and
"Teaching Unsung Heroes" by Bill Bigelow
Rethinking School Reform, pg. 33-44
Note: My assigned periodical is Rethinking Schools. It happens that the book we are using for this class, Rethinking School Reform, is a compilation of articles from that magazine. Because we are only doing one of those articles for this week's facilitation, I decided to read a few others in the section that interested me-- and to use them for this blog review. Today's is a twofer.
Unsung Heroes
Summary: Howard Zinn, author of the incredible A People's History of the United States and a lifelong social activist, uses this short piece to answer a question that ties in nicely with the responses to the Helen Keller article review. Simply put, he offers up a dozen alternatives to the common canon of American heroes, each of them mapped nicely to the figure that they might replace so that those who worship him or her are not left lacking.
Audience: social studies teachers, general public
Key Points:
- many of the figures that are offered up as heroes when discussing the history of this country have pretty despicable personal traits and beliefs, revealed when the lens is pulled back from the extreme close-up required to see them as heroes
- there are plenty of figures in American history to whom we might turn for inspiration in place of them
Relevance: One of the things that came up a few times in the above-linked Helen Keller article discussion was something like "Well, what's the alternative?" I thought the same thing! Because we have all been educated in a system that tends to prefer breadth to depth, and appreciates a shallow and close-up focus on a person's life, not many of us have had the opportunity to explore alternatives. Zinn offers these alternatives, and suggests some starting points for each of the heroes in his list.
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Teaching Unsung Heroes
Summary: Bigelow gives a step-by-step lesson plan based on two things: 1) his frustration with students' predictable, "Encyclopedia-like" presentations of famous figures in American history, and 2) his desire to integrate some of the unsung heroes of the previous article. The students react to the novel lesson positively, and he feels that it went very well.
Audience: social studies teachers, general teachers, general public interested in education
Key Points:
- a key engagement technique was bringing the figures to life; students presented from a first-person perspective
- Bigelow demonstrated expectations by using a prior example of a successful project
- this lesson allowed him to integrate social justice and expanded, constructivist thinking into the classroom without being a ranting "sage on the stage"
Relevance: Now that the question of "What's the alternative?" has been answered, we can move on to answering the question of "Okay, so how do I teach it?" Bigelow offers a detailed description and analysis of one way to craft a successful lesson to teach about unsung heroes, and does it in a way that is readable and engaging for us, his audience. Future social studies teacher Jeff, you in particular might be interested in this one if you haven't read it yet! That's why I tagged you on this post.
