct their next set of questions. It’s awesome to see that the students have taken to the process of developing the questions and that they are wanting to dive in and answer them, but I am still working them through the process of developing research by expanding their net before just trying to answer the question. This will be a continuous process, and I’m excited to see how it continues to challenge them and promote higher order thinking. As a social studies educator and advocate, I am aware that the general consensus is that the United States lacks proper civics education. I agree. In terms of social studies education, including civics education, we are "missing the boat." This has been well documented. In schools, the social studies have been thrown to the side in many instances due to the pressure to perform on math, science, and reading tests.
I am also an advocate of preparing our students for “college and career readiness.” Another focus that the government has pushed over the last decade and one that innovative educators are addressing. Students should leave with higher level thinking skills that will prepare them for their future endeavors and good educators are working to provide them with the tools to do so. With this being said, I would like to discuss the Civics Education Initiative, and its recent adoption in Missouri (among other states). Under the current law (Missouri HB 1646--Signed by the governor on June 22, 2016): “Any student entering the ninth grade after July 1, 2017, who is attending any public, charter, or private school, except private trade schools, as a condition of high school graduation shall pass an examination on the provisions and principles of American civics. The examination shall consist of one hundred questions similar to the one hundred questions used by the USCIS that are administered to applicants for U.S. citizenship. The examination required under this section may be included in any other examination that is administered on the provisions and principles of the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Missouri, and in American history and American institutions, as required in subsection 3 of section 170.011.” I have no problem with the intent of this law and I am a proponent of that intent. The issue that I have is the obvious contradiction that the government has put into place. If the end-goal for our students in K-12 education is “college and career readiness,” I would like an explanation about how a test with “100 Facts Every High School Student Should Know” is preparing them to meet that goal. There is an obvious disconnect proving that our elected officials are consistently playing politics without common sense in mind in many cases regarding education reform and improvement. I understand how a “nea” to this would not be politically savvy and probably was not an option on the table in almost all cases. If you say no to this, you are saying no to stronger civics education. Or are you? I argue that a “yea” narrows social studies and civic education down to a set of “100 Facts” that any student can memorize in a week. As a result of this, what will happen in classrooms as a result? Nothing. Most educators will continue to teach social studies at a higher level than this and in the exact same way that they have been. Social studies once again gets reduced to simply “one hundred questions similar to the one hundred questions used by the USCIS that are administered to applicants for U.S. citizenship.” This initiative in its current form does not strengthen civic education, but instead diminishes it. The role of social studies once again gets sent to the backburner. Instead of providing students with the opportunity to think at a higher level, determine how they are going to participate in the government, along with determining what they believe, they will be taught 100 basic facts. Students are going to miss out on the best and most important part of social studies courses, learning how to decipher what they think and know and becoming key contributors to society and United States democracy. If we want students to become knowledgeable, responsible, conscientious, and civically engaged, is the best way to have them simply memorize these basic facts for a state mandated test? If our goal is to teach students how to think for themselves, we need to get more creative about ensuring that they learn civic values by teaching them to become part of the process. Being civically educated does not mean only knowing a series of simple facts, but by learning how to become an active part of United States democracy. This takes so much more than another required test. In Missouri, our students have been expected to “pass” tests on the United States and Missouri constitutions for decades. I can guarantee that the tests that I, and most other civics educators have developed take into account much more, at a higher level, than the simple set of factual knowledge that the Civics Education Initiative requires. Once again, education has been reduced to a standardized set of questions with an answer that can be memorized and forgotten. If we want real change and reform, we should be looking for innovative ways of teaching and assessing our goals with lasting impact, not another mandated test full of standardized questions to be regurgitated and forgotten. Disclaimer: The views expressed here are strictly those of the author and do not represent those of any organization in which he is affiliated. Text of Missouri HB 1646 Establishing the Civics Education Initiative: http://www.house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills161/billpdf/truly/HB1646T.PDF The Civics Education Initiative: http://civicseducationinitiative.org/ http://civicseducationinitiative.org/take-the-test/ Civics (American History and Government) Questions for the Naturalization Test: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Office%20of%20Citizenship/Citizenship%20Resource%20Center%20Site/Publications/100q.pdf |
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
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