As I stared at the white box which held all the files for my undergraduate social studies methods course, I silently asked it, “What went wrong?” Well, perhaps I am overstating the problem. There was nothing “wrong” with the course, per se, but as I finished grading the students’ last assignment, an authentic teaching activity they had to create, align to Common Core ELA standards, C3 dimensions, and their local curriculum, teach, then reflect upon, I was left with a heavy feeling that I had made a mistake.
I lifted the heavy box a dug around for the syllabus, the well-worn, annotated, highlighted, sticky-note adorned document that chronicled the course of the semester. I had made notes about the effectiveness of an assignment “Worked well -keep for next year.” “Great article for conversations. Students divided.” And this one “Most didn’t ‘get’ it.” The “it” was creating an assessment, aligned to their compelling question, and suggesting how students might take informed action. A Dimension 4 problem.
As students submitted drafts of their lesson plans, I edited and made suggestions for improving their compelling questions. In prior class sessions we read about, discussed and tried our hand at creating compelling questions. I was pleased with the students’ abilities to write good questions. They brainstormed with each other and questions such as “What were the causes of the American Revolution” turned into “Was the American Revolution really revolutionary.” And “What are the geographic characteristic of Maryland” to “Is Maryland a good place to live?”
As students set out to work on their own lessons, some retained this skill and very adeptly applied it to their own lessons. I worked with students who hadn’t framed their lesson with a compelling enough question and their peers even chimed in with suggestions. The second drafts of each lesson had great questions, ripe for inquiry to follow: “Why do people need money?” and “What does it mean to be a hero?”
Woo hoo! I had done it! I taught Dimension 1. Or had I? Because what is the point of a great compelling question if the rest of the lesson and assessment does not follow? In the lessons themselves, about half reached back to their compelling questions. I remember one students’ peer comment on another lesson suggesting how they could revise their activities and formative assessments to address their new compelling question. That student got it. And a few others did as well. But most reverted to a lesson plan format, formative assessments and summative assessment they were most familiar with from other content areas.
The most disappointing aspect of the lesson was the summative assessment and opportunity to take informed action. Several lessons said that students will communicate results by completing a multiple choice test. Others’ informed action was to turn in their final assignment. But they were not all like that. One student’s informed action was to have second graders create posters for the school explaining why it was important to save money. And another did end in students writing a letter to their governor about their favorite aspect of Maryland. Informed action. They got it.
But here is what I missed. Curriculum design, lesson design, assessment design -these are hard! To borrow a phrase from a fellow methods professor, this is heavy lifting for pre-service teachers. Heck, this is heavy lifting for veteran teachers! I was guilty of not doing what I expected my students to do. I taught the C3 as if it were just one more thing to try in social studies and so that is how they treated it. I did not effectively frame their instruction in social studies methods with a compelling question followed by inquiry culminating in communicating results and taking informed action.
This semester I am starting from a different perspective. That heavy white box contains some great resources and lessons for my pre-service teachers. But what I am throwing out and starting with a blank page is the syllabus. Our first day, we entered into the inquiry and as a class we will go on the C3 journey together. Maybe this way we can lighten each other’s loads.
