This fall, after a restless night overthinking an assignment for my upcoming class and drinking three cups of not-strong-enough coffee, I added the finishing touch to my final assignment for the students in my World History II class.
I was finally satisfied with the plan I had for my tenth graders, when I realized: none of this really matters.
To be clear, this assignment would require students to analyze documents and write their own responses using evidence, which are important skills, of course, but it would inevitably lead to me writing papers in manic red ink that were ultimately written because Yo He assigned an essay that would only be read by me.
Unfortunately, my students' work (and the inkblots containing my comments) would never reach the hands of readers who could make changes. So the hours students spent writing and the time I spent grading would have no impact outside the four walls of my classroom.
It was a maddening moment of clarity for me. Sure, writing skills may have been practiced, but so what? To what end? As a high school social studies teacher, my job includes help students learn to use evidence to make arguments, engage in civil discourse, and take informed action to achieve change. A fundamental part of this is preparing students to write in the real world.
But there are forces that stand in the way. Curriculum mandates and pressure from school and district leaders, for example, can create a teaching and learning environment that encourages work and isolation tasks. When I considered some of my latest assignments, I realized that this is what I was doing: these writing assignments represented work without deep value or authentic audiences. As a result, my students were only completing them for one grade and had lost sight of why they were learning all of this. I couldn't blame them.
I had a similar revelation a few years ago, when I began to recognize that curriculum without a because It's problematic. Since then, I have redesigned my curriculum, focusing on an overarching essential question for each unit that allows me to explore modern and relevant topics with students. I like to think of this shift as a transition from a content-based curriculum to a topic-based curriculum.
As I reflected on the evolution of my curriculum and why I was teaching what I was teaching, I wondered how I had arrived at the tasks I had been assigning to students.
While searching for research and ideas on how to make a change, a close friend recommended a talk by Larry McEnerney, who was director of the writing program at the University of Chicago for 30 years, on the art of effective writing. As McEnerney spoke to graduate students, some of his points resonated deeply with my work with high school students, particularly when he pointed out a hard truth about writing in the education system: “Teachers read texts because they are paid to care about students.” . You've learned to write in a system where you write to readers who are paid to care about you. That will stop,” McEnerney said.
This served as a reminder that preparation tasks can hinder students' writing skills because students write only with the teacher and the task in mind, as opposed to a genuine audience of readers interested in deepening their understanding or doing change.
With McEnerney's points in the back of my mind, I began to wonder how I could provide students with opportunities to write in a variety of contexts that served authentic audiences.
I wanted to leverage the curricular updates I made to develop more meaningful assignments in which students could write for an audience of readers positioned to effect change. If I could offer students more opportunities to interact with these topics, I thought, I could help them take advantage of the because of their learning.
Give my students something to talk about
For students to say something interesting, meaningful, and authentic, they need something interesting, meaningful, and authentic to talk about.
This is not a novel idea. There are a number of teaching methods developed with this idea in mind, such as project-based learningwhich focuses on students developing skills by working on an engaging project with a purpose, and inquiry-based learning, which allows students to develop their own questions and curiosities about the content. And this concept was a driving force as I redesigned my own curriculum, anchoring it to real, timely, and pressing issues that impact my students.
To develop writing assignments that promoted student agency and empowerment, she knew she had to consider her audience. Who would read her work?
At first, I started small, taking a unit from my American History class, “The Early Republic,” and reflecting on why students really needed to learn the content, how relevant it is today, and what kinds of assignments would provide opportunities for for students to learn the content. write for an audience that motivates them.
This unit covered the Constitutional Convention, the factions that formed in early American history, and the establishment of the American system of government. When I reoriented this unit around an interesting topic, I created an important essential question that would address the issues I knew would resonate with my students: Who are “We the People”? in the preamble of the United States Constitution?
By shifting the unit's focus from historical content to this essential question, I was able to help students explore a number of modern issues, including representation, government structures, and voter suppression. Students began to think more critically about who was represented by the Constitution and, more importantly, who was not.
In previous years, this unit culminated with an essay in which students answered the essential question. This year I decided to experiment with a new assignment where students had the option of writing a letter to a legislator, nonprofit, lobbyist, or political action group to help advocate for possible policy changes to represent better to “the people.”
This pivot changed everything for students. In addition to learning about the Constitutional Convention and early American history, they learned to use their writing to advocate for issues they cared about. They worked collaboratively and brainstormed people and organizations to send their work to. They began seeking feedback on their work before submitting it because the stakes were high beyond grades. It even sparked a meta-discussion about whether they, the students, were part of “We the People” and whether their voices could inspire change.
After having success reworking this assignment, I tried it with a unit from my World History class called “Atlantic Revolutions,” which included the American, French, Haitian, and Mexican revolutions.
He had already reframed the unit from focusing solely on historical content to applying historical understanding to modern challenges, particularly the essential question: “Is the United States headed toward political violence?” Students evaluated the usefulness of a number of academic theories, including Louis Gottschalk's theory of revolution and Symbolic politics theorydecided which theory was more complete and then applied it to the modern-day U.S.
Instead of capping off the unit by having students write yet another essay for me, I offered them the opportunity to write to a political theorist, academic, law enforcement officer, legislator, or news expert about the current threat of political violence through the use of one. of the theories they studied.
They began asking questions like, “Who should I write to?” and “Who has the power to change things?” and “How do I find contact information for those in positions of power?” By developing more authentic writing opportunities, the historical content of our units became alive and useful to my students.
Beyond the curriculum
My biggest fear as a teacher is that a student will raise their hand in class and honestly ask, “Why do we need to know this?” and that I will come up with a clear and important answer. This nightmare keeps me awake at night (hence the need for those three cups of coffee).
Basing my units on important modern topics has allowed my students to see the value in what they are learning, and designing tasks that empower them to make a difference has made the purpose more evident. It has been exciting to see my students interact with the content in more meaningful ways through interactions with the world outside of the classroom.
This idea has been fundamental to me as a social studies teacher, but it goes beyond the social studies classroom. To engage our students in deep learning across disciplines, any teacher can reflect on their content and ask questions like, “Why am I teaching this?” and “Is this the most meaningful assignment I can offer?” If they are not satisfied with the answer, it might be helpful to focus on a central topic where students can apply their learning.
I entered this profession to make a difference. What really matters is not whether my students can regurgitate information on a quiz or write a formulaic five-paragraph essay. What matters most to me is that they see the value of what they are learning, develop decision-making capacity in how they engage with it, and believe that their voice matters in this world.
