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HISTORY 488: TEACHING HISTORY IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Spring 2013 Tues. 2-4:50, VKC 153
Prof. Karen Halttunen Dr. Phil Chase
Office: SOS 164 310-498-5976
Office hours: Tues. and Wed. 11:30-1:30
Which teacher would YOU want to be?
Prof. Minerva McGonagall, Prof. Cuthbert Binns, history Teacher of Transfiguration teacher—and the only ghost teaching at Hogwarts (Why?)
TEACHING HISTORY IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS
History 488 is a seminar designed to help prepare college students for teaching history at the middle and high school levels. The course is co-taught by a USC history professor and an experienced Los Angeles high school teacher with a PhD in history. At the center of the course is each student’s weekly session as a teacher-intern in the classroom of a middle or high school teacher in the Los Angeles area. In addition to that session, the seminar will meet once a week to explore three challenging questions in three units of study.
The first unit asks, WHY should we teach history? What is the value of learning history for middle and high school students? We will discuss the sometimes-conflicting demands for teaching historical content—names, dates, events—vs. teaching historical thinking—the process of using evidence and constructing arguments to address important historical questions. In recent years, the tension between these two approaches has been the subject of acrimonious public debate reaching all the way to the halls of Congress. We will be looking at both approaches, and exploring the all-important relationship between them.
The second unit asks, WHAT history should we teach? Each seminar participant will choose one of the California State Content Standards to research in preparation for teaching your own class later in the semester. You will research your topic by constructing a short bibliography, reading one book-length study and a few articles, locating useful and reliable websites, and identifying a historical investigative question which will shape your lesson plan. You will also locate teachable primary source materials—including texts, images, music, film clips, etc.—which your students will use to engage in historical thinking.
The third and final unit asks, HOW should we teach history? We will explore a range of teaching strategies and techniques for teaching BOTH historical content AND historical thinking. During this unit, students will work on translating their research findings on a particular standard into an accessible and effective lesson plan, which they will first model for our seminar and then teach in their own classrooms.
Assigned readings:
Knowing, Teaching, & Learning History: National and International Perspectives, ed. by Peter N. Stearns et al. (2000)—available at the campus bookstore
Students will also read miscellaneous articles available on-line, and will pursue individual research projects in preparation for teaching their own lessons at the end of the semester.
Major requirements:
1. A teaching journal in which students will comment on the assigned readings, their own observations and experiences as teacher-interns, and the relationship between those readings and experiences. Some journal entries will take the form of short essays.
2. Weekly work as a teacher-intern
3. Active and regular participation in weekly History 488 seminar meetings
4. Small assignments related to the individual research process in Unit 2
5. A lesson plan designed around a California State Content Standard and presented both in seminar and in your middle- or high-school classroom
Calculation of final grade:
1. 25% for the teaching journal
2. 25% for the research component in Unit 2
3. 25% for the final lesson plan (both written and presented)
4. 25% for other forms of participation including weekly discussions and short teaching exercises.
Note on your research journal:
This assignment is designed to enhance the thoughtfulness of your approach to teaching, by enabling you to explore relatively informally your own ideas and observations as you move through the course. Your journal entries will be posted on Blackboard, to be shared with other students in the course as well as the instructors.
The most important expectation of this journal is that it record your reflections on the CONNECTIONS between a) your classroom experience as teacher-intern and b) your seminar assignments.
Class Schedule
Please note: Early in this unit, Phil Chase will assign each student to a middle or high school history classroom to observe and sometimes assist that teacher once a week throughout the semester.
In registering for History 488, you are accepting a serious responsibility to attend that class on a weekly basis. If you have some compelling reason to miss one of those classes, please notify the teacher in advance, and apologize for your absence. We are indebted to those teachers and their willingness to have someone they don’t know observe their work for the semester.
Tues. Jan. 15 Introduction: History 488 as Teachers’ Workshop
UNIT 1. WHY TEACH HISTORY?
This first unit will explore the value of history education, and address the question of how teachers should balance the presentation of historical content—names, dates, events, etc.—with the encouragement of their students’ historical thinking—the analytical skills employed by historians.
Jan. 22 Why teach history?
ASSIGNED READINGS:
· Lowenthal, “Dilemmas and Delights of Learning History,” in KTLH, 63-82
· Seixas, “Schweigen! die Kinder! Or, Does Postmodern History Have a Place in the Schools?” in KTLH, 19-37
· Peter N. Stearns, “Why Study History?” at http://www.historians.org/pubs/Free/WhyStudyHistory.htm
***Teaching journal entry: Write a 1-2 page comment relating some of the ideas expressed in the assigned readings to your own experiences as a K-16 STUDENT of history.
Jan. 29 Historical content/historical thinking I
ASSIGNED READINGS:
· Rosenzweig, “How Americans Use and Think about the Past,” in KTLH, 262-283
· Wineburg, “Making Historical Sense,” in KTLH, 306-325
· Wineburg, “Thinking Like a Historian,” at http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/quarterly/historical_thinking/article.html
***Teaching journal entry: Write a 1-2 page comment bringing together a) the assigned readings, b) your classroom experience as teacher-intern, and c) the relationship between the readings and your classroom experience.
Feb. 5 Historical content/historical thinking II
ASSIGNED READINGS
· Thomas Andrews and Flannery Burke, “What Does It Mean to Think Historically?” at http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2007/0701/0701tea2.cfm
· Bruce VanSledright, "What Does It Mean to Think Historically... and How Do You Teach It?” Social Education 68, no. 3 (2004)
· Avishag Reisman, “Reading Like a Historian: A Document-Based History Curriculum,” Cognition and Instruction 30, no. 1 (2012)
***Teaching journal entry: Write a 3-5 page essay on the value of teaching historical thinking.
In class, we will be viewing “Why Historical Thinking Matters” at
http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/why.html
UNIT 2. WHAT HISTORY SHOULD WE TEACH?
In this second unit, students in History 488 will choose a subject (based on the California State Content Standards) for their lesson plan; research that subject; and formulate a good INVESTIGATIVE QUESTION to pose to their classrooms to encourage their own students’ historical thinking.
Feb. 12 Working with the history standards
ASSIGNED READINGS
· The California History Content Standards in their entirety, for grades 7 through 12, at http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf
· Weintraub, “’What’s This New Crap? What’s Wrong with the Old Crap?’ Changing History Teaching in Oakland, California,” in KTLH, 178-193
· Historical Investigation Template, at http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/pdfs/investigation_template.pdf
***Teaching journal entry: In consultation with your classroom teacher, choose a California State Content Standard for your classroom lesson to be presented towards the end of the semester. Then write a 1-2-page comment indicating what content standard you have chosen for your lesson, and what interests you most about the topic.
Feb. 19 Beginning your research
For this class, we will gather at Leavey Library to meet with a reference librarian who will help you find useful materials for your content-standard research.
ASSIGNMENTS FOR THIS CLASS:
1) Locate and read 3 basic overviews of your general subject area: one from a textbook appropriate to your grade level, one from a college-level textbook, and one from a RELIABLE website (preferably a teacher-resources site). Print two copies of each overview, and bring them to class to give to Karen and Phil. Note: For informed reviews of history websites (especially U.S. history), consult teachinghistory.org/history-content/website-review.
2) Consult with a member of the USC history faculty who has some expertise on your subject. Ask that faculty member to help you identify useful source materials (both primary and secondary) for teaching that subject.
***Teaching journal entry: Write 1-2 pages on your preliminary thoughts about how you might engage your students in your subject. Consider both historical content—interesting figures, stories, events, etc.—and historical investigation questions that might grab your students’ interest and attention.
Feb. 26 Furthering your research
ASSIGNED READING:
· Read a useful book-length treatment of your topic—either a research monograph or a synthetic overview (you can ask your USC faculty consultant for help with this selection).
· Read “Michael Yell on Making Every History Lecture Engaging,” at http://teachinghistory.org/nhec-blog/25266
In this class meeting, each seminar participant will deliver a 10-minute mini-lecture (you may use power point if you wish) whose purpose is to provide appropriate historical context for your lesson plan. (This is a preliminary exercise: you don’t need to aim at a systematically complete context.)
***Instead of a teaching journal entry, compile a bibliography of the sources—both primary and secondary—you are using to prepare for your lesson plan.
March 5 Formulating a HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION QUESTION
ASSIGNED READINGS:
· Thomas Fallace, "Once More unto the Breach: Trying to Get Pre-service Teachers to Link Historiographical Knowledge to Pedagogy," Theory and Research in Social Education 35 (3): 427–446
· Re-examine the “Historical Investigation Template” at http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/pdfs/investigation_template.pdf
· Watch the 2-minute video “Reading Like a Historian: Focus Questions” at https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/guide-lessons-with-focus-questions
· Continue your research
***Teaching journal entry: Formulate the HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION QUESTION that will shape your lesson plan. And begin to fill in Part I of the “Historical Investigation Template”: What basic CONTEXTUAL CONTENT will you need to provide for your students to support their historical investigations?
UNIT 3. HOW SHOULD WE TEACH HISTORY?
In this third unit, we will explore different teaching strategies for helping our students think historically.
March 12 PRIMARY SOURCES I: What sources to teach?
ASSIGNED READING:
· Go to the “Teaching with Primary Sources Program” at the Library of Congress, at http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/ and click on the “Teacher’s Page.” Now search for your lesson-plan topic by “State Content” standards (for California), and read through all the “Classroom Materials” available for that “Expectation/ Substrand.” (If there are no materials for your chosen topic, read through a related topic.) From those materials, gather any primary sources you may want to use in your lesson plan.
· If you are teaching world history, browse the for primary sources at http://www.historyteacher.net/APEuroCourse/APEuro_Main_Weblinks_Page.htm
· If you are teaching US history, browse for primary sources at http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/
· Search through your research materials for primary sources that you may want to use in your lesson plan.
***Instead of a teaching journal entry, prepare a small and select PACKET OF PRIMARY SOURCES that will allow your students to explore your HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION QUESTION. Consider including not only printed materials, but also images (paintings and prints, cartoons, maps and diagrams, photographs, etc.), aural materials (music, taped speeches, oral histories or interviews, etc.), film, etc.
Please bring 2 copies of your PRIMARY SOURCE PACKET to class for Phil and Karen.
***Also, bring enough copies of a SINGLE SOURCE to distribute to the entire workshop. Together we will discuss possible classroom uses of it.
MARCH 18-MARCH 22: SPRING RECESS
March 26 PRIMARY SOURCES II: How to Teach Primary Sources?
ASSIGNED READINGS:
· “Reading Like A Historian” webpage at the Stanford History Education Group site, at http://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh
· “Michael Yell’s Strategies for Using Primary Sources in Your Classroom,” at http://teachinghistory.org/nhec-blog/24651
· “Four Reads: Learning to Read Primary Documents” at http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/25690
· “Using Visual Materials as Historical Sources” at http://www.alaskool.org/resources/teaching/socialstudies/using_visual_materials.htm
· “Document-Based Whole-Class Discussion” at http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/25620
***Instead of a teaching journal entry, select a few primary sources from your packet, and design a strategy for teaching them to your students. Then come to class prepared to teach those sources to our seminar for approximately 15 minutes. (Remember to bring hand-outs or a power point so we can all respond directly to the sources.)
April 2 COMPLETING YOUR LESSON PLAN
ASSIGNED READING:
· Go to the “Browse Teaching Guides” section of the “Teaching History” site and select ONE ADDITIONAL STRATEGY that you think might be particularly useful for your lesson plan, at http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides
· Browse the lesson plans (in either U.S. or world history) at the Stanford History Education Group site, at http://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh
***For this class, please complete your lesson plan, using the Historical Investigation Template. Bring enough copies to hand out to all seminar participants. We will discuss your lesson plans in class, exchanging suggestions for how to improve them.
April 9 Lesson plan presentations and feedback
April 16 Lesson plan presentations and feedback
April 23 Lesson plan presentations and feedback
April 30 Conclusion: Professor McGonagall vs. Professor Binns