Topic: What should a report card look like to provide information to parents?

Since I’m not a teacher and it’s been quite a while since I paid attention to my grades (by college I had stopped caring about grades and started focusing on what I was learning, understanding, and retaining), I didn’t think that I would get much out of this week’s #edchat. Then again, I am going to have a kid in school soon, and I can’t imagine not caring about his report cards when he brings them home.

I’m actually really looking forward to my step-son’s report cards when he starts kindergarten later on this year. As far as I can tell, that’s the age where we really have report cards nailed down. From what I hear, kindergarteners (and even first and second graders) don’t really get grades. They get stars, happy faces, and other little trophies for good behavior or for demonstrating that they’re learning in some way. It’s not really so much about achievement as it is about heart.

Of course, at some point kids need to grow up and learn that the world is about achievement (and many other things). But are we rushing it? Is it misleading to start giving kids A’s, B’s, and C’s while they’re still in elementary (and even middle) school? What does that actually accomplish?

There are tons of #edchat participants who are outspokenly “anti-test.” I think that’s reasonable. Anyone who reads anything about education in this country knows that most teachers (and parents, and students) are getting fed up with the amount of standardized tests we put our kids through – and with the importance we ascribe to them. But as it turns out, I’m not the only “wacko” out there wondering if we’re overdoing it with the grading too.

We heard from plenty of teachers this week who think that grades are simply not the best way to communicate with parents or the best means of summarizing a student’s abilities. And that’s really what report cards and grades are for, right? It’s not like they go anywhere else but home to be signed and off to college admission offices to be reviewed.

As with all good #edchat experiences, this one serves as only the beginning of a much larger discussion. As Tom Whitby pointed out to me, the best part of #edchat is what comes afterwards. Reforming report cards is yet another item we can add to the list when we finally get around to making real changes to our archaic educational system.

Main themes from the discussion:

• How relevant are report cards, really? David Wees asked where they came from, and then later on pointed out that “back in the day” they used to be reports of how many biblical verses each student had memorized. Arguably, they’ve come a long way since then (and so have most average students), but are they really necessary? Couldn’t we replace them with something like an online portfolio or with weekly email updates on student progress? Personally, I think we could (or at least we could supplement them with these things), but it seemed like most teachers were hesitant to throw what may be the only fool-proof means of parental involvement out the window. At least, until every family has home internet.
• We need them, but they need to change! Admitting that we need report cards, are they okay in their current format? The resounding answer to that is “NO!” Everyone had one quibble with them at least, and most had many. I can’t even begin to summarize all the complaints that were voiced, so I will remind you to look for the archive of this conversation when it goes online.
• We need less of an emphasis on grades. This was one of the main points against report cards that nearly everyone agreed on. While there were a couple folks who stood by grades as a means of motivating and ranking students, many others were quick to point out how completely subjective grades are (an A in one district might be a C in another), and how they’re just as likely to demoralize a student as they are to motivate him. Still, asking all schools to do away with grades on report cards is not going to happen, especially because colleges use them as a major determining factor when selecting applicants.
• We need more of an emphasis on personalized comments. If we’re stuck with grades, how can we make report cards useful? One of the biggest points I heard a lot of people making this week was that we need to get rid of standardized comments because they mean almost nothing. Of course, the corollary to this is that teachers need to provide much more individualized feedback for each student. This can get time-consuming, and as we all know teachers aren’t exactly made of free time as it is. I suggested that we should have teachers create audio reports on each student instead of taking the time to type something up. This would allow parents to get more feedback than they would normally get on a report card without being entirely too burdensome on the teacher. Others suggested reviving the lost art of the parent-teacher conference.
• Report cards are only one way for teachers and parents to communicate. One final point that I feel needs to be emphasized (because I saw it come up more than once this week) is that report cards should not be the only time a teacher communicates with parents. It should never be a surprise when a parent opens up their child’s report card – especially if that student is struggling. Teachers need to remember to involve parents early and often, even though this can be one of the more difficult components of the job. But hey, nobody ever said teaching was easy, did they?

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

<> Good questions:

cybraryman1 I feel we have to start with what do parents want on a report card?

MertonTech How relevant is a quarterly report card when we have the ability to have access to a live report card via the internet?

davidwees Does anyone know when and where report cards first developed? What’s the history of the report card?

cybraryman1 Should grades be replaced by teacher comments & individualized assessment?

jheil65 Hasn’t the existing ed system made grades the endgame? Learning takes a back seat to grades and standardized tests.

<> Good answers:

TeachersNet Reports should be 1. frequent, 2. succinct, 3. report progress measured against past performance, and 4. show standing regarding grade level.

GTConsultant Parents in my districts don’t even look at report cards with the online grades they look at everyday!

davidwees ”The best report cards are the ones where the teacher speaks up. They’re personal. A grade – it just doesn’t say enough.” @John_Merrow

cheflincoln Report card should look like a Job Evaluation! Isn’t employability and not gamesmanship the goal?

MertonTech Portfolios of work. Students choose what they think is their best work.

<> Less grades, more comments:

jheil65 @mikevigilant My problem with grades is that there is no direct connection between grades and learning. . . Learning should be primary!

davidwees What the modern report card needs is not more numbers, but more meaningful information.

aaronmueller A modern report card should do away with canned comment codes. Online reporting can allow students to see “big picture feedback.”

VanessaSCassie Love the idea of a “work ethic” column on the report card.

Caplee62 Yep, my school had no grades. At first parents confused and then they loved it.

<> A few resources:

cybraryman1 My Parent-Teacher Communication page:http://t.co/zvwQ21nJ

delta_dc I like to use the analogy of a trip:http://t.co/QoHOBtZ3

davidwees ”What mattered in 1825 on your report card was how many lines of scripture you had memorized.”http://t.co/0C9yGqZY

cheflincoln Has anyone mentioned Shawn Cornally andhttp://t.co/Hisz9eDW his SBG gradebook? Worth a look!

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Alright, alright! We admit it! He’s actually been back for about a month now, but since the press release only came out yesterday we figured it would be best to wait until things were “official” before we posted the good news.

And here it is:

Brian Reese, TestSoup’s founder and an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force was deployed to Afghanistan early last year — but now he’s home again, safe, sound, and ready to rock on some more TestSoup content.

We’ve made some decent progress in his absence, growing the TestSoup user base substantially and adding a lot of new flashcard sets for our online, Android, and iOS platforms. But now that the man with the plan is back in the saddle, the company is poised to go in some bold new directions and make some key additions to our test prep line-up.

We’ll have more details for you as things develop. For now, though, we’re happy to just welcome Brian home!

Topic: How do we consider time differently to rebuild school schedules and calendars to maximize learning?

Sometimes, when I’m out and about on the roads early in the morning, I see a school bus and think to myself, “Why on earth do we make kids start their school day so early?” It wasn’t too long ago that I was one of them, I can remember how torturous it was to get up before the sun rose and try to get my brain out of hibernation mode.

Many times I’ve wondered what it might do to our education system if we just pushed back the beginning of school by an hour or two. I suspect it would improve focus and, by extension, learning and knowledge retention. I’m sure there have been more than a few studies on the subject, although the fact that we still are doing things the same way suggests that either the correlation between later start times and better student performance just isn’t there or that we just don’t care to change the status quo.

Either way, my thinking on adjusting school schedules never extended beyond pushing the start of the day back a bit. This week’s #edchat, however, went much deeper than that. It was amazing how quickly the community spat out more suggestions in a single hour than I would have been able to come up with in a week. Of course, that’s what I expect when I sign on to #edchat these days.

Ideas ranged from the realistic to the radical; from the small tweak to the complete overhaul. I fear that even some of the simpler suggestions will go completely unheard thanks to the rigid administration that seems so prevalent in public schools these days. But at the same time I have some hope that teachers can make some of these new ideas work on their own – or maybe they can bring them up in a private school setting, where things aren’t set in stone.

Change may come slowly, but it is encouraging that there are so many good teachers (and other school staff members) out there who are working on it every day.

Main themes from the discussion:

• What do we want to do: extend the school day or restructure the current school day? This is a central question that needs to be answered, and carefully. Do we think that we need students to spend more time in school (kids in other countries often do go to school longer and for more days every year) or do we think we can do better with the time we have? We also need to consider how homework plays into this. Do we want to effectively extend the school day “unofficially” by giving more homework or by flipping the majority of classrooms?
• Should we extend the school day? It seemed like there were a good number of teachers who favored extending the school day. Most of these folks admitted that they wouldn’t just focus on academics if they had more time, however. They wanted more time for extra-curricular activities, sports programs, and tutoring to help those students who were falling behind. There was some discussion over whether participation in “after hours” activities should be mandatory or optional. I think convincing cases can be made for both sides.
• If we extend the school day, won’t that cost us more money? No #edchat discussion would be complete without a discussion about how we plan to pay for all these brilliant ideas. It certainly seems logical that if we extend the school day we’ll have to be paying a lot more salaries and hiring quite a few more people. But what about volunteers, such as parents or older students? What about private tutors who wouldn’t get paid by the school system but would be compensated by the parents who decided to enroll their kids in their programs? And what about renting out the school building during off hours to various organizations as a way to defray some of these extra costs?
• Restructuring the school day is the way to go. There were just as many folks who preferred to rearrange the school day as wanted to extend it. I think that makes sense (and is itself an argument in favor of making an extended school day optional). Tom Whitby had an interesting idea to teach students five subjects per semester and to have each subject meet once a week all day long so that teachers could go really in-depth. David Wees suggested making the school day more “fluid,” allowing teachers to bargain amongst each other for extra time when necessary. And Jerry Blumengarten (better known as the Cybraryman) wondered if we should try to combine subjects a bit more. Each of these suggestions is a way for teachers to have the time to go deeper into their subject matter, and I think each one deserves some consideration. Unfortunately, they’re all a bit on the “radical” side.
• What about just focusing on not wasting so much time? This, I think, is one of the best and simplest suggestions from this week’s conversation. Every school (and teacher) should, on an annual basis, reexamine their general practices to see where time is being spent inefficiently or completely wasted. For example: do all students need to sit and listen to the announcements for every grade level every morning? Or couldn’t announcements be made via email or other social networking services? The possibilities are probably endless.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

<> Great questions:

birklearns Is there a need for a longer school day, or is the solution restructuring the day that we have?

cybraryman1 How do you feel incorporating more self-directed http://t.co/HtLsFiGC and blended learning? http://t.co/cgTtePy9

cybraryman1 How do you feel about combining some subject areas?

<> In favor or rearranging the day:

davidwees We need to examine our school schedules and ask ourselves, where does this schedule come from?

bjnichols Time cannot be segmented into blocks. It should be around projects or problems. Life is integrated, not isolated.

mikevigilant Just let each team decide–if nothing’s going on in science and math is blowing up, shift a little time around.

davidwees @drdouggreen Ever been in the middle of a deep learning activity with students and been interrupted by the end of class?

tomwhitby Teaching 5 periods a day for 5 diff classes: How about each class one day a week for 5 periods? Result: more continuous project time.

<> In favor of integrating the school day more:

DoeMiSo As a music teacher, I’m integrating other subjects all the time. Why should it be so hard for others?

MertonTech @rliberni @TestSoup Give the kids social time with their emotional peers, and learning time with their intellectual peers.

stumpteacher @cybraryman1 There are so many natural connections in learning that teaching in isolation no longer makes sense.

<> Challenges to integrating the school day more:

mikevigilant @cybraryman1 Combining subjects would be great IF we weren’t accountable for test results on *our* subject. Would you give up time?

<> In favor of a longer day:

Loldsteach My son’s high school stays open three hours after dismissal to allow students access to the resources. It’s a start.

rliberni Think of all the art, drama, and sport that could be done at school!

cybraryman1 @rliberni I would like to see more choice given to students after academics of areas (arts, sports, etc.) to explore.

mr_isaacs Open the school for more activities. Let students stay because they want to stay.

MertonTech @TestSoup Keeping the building open can be a revenue generator.

<> Challenges to extending the day:

birklearns For students who are not fond of school, more school would be awful. Eating more brussel sprouts doesn’t make me like them…

davidwees @PrincipalPC @tomwhitby ’It will cost too much’ is an excuse to continue to do what we always do; it keeps us ‘safe.’

rliberni Does an extended day need to have teachers? What about parents? They have expertise too. I think we often underestimate the skills that others have (parents and other people attached to school).

<> Great miscellaneous comments:

tsocko @jswiatek I’ve found that time isn’t wasted if teachers are properly prepping and recreating lesson plans, not just extending old ones.

PrincipalPC @drdouggreen @ShiftParadigm We should not worry about gaps — we should worry about maximization of capacity.

TeachPaperless One problem is that we tend to think that if a student isn’t learning in our classroom, they aren’t learning.

Mamacita My own memories of elementary school are mostly of waiting, waiting, and waiting. And being punished for working ahead.

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

guest written by Kimberly Joki of Grammarly.

That writing is a necessary professional and life skill is universally accepted.  Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching writing are key to giving our students the necessary experience to grow into confident writers. However, despite increased writing-education efforts, many students are entering into and graduating from university with weak writing skills or are anxious and unsure of their writing abilities.

Topic: Which should we support first for the best result? A reform in student learning (teaching methods) or a reform in teacher learning (professional development, or PD)?

Back into the swing of things with the first #edchat of the new year! The gang didn’t waste any time getting back in the saddle, either. I saw most (but not quite all) of the regulars joining in the discussion at one point or another, even though some (like myself) were a little tardy to the party.

This week’s discussion was an interesting one for two reasons: 1) it asked educators to choose which is more important for a teacher to do: teach or learn, and 2) it treaded on ground that we had already covered before (recently), making for a slightly more in-depth conversation than I think would normally have been possible.

Last time we talked about professional development for teachers, we had to spend a lot of time just bringing those of us (I was a newbie at the time!) who didn’t know much about teacher PD up to speed. A lot of good information was given out by the old hands, and if you missed the discussion on EdCamps and UnConferences (or simply would like a refresher) I strong encourage you to go back and read my summary post.

This time was different. This time the conversation focused more on how to improve existing PD and implement new/better ideas properly. Why? Because everyone seemed to agree pretty quickly that obviously the most important thing to improve is teaching – but that you can’t improve teachers if you aren’t training them to constantly improve themselves!

So this week’s discussion boiled down to a great chat about how to both improve educator PD and how to speed along implementation of all those great ideas floating around out there. And all of this in service of the students.

Main themes from the discussion:

• Is it possible to improve one without the other? The consensus seemed to be: probably not. And it was universally agreed that, even though the ultimate goal was to help students learn, focusing just on teaching and ignoring the PD side would be attacking the symptoms and not the cause. Teachers can only teach as well as they are taught to teach. Thus, to improve student learning, you must first improve teacher learning.
• What kind of PD are we talking about here? Right away it was decided that we weren’t even going to waste our time talking about “bad PD.” By that, I mean single sessions where some “expert” gets up and talks to a whole bunch of teachers about what they should be doing to accomplish X, Y, and Z goals set by the administration, the state, or the federal government. That’s useless. So when we use the term PD, remember that we’re talking about “good PD.”
• What is “good PD?” That’s a good question (and one that we sort of answered last time we talked about it in November 2011). But to simplify things down and summarize a bit, it seemed like most educators agreed that good PD was an ongoing process initiated by the teacher, guided by a mentor, and facilitated by administration. To get more specific than that, you’ll have to look into the transcript of the conversation when it’s available.
• Teachers need to take responsibility for their own PD. This was a major theme; perhaps even the biggest theme of the discussion. Teachers are supposed to be experts in their field. Experts never stop learning. They can’t, because if they do they’ll get overtaken. Of course, administrators need to remember that it is their job to help facilitate this process (and to push, when necessary), but the bulk of the responsibility falls on the teachers.
• What about students? This wasn’t really discussed, but I think it’s a legitimate point so I’m sticking it in here. Almost everyone seemed to agree that teachers should have at least some role deciding what they learn about. This will help them care more about what they’re doing. So I wonder: does the same apply to students? Or can we not trust them to pick and choose the important stuff? Maybe that’s a topic for another week.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

<> Initial reactions:

drdouggreen This is a chicken and egg issue.

tomwhitby @drdouggreen I don’t see it as chicken/egg. I believe the emphasis must be on ongoing teacher training in order to impact student learning.

birklearns What are we calling PD? One-time events that happen during the year, or ongoing? I believe we can significantly impact ongoing PD.

USCTeacher Probably can’t do the first one before the second. Student learning is the priority, but if teachers can’t facilitate that, we need PD first.

<> Ideas for Improving PD:

1st4ceu RT @ebonstorm: Professional development should not be considered a punishment. Done right, it should enhance the teacher’s abilities and options.

John_DAdamo Professional reflection is what makes PD worthwhile. Dialogue about what consists of good PD can in/of itself become good PD.

CTuckerEnglish So often I leave PD sessions with a million great ideas but hit hurdles implementing them. An ongoing support network would be awesome.

CTuckerEnglish So much money is spent bringing people in for PD. RT @CriticalSkills1: Mohr said “The wisdom is [already] in the room.”

hadleyjf We need to model “Active Learning,” and no more “Sage on Stage” in PD.

tomwhitby In NY every school is required to have a mentoring program for new teachers as a form of PD. Is that true for all schools in the country?

vpigreenie @tomwhitby No, it is not true for all schools in the country. I would guess it is actually a rarity more than a norm.

<> Who should be in charge of PD?

jonbergmann What if PD was for teachers to learn ANYTHING they wanted and we supported their learning. I bet this would change the way they teach.

John_DAdamo @love2learningp @tomwhitby How do we build a culture that values self-directed PD? Including when admin may not support?

ghostexecutive RT @doctorjeff: Dictating what a learner should be curious about is a huge mistake right out of the gate, and you reap what you sow.

mikevigilant A tweet scrolled by too fast for me to get to, but I like the idea of teachers dictating what they do (and don’t!) want PD for.

drdouggreen @tomwhitby If you are a professional, shouldn’t you be responsible for your own development?

tomwhitby Left solely to their devices, teachers may not be leaving those damned comfort zones. Little reform can result. PD needs direction. Guided and directed PD should be the priority for reform.

cheflincoln Should implementation of PD be included in teacher evaluations?

mikevigilant @tomwhitby Nobody trains me because I’m the only one at school who does what I do. If I waited for instructions, I’d be fired by now.

<> A couple links:

inquirebook @testsoup Check out how @amydawnpark had her 4th graders create their own rubrics for a decomposition lab. http://t.co/lQvNRmqt

drdouggreen @amykfmurphy I find tons of sources for quality PD online. Take a look at http://t.co/DMYqOAZP to see what I find.

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

guest written by Wim Coleman of Chiron Books.

In my previous post, I wrote about introducing storytelling techniques (especially dramatic ones) as an aid to teaching literature. In my fourth and final post as a guest here, I’ll to share some ideas for using storytelling in the classroom to teach history.

I’ve got a powerful personal memory along these lines from my senior year in high school. (It was in 1971-2, so you can do the math and figure out how old I am!) I had a brilliant and innovative American History teacher, whose assignments were, to put it mildly, dramatic. For example, he had one class break up into two groups and act out the American Civil War, using the entire high school campus as a stage.

But to me, his most memorable assignment was a less flamboyant one. My group was assigned to write and perform a play portraying the ideological conflict between the African-American Civil Rights leaders Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. A former slave, Washington advocated a “go slow” strategy to achieving racial equality; a historian and sociologist, Du Bois’s advocated a much more aggressive approach. The play was framed as a debate between the two.

Our group divided up tasks, ranging from research to typing. The actual writing and directing fell to me. It was a formative experience. I’ve been around theater since before I can remember, but it was the first time I’d really written a play. I’ve gone on to write more plays than I can count, many of them published and/or performed, and some of them award-winners. So really, this assignment was the beginning of a quasi-career. Also, exploring the polarity of thought between Washington and Du Bois helped form my own political worldview, especially concerning approaches to social activism.

Over the decades, I’ve kept a yellowed, mimeographed copy of this play, which lies in front of me right now. It’s no masterpiece, but it’s not bad for a high school student, and it brings back memories of one of the most stimulating intellectual experiences of my youth. It’s no small testament to the strength of classroom storytelling that an assignment like this can still resonate in one’s mind after 40 years!

Now we’ll get down to specifics. Let’s say that you’re teaching a unit on the American Civil War. Students quickly (and understandably) get bored learning by rote the names of generals and the dates of battles. Besides, such inert facts don’t give any sense of the issues, philosophies, agonies, and passions involved in that cataclysmic conflict. Dramatic storytelling can be a key to deeper understanding. I’ll toss out just four possible basic situations:

• War breaks out in April 1861. Soon afterward in Philadelphia, a congregation of Quakers (The Religious Society of Friends) struggles with matters of conscience. On one hand, Quakers have long devoted themselves to the abolition of slavery and have actively participated in the Underground Railroad; on the other hand, Quakers have always been pacifistic. What should Quakers do now that the country is waging a war to end slavery—adhere to pacifism and resist conscription, or compromise their beliefs and join and support the Union Army? Write and perform a scene in which members of the congregation debate these choices.
• While the war was raging, the publisher and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison condemned the U.S. Constitution as “a Covenant with Death, an Agreement with Hell” because it allowed the continuance of slavery. Meanwhile, the former slave and journalist Frederick Douglass contended that the Constitution offered the surest means for abolishing slavery. Write and perform a scene in which Garrison and Douglass meet in a public place. Garrison is there to burn a copy of the Constitution; Douglass is there to pass out copies of it hot off his own printing press. They debate their positions to the crowd while engaged in these activities.
• In Union-occupied South Carolina, an African-American family hears news of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. The family now finds itself free. Write and perform a scene in which grandparents, parents, and children discuss dreams, dilemmas, possibilities, and choices. Have them consider both the Emancipation’s promises and limitations. While they are now “freedmen” encouraged to join the fight against slavery, the Emancipation does not yet end slavery altogether.

This is just a sampling of scenarios. Needless to say, the possibilities for the Civil War are practically unlimited. Also needless to say, it is easy to dream up endless assignments for any episode, period, or era in all of human history. Here I’ve suggested scenes that range from the intimately personal (the slave family) to the political and philosophical (Garrison and Douglass). I think it’s good to seek out such a range for greater resonance.

But I should caution that the instructions above aren’t really sufficient. They’re just a starting-point. Without a lot of clarity, this assignment won’t fully deliver the goods. My high school teacher, for example, was extremely specific about setting, story, and themes. He also took care that my group was prepared with a great deal of background information, making research part of the assignment.

I like ending this series of posts with one about history. It hints at how storytelling in the classroom encourages critical thinking, a vital but elusive goal in whatever subject you might be teaching. And it hints at the power of having students step into someone else’s shoes, relating even experiences of long ago and far away to one’s own contemporary, everyday life. Storytelling makes teaching and learning up-close, personal, and real.

About the author: Wim Coleman is a playwright whose works have won national awards and have been presented in New York and Los Angeles, and he is an award-winning poet. He has also been a teacher, and has degrees in Theater, Literature, and Education. He usually writes in collaboration with his wife, Pat Perrin. Together, they have well over 100 publications. They publish independently for young people through ChironBooks. Wim and Pat lived in various parts of the United States before spending thirteen years in San Miguel de Allende, where they created and administered the San Miguel PEN Scholarship Program for at-risk students. They also adopted their daughter, Monse, there. All three of them now live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  You can learn more about Wim and his work at his website.