CAROLYN
BEITZEL
Diary #30
No
Time for Discovery
The act of discovery can be an effective tool, when combined with the amount of time needed for students to truly explore.
My most frustrating experience teaching eighth grade American History this year was actually twofold: the standards-based, school-district constructed curriculum and the lack of time to implement alternative lessons that would be meaningful to students. I can get my students to strive for and achieve a higher level of thinking skills that our society requires within a standards- and aptitude-based curriculum. I can assign students active roles in the learning process. However, I can only accomplish these goals when I am allowed enough time to incorporate alternative strategies into my daily lesson plans.Stolen time
If one accepts the primary goal of social studies, the development of a competent citizenry for a democratic society (National Council For the Social Studies, 1997), inquiry-oriented teaching might be the most appropriate methodology for this specialty.
For the past five weeks we have been studying the Frontier West. The first lesson involved learning how the geography of the West influenced the history of the West and the country. Our objective was to create a map of geographic features of the West to understand the obstacles the pioneers had to overcome.
I had originally scheduled class time to create paper-mache maps depicting the landforms so the kids could actually construct their own meaning by using a tactile source that would trigger learning. However, we lacked the time in our schedule, due to assemblies, etc. for me to be able to take the two to three days necessary for this activity. If that wasn't problem enough, I was unable to get the supplies I needed from the art department and would have had to purchase on my own (for 120 kids? I don't think so). Instead, we identified the geography on a flat, linear sheet of paper. Did the kids learn? I think I could say yes. Was it fun? Probably not.
Our next inquiry activity is scheduled for next week. I was planning to take the students outside and have them calculate how many times around the track equaled one mile. From there they were to determine how long it would take someone traveling West to walk ten to twenty miles a day by actually walking a mile around the track and timing it. I wanted them to experience how it might have felt to walk for so long with a goal in mind.
The last part of this lesson is to calculate the number of steps it would take to walk the 2000 mile journey. For those of you interested in determining the number of steps in a mile, divide the number of inches in a mile (63,360) by the length in inches of their step. Multiply your answer by 2000 to determine how many steps are in 2000 miles.
Note the words I used "I was planning". As it stands now, during the next eight teaching days there are two morning assemblies and one afternoon assembly scheduled, which means my classes are now only 22 minutes in length. There is not enough time to even get the students outside, let alone complete the activity.Bound by the clock
Inquiry is well suited to the teaching of social studies, but now I know why so few teachers use this strategy in their classrooms! Inquiry is time consuming and when class time is taken away there is very little time left to allow the students to create their own learning. I can cover the same amount of material above in two or three classes if I were to use a more traditional approach.
I love using inquiry and I am still quite a novice when it comes to putting it into practice in my own classroom. Not from the lack of trying or the unwillingness to take risks, but from the obstacles placed in my path from a school district that has a stranglehold on their teachers. We are bound by balls and chains to the clock. Each time I use inquiry in a lesson, I am attempting to break those chains. If I continue with my persistence then my students can reap the benefits.
