A civics lesson

Considering the low voter turnout numbers we see with almost every election, there's never been a greater need for civic competence education. Of course, that's not the only civics problem in America. The general populace is woefully uninformed about the issues of the day. Just as disturbing is the widespread lack of understanding about how government works and who the main players are. I hate to say it, but I would lump myself in that group, as well, and as an educator, I plan on modeling for students a curiosity about contemporary politics and how historical events have influenced what is happening today.

It's no wonder then that the National Council for the Social Studies has sounded the alarm in calling for an increased emphasis on civic competence in social studies education, as was stated by author John Lee in Chapter 7 of "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods." Lee states, "Civic competence requires knowledge of the democratic system of government in the United States and the rights and responsibilities of citizens." I would argue that Lee's definition is too narrow. Of course, with elementary students, there is a process to developing civic competence, and it begins with a healthy balance between respecting authority and respecting others, as Lee writes. And, as they advance through elementary school, high school and then college, they become more aware of the complexities involved in politics and take part in the local, state and national dialogue over social and political issues.

And that word "dialogue" is important, because it implies that students engage in it in an attempt to come to a common understanding with their fellow citizens. To have a meaningful dialogue, however, it behooves citizens to be knowledgeable about all sides of that particular issue being discussed. Not knowing everything about that issue certainly doesn't preclude people from joining in the conversation; however, the more knowledge you have, the more empathy and acceptance you might have for the opinions of others.

After reading Chapter 7, I was thinking about the Pledge of Allegiance. I haven't recited it in years, and yet the words came back to me immediately. And I started wondering if we were ever taught the history of the Pledge of Allegiance. I honestly couldn't recall if we'd ever studied the back story in class. So, I looked it up online and found out that it was originally composed by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and that it wasn't adopted as the pledge by Congress until 1942, during the years of World War II. I remember saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school and not thinking anything about the words or what they meant. Most kids don't think about it, but it seems to me that learning about it beforehand would help students respect it more. Otherwise, it's just an exercise in rote memorization. This is a great teachable moment, and I suspect there are many others that crop up during the elementary years to instill in students a respect for the institutions of government and the trappings of patriotism.

Over time, as well, I would hope that educators would help their students look at politics and government with a critical, independent eye and not just swallow hook, line and sinker everything they read or see on TV news programs.

Walking in someone else's shoes

Knowing exactly where Montenegro is on a map is a fun skill to pull out at parties. If nothing else, it might come in handy on trivia nights at the local tavern. But, ultimately, if you can't talk intelligently about anything else having to do with the country, then you practically know nothing at all about it or its people or its culture.

When we're younger we might fantasize about faraway lands, but mostly, we're concerned about our immediate surroundings. As teenagers, we might wonder what the girls are like in the next town over, or if we're in sports, we wonder how good their teams are. Those other places are mysteries to us.

Author John Lee, in the textbook "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods," reminds those of us training to be teachers that " ... sometimes we limit our understanding by rigidly valuing one place over another." In other words, we might want nothing to do with places we've heard are terrible in some way. Word of mouth can be a powerful deterrent. For instance, a child in a small town might be indoctrinated to believe that cities are dangerous places to visit or live. The same goes for other countries. Altering those entrenched perceptions is not always an easy job.

"Teachers have to help their students expand on the attachment children and adults have to their home," writes Lee. The well-worn phrase "expanding their horizons" comes to mind, and while it may be overused, that's certainly what we, as future educators, are called to do. Empathy is something we want students to develop. We want them to, essentially, take as many walks in the shoes of as many people who are different from us as they can. An in-depth study of geography can help educators guide their students to become empathetic learners.

And it can start with simply showing students pictures of people from different countries going about their daily activities. Seeing them at work or at leisure can trigger questions about what their lives are like. Figure 6.4 in "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods" shows three images of life in South Africa. There's one of San Bushman hunting with a bow and arrow alongside an ancient settlement called Umtata, with small houses dotting the not-so-densely-populated landscape. Another photo shows how fertile the land is. Being from farm country in Wisconsin, surely children from here might feel a kinship with the agricultural character of such a region and think about how different farming is there compared to here. Wisconsin also happens to be a land where outdoors activities like hunting and fishing are treasured. Seeing the rudimentary bow and arrow used by the San Bushman might get students to compare and contrast hunting activities in their country with those of other nations.

Lee postulates, "The more closely we associate ourselves, through experience, with a place the more likely we are to be willing and able to study that place." I'm already planning to do some research on South Africa after I post this blog.

Cultural diversity in the hinterland

Frederic, Wis., was not exactly a melting pot of different ethnic groups or religious belief systems in the late '70s or early '80s. Sure, there were Methodists, Catholics and Lutherans, but as far as Islam or Buddhism or Judaism goes, the place was devoid of such exotic faiths.

Nor was it a locale where people of color flocked to. In the entire time I went to school there, no African-Americans were enrolled at Frederic. And the only Asian student we had was a Japanese exchange student, whose stay in town was all to brief. To say the least, it was a vanilla environment. So, when it came to cultural diversity and the curriculum, let's just say it wasn't a high priority. After graduation, I couldn't wait to go to college and meet people of various backgrounds.

The place has changed some in the years since, and more attention is paid to exposing students there to different cultures, including the Native American community that resides close by. No other field of study offers a greater range of opportunities to investigate other cultures than social studies. And with the drive in this country to come up with national standards for every subject, including social studies, teachers will be compelled to create learning environments that encourage cultural diversity education. More than that, however, they will be encouraged to investigate cultural diversity in their own communities and their own classrooms and design lessons that reflect the different backgrounds of their students.

As John Lee, author of "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Method," writes on page 323 of the book, "At the classroom level, teachers must implement the curriculum, which provides teachers another opportunity to reflect the diversity in their school and classroom." Examples of this approach abound, as teachers in our state of Wisconsin conduct lessons on immigration and what ethnic groups settled here, or they might direct their students to research the various Native American tribes that have populated the region throughout history. Also, they might design lessons that deal with the influx of Hmong immigrants to Wisconsin and have their students research the reasons why they settled here. Lee's book mentions how an elementary teacher in New Mexico might have his or her students study the contributions of Native Americans to the region they call home.

These types of lessons naturally engage students, who often want to learn about the histories of their own families or those of their fellow classmates. In the end, lessons like these give children of different backgrounds the chance to share their cultural backgrounds with others who may be unfamiliar with their ethnic heritages. That's one of the wonderful experiences schools can provide.

Cause and effect in 'Argo' and historical thinking

"Argo" recently won the Oscar for Best Picture, and after finally getting around to watching it today, it certainly is worthy of the honor. It has to do with the Iran hostage crisis, a moment in history that I haven't forgotten, even if some of the memories of it are a little fuzzy.

In November 1979, militant Islamists broke into the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage, fueled by the emotional surge of the Iranian Revolution, which deposed the Shah of Iran. The standoff lasted 444 days and helped decide a Presidential election, as incumbent Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Carter's inability to bring the hostages home safe and sound cost him the office.

What few remembered about the event, at least before "Argo" came out, was that six embassy workers escaped before the embassy takeover and were taken in by Canadian diplomats. "Argo" tells the story of how the Central Intelligence Agency and the Canadian government conducted a joint operation to help those six escapees flee Iran before they were captured.

Being only 12 years old when it happened, I had a very vague recollection of what exactly caused violent uprising that resulted in the hostage situation. I remembered it having something to do with the Shah's ouster and Islamist fundamentalism sweeping through Iran like a tsunami. I remembered seeing images of American flags being burned and seeing American political figures burned in effigy on the streets of Tehran. They hated us, and part of the reason was that Shah was viewed as a friend of the United States. What I had completely forgotten was how the U.S. took in the Shah, who was dying of cancer at the time. The Iranian people wanted retribution for the Shah's reported cruelty while in power, and the U.S. refused to turned him over to the Iranian government for judgement and in all likelihood, an execution.

There is a movement afoot in social studies education to develop "historical thinking" skills among students today. The National Center for History in the Schools has defined historical thinking activities as those with involve chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research capabilities, and analysis and decision-making related to historical issues.

In short, teachers are not just supposed to get students to memorize all of the possible causes of a certain historical event. Instead, having a historical understanding of that event involves being able to prioritize what causes are more important than others. Given the story of "Argo," my understanding of the Iranian hostage crisis has evolved.

Would the hostage crisis have happened if the U.S. had denied the Shah entry into the country? We'll never know for sure. Anti-U.S. sentiment in the region is complicated, and that one act alone may not have actually driven Iranian militants to such extreme measures. Then again, knowing the history of the Shah's bloody rule, it's safe to assume that the U.S. giving safe passage to the Shah certainly played a big role in bringing to a head the events of 1979. As history teachers, we need to encourage our students to dig deep to find out what really caused something to happen. More importantly, though, they need to be able to analysis historical events to argue what effect those causes had on the event being investigated.

Evolution of a lesson plan

Quite by accident, my partner, Dona, and I have collaborated on a lesson plan that aligns perfectly with National Geography Standard 12, which states, "Students must develop an understanding of the fundamental processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement across the Earth's surface, and thereby come to appreciate the spatially ordered ways in which Earth has become the home of people."

In all honesty, all we initially wanted to do was teach a lesson on Ellis Island. We wanted our students to learn how Ellis Island played a such a huge role in settling the wild frontier of a country still in its infancy. Almost as if by magic, our lesson expanded its scope, moving from Ellis Island to the much larger subject of immigration. So, we divided the class into groups, assigned them a country of origin to study and directed them to find out as much data on how people from that country migrated to America as they could, paying special attention to the migration of different ethnic groups to Wisconsin.

One of the buzz words in education these days has to do with "unpacking" the standards, or the process by which educators - through their subject knowledge and pedagogical training - decide what concepts, facts and ideas should be taught in relation to a specific standard in such a way as to make it meaningful for students. Dona and I did some unpacking, only I'm not sure we were aware we were doing it. At least, I wasn't. Below is a video of an educator who has fully embraced the "unpacking" the standards concept.

We certainly didn't pick a standard and design our lesson around it. We picked a subject we thought would be interesting to students and important for them to study. Lo and behold, there was a standard for that. Essentially, what we did was we spent some time spit-balling ideas, and without us really realizing what was happening, the subject of our lesson grew outward from our initial "Ellis Island" idea. And our collaboration resulted in a lesson plan that I, and I assume Dona as well, feel will be meaningful for our imaginary fourth grade students.

For instance, as part of this lesson, they must find out the history of their family's migration to America and Wisconsin. What could be more meaningful for kids than to find out where exactly they came from? This is their inquiry, and because it is personal to them, this is the kind of authentic learning we, as educators, strive for.

This blog is not meant to be boastful. After all, Dona and I did sort of stumble around until we arrived at our destination, especially since our collective lack of tech savvy slowed the process considerably. It was an interesting collaborative effort, however, especially as we worked Sunday on the Google document version of our lesson together via the Internet from different places. We tried different things, tweaked our ideas some and completely abandoned those that didn't work. And somehow, in the end, we sort of "unpacked" not only the standard that we wanted to address, but also the very subject matter we wanted our students to study.

It was a great experiment in collaborative learning, since a lot of the time, we prospective teachers are taught to group students with differing levels of ability. My first collaboration, with Sandy, was different. She is much more advanced with regard to technology than I, but she took this digital immigrant by the hand and helped me learn to do a flipped lesson via Sophia and a timeline using something called Dippity. And I'm the better for it. But, I also enjoyed working with Dona, because we're both at about the same level when it comes to technology. In essence, we had to pull our team up by its own bootstraps. So, perhaps there are advantages to grouping students together who have different levels of ability and who have similar skill levels.