Since downloading, printing, and placing the C3 Framework in a three-ring binder, I’ve found myself regularly pulling it off the pile on my desk at school and flipping through the pages. I’m slowly introducing myself to the contents and imagining our getting-to-know each other phase over the next several months. As an everyday teacher, Department Chair, and a champion of the Social Studies, I’m spreading out the introductions; I’m beginning to unpack it with my departmental colleagues, beginning to make my own instructional plans, and looking forward to arming myself with the contents when discussing the merits of the Social Studies with both students, administrators, and the wider public.
As a new department chair, I’m trying to make my mark without freaking everybody out. We’ve all been there when the “newest and latest” has promised to change our lives and the lives of our students – but doesn’t. I’m hoping my colleagues won’t see the C3 in this light, primarily because we already implement the majority of what is in the framework. In many ways, it’s an affirmation of the progressive path my predecessors and those whom I’m privileged to work with have set out upon. We’ve begun looking to the “dimensions” and the tables to structure new curriculum as our school looks to add another class period next year (ugh!), examining closely the Economics and Geography dimensions. How can we structure meaningful and relevant courses, in particular, for our seniors? We strive to find curriculum that will address the areas of civic life that will foster our student’s understanding as they head out into our world – even if there’s no standardized test to measure it.
I’m also introducing the C3 Framework to my own teaching. Am I doing all I should to prepare my kids? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about “big questions”, the biggest for me being, “So what?” I want my students to constantly question what is in front of them, not in their customary, mostly immature fashion, but in the self-analyzing, self-examining way that allows them to interact with the world with skepticism, but not cynicism. I love that the framework wants me to do this, too. The skills it emphasizes are those I’m also seeking to instill. My AP Comparative Government kids are currently working on term papers comparing one governmental policy between two different countries. We’ve been spending a lot of time in the library (of course, I’ve been over the sob story about, “In my day, we used a card catalogue . . .”). It’s been painfully slow, as we work on getting into online databases, honing our searches, skimming the articles at first, not reading every single line, etc. And at the end of the rainbow, the pot of gold awaits — I’m going to have to grade them all! However, along comes the C3 and affirms that these evidence gathering skills, critiquing of sources and perspectives, synthesizing findings, and presenting those findings in a cogent and coherent argument, is what effective research is all about. This steadies me when a testing mindset naturally creeps in—how will this experience prepare students for a traditional, multiple choice test (insert test name here).
Perhaps a bit selfishly, I love that the C3 provides such a coherent defense for the Social Studies. If you’ve taught them, you’ve doubtless been faced with the question, “Why do I have to take this?” Even worse, it seems sometimes that the wider educational world forgets to place us in the equation for a holistic and balanced education. The C3 states, “Advocates of Citizenship. . .are bound by a common belief that out democratic republic will not sustain unless students are aware of their changing cultural and physical environment; know the past; read, write, and think deeply; and act in ways that promote the common good”. Lines like this, reinforced by tables full of skills, provide such solace for those of us out there fighting the good fight. As we get to know the C3 better and introduce it to our friends and neighbors, it feels like it’s going to fit right in to the neighborhood.