I thought chapter nine was great with all of the strategies that it offered. Critical literacy is something I integrate into my lesson a lot (although I did not know that's what it was called). I always challenge my students, whether history or government, to look closely at what they are reading. Look for bias. Look for exaggeration. Look for sugar-coating. Students often get conflicting information from their textbook and a primary source. We then have to determine which passage is the most reliable. It drives them nuts, but that's part of being a historian.
I'm not even going to begin talking about my students' use of websites. They think Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers are just as reliable as something I would find on Galileo.
I use Socratic Seminars extensively in my AP Government class. This all hinges on them completing the reading before class, but when they do we usually run out of class time before addressing all of the reading. They especially love to discuss controversial topics. What really gets them going is when I answer one of their questions with a question. They are frustrated at first, but we usually end up having a great discussion.
As for chapter 10, I have my students do a lot of writing, but we do not usually follow the traditional writing process. We just don't have time in 50 minutes when there is so much else to do. We do a lot of the guided writing in history. The government class does more essay writing as a means to answer free-response questions. I was surprised to see Venn diagrams in this chapter. I guess I just always thought of them as graphic organizers. I never thought of them as a tool to begin the writing process.
As for writing in the 21st century, I wish I had computers in my room that would allow the students to do more online writing. With the government curriculum there is so much going on that my students could contribute to (Message boards on news websites. Writing Congressmen and elected officials. Using government websites to complete assignments) But alas, no money.
Getting the students to write to government officials, etc. would be a fantastic way to integrate your curriculum into current events and the writing process. It would be interesting to see what topics the students would pick to write about. What current issues do they have? Do they know the issues?, etc.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain with the lack of technology. I was asstonished when I moved to my county after coming from much larger counties. However, I will have to say that we are not laying of near as many as Henry is laying off. I just wish that our technology person would lift some of the bands. The students are banned from sites that I would love to assign. I have learned about four diffent websites in the last year durning seminars and training that I cannot use in class.
ReplyDeleteSocratic Seminar is a good way to get students involved and thinking about a reading. What do you do to engage all of your students?
You raise two important issues - one is the role of authentic purposes and audiences for writing, and a second is the concept of new literacies (the technology connection). You are really exploring ways to encourage your students to think critically and think like a historian.
ReplyDeleteI think that in my experience, students always love to debate/explore controversial topics (particularly middle schoolers!). Such topics are also another great way to introduce a writing assignment into classtime, whether it be a quick response or journal entry.
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