Diverse Teaching

Teaching students to be historical thinkers is a difficult task that involves a lot of time and guidance from the teacher. However, in order to teach students to read and think historically, they must have basic reading skills. On my first day of student teaching this semester, my cooperating teacher explained her basic method of instruction for every chapter and unit: after a test, she had students answer questions in a workbook that was supplemental to the text. Next, they would answer between 50 and 60 questions on a chapter reading guide. Finally, she would pass out guided notes and give a 15-20 minute lecture on the topic. My CT said that she liked to use all three of these because the students were receiving the information three different ways.

Although the questions on the reading guide were mostly lower-order thinking questions, the questions from the workbook required a higher level of thinking. The reading guide, for example, would ask questions like "in what year was King Louis XVI executed by the guillotine?" These questions are extremely simple and students can often answer them verbatim from the text. Questions from the workbook were of a higher-order, often asking students to read a passage and provide a summary or analyze a graphic organizer.

I think that this only benefits students on a superficial level. At the beginning of the year, yes, students should start with simpler skills and the teacher should provide them with more complex assignments as the year progresses. My CT did try other reading and literary activities with them, such as a DBQ, but it was common for her to stick with workbook, reading guide, lecture, review, test, repeat. She is faced with an extremely intellectually diverse group of students. There are 3-5 students in her class of almost 30 that have the skills to answer higher level questions. The rest are average to below average. The majority can answer low- to middle-order questions, but there are a few in the class who cannot answer the simplest of questions. I believe that several of them have been pushed through grades so they are "on track," but that does not mean they cannot learn new reading skills, even if they are behind their classmates.

I say with the idealism of a preservice teacher that I would not use this routine for every chapter and every unit. I would love to incorporate Dialogue Based Questions and historical inquiry into my lessons. However if I have a class with such a diverse group of learners, I do not know what will best meet all of their needs. I believe it is important to understand what their reading skills are when they enter my classroom and I think that answering a variety of lower- and higher-order questions individually (or in pairs) can provide the answers. However I hope that I will be able to diversify lessons away from only making my students read and answer questions from an outdated textbook.