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to shift the content to a more hands- details help meet your ultimate goal
on, skills-based approach in order — and deliver them to the class, then I ask teachers
to better engage students. However, offer students enrichment lessons. who struggle with
incorporating these programs into your Post additional readings on your class
existing curriculum could be time- website, hold an enrichment session abridging content
consuming or costly. So, I aim to give after school for interested students, or to ask themselves
you four ways to immediately increase keep a list of recommended readings this question: Is this
engagement in your secondary history on your classroom bulletin board.
classrooms with the end goal of making piece of information
history as interesting to students as it is Facilitate Frequent Class critical to my students’
to their teachers. Discussions understanding of the

Focus on the End Game Using discussion as a method of overall topic?
instruction and assessment is an ef-
History gains new content by the ficient use of class time. Discussions
minute, yet the school year is finite. are a great way to engage students backs just like them. Primary sources
With this reality, teachers must decide with content, assess for understanding, help take these figures out of the
which content is most important and improve speaking and listening history books and make them come
for their students to master state skills. To use discussion as a method of alive while also helping students gain
standards and leave the class with instruction, give the students a read- a sense of empathy for those figures
essential knowledge. This is difficult ing, a set of documents, or short video of the past.
for many history teachers who may to examine along with focus questions
feel constantly rushed or that they are before the discussion begins. Student What is more engaging for students
doing a disservice to their students by preparation around these focus ques- learning about the Civil Rights Move-
leaving key figures or events out of tions is an important part of facilitating ment: reading pages from a textbook
their instruction. I ask teachers who an effective class discussion. about the movement, or studying
struggle with abridging content to ask firsthand accounts from the people
themselves this question: Is this piece To those worried about students slack- who actually lived through the move-
of information critical to my students’ ing off, dominating the discussion time, ment paired with photographs from
understanding of the overall topic? or the discussion going off-topic in a the era? Examining the photograph of
Imagine a lesson on battles as part of negative way, set rules and review Elizabeth Eckford integrating Central
a unit on World War II. One teacher them with the students before open- High School while classmates scream
has his students independently fill out ing the discussion. Using a rubric, at her and reading her account of that
a chart listing 20 major battles of the frequently reviewing rules for discus- day can be powerful teaching tools.
war, their dates, locations, and victors sion, and using facilitation techniques Photographs are simple primary sourc-
during a 45-minute class period. Let’s will keep the discussion on track. Some es with the ability to spark questions
compare it to another teacher who, in teachers also find success in setting up about the era, as well as about human
the same amount of class time, gives small group discussions before facilitat- behavior. Students can contemplate
the students a completed chart of ing a whole-class discussion. Just like not only “what” is happening in this
the seven most significant battles of most things in life, discussions will get picture, but “why” it is happening.
WWII and asks the students to work in better with practice. Your students will Asking students to imagine how those
pairs to investigate why these battles become more comfortable expressing teenagers pictured felt the moment
are considered most significant to the their ideas and you will find it easier to that photograph was taken evokes not
war’s outcome and to rank the battles facilitate discussion as they become a only a potent history lesson, but also a
from most to least significant. A simple regular part of the class. powerful life lesson. The goal of devel-
switch in instruction, where the breadth Incorporate Social-Emotional oping students’ social-emotional skills,
of content was decreased, changed in this case their sense of historical
engagement entirely. While the first Learning into Lessons through empathy, is to transfer that empathy to
lesson exposed students to the names Primary Source Analysis their everyday lives.
of 20 World War II battles, the second A great way to study the past and en- Connect the Past with the
lesson required students to investigate, gage with the content while developing
dialogue, reason, and debate. The social-emotional skills is to examine Present
students in the latter teacher’s class primary sources. Primary sources give Just when you thought you could pare
undoubtedly experienced a more students firsthand accounts of the down your lesson on Populism, the
engaging, hands-on lesson. time period they are studying and help 2016 Presidential Election happened!
To those teachers who are hesitant students to contextualize the events We all know the adage “history repeats
about abridging content, I urge you of the era. They help students realize itself,” and what a great time to bring
to try a different approach to content- that history is not just a story about the this phrase into our classrooms. Ask
heavy instruction. Decide what the past, but that it is filled with real people students to decide if this phrase is,
most important details are — which who had feelings, dreams, and set- in fact, true by comparing current

Educational Viewpoints -50- Spring 2018