1. As a U.S. History teacher, most of my outside-school experience with my subject matter has come from books. However, I have also attained further knowledge from reading articles, watching movies, visiting monuments, and traveling.
For example, I recently visited the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. At the museum there is an exhibit called We The People that is an animated visual history wall that tells the history of the United States through specific themes, including diversity, intolerance, and rights.
2. I don't feel like my initial thoughts on the Ball article were changes, as much as they were expanded. I think everyone agrees that a teacher can becomes more effective as they gain a greater amount of content knowledge. One of the things that the article did not focus on was how we should go about accomplishing this goal. Much of the latter part of our in-class discussion focused on the question of how to achieve the goal.
In a perfect world where schools have more money than they need, I think it is something that can be financially incentivized. Taking actions to expand your content knowledge, whether that is reading a book, going to a conference, taking courses at a community college, etc., would be rewarded with a stipend on top of the teacher's salary. Of course, given the current funding situation, this is not likely. It could also just be something that is emphasized in departments. I could see a Social Studies Department some form of book club where the teachers read various book related to the different subjects and then get together to discuss the book and how knowledge gained from the book could be implemented into a curriculum.
3. My Inquiry Question is: Would creating a thematic curriculum that replaces the traditional US History textbook with alternative resources create increased student engagement and learning in the content?
There seems to be a good amount of information available that will help me further develop my ideas related creating a curriculum that throws out the textbook. The book Lies My Teacher Told Me is more specifically about the shortcomings of US History textbooks, but the book references a number of studies that discuss textbooks in general. Furthermore, I have found a number of studies that discuss the problems with textbooks through google searches and searches on the SMC library resources database.
My experiential learning resources will be focused on the themes that I am developing for the US History curriculum. For example, if one of my themes is Immigration and Migration in the United States, Angel Island would be a great experiential resource to support knowledge related to that pecific theme.
Comments
I posted a comment on the following blogs
- Julia Wegher - masterbloggersmc.blogspot.com
- Yadira Zapata - unahistoriadeunamaestra.blogspot.com
- Mike Rose - Mikejas.blogspot.com
I had a similar experience with the Ball article. I too found that the in-class discussion expanded my understanding of the article, but not necessarily change my initial reaction/thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of a book club is a really interesting idea. I can see great benefits in doing so in History and English departments.
I also think that your capstone project question is really interesting and unique. I feel that in a time when we want students to become better critical thinkers, more independent learners and better prepared for college-this is a step in the right direction!
Troy,
ReplyDeleteI am very intrigued about your inquiry plan to try and teach US History thematically without using a textbook. I have often thought about doing this in an ancient civilizations class, but I have not had the courage (or time) to re-write the curriculum. I am really excited to see how this turns out for you!
Troy,
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that your outside knowledge comes from books, articles, and movies. In reading others blogs, I found that most history teachers have said that traveling to other countries has contributed to their passion and knowledge and that wasn't something that you mentioned. You touched on the Tolerance museum, but that isn't fully immersing yourself in another place; as others have mentioned. I'm not saying that's a bad thing it's just an observation.
I like that you mentioned Ball didn't provided a solution or a specific focus to solve the problem of how we as teachers can be fully effective. I think our class discussion brought out the many troubles in the education system as a whole. Like you said, a department focus on book clubs or what not is a good start in becoming more effective, knowledgeable teachers.
I love the idea of a book club. It could be expanded in the summer to include one place to visit as a department. Your research on thematic history is one that I would love to follow as you do it. I know at least one person at CHS who does it, and swears by it.
ReplyDeleteI once taught with a teacher that used "Don't Know Much About History" as his text, supplemented with primary and secondary sources. I've always thought that would work well. Since you are in a private school, you are lucky that you don't "have to" use a text. I use the text minimally, but I still need to use it. I'll be curious to see what you come up with. Howard Zinn's "People's History" would be good as well. I'd try to focus your future annotations on books and sources you might want to use in your text-free course.
ReplyDelete