Teaching the Text

Our class thus far has focused on two insights that need to be developed by aspiring social studies teachers.

1)   All historical work comes with in-built perspectives and assumptions about the way the world works; and

2)   A text does not, in itself, teach.

Over the coming weeks, we will focus more on point one. Indeed, our first major assignment (due October 5) will be built around the importance of helping students learn to see the assumptions and perspectives hidden away in various types of social studies curricular resources.

But this leads us on to the importance of point number two. How do we help students with such seeing?

We examined selections from Ben’s textbook yesterday. We also compared the layout of his textbook to that of a typical French textbook. Through that juxtaposition, it was my hope that you came to see how important your role as a teacher is in guiding students through text.

Ideally, I suppose, texts would “teach themselves.” By that, I mean, they would have a theory about how attention works—how students learn. And that theory would guide the construction of the text in terms of content and layout. A student could just pick it up and use it—no other assistance required.

I think most textbooks do a pretty good job with this. But the fact still remains—when a typical secondary student looks at a text, they have little idea about “how to attack it.” They need your help.

As we thought about Ben’s text yesterday, we noticed the following aspects: narrative explanatory text, guiding and essential questions, headings and subheadings, vocabulary assistance, pictures, snippets of primary documents, etc. As we continue to move through the text in the coming weeks and months, we will see charts, maps, graphs, and many other things as well. Can we assume that students will know what to do with all of these various elements?

In short, no.

I started to imagine with you the possibilities for teaching the text. How do we set up the lesson so that students maximize the learning resources embedded in the text? How do we direct their attention in smart ways? How do we get them to see this picture as more than two “dudes” fighting in wigs and suits? How do we get them to see what you, as practiced students of history, see?

This is the art of lesson planning—sequencing student attention to “bring out” the learning potential embedded in the text. And this is what we will be practicing over the coming weeks—indeed, over the entire year.

Have a great weekend!