08/01/2005
How Will I Run My History Classroom?
This is a question that I have been thinking about a lot lately. One of the postings that I had to do in English 311 for Dr. Rob was on how I would run my literature classroom. I think this is a constructive question for any pre-service teacher, regardless of discipline.
In my imaginary perfect world where I would have control of every aspect of my history class, I would focus less on dates and names and more on concepts and theories in history. The internet can be used to easily find what happened in American history in 1909, but the question of how did what happened in 1909 effect the rest of the century is a question that most pupils can not answer. In order to answer such questions, history needs to be more broad focused than on a certain person or a certain date. Also, I would focus less on the "Big" people in American history and spend more time on history from the "bottom up". By the time most pupils reach high school they should have some basic understanding of who George Washington was and what resulted from the American Revolution. What I would like my pupils to think about is how did the normal, everyday people respond to these big events in American history.
In order to cultivate this type of learning, my classroom would have to be discussion based with an emphasis on interpretation rather than right or wrong answers. History, like literature, can be interpretated in many ways by many different people. In order to facilitate this sort of discussion I would want to focus on primary documents rather than on textbooks. Textbooks, unfortunately, are often date and "big" people focused rather than on concepts. Therefore, if primary documents are assigned to be read then the pupils can come up with their own ideas about history. My job as a teacher will be to provide some sort of a framework for pupils to shape their ideas around.
Now, having said all that, I realize that I do not live in my imaginary perfect world. Instead I will be teaching under a proscribed curriculum with other teachers who may or may not appreciate my sentiments on teaching history. In order to function to the best of my abilities in the real world, I may have to tweak some of my ideas on teaching. Yet, I do hope I have a little bit of academic freedom so I can take history to a level of interest and understanding for my future pupils.
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How Will I Run My History Classroom?
[Source: Insomniac's blog] quoted: Rob was on how I would run my literature classroom. I think this is a constructive question for any pre-service teacher, regardless of discipline.
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Comments
Of course, the critique of only using primary materials lies in the fact with a worm's eye view, things don't look so cheery, hence the criticisms of the "New History" as overly glum. You also have to consider how much about the period being examined students even know...besides keeping their interest.
Globalization sounds great until you lose your job.....one starts singing the "Internationale", not something students like thinking about.
And, if students work in a vacuum, that fosters a little too much ego in my view, then getting them to accept any other view than their own becomes even harder.
Posted by: Methuselah | 08/03/2005
Hmmm, I see your point. I think the reason why I put so much attention on the primary docs is because in a previous class discussion in Rob's class, we were concerned with the use of textbooks and anthologies rather than on the actual texts. As you well know, oftentimes textbooks simply gloss over or summarize important primary docs, so to incorporate those docs in the actual teaching may help give a rounder point of view rather than just some textbook writer's wisdom.
However, having said that, it is important to have a broader focus as you said. Therefore, textbooks and other secondary docs would be very useful in constructing and understanding some of those more broader themes.
As far as ego goes, most pupils have an ego regardless if they earned it or not. I simply do not want to teach history the way I was taught...don't think, simply remember dates, names, and don't bother with trying to interpret. No one should have to study history that way. Ughhh.
Posted by: Anita | 08/03/2005
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