Posts Tagged ‘current events’
I never had any doubt about how I wanted to teach the 50 U.S. states and their capitals. My high school juniors will sing along with Wakko and the Animaniacs.
Likewise, any world history or geography class I teach will have to follow along with the song with every country in the entire world except Kosovo.
Where did I get this inspiration? My 5th grade teacher.
When I teach AP U.S. history, my students will do flashcards, and the tests will be composed of actual though retired Advanced Placement questions.
If I’m stuck doing it chronologically, my students will do chapter summaries in PERSIA format — sorting period events out into political, economic, religious, social, intellectual and artistic categories.
Where did I get this inspiration? My 11th grade AP U.S. history teacher.
My journalism students will have weekly current events quizzes.
They will also write two stories a week. They will receive credit based on how poorly they do not write. Any story which misspells a name receives an automatic zero.
Students who want to improve their grade are allowed to seek me out in advance of the due date. Whenever I see it, I will mercilessly edit every story in front of me.
Where did I get this inspiration? My journalism professor.
Moral of the story? There’s a pattern here, somewhere, but I just can’t place my finger on it.
The People’s Republic of California doesn’t require freshman-level history or social science. Therefore, our district doesn’t teach it.
In its place is a yearlong freshman health class — think “Communicable Diseases and You” — split with a seminar on how to succeed as a high school student. State-mandated and standards-driven, this approach looks good on paper.
The irony of the freshman seminar is that despite the adoption of the high school success class, the post-freshman dropout rate stubbornly stays at half.
World history teachers have an even less rosy perspective. As freshmen, the students’ mind is wiped clean. Whole classes’ worth don’t know what a continent is. Our sophomores might be able to place the nation of “Afrcia” on a map.
In response, the department wants a freshman map-quiz-current-events class. I want to teach it. We won’t get that chance. Continue Reading »
