Sorry I have not posted here this week as I have been busy with my pre-internship. I have posted some comments on other blogs; no doubt much to the cringe of the owners. As some of you may know, I am finishing up my teaching license. (I graduated from college 14 years ago and last year went back to do this as I work on my masters.) After which I hope to be a high school social studies teacher.
Anyway, due to local school district guidelines the timeline for US History A (high school) changed in order to allow US History B more time to cover the entire 20th Century along with current events more effectively. Apparently, in order to get everything in required a lot of hurrying and did not do justice to the last 20 years or so. This change means that teachers have to cover everything up to 1890 in 4 weeks. The new timeline for US History A is now 1890 to 1940 and US History B 1940 to the present. It’s too bad important events have to be covered with such brevity, but that’s the way it is. Also, out here, there unfortunately are no electives such as Civil War history. I envy those of you who can teach such classes at the high school level where you are.
Well, I got the chance to teach a few days ago. My “mentor†teacher allowed me to cover the Civil War, but I had only one class period to do it in. As this school is on what is called a “block” schedule I was allowed 90 minutes. I was given 3 days to put this together. I had to use a powerpoint presentation, I could lecture for about 30% of the time, and then had to wrap up with an activity. The students are primarily juniors.
I had to cover the causes of the Civil War, major figures (Lincoln, Davis, ect), major battles, emancipation proclamation, ect. I also talked about the soldiers, the battlefield, hospitals, prison camps, and the ending of the war along with Lincoln’s assassination. Not very in-depth, but I did my best with the time I had.
I also talked about Civil War news coverage and newspapers and had the class watch a 15 minute video about Civil War newspapers from the Historic New York Times website, which I thought was excellent. After the video I handed out a photocopied Civil War newspaper to every student (getting it photocopied was not easy) and had the class explore it via a worksheet.
The students had to find various things including: products being sold, job ads, social activities, ect. They had to read several articles and comment on them. They also had to find vocabulary words that they did not recognize, words that might have a different meaning today or would be considered offensive today.
I was very impressed with the students. They really seemed to get into the activity and during my lecture and presentation they asked thoughtful questions. I’m looking forward to student teaching and taking over the class. Wish me luck.
90 minutes to teach the Civil War? Wow, I spend one month. Of course your students have had bits and pieces of it before, we hope.
It is a great feeling to finally put all of those thoughts and ideas into play and work with real students. You’ll do just fine due to your knowledge base.
I’m researching a graduate thesis on using a Civil War Museum’s website as an effective tool for teaching children Civil War history. Do you know of any resources that migh be helpful? Also, do you have any idea how I can reach some K-12 educators to get their participation in an online survey?
Many thanks !
Casey