1.26.2015

I Teach History Visually

Inherently, teaching history requires a certain amount of information delivery; but every students has his or her own preferred method to receive, recall and interact with that information. Some of my students can pick it all up just by reading the textbook closely (though textbook reading is their least favorite activity); others can listen to a lecture, jot a few notes and later recall it come test time; others still, benefit more when they see visuals attached to a lecture or presentation. In trying to provide the best instruction to all of the above types of learners, I’ve recently reached out to the visual learners in my classroom and it has boosted engagement and retention.


Lenin vs. Stalin in politics and economics

Most teachers jot a few notes on the whiteboard under each topic they want students to learn. Understanding that sites like wikipedia and quizlet easily cover and compile notes on these topics, I’ve moved in a new direction. I reduce the amount of words I write on the whiteboard and instead draw pictures (no matter what I’m teaching). The hope is that these lessons will reach my visual learners for retention and better recollection on unit examinations.

I find that the communal drawing fascinates students who enjoy critiquing and advising my masterpieces


an original cartoon of Andrew Johnson's impeachment
The first great result I discovered in trying visual lessons was unexpected. Because I wasn’t writing the words they needed to know, students had to put these concepts in their own words independently for their notes. Fortunately, I work in a 1:1 classroom so during my drawing, students googled words that they needed to define or events that they needed to understand. Precisely because I wasn’t feeding them the words/notes they needed to have, students began looking up the things I wanted them to learn in the way they look up information outside of class--through Google. This increased their level of engagement with the material. Students used their familiar search engines differently, they took notes differently, and they interacted differently with this unique lesson.

These lessons certainly helped students focus better. They stayed on task on their computer screens. Some googled the information, others wrote what I was saying down, and others pushed their computers out of the way and started drawing their own copy of my image in notebooks. One savvy student drew her own version on a computer application. I posted it, and a photo that I took of the whiteboard, to the class Moodle page hoping it would jog students’ memories before the test. It did.
one student used skitch to record my lesson
Finally, this lesson also forced students to think creatively. From an image, they had to figure out the background information, the major players, and how my own opinion about the history played into my drawing. Simultaneously, students loved questioning why I made the decisions I did. Now that I’ve run this lesson a number of times, I can turn over the teaching to my students. I can now ask them to create a visual to teach their classmates about an historical event, person, or primary source. This assignment requires students to think outside the box, take a risk (especially in sharing their "art"), and take ownership of the teaching and learning.

1.22.2015

Holiday Newsletters: Facilitating Learning through Winter Break

On December 19th, my students departed for a two-week vacation, and I was terrified to think they wouldn’t be reading and learning while away from school. The lure of Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine draws students away from the New York Times, The WSJ, NPR, and any other vehicles for learning that a teacher might endorse. This past break, in order to keep them reading and informed while away from school, I sent my students three “holiday newsletters.” These newsletters contained news and opinion pieces on current events in different media formats.

One of my hesitations in crafting these newsletters is that I’m not a professional editor; but, through my own social media I’ve curated quite a list of feeds that keep me up-to-date with the news. I’ve tried to teach students this skill so they can be their own editors, but alas, most teenagers aren’t interested. So instead, through my newsletters, I made it as easy as possible for my students to keep up with current events, hoping to catch a handful of them bored over their lengthy break.
It worked wonders. I didn’t reach nearly every student, but I did reach some. And that’s what matters. A handful of my students took time out of their vacation to see what’s going on outside their bubble. They had a chance to be informed citizens, to choose something that interested them and keep learning

When my students returned from break, we held intellectual discussions that helped them keep up with news from over the break. In some classes these discussions encouraged more of them to go back and read the newsletters; I even had a student who went back to a previous newsletter to hear a 2005 Kenyon graduation talk by David Foster Wallace. She emailed me a week later:


Hopefully, the “holiday newsletters” encouraged the students to consume and to share more academic content.