Concept-Based History Classroom

[Daniel Kam]

People often ask me, "What do you want to 'do' with your life." I don't always know how to answer that question. I know that I want to teach, but beyond that what do I really want to do?

There is one thing I definitely want to try and accomplish in my life and that is a truly integrated concept-based Junior High history curriculum. Admittedly, I only have one year of student teaching experience and this year jobs are sparse in California, so I am subbing during the day and working the nights at In-N-Our Burger, but I think a concept-based curriculum especially in a junior high classroom is very necessary to give kids the ability to interact in our modern world.

What I have found, much to my detriment, is that students in junior high history classes are overloaded with information, but are not asked to really "do" anything with it. I understand the impact of standards and how this limits teachers in what they can do, but I've been going through the CA history book that I have from student-teaching in my spare time and trying to think of a large-scale way to teach "concepts" rather than just facts and more facts.

I am looking for like-minded people who want to discuss this and or help in the creation of such a curriculum (or perhaps point me to resources that already exist). Thanks!

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

Hello Daniel,
There is one thing I keep thinking about in relation to teaching history. I keep thinking that you can't really learn it unless you talk about it, preferably internationally.
So many things that we study have either roots in other countries or affected other people and if we don't talk to these people and explore their perception of events (and the way they teach it) then we have done nothing.
If there is one thing that history taught and is teaching us all is the need for open conversation. So many conflicts could have been avoided if people would talk more openly and share their problems, fears, hopes.
So what I suggest is to find a class overseas or just in another area to collaborate with on the topics you learn. You can even develop mini ARGs (alternate reality games).

[Ed Jones]

Daniel,
I find three challenges with Jr. High students "doing" much with history.
1) they have so little experience with adult life that it is impossible for them to map historical lessons onto modern life.
2) their modern life is so different from historical life that they can't easily grasp the challenges of the past. How many have been cold or hungry for more than a few minutes? So how to grasp Valley Forge? Or, they from birth see their parents treated as free, independent citizens, so how to grasp the slavery (serfdom) of Polish, Slav, Russian peasants well into the 19th century?
3) they have so little knowledge of history (compared to earlier generations) to build upon.

So when you say teach "concepts" I wonder what you may mean. Do you mean giving simple labels to highly complex combinations of thoughts and events--industrialism, manifest destiny, post-modernism? Do you mean historical "lessons" such as 'the Poles haven't the civic discipline to have an independent country' 'Japanese are inherently Imperialistic', 'Arabs are too tribal for democracy' or 'Afghanistan's people and terrain are too wild to ever allow for self-determination'?

When I think of the concepts I would like them to learn, it has more to do with what it was like for Daniel Boone to blaze a new frontier across wild terrain, sometimes hostile people, and ever-changing ideas of governance. (Only without the big words I just used.) I would like the suburban students to grasp the concept of working all day in freezing cold, and then having no comfort but a thin blanket and holey canvas tent at night. I would like them to dig a ditch for a morning and then look at a hand-dug ditch 300 miles x 30x10 feet. To feel for a day the weariness of the American Army in 1781. To embrace the courage of Kennedy as he surveyed the spread of totalitarianism then weighed in; and Reagan as he fought his staff and advisers and called to "Tear Down this Wall". Yet these latter require oh so many facts to be synthesized.

Kennedy and Reagan in their foreign policy were embracing laws and the rights of the individual over the desires and rights of unelected kings. Should students recognize how this concept was developed from the time of David and before? How Jesus so eloquently embraced the same concepts, took issue on the sly with the brand new Roman Empire? How the Senate betrayed the Roman people and gave away their Republic?

Where do the facts stop and the concepts begin?

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

Hi Ed, been missing this energetic, imaginative writing of yours.
History is one of my personal favorite topics, yet I have a bad memory for facts. It's easier for me to remember the processes or consequences.

What you wrote is so true, though, and I haven't ever thought about it because I have a wild and active imagination: "How many have been cold or hungry for more than a few minutes? So how to grasp Valley Forge? Or, they from birth see their parents treated as free, independent citizens, so how to grasp the slavery (serfdom) of Polish, Slav, Russian peasants well into the 19th century?"
I used to imagine and read hundreds of books every year (as a child). Immerse myself into it. Even then it was difficult. Even though I heard stories told to me by my father, about his childhood, a mere 30 years age difference between us, it was hard to grasp an 8 year old traveling on his own across Europe, sometimes hungry, sometimes cold... Some of his stories I only began to understand when I became a mother myself.
No doubt, that to understand history requires a use of imagination and drama.
Just remembered this lovable ancient TV series - "the time tunnel"...

[Laura Gibbs]

Hi Or-Tal, I had forgotten about the Time Tunnel!

For me, too, it is the creative engagement with history that is really powerful. I love reading historical novels (and even as a child I read many of them), and I watch lots and lots of history-based films. For example, tonight, for Veterans Day, we are going to watch The Great Raid, a film about the Raid at Cabanatuan. Although it's a movie that got only average reviews, my husband and I were both really impressed by this movie when we saw it a couple years ago and picked it out to watch again today.

That being said, I really did not like any of my history classes in school; not a single one of them made any lasting impression at all. What was so alive and exciting and powerful to me in books and in films just went belly-up in the classroom. Why is that? I think I am not alone in that experience: even though history could be absolutel one of the most exciting subjects to share with students, there really are some huge pitfalls in whatever it is that goes on in the classroom.

Daniel and Ed, it is good to learn from your perspectives what kinds of things can be done to make history real and meaningful to students in the classroom!

[Laura Gibbs]

Hi Daniel, one of the things that has worked for me is moving my teaching towards a creative-writing based approach. If your goal is to get the students more ENGAGED, that is something I have found to be really effective. Facts can be alienating, but concepts can be alienating, too - if anything, concepts can be more alienating than facts because they are abstract. I'm all with Ed for the experience of digging ditches under the hot sun or wintering without the comforts of modern technology - admittedly, we probably cannot get students to actually experience that in the classroom but they can IMAGINATIVELY experience it.

My courses are not history courses, but every once in a while students want to do a project that has a historical element to it, and I am always glad when that happens. Here are some examples of the "Storybooks" my students have done that are pretty strongly historical - maybe this might inspire you to try some creative writing assignments with your students. This creating writing approach is something I have been really happy with it; nothing else I have done in my long career as a teacher has succeeded as much as having the students write creatively.

Heroes of the United Kingdom: this one is EXCEPTIONALLY good - so fun to read and such great material. She did the Guy Fawkes story right around Guy Fawkes Day this year - how perfect!
Mysterious Rock Star Deaths: okay, not really old history - but my students were born in the late 80s after all, so writing about the 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s is history for them
Medal of Honor: WWII Heroes: this one has proved EXTREMELY popular with the other students in class because they really want to learn more about World War II, usually motivated by seeing Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan
The Battle of Kosovo: Death of a Nation. A History major did this project and it turned out GREAT, expanding what the name "Kosovo" means to the students who got to read his stories.
In Search of Treasure - Pirate Diaries Unveiled. Pirates are a great topic for blending history and legend.
Diaries from the Women of the Wild West. This was a student who really was not happy with the class at first but when she latched onto this topic she became totally involved, and she did a good job!
Wild West Legends and Notorious Outlaws: Tales from the Wild West. Two other great explorations of the blend of history and legend in the story of the American West.

My courses are in Mythology and Folklore, so it's not like conventional history class by any means, but I've been really glad when students have used the projects for this class to learn something about history... it is a topic they are often not very engaged with and storytelling is one way for them to make a really strong connection.

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

I also think about ARGs. These can also be very powerful. Look at this link : http://www.thelostring.com/index.html

[Laura Gibbs]

YES!!! So much potential here. Roger Travis, a Classics prof. at Univ. of Connecticut has built a game for an ancient Greek history class, and he has been blogging about it in detail here:

Here's a hub for my posts about Operation KTHMA aka UConn CAMS 3212, my role-playing course about the Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides.

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

WOW!!
That's great!!
I'll pass it on!

Wonder if.. well, how, can you create immersive games for modern history or for such events like those Ed mentioned in his comment here.

[Laura Gibbs]

Roger has posted a LOT on this topic and I believe the main gaming engine he is using could actually be used for all kinds of purposes. He just happens to be a Classics prof. but I am guessing in some ways it would be even easier to work with more contemporary materials since students would probably have more general knowledge that they could bring to bear. So if you know folks who are interested in gaming, I bet they will find some good stuff there in Roger's blog. He is a very cool guy, very dedicated and creative.

[Laura Gibbs]

P.S. Since the student doing the Heroes of the United Kingdom is in my class right now and I owed her an email this morning, I let her know that I bragged on her in this forum and she sent me back these very interesting thoughts from HER perspective as a student, which I thought would be useful to share here (the Capstone she refers to is a senior class project that students at my university complete; just how it works varies from department to department; she is an anthropology major):
I actually did my Capstone project on how education (specifically, the social sciences) are suffering because of the No Child Left Behind Act. It is something that I am really passionate about. I went to a very small high school in rural Georgia where history=social science. I enjoy history, but I have loved my sociology and, obviously, anthropology courses and I feel that middle and high school students miss out because these topics aren't being introduced. With that being said, the most memorable learning experience I had in high school was in my World History Class. My teacher took the song, "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel, broke us into groups of five and had us research each line from one stanza. It was awesome!

[Mike]

Hi All... hope this finds you well.

History needs to become alive and meaningful to the developmental level of the kids we teach...... why not teach concepts in depth?

With the internet...... the options are now endless!!!

Attached a couple of units that are great fun to teach....

Check it out and see if it would be something you would like to study.....how about your kids.......

be well... mike