March 16: Thinking About Our Students

I’ve been reluctant to post this on the blog and the website given that attendance is restricted to members of the 2009-2010 Causes of Conflict cohort, but I’ve decided to do so for a couple of reasons:

1. That cohort will be able to access the materials on these sites;
2. Other teachers or projects may be interested in the materials; and
3. It lets folks who aren’t involved know what they’re missing so that they will be more likely to sign up next time!

Tuesday, March 16, members of the 2009-2010 cohort will meet a two part program.  In the first part, Steven Schwartz of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History will help teachers identify student questions and classroom applications related to the topics and themes they’ll be studying during the History on Location Expedition to Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, Antietam, and DC.  In the second half of the program, Rick Dills from Portland State University’s Center for Student Success will guide teachers through a criterion based review of their students’ work – leading an inquiry into student growth and inspiring teacher questions about learning.

Agenda

8:45 – 9:00  Introductory comments by Matt Karlsen and Rich Christen

9:00 – 10:30 Teaching the Civil War through Primary Source Documents

Jacob Lawrence, No. 13

We’ll start off with an analysis of John Brown, the Abolitionist and His Legacy, utilizing online exhibitions at the New York Historical Society and documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

Throughout the entire morning, documents will be viewed with an eye toward editing for classroom use, creating rubrics, demonstrating classroom applicability and helping students analyze historical events through the “other”. Teachers will have the opportunity to view Confederate and Union arguments justifying war. These will be presented in recruitment poster images, audio recordings and letters.

10:30 – 10:45  Break

10:45 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.  Causes Won, Lost and Forgotten 
As we continue, Steve will discuss how the four themes of Professor Gallagher’s book can be conveyed to a middle school audience. Steve will demonstrate how primary sources can be used to teach aspects of Civil War history. Teachers will have the opportunity to compare Professor Gallagher’s narrative with short scenes from two popular motion pictures and two contemporary paintings.

Gettysburg
In anticipation of the teacher’s visit to Gettysburg, Steve will use a map of the battlefield to connect photos, letters with a narrative of the battle.

12:00 – 12:30  Catered lunch

12:30 – 1:00  Causes of Conflict: How do we measure success?

• TAH Project Measures
• Targeted Skills as Criteria
• Survey Responses: What did you tell us?
• Lesson Study: What did we observe?
• Student Collections: What can we learn?

1:00-1:40  Reviewing a Common Student Collection: How do our views compare?

• Evidence, Performance, and Growth
• Rating a Collection: Review Sheet and Process
• Our Ratings: How do they compare?
• Observations

1:40-2:40  Collegial Review: How do we use criteria to provide constructive feedback?

• Reviewing a Collection: Review Sheet and Process
• Participant Questions: What do you want to learn?
• Organizing Questions:
  • Which of the TAH Knowledge and Skills do we see students demonstrating?
  • How do we note and measure growth in skills within ongoing collections of evidence?
  • What are the strengths of each student’s collection and performance?
  • How might each collection be improved to better demonstrate growth in TAH knowledge and skills?

2:40-3:15  Debrief: What did we learn?

• What does it look like when a student is demonstrating the targeted skills at a developmentally appropriate level of proficiency?
• What type of student work (evidence) best tells us whether students can (or can’t) demonstrate the targeted reading/thinking skills?
• How good is good enough? How well do students need to perform to meet Washington’s Grade Level and CBA expectations?
• What do we learn by looking closely at our students’ work?
• What do we learn by discussing each other’s teaching ideas and student assignments?
• How does the review inform our second (spring) lesson study cycle?

3:15  Final Comments and Announcements

Directions for Teachers: What student work to bring

If you’re a part of the cohort, I look forward to working with you March 16.  If you’re not, I look forward to receiving your comments and questions!