SED 741 Discussion Guides
 Raising the bar - how do we design good hooks, help our students become historical detectives, use other intellectually challenging teaching strategies, and help students learn strong note taking skills?

Below, please find the guides for today's discussion.

1. To understand what it means to "raise the bar" in our classrooms.
2. To learn the importance of good hooks and how to design them.
3. To discuss how to integrate the ideas of students becoming historical detectives in our classrooms.
4. To talk about other intellectually-challenging learning strategies for classroom use.
5. To explore how to teach good note taking skills.

Raising the bar in our classrooms means that we as teachers must have high and achievable academic expectations of our students.

• It does not mean that we dummy down content or the methods by which we teach our content.
• In short, we need to raise the bar in a way that makes the content accessible to ALL of our students, but does not dummy down.
• Questions to consider:
  • Do any of you have some examples of dummying down that you may have observed either in past classes or in those you have observed this semester?
  • Throughout your education, when have your teachers/professors "raised the bar?" How effective were those efforts?
  • How do you anticipate "raising the bar" on the content and student expectations you will use in your classroom?

Our remaining goals for today address various ways we can raise the bar in our classrooms.

Goal #2: To learn the importance of good hooks and how to design them

A Case Study of the GI Bill

Hook: Show a 3-4 minute clip from the movie The Best Years of Our Lives at http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/178463/Best-Years-Of-Our-Lives-The-Movie-Clip-The-War-Is-Over.html. In this clip, ex-bomber Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) visits his former place of employment.

• Before showing the clip, provide the students with the following background information about the clip.
• The movie is about the lives of three men - two soldiers and a sailor - who are returning home from the war to their small mid-western city:
• an Air Force Captain from lower class background who was a soda jerk before the war and is returning to the rail yard slums of his parents and wife;
• an Army Sergeant from the upper class who was a VP of a small bank before the war and is returning to his lovely wife and two perfect children who have been leading their own lives while he was away; and
• a Navy grunt from a middle-class family who was a high school student before the war and has lost both his hands and has had them replaced with hooks. An interesting point is that this young man was not a trained actor, but an actual veteran who had lost his hands in World War II.   In this conversation, the veterans discuss their hopes, dreams, and fears about the future.  
• This was one of the most important and timely movies ever made right after the war – and it is as relevant today as it was 60+ years ago.
• The film chronicles the returning soldiers’ relationships with the family and friends from whom they've been parted for so long, and realistically shows that the world they're returning to is not the same one they left years earlier.
• These three men, whose paths would have been unlikely to cross before the war - and even now back in civilian life, there are worlds between them - find themselves turning to one another for support, united by their experiences in the war and their disconnection from their homes.
• After WWII, this sort of behavior was kept quiet,  or at the most, labeled as “shell shock.”  It was not until the Vietnam War that physicians called this behavior what it really was – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
• A great description of the film – which won 7 Oscars in 1946 including Best Picture – is available at http://www.filmsite.org/besty.html.)

Discussion after the clip:

• How would you describe Fred Derry's experience at his old place of employment?
• What do you think Fred really wants? Do you think he will achieve it?
• How would you compare and contrast the experience of soldiers returning from WWII with the dreams of soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq?
• How do you think this film might deal with post traumatic stress disorder?

Transition from Hook to Lecture/Discussion:  In The Best Years of Our Lives, the three veterans all shared a fairly simple goal – getting a steady job and buying a small house for their family.  Today, we are going to look at the history of how the federal government has helped – or failed to help – Veterans returning from war reassimilate into American society.

The Teacher as Historical Scholar. As historical scholars, we must:

1. Interpret the past for our students.  This requires us to determine just what primary and secondary sources we will use and how we will interpret them.
2. Write a compelling story about our interpretations of history. This requires us to write an exciting lesson plan that will energize and excite our students.
3. Teach our story to our students.  This requires us to teach the content of our story through lessons built upon solid chronological understanding and broad historical themes. 
4. Train our students to become historical scholars. This requires us to move beyond the “sage on the stage” and instead to teach our students to do what we do – to interpret, write, and teach each other history.

The Teacher as Historical Scholar: Modeling a Scholarly Investigation of John Brown. Before we can teach our students to do their own historical research - to become historical scholars - we have to mentor historical scholarship. Below is an example of how you would conduct such an investigation and then present it to your students.

Step 1:  Selecting a thesis. 

• You have two choices:  John Brown was a failure, or John Brown was a great man.  Pick one thesis statement and write no more than one page explaining your choice.
• In your explanation, you must include a definition of failure or greatness.

What you do on your own:  Make a choice, write why you selected it, and define failure or greatness

What you model for your students: Explain that you have a choice of a thesis, define failure or greatness, and share your written work with the class.

Step 2: Using primary sources to defend your thesis.

• You must examine several primary source documents and then pick one that you feel is THE MOST IMPORTANT in defending your thesis.
• Write no more than one page explaining why you chose this source as your key primary document.  You must include the following: specific quotes in the document that persuaded you to adopt your thesis and a bibliographic reference for your document.

What you do on your own:  Select a document (in this case it is John Brown’s “Declaration of Liberty” written in 1858 to contrast directly with the “Declaration of Independence”); write your explanation; select your quotes; and make your bibliography.

What you model for your students: Show the primary source you selected to support your thesis and share your written explanation of why you selected this source.

Sept 3: Using secondary sources to support your thesis.

• You must ind one secondary resource – a book or article - that supports your thesis.
• Write no more than one page explaining how and why this secondary document further supports your thesis. You must include the following: specific quotes and images from the book/article that persuaded you to adopt your thesis and a bibliographic reference for your book or article.

What you do on your own:  Select your secondary source; write your explanation; select your quotes; make your bibliography.

What you model for your students: Show the secondary source you selected to support your thesis and share your written explanation of why you selected this source.

Step 4:  Using other primary and secondary sources to test your thesis.

• You must find at least two other primary sources that support or refute your thesis.
• You must f nd another book or article that supports or refutes your thesis.
• Write no more one page explaining how and why these primary and secondary documents support or refute your thesis. You must include the following: 

• specific quotes from the documents and books that support or refute your thesis;
• how and why these documents either reinforced your own thesis or encouraged you to reconsider your thesis; and
• a bibliographic reference for each of your primary documents and the selected book or article.

What you do on your own:  Select your primary and secondary sources, write your explanation about how they support or refute your thesis, select your quotes, and make your bibliography.

What you model for your students: Show the primary and secondary sources you selected to support or refute your thesis and share your written explanation of why you selected these sources.

Step 5:  Reflecting upon your work as an Historian.

• You must write no more than 1-2 page essay in which you reflect upon the thesis you selected.  This paper must include the following:
  • a discussion of any doubts that arose in the course of your research about your thesis choice;
  • an explanation of why you continued to support your thesis – or if you changed your mind, what resources were most influential in changing your mind; and
  • a statement describing the 2-3 most important points that you found in all of your resources to either support or reject your thesis.

What you do on your ownWrite about why you finally continued to support your thesis or why you changed your mind and describe the most important points that led to your decision.

What you model for your students: Share your written explanation of why you either continued to support your thesis or why you changed your mind about your original thesis.

• To access NARA document analysis forms shown above, go to http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets

The Student as Historical Scholar. Click here for an example of an assignment on how you would have your students become historical scholars through their interpretations of slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Goal #4: To talk about other intellectually-challenging learning strategies for classroom use

1. Historical literacy - using literature to teach history. Become a member (membership is free) of the Zinn Education Project at http://zinnedproject.org/. Once you sign up , go to "Warriors Don't Cry: Connecting History, Literature, and Our Lives" at http://zinnedproject.org/posts/1447 and click on the PDF to get a detailed understanding of how to use historical literature in your classroom.
2. Abridging Primary Documents. Many times you will find a terrific primary document that you would like to use in your class, but it is just too long. The question becomes - how do you abridge these documents in a way that does not dummy down the material but does not bury your students under unimportant details?
   • abridge - (verb) to give the substance of in few words abridgment; (noun) a condensation, as of a book or article
   • Abridgment: Abridging or condensing primary documents down to a workable size is an essential tool for every history teacher - especially as we perfect the art of creating history labs or teaching our students to become historical detectives. So, how do we do this?
     • Step #1 - we select the document(s) we want our students to analyze. This process involves finding the right match - a primary document that helps us to support a theme, topic, concept, etc.
     • Step #2 - we abridge the document down to a paragraph or two for K-5 and usually no more than 2 pages for 7-12 grades. (Exceptions can be made for 11th and 12th grade if the document is especially long and important for them to understand.) We use elipses (...) to show where material has been omitted.
     • Step #3 - we reread the abridged document to be certain it makes sense.
     • Step #4 - we identify academic language that will be difficult for students to decipher in the abridged version.
     • Step #5 - we preview the academic language with the entire class before they read the abridged document to improve their understanding of its contents. If students are working in groups, then you will need to prepare individual academic language assistance sheets for each group.
     • Step #6 - we create an assignment that students will complete to determine how well they understood the document. This can be one of the NARA forms discussed in class, an abridged version of the NARA form, or any similar assignment.
3. Raising the bar on the STAR test. Here is a simple, fun, and intellectually stimulating way to help students actually think about both the content and skills required to pass the STAR exam. It has been carefully tested by a former student, Dave Riesenfeld, in NYC schools. Dave and his students work on 2-3 multiple choice questions a week - all taken from previous Regents exams. You could use AP questions or anything similar - or make up your own. He begins by explaining that every question requires a close reading of all the words. Then, he puts students quickly through a three-step process:

• What do you know? What historical knowledge do you have about the topic? If you know the answer, you don't need to go to the next step. If you know something about the topic, keep that information in mind as you go to the next step.
• What are the clues? What vocabulary or other indicators give you clues about the correct answer?
• What can you eliminate? If you can’t find the answer through your knowledge of the topic or other indicators, then what answers can you dismiss through the process of elimination

Goal #5: To explore how to teach good note taking skills.

Example #1: Cornell Note Taking Template

There are several variations to the Cornell note taking idea. Below is one that divide a 8.5" x 11" page into three sections: Cue Column (1), Note taking Column (2) and Summary (3). In the second column, students write down the main ideas from the lecture - main ideas given them by the teacher. In the first column, students write down key words and cues that will help them better understand the notes. In the third column, students summarize in their own words no more than 3-4 sentences what they learned from the notes.

Another Cornell model divides the paper into two columns, exactly as above, but eliminates the bottom 3rd column. In the second column, students write down the main ideas from the lecture - main ideas given them by the teacher. In the second column, students summarize in their own words the main ideas they learned from the notes.

• See http://www.timeatlas.com/5_minute_tips/general/word_templates_and_cornell_note_taking to learn how to create your own Cornell Note Taking template.

An evaluation strategy for Cornell Note taking: Create a check list such as the following:

Note-Taking Evaluation.

Name ________________________________________________________

• ___ Good job. Concise but thorough, in your own words, key ideas and vocabulary included.
• ___ Good first effort. Keep practicing this skill and keep working on neatness and thoroughness.
• ___ Your notes show improvement. Keep working on this skill.
• ___ Your notes are still too wordy. Cut out more unnecessary words.
• ___ Keep the big ideas in your summary.
• ___ You have missed some important key ideas. If you are doing notes based on reading, read more carefully and do not depend on the chapter headings to pick out all the most important points.
• ___ You have missed some important key ideas. If you are doing notes based on listening to a lecture/discussion, in the future you will need to listen more carefully and make sure that you pick details that help you put the entire situation in its historial context

Example #2: Mind Maps - a 'whole brain' note taking method.

There is a creative (right) side and a logical (left) side to the brain. Mind Map Notes cater to both sides. Traditional linear notes cater mainly for the logical side. A Mind Map consists of a Central Topic with a Central Picture. This is very important, as it forms a 'hook' to which all the information it contains will be attached.

Attached to the Central Topic are thick Main branches. These branches are often the headings in a text book. Attached to the Main Branches are thinner Sub Branches followed by Detail Branches.

Why do Mind Map Notes work?

• They stimulate the brain by appealing to both the creative and logical side of the brain.
• They allow Key Words to be easily identified.
• They make strong connections between ideas.
• They can reduce your quantity of notes by more than 90%.

Example #3: The Squeeze Approach

The Squeeze concept of note taking is catching on in schools across the nation.  So, what is it?  The idea is that students will learn to squeeze the information that they verbally learn in class into a small amount of information written in their own words.  This is a learning tool that will take a least a couple of weeks to master, will require you to be patient as students learn,  and must be carefully taught at the beginning of the school year through several steps:

First step -  Teaching the concept.  Students work in groups of three and will read a primary document selected by the teacher.  Each group gets the same document.  Then, they do the following:

1. Each student in the group reads the primary document (can be done individually or aloud).
2. After reading the document, each student writes, in their own words, a 1-2 paragraph summary of the main points in the document. 
3. Then, each student shares their summary with the other group members while the group verifies each summary – explaining where they agree or disagree with each summary. 
4. Each student squeezes their summary into 1-2 sentences, then shares their 1-2 sentences squeeze with the group members, and discuss how they compare and contrast.
5. Each group picks one of the squeeze summaries to share with the entire class.
6. The teacher leads a discussion about the squeeze summaries.

Second step:  Refining the concept.  Students work individually and will read a primary document selected by the teacher.  Then, each student does the following:

1. Writes a 1-2 paragraph summary of the document in their own words.
2. Squeezes the content of their summary into 1-2 sentences.
3. Shares their 1-2 sentences squeeze with their classmates and discuss how they compare and contrast.

Third step:  Broadening the squeeze concept.  The teacher will give a 10-minute lecture and students will not take notes. Each student writes a 1-2 paragraph summary in their own words of what they learned in the lecture.  Then, the students then move into groups of three and do the following:

1. As a group, students verify each of the summaries by asking if they agree or disagree with the summaries.
2. Each student squeezes the summary into 1-2 sentences.
3. Students then share the squeeze with their classmates and discuss how they compare and contrast.

Fourth step:  Applying the concept.  Students work individually.  Using the Cornell note taking format, have them draw a line down their note taking paper.  Then, each student does the following as the teacher delivers a 10-15 minute lecture/discussion:

1. On the right-hand side of the line, write no more than 1-2 paragraphs of notes in their own words while the teacher is talking.
2. At the end of the lecture/discussion, give the students 5-10 minutes to squeeze the information they learned into 1-2 sentences that they write on the left-hand side of the line.
3. Have the students add to the left-hand side of the line any questions they had after writing their summaries and squeeze.
4. Have the students share their squeeze and any remaining questions aloud.

Fifth step:  Finalizing the concept.  Students work individually, using the same Cornell note taking format is described above in Step 4. Then, each student does the following as the teacher delivers a lecture/discussion of the teacher’s desired length:

1. On the right-hand side of the line, write no more than whatever number of paragraphs (determined by the teacher and based on the length of the class lecture/discussion) in their own words while the teacher is talking.
2. At the end of the lecture/discussion, give the students 5-10 minutes to squeeze the information they learned into 1-2 sentences which they write on the left-hand side of the line.
3. Have the students add any questions they had after writing their summaries and squeeze to the left-hand side of the line.
4. Have the students turn in their squeeze and any questions they had after writing their summaries and squeeze. 
5. Read each squeeze and questions, make appropriate comments, and return to students as soon as possible. 

1. Be prepared to check in with your colleagues in regard to how things are going in your apprentice teaching and in your classes at HSU.
2. After watching the movie, Stand and Deliver, be prepared to discuss the following:
   • How is this story of Jaime Escalante's teaching career an example of raising the bar?
   • What are the bottom line 2-3 most important messages of this film - messages that you will remember as you begin to design your course next semester?
   • Using Escalante's experience as an example, what do you see are the pros and cons of designing a class around the concept of raising the bar?
3. After watching the lecture/discussion on "Raising the Bar " be prepared to address the following:
   • What are some examples of dummying down that you have witnessed in your educational experience? Of raising the bar?
   • How does Jim Percoco raise the bar in his classroom?
   • What sort of raising the bar techniques does Fried describe in The Passionate Teacher?
   • Which of the strategies discussed today for raising the bar would you be more likely to use in your classroom and why? Least likely to use?
   • What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of teaching your students to become historical detectives?
   • Which of the three note taking approaches do you think you might incorporate in your classroom? Why? Which would you be least likely to incorporate? Why?
   • What questions remain after listening to the discussion?
4. Prior to coming to class, each of you must post an idea for a "hook" that you might use to begin your two week lesson plan. Please post your hook at ____________________ by no later than Tuesday at noon.
5. Extra Credit for those who are interested in abridging documents.
   • Go through steps 1 through 4 that explained about to abridge a document - select and abridge a document to between 1-2 pages, reread it to make sense, and identify the academic language.
   • Submit it electronically no later than Tuesday at noon.
   • Remember, this is just practice. If you were doing this for your class, you must complete all six steps for this to make sense to your students.