Category: Classroom Stories

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

At Thinking Nation, we are so fortunate to work with such dedicated educators, committed to empowering their students with the skills and dispositions necessary for success. I’m continuously reminded of their hard work when I come to a campus, lead a PD, or hear great stories of teachers from our Implementation Specialist, Will Pulgarin. Today, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I want to share two stories from one of our partner schools in California that really exemplify the paradigm shift we strive for as an organization.

When I arrived to Cabrillo Middle School in Ventura, CA for the first time, it dawned on me that the majority of the social studies department were multiple subject credentialed teachers, who taught social studies among other subjects like science, Spanish, or English. I was definitely excited to introduce the world of historical thinking to this group, but also, admittedly a little hesitant to the receptiveness of teachers with little or no history background. 

But wow, if growth mindset was embodied in a team, I think I found it! Of course, I shouldn’t have been surprised by this, as Carly Donick, former California Council for Social Studies and National Council for Social Studies Middle School Teacher of the Year is their department leader (I was fortunate enough to present alongside Carly at this year’s CCSS conference). 

While I have been so impressed with their whole team this year, I was able to be in two of their classrooms this year, both 6th grade ancient civilizations. In the fall, when I was in Mrs. Klopfenstein’s class, we analyzed how the development of writing in ancient Mesopotamia changed over time. We analyzed a secondary source table, compiled in the 1800s, that showed how cuneiform changed over time, used our THINKs protocol, and discussed what continuities and changes we noticed. I was blown away at the responses from her students. They were thoughtful, analytical, and curious. When given the chance to think historically, they rose to the occasion.

In second semester, I had the chance to help facilitate a socratic seminar in Mrs. Brady’s classroom. The students were using primary sources from Confucius and Laozi to compare the philosophies of Confucianism and Daoism. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what what going to come of this, as these two philosophies aren’t usually at the top of potential conversations to have among 6th graders. Still, as the students sat in a fishbowl seating arrangement, with the inner circle discussing questions like “What is the role of structure and order in a government influenced by Confucianism?” and “How would you summarize a good government based on the Daodejing?” I was so impressed by their discussion. 

What especially impressed me, though, was their ability to work together in discussion, rather than at odds with one another in a debate. When the students got to the question, “According to the Daodejing, why should a ruler use ‘non-action’?” the class became silent. One of the students looked at me and said “We don’t know how to answer this.” Another student chimed in, “Yeah, Daoism was a lot harder to understand than Confucianism.” In response, I just said, “Ok, then try just talking about what you do understand from the text, don’t worry about the question.” A brave student began one of the most exciting sequences of discussion I’ve witnessed. Students began to just discuss the Daodejing and as they did, they began to weave in the idea of non-action. 

After a minute or two, the whole group began adding their suggested interpretations to the question! What seemed out of reach for individual students became conquerable when the learning became communal. This demonstrated the pedagogical power of a Socratic Seminar. I left that class period so impressed by the culture of intellectual grit that Mrs. Brady had cultivated. 

Stories like the ones above are happening all over the country in Thinking Nation classrooms. Recently, teachers have shared similar stories with me Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Washington, D.C., Washington, and New York. Each of these conversations is incredible rewarding.

Thinking Nation’s vision is that every student is empowered with the skills and dispositions necessary to contribute to a flourishing democracy and thrive in an ever-changing world. What sometimes can feel like a moment, is turning into a movement.

If you’re still reading, and you want to consider what this could look like in your classroom, school, or district, reach out! We’d love to chat.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

[A quick note: It was so great to meet so many of you at the California Council for Social Studies conference this past weekend. I loved hearing so many inspiring stories at our booth and sessions!]

This is the week!

I feel like the phrase “now more than ever” is a perennial favorite in the civics community. But perhaps it is because the time is always ripe to practice civics. Civics goes beyond knowledge of the government. It is a worldview that we can collectively exercise to both strengthen our democracy and our society. Civics Matters.

In this 3rd annual Civic Learning Week, orchestrated by our friends at iCivics, I wanted to take the time to reflect on what Civics education means in Thinking Nation classrooms.

As I wrote awhile back, I believe that a quality history education is an exercise in civics. When we teach history, we are equipping students with valuable dispositions that transcend the classroom. When students practice historical empathy they are utilizing essential skills for understanding their neighbors and the diverse perspectives they encounter. They can apply the same skills used in contextualizing past events when they are better trying to understand the context of our time. When evaluating evidence in primary sources, they are internalizing questions that we must ask about present sources if we want to be media literate. I could go on.

Historical thinking empowers students to be the citizens our society needs if we want to preserve and protect our constitutional democracy. As I reflect on what this means for us at Thinking Nation during Civic Learning Week, I want to take a moment to thank some teachers who are doing this in their classes.

Shouting Out Our Teachers!

📣 Shout out to Mrs. Mayra Brady at Cabrillo Middle School in Ventura, CA! Mrs. Brady had her 6th graders engage in a socratic seminar using primary sources from Confucianism and Daoism. During the seminar, students challenged one another to think critically about similarities and differences between the philosophies, pushing one another to cite evidence to support their claims.

📣 Shout out to the social studies department at Birmingham Community Charter High School in Van Nuys, CA for creating vertically-aligned goals around student thinking using student writing data. I’m grateful to Dr. Carlo Aaron Purther, the department head, for putting the needs of teachers first so that they can put the needs of their students first. The resulting student growth is admirable.

📣 Shout out to Miss Emily Reuter at Alliance College-Ready Gertz-Ressler High School in Los Angeles, CA for carving out the time for her students to prep for the AP exam through providing multiple practice exams.

📣 Shout out to Ms. Ali at Maya Angelou Schools in Washington, DC, for leaving no stone unturned when exploring ways to empower her students with the skills and dispositions they need for success.

📣 Shout out to Ms. Becca Schaeffer-Dombkowski at Highland High School in Highland, AR for giving her students who feel less comfortable in writing the opportunity to share their evidence-informed perspectives through socratic seminars in her class.

I have the privilege of working with many teachers throughout the country and the above examples are only scratching the surface of all the amazing work I get to witness in classrooms, department meetings, and PLCs. Civics may not be in the title of many of those classes, but rest assured, students are being equipped with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to contribute to a flourishing democracy and thrive in an ever-changing world.

This Civic Learning Week, we are so grateful for all of you.

I was visiting one of our partner schools in Los Angeles recently and I happily saw that the 8th grade teacher, Mr. Martinez, had student writing on the wall in the hallway outside his classroom. His school, Stella Middle Charter Academy, has partnered with Thinking Nation for a few years now and it has been so rewarding to watch the students grow. 

My initial reaction was admittedly a little proud. It’s always cool to see Thinking Nation out and about. But as I reflected, I recognized that what Mr. Martinez was doing was both shifting and shaping the culture of learning at his campus.

Most times that we put up student work, it is the work that has immediate visual appeal. Artwork, maps, pamphlets, etc. This work does indeed look nice, but it often does not showcase student thinking. In fact, many of these assignments require the same amount of DOK 1 knowledge that most content-based multiple choice questions require. In a way, these pieces of student work reward students for restating the information that we or a textbook or website gave them at an earlier date. By putting them up, we are sending a message of what we reward in our class.

In the case of much (not all!) student art work, we are sending the message that what is valued by us (and at our school) is visually appealing work that demonstrates content knowledge. But this isn’t history.

History is the study of the past and we have to employ historical thinking in order to do that well. What Mr. Martinez was doing was demonstrating to students and passing staff and parents that he was rewarding something deeper. He was showcasing student writing that couldn’t simply be taken in by quickly walking by. It encouraged the passerby to stop, read samples of student work, look at a rubric that assessed higher order thinking and writing skills, and engage with a variety of arguments. Mr. Martinez was rewarding historical thinking.

This may seem small, but in this simple way he was setting a tone for the type of work that was celebrated in his class. He was shifting the culture from “this looks nice, let’s post it,” to “this is deep work, let’s celebrate it!” If we want to cultivate thinking citizens and shift the paradigm of history education, this is the school culture shift we need. If we shape our culture to reward deep thinking and complex writing, guess what? Students will begin to showcase their deep thinking and push to become better writers. From there, the paradigm will shift.

As we reflect on what we reward at our schools, I hope that Mr. Martinez’s example can serve as an inspiration for us all.

This week, I had the opportunity to teach a few classes at one of our partner schools: Rise Kohyang Middle School in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. For three class periods, I was able to work through the history of Ancient Rome. Specifically, the students were working on answering the essential question: How did the idea of citizenship in Ancient Rome change over time?

As a guest teacher, I never really know what I’m walking into. I find this exciting! It gives me the opportunity to let the students lead a little as I pry and figure out what they know and what they know how to do.

We started reading some historical context of Ancient Rome. Right away, the students were making poignant observations. One student noted that “just because the plebeians became citizens did not mean that they became equal to the patricians” pretty early on. I had some fun and ignored raised hands when it was time to give an answer to a text based question and simply said “say it if you know it!” Dozens of students shouted out the answers. The students were engaged, inquisitive, and prepared to participate. I was impressed.

As we began to talk about the document that cemented the last large expansion of citizenship in Ancient Rome, the Edict of Caracalla, some of the students’ brains really began to turn. Emperor Caracalla signed the Edict of Caracalla in 212 C.E. It essentially gave citizenship to all free people living in the Roman Empire. Many scholars point out that this was probably the largest expansion of citizenship to ever take place from a single event in world history. People across the empire, living on three continents, instantly became citizens. Its significance is profound.

The classroom was set up with four rows of desks on each side of the room, all facing the center. As I looked down the center walkway dividing these sections, I noticed one student sitting in the first row, closest to the center but in the back of the room. She was clearly pondering something. Her hand went up. 

“You know how a lot of people say that Rome didn’t fall because of invaders from the outside, but that it crumbled from within?” Without waiting for my response, she continued, “Do you think that Rome expanding citizenship to too many people too fast was a reason that it fell from within? That they couldn’t make everyone happy or keep order which led to it crumbling?”

Of course, this was not where my brain was at that moment. I was thinking about the inclusiveness of the act. She was thinking about its unintended consequences. To be sure, I’m no expert on Ancient Rome. I let her know that that is a really interesting and plausible consequence of the edict. We then opened the conversation up to the class. What is the purpose of a government? What happens when it can’t fulfill that purpose? Students began to express their thoughts, compare Rome to the U.S.A today, and most relevant to this unit, really began to grasp just how large the Roman Empire was.

It’s always a privilege when I get to join students in their academic journey. This week was yet another example why. I came in with a specific purpose around a specific question. That particular student was making different connections, based on her own interests. The intersection of those two goals produced a brilliant exchange with a group of Los Angeles middle schoolers. We often are unsure if young students can analyze deep concepts in history. I hope this example reminds us not just that yes they can, but that they want to. We just have to provide them the opportunities.

I recently had the opportunity to teach a guest lesson in a 6th grade classroom. The students had engaged with the context and historical documents surrounding the historical topic at hand and I came in to guide them through outlining an evidenced-based essay. Their task was to answer this prompt: Compare and Contrast TWO of the following Hindu teachings: dharma, karma, samsara, and moksha. Whereas many 6th grade classrooms teach about Hinduism and its ancient roots, this task asked students to make evidence-based comparisons between two core Hindu ideas in an effort to better understand their relationship to one another. 

Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect when I entered the room. To start, I asked students to define each term. To my surprise, almost a dozen hands went up with each solicited definition and every time a student answered, they were spot on. Of course, this is a testament to their teacher who more than adequately prepared them for this task in historical thinking. 

Once we defined each term, we decided that we wanted to focus on dharma and karma in our essay. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these terms, dharma means the “right way of living,” or duty for all living things. Karma means “action.” It is the Hindu principle that every action has a consequence, both positive and negative. Students were to analyze several documents ranging from excerpts from The Bhagavad Gita, The Ramayana, and The Brihadâranyaka Upanishad. Each is a core text to the Hindu religion.

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure if students were going to be able to identify both similarities and differences between the two concepts. But once again, I was pleasantly surprised. One student quickly noted that both ideas deal with people’s actions–a similarity. We quickly wrote this similarity down. Students continued to talk through their own thinking about the concepts in order to make comparisons. It was an empowering sight to see. Here, 10-11 year olds thought through concepts foreign to their own life experience in order to better understand their relationship to each other. 

When we moved to differences, students had quite a bit of conversation under their belt. One student excitedly raised her hand to share a difference she noticed between the two. While dharma is something people choose to do (after all, we all neglect our duties sometimes), karma is something that happens to people no matter what choice they made. For example, she went on, people can avoid their dharma but they cannot avoid the resulting karma. Whether good or bad, karma will come. Dissertations are made of this type of simple but nuanced distinction. It demands further analysis (which the students then did with the primary sources) and, in the end, facilitates a deeper understanding of the topic at hand.

In this classroom, students were not merely recalling information about a religion. They were diving deeper. They were incorporating evidence from documents that were thousands of years old in order to make subtle distinctions between complex concepts. 

This was not a university level world religions course. These were 6th graders. Many have not even hit puberty yet!

At Thinking Nation, we know that students are capable of deep thought. We want to equip teachers to facilitate such learning experiences for students because we know that students walk away from such experiences feeling empowered. Historical thinking empowers.

As expressed in previous blogs, at Thinking Nation we prioritize supporting teachers as they work to teach their students how to think historically. One way we do this is by offering to do guest lessons for teachers at our partner schools. This week, I had the opportunity to do a guest lesson on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program in an 11th grade classroom. The opportunity had me reflecting on just how important teaching the past through primary sources can be.

In this lesson, students work to write an essay answering the prompt: “Evaluate the extent to which FDR’s New Deal improved the lives of African Americans.” Since history is complex, we wanted students to wrestle with the complexity of this era of massive legislation and that legislation’s impact on a particular group of Americans. Some of the documents analyzed point out how much progress for all Americans (including Black Americans) came as a result of New Deal policies. Others show the implicit (and sometimes explicit) discrimination toward Black Americans that was a real problem with New Deal legislation. 

Rather than being mere passive receivers of a story regarding this era of American history, students were engaging with arguments about the past, modeling the very type of thinking historians employ in their own research. 

After reading a testimony from Charles Houston (a representative of the NAACP) to the House Ways and Means Committee, where he pointed out the systemic inequality that occurred in the Social Security Act, we looked at how this document fits within the prompt of improving the lives of African Americans. Houston pointed out that since Agriculture and Domestic Service were two industries dominated by Black Americans (and those industries were excluded from Social Security benefits), Black Americans received no support from the federal government’s program even though statistically they had the most to benefit from it.

The content of his testimony is mostly an example of how The New Deal did not improve the lives of African Americans. But one girl raised her hand. “Can’t this be seen as a positive example of Black progress?” she asked. Her classmates looked confused as if they were thinking “Oh no, she really isn’t paying attention.” She continued, “In this case, a Black man is testifying to Congress and they are listening. So even though he is pointing out negative aspects of the New Deal, the very fact that he is in that room shows progress toward more racial equality.” We were all impressed. In all honesty, I had not even seen that argument before.

In that instance, a student recognized the nuances of the past. She became an active participant in historical study. She was not just a learner of the past, but a doer of history. The complexities of the prompt at hand, and perhaps history more generally, came alive. Seeing that lightbulb shine was not just a powerful moment as an educator, it was an empowering moment for the student. She had an evidence-based perspective that shined light on history’s complexity. This is the type of (historical) thinking that we want. It’s the type of moment in the classroom that cultivates thinking citizens.