Monday, March 10, 2014

Connecting the "Structure and Function of Government" with Current Issues


From the moment students enter classrooms, they engage with civics.  A significant concept that students develop over time involves understanding the structure and function of government.  Generally, this learning exposes students to the notion that 1) leaders exist within different types of communities and that 2) processes are established to support positive change through helping leaders - and citizens - exchange ideas.

To make this learning relevant for students, we must invite students to examine issues that different communities are dealing with.  Through the examination of issues, students have the opportunity to see how different branches of government work in real life.  This relevancy deepens student understanding of the structure and function of government.  Learning about issues and how communities identify potential solutions to issues allows students to transfer and apply their learning about the structure and function of government. Consider what this might look like at different grade levels and how a common vision across grade levels allows students to connect, deepen, and build on their understanding in their schooling experience.

  • 1st grade - Students focus on leaders in the classroom and school. 
  • 2nd grade - Students focus on the classroom, school, and local community.
    • What roles provide leadership and guidance within schools and classrooms? (Principal, classroom teachers, educational assistants)
    • In what ways do parents and students share their ideas and assist in the management of schools and classrooms? (parents and students are able to have discussions with the teacher or principal when they might feel that rules and laws have been disciplined inappropriately)
    • What are some examples of issues that a school or classroom must solve? How do people work together to solve issues? (students - and parents - work with the teacher to solve issues such as too much talking, inappropriate behavior at recess, disrespect of peers, ...)
  • 3rd grade - Students focus on local government (city and county).
    • What is the structure and function of local government? (Executive - Mayor, Legislative - local City Councils, Judicial - Local Courts)
    • What issues are being debated within our local government? (Consider looking for issues within community newspapers.  Colorado teachers can find their local community newspapers here. Teachers from other states can use the same link and look at the top for a link to your state's community newspapers. In addition, state's have groups that support regional mayors.  In the Denver Metro area, the Metro Mayors Caucus is focusing on these issues. )
    • As a community identifies potential solutions to issues, how might each branch of government become involved? (Students have the opportunity to transfer and apply their knowledge of each branch's role and how checks and balances keep any one branch from having too much power.)
  • 4th grade - Students focus on state government (often through units that focus on the state).
    • What is the structure and function of state government? (Executive - Governor, Legislative - Colorado General Assembly, Judicial - State Supreme Court)
    • What issues are being debated within our state government? (Consider looking at your state's paper to see what issues exist.  Colorado teachers can look at the Denver Post: Legislature section.)
    • As the state identifies potential solutions to issues, how might each branch of government become involved? (Students have the opportunity to transfer and apply their knowledge of each branch's role and how checks and balances keep any one branch from having too much power.)

    • 5th grade - Students focus on federal government (often through studies of the U.S. Constitution).
      • What is the structure and function of federal government? (Executive - President, Legislate - House and Senate, Judicial - Supreme Court)
      • What issues are being debated within our federal government? (Issues within the federal government.)
      • As the nation identifies potential solutions to issues, how might each branch of government become involved? (Students have the opportunity to transfer and apply their knowledge of each branch's role and how checks and balances keep any one branch from having too much power.)
    • 6th and 7th grade - Students begin to look at global citizenship and the influence of nations. For some students, they are exposed to global governing with groups such as the United Nations. In 6th and 7th grades, students examine the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere.
      • What is the structure and function of the United Nations? (Structure of the UN)
      • What global issues are being debated by the United Nations?
      • As the United Nations identifies potential solutions to issues, how do the governments of different nations and global citizens become involved?

    Thursday, March 6, 2014

    U.S. Regional Studies (aka Please Abandon Traditional State Reports)

    Sometimes it's difficult to abandon traditions. For ages, elementary students have engaged in research reports about states. While teachers might feel satisfied with the classroom buzz of busy students finding a wealth of facts, there comes a time when we must ask ourselves, "Does this experience lead to deeper understanding of conceptual ideas? Does this experience lead students to engage in the critical thinking processes of a social scientist?" If we are honest with ourselves, the answer is a definitive NO.

    What is a region? How might I organize the states into regions? 
    To engage students in deeper understanding of our nation, we must begin by thinking about regions of the United States.  As a concept, region designates an area (of no specific size) that is part of a larger whole (the United States) which has smaller units within it. Regions differ largely on what we are talking about. While there are ways to regionally organize the nation based on climate, cultural ethnicity, well-being,.... we might consider a traditional organization of our nation into regions. Each region includes a particular set of states and those states have been included within the region based on geographic, economic, historic, and cultural trends/patterns.
    • West Region (WA, OR, CA, NV, ID, MT, WY, UT, CO) and AK, HI
    • Southwest Region (AZ, NM, TX, OK)
    • Midwest Region (ND, SD, NE, MN, IA, MO, WI, IL, IN, OH, MI)
    • Northeast Region (MD, DE, NJ, PA, CT, RI, MA, NV, VT, NH, ME)
    • Southeast Region (KY, VA, WV, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, TN)

    What will students learn about regions? 
    State reports have been justified for a long time because students find out lots of facts about states.  But, our goal is to support conceptual understanding of our nation.  Ask yourself, "How does finding facts about a state help you to understand our nation?"  It doesn't.

    Consider this - students frequently engage in lengthy, complex studies of their home state prior to learning about the United States.  In Colorado, students investigate some significant concepts, such as:
    • What regions might we identify in Colorado based on physical geography? What traits define these regions?
    • Who has come to Colorado over time? Why?
    • How is migration and population in Colorado connected to events in the United States?
    • How has migration and population development influenced the cultural diversity of the state? How is today's diverse population connected to the past?
    • How has the geography of Colorado influenced the ways people live over time and place?
    • How has the geography of Colorado influenced economics over time and place?
    • What is the structure and function of state government?
    • What issues are being addressed by the state government? What are potential solutions?
    In a regional study of the United States, students have the opportunity to expand horizons by connecting their state to a region.  In our case, Colorado becomes connected to the West region.  When students take a deeper look at the region, they begin to see patterns emerge.  For example, people migrated to various parts of the West for gold, not just Colorado.  People migrate to the West for its physical features and climate. Cultural diversity in the West has some patterns due to historic events.  

    With an understanding of a region's trends and patterns, students have the opportunity to compare and contrast these trends and patterns with other regions.  In doing so, students develop deeper understanding of our nation.  
    • If we divide the nation into these regions, what characteristics might be used to describe the physical geography of each region? (How do those characteristics compare to Colorado and the West?)
    • Who has come to __________ region over time? Why? (How does this compare with who and why people migrated to Colorado and the West region over time?)
    • How is migration and population in __________ region connected to events in the United States? (How does this compare with Colorado and the West?)
    • How has migration and population development influenced the cultural diversity of the______ region? How is today's diverse population in the _______ region connected to the past?
    • How has the geography of the _______ region influenced the ways people live over time and place? (How does this compare with the ways people have lived over time and place in Colorado and the West?)
    • How has the geography of the __________ region influenced economics over time and place? (How does this compare with the influence of geography on economics over time and place in Colorado and the West?)
    • What issues are being addressed by governments within the __________ region? (How do the issues in this region compare to the issues in Colorado and the West?)

    What resources might I use? What case studies might students examine to develop regional understanding of our nation?

    What about memorizing states and capitols? 
    To be honest, cultural traditions are strong and many families in our communities still want this type of learning.  So...let's consider our purpose.  When we hear news about different states in the nation, we want students to have a general sense of where those states are located.  As adults, we hear about news in the nation and often connect that news with the region where a state is located.  If this is how we operate as thinking adults, how might we design learning that aligns with how we think? I think it's perfectly appropriate to establish a goal where students can identify the states within each region.  As for capitols, the reason we know capitols is to know where a state's government is located.  How about an alternative?  What if we identified the significant cities within a region so students become familiar with the cultural and economic centers for each region?  It comes down to this..."What type of learning will help students have a strong knowledge base and deeper understanding of our nation's regions?"

    Tuesday, March 4, 2014

    Adding Artifact Analysis: Moving Beyond the Research Reports for First Americans Cultural Regions

    In First American units throughout the nation, students learn about the many different cultural regions. To bring in a conceptual lens, teachers engage students in conversations with the question, "How does where you live impact how you live?" (Without these conversations, students merely engage in research reports...fact-finding missions...questions to fill-in the answers on worksheet packets.) By engaging students in this type of conceptual question, the research about different cultural regions has a deeper purpose.  By engaging students in this type of conceptual question, students develop understanding of an idea that is transferrable by time and place.

    In the 21st century, we look towards the understanding of concepts AND we are looking to elevate MUCH MORE critical thinking and reasoning.  For this reason, I encourage teachers to engage students in the critical thinking practices of a historian.  Move beyond the reports...deepen learning and student thinking through inviting students to analyze artifacts.
    From the National Museum of the American Indian
    When students analyze artifacts, they are engaging with the actual pieces of history.  When students analyze artifacts, they are engaged in the critical thinking and reasoning of historians.  When students analyze artifacts, they are connecting the content of their research reports and deepening their understanding of culture.  (There's a reason museums share artifacts with people, and not research reports.)  When students analyze artifacts after having a base of content knowledge, they might try to answer the following questions:

    1. What do you think this artifact is? 
    2. How do you think think this artifact may have been used by the __________ culture?
    3. What questions might you ask? What are you wondering?
    4. Art museums choose artifacts to help you understand cultures that live in different times and places.  What do you think this artifact tells you about the ___________ culture?

    Sources for Native American Cultural Artifacts
    • National Museum of the American Indian - Teachers can use this search tool to find artifacts by cultural region.  This is a massive collection. 
    • Infinity of Nations: Culture Quest - This highly interactive site allows students to examine different cultural artifacts from many of the North American Native American cultural regions.  Regions included are Northwest Coast, California, Southwest, Eastern Woodlands, Arctic and Great Plains. 

    Spotlight on Critical Thinking: Using Photographs to Understand Native American and Euro-American Interactions

         Many students throughout the nation learn about Native Americans in 3rd grade.  Part of this learning involves learning about interactions that have taken place over time between Native Americans and Euro-Americans.  From a conceptual lens, this means that students might use a variety of sources to identify the nature of those interactions, and when interactions indicate elements of cooperation and/or conflict.  Embedded within history units from Kindergarten to 12th grades, students will examine interactions that take place in different times, different places, and among different cultures.

    This lesson uses historical sources (images of Native Americans) and provides opportunities for students to analyze photographic images.  In this situation, analysis involves 1) identifying what you notice within the photographs, 2) asking questions and identifying things that you wonder about, and 3) making inferences about the interactions based on information/evidence acquired through analysis.

    Essential Question: What do photographs reveal about interactions that have taken place between Native Americans and Euro-Americans over time?

    Sources:
    Native Americans: Legislation (photo set)
    Native Americans: Warriors and Battles (photo set)
    Native American: Tribes and Cultures (photo set)

    Learning Activity/Process: 
    This lesson is based on critical thinking processes.  The spotlight of this lesson is on the process a historian uses to analyze sources. While the content is important, students acquire content knowledge through engaging in the critical analysis of photographs. Therefore, teachers must consider how students will document their thinking.  This might initially happen as a whole class so students see a model of how a historian documents critical thinking about a source.  Next, students might engage in this analysis in small groups.  Last, the teacher might assess student mastery of this skill by asking a student to engage in this thinking and documentation independently.

    1. The class will choose a set of images to analyze first.  Images (above in the sources section) can be analyzed collectively as a group or one at a time.  Notice how each link connects to a set of images based on a general topic for Native Americans. 
    2. The class will view the images and engage in processes based on the following questions:
      1. What do you notice in the images?
      2. What clues do you notice in the images related to interactions between Native Americans and Euro-Americans?
      3. What clues do you notice about when or where these interactions take place? (Essentially, are they all from long ago or do some of them seem more recent?)
      4. What clues are revealed within the captions to each photo?
      5. As you look at each photo, what questions or wonderings do you have?
      6. Now that you've identified what you notice and the questions you might have, what inferences or conclusions might you draw from the photos related to interactions between Native Americans and Euro-Americans?
    3. Repeat this process with each set of photos. 
    4. Teachers are encouraged to be thoughtful around when students need the opportunity to pause and make meaning of their learning.  Open-ended questions to guide this type of conversation might be, "After analyzing the photos, what are you beginning to understand now that you may not have understood before? How are the photos helping you to have a better sense of interactions that have taken place over time between Native Americans and Euro-Americans?"