From National History Day to Peace jam: Research Leads to Authentic Learning
My classroom has begun to feel like Groundhog Day. I hate reading the same books over and over. After four times I feel a certain expertise; after ten, I can quote long passages of text verbatim, even those that aren’t on the test. I teach in a fairly traditional district, with a strong emphasis on classics and an overemphasis on literature, most of it lengthy. We own anthologies containing a smorgasbord of Omega Replica literary orts, but they aren’t used much, especially in tenth grade. The school adopted a semester block schedule without reducing the required reading list. That was at least ten years ago. So we plow through A Tale of Two Cities and race through Macbeth. We barely stop to breathe, let alone ponder or craft writing outside of the requisite literary analysis.
Lest I sound like a crispy critter, one of those desiccated husks of former educators who haunt the halls of so many schools, let me say that I do love teaching, my students, and the classics. I experiment freely with new lessons to try to help students engage; a favorite is to explore voice by writing an advice letter to Holden Caulfield in someone else’s voice. He’s received powerful epistles from Dr. Phil, Twain’s Jim, Jonathan Edwards, and God. And, much to my feigned horror, Holden received a letter from me. April, who read her letter aloud, included all of my idiosyncratic gestures, too. She even tripped on the overhead projector cord and then swore at it under her breath but loud enough for all to hear, just as I do. Some of her classmates, when they realized I wasn’t angry, laughed until they cried.
I help some kids make personal connections to what can seem irrelevant within the confines of class-room and curriculum. Interestingly, though, the most meaningful connections I’ve made with students have come not through quirky English teaching, but through my extracurricular interloping into the realm of social studies. The most intense and satisfying writing I assign has evolved out of a 15-year interaction with one of this country’s richest academic competitions, National History Day (NHD). One student’s History Day research project proved so powerful, it resulted in her leading me to a new extracurricular program called Peace Omega Speedmaster Replica Watches jam that links students (and me!) with Nobel Peace Prize winners and inspires them to become agents of social change. The writing and research skills my History Day and Peace jam students develop have changed their lives and mine. What could be better, more authentic, than great writing that changes lives?
National History Day: Research for a Real Audience.
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