Mapping the Americas: Skills on Day 1

When I taught AP US History, one of the things I struggled with a lot was when to start assessing skills. At what point did my students know enough content knowledge for me to throw documents at them and expect some basic level of understanding. I asked my mentor about this and she helped remind me that skills and content knowledge don’t have to go together. They can be taught separately – and sometimes SHOULD be taught separately – in order for students to fully understand. So I began teaching the skills for that course with pop culture examples and we transitioned slowly to integrating historical examples as they were ready.

In my dual credit courses, we’re not on quite the same timeline as an AP course. My students don’t have to adhere to standards made by someone who isn’t grading their assignments. And we have the ability to deep-dive into aspects of U.S. History that are (to be frank) more important than what the College Board has in mind. With that in mind, we spend the first few weeks in deep conversation about Indigenous communities. Some of this intertwines with the narratives of colonizers from Europe – but always seeks to keep Indigenous agency at the core when they’re the topic of conversation.

The first way we do this is with a map activity on Day 1 of class. Yes. Day 1.

Map Activity

For this activity, students compare a map of Virginia published in 1624 and a map sometimes referred to as the “Catawba deerskin map.”

In their analysis, students are asked to consider some of the following questions:

• What kind of thinks did the map maker take not of in terms of landmarks, details, notations, etc.?
• What does this map ACTUALLY show?
• What is the PURPOSE of the map?

Professors/Teachers could surely come up with additional questions, but I’ve found that just getting a really good look at each map takes up most of the class, so keeping the list simple is best. A simple list like this also allows us to focus in on just a few skills to begin with. In this list, for example, students are focused on skills like historical interpretation. They’re asked to define what they see based on their knowledge of the map’s context and then make a historical assumption based on that.

In my own class, we finish out this activity in whole-group discussion. To be honest, they’re usually working together in large groups to make sense of the maps to begin with. Many of them stop to ask me for help, which helps establish some good relationships right at the start of the semester. And since many of them have no idea what they’re looking at (the maps can be confusing and complex), no single person feels like they have a leg up or that they’re not getting it. They all start off in the same boat – helping each other.

As we move into the first few weeks, I reference the two maps in our lectures. We discuss the perspectives of the maps and how neither of them are a particularly “useful” map in the way we’d use a map today, but that both were useful for their purposes at the time. This goes a long way to explaining subjectivity, empathy, and historical misunderstanding. It’s a great way to start the year!

Scaffolding Skills – What does it look like?

A lot of times, edu-professionals throw around the word “scaffolding” when referring to assignments, but don’t actually talk about what it means or how to do it. I know this was the case when I was in college taking what are commonly referred to as “teaching prep” courses. I didn’t really understand how to properly scaffold learning until I started teaching and found a mentor who was a lot better at it than me.

What is Scaffolding?

When we talk about scaffolding an assignment, what we’re really talking about is breaking apart a skill. A lot of this involves us, as educators, actually breaking apart what it is that WE want students to get from our course – and let me tell you that this is sometimes MUCH harder than it seems. In the survey history courses that I teach, the most prominent things people say as skills they want students to know are things like:

• How to use primary evidence to back up an argument.
• How to write a thesis statement.
• How to write a research paper.
• How to cite sources correctly.
• How to break apart primary and secondary sources for subjectivity and/or bias.

Inherently, these skills are great. But are all of them realistic for a SURVEY class? And in what order do we teach them? This is what scaffolding is for. What we have to do is break down the natural order of how we’d actually DO the process, and teach it in that order (or close to that order). And we usually do this in a series of small steps to make it realistic to 1) check for comprehension, and 2) give valuable feedback.

Scaffolding in Donawho’s Class

In my classes, I focus on three (3) primary skills:

• Asking historical questions
• Building historical arguments/reasoning
• Using historical evidence

I never limit myself to saying that these things have to be in the form of a project, research paper, quiz, etc. (However, I do realize that some people are constrained by the requirements of their department on this). Instead, I work on building a series of activities that 1) give students the flexibility to choose topics that interest them, 2) give additional content and context to what we learned in class, and 3) are short enough that I can provide valuable and detailed feedback. Feel free to see my post on rubrics for what that looks like!

The Podcast Assignment

The podcast assignment is my favorite of these activities. Here is an example of the assignment from the start of my HIST 1302 course.

podcast-assignment-exDownload

The two things I’m focused on here are historical questioning and historical reasoning. Here are the things I really love about this:

• Students are invited to be honest about their thoughts. For example, a number of my students are veterans of the War in Afghanistan, and have a lot to share about their thoughts, feelings, etc. when it comes to that podcast. It gives them a space to process their lived reality and historical thinking. Their thoughts are often really profound.
• Students aren’t required to be formal in their writing in this space. These are ideas about historical reasoning (why do I think this is shocking, stupid, contradictory, etc.) that are often really messy for students. I don’t need them to worry about saying it AND saying it right. They just need a space to figure it out, and often they get there in the end. It’s more of a dialogue.
• The questions they pose by the time they get to that section are amazing. As an example, I’ve gotten questions like (shared with permission):
  • “When we look at the amount of AAPI hate in the United States, how is it possible for there to be two realities – one where people love to take pictures of and commercialize Asian art and food, but then another where they beat up the people who make it? And who else has this happened to?”
  • “When we look at the women who had so much more control than we thought in the South (especially over Black people) – why was it so advantageous for them to hide that when fighting for things like suffrage? Its not like they didn’t know they had this certain kind of power?”
  • “I really want to ask the podcast hosts how they think wars before the war on terror would have been different if there were women in higher ranks of the military before the 90s. Like, would it have mattered at all because they would have also just fit in with the system? Or would we be living in a whole different world?”

These are exactly the kinds of questions that lead students to potential research topics. They’re also the kinds of questions that if I were to pose a prompt like “Evaluate the effects of World War II” – they have the background to know how to break down into something meaningful.

Sometimes the questions they ask are so good that I can tell they’re passionate about a specific topic or line of thinking. Just today, I graded an assignment and told a student they should consider a career in crisis/emergency management if they hadn’t already. Because they clearly have the right mindset for it.

And best of all – it’s interesting. Students find it interesting, I find them interesting to grade, and they put the effort in – so the feedback is so much cooler than “don’t forget to add…..”

Have fun!

What are “advanced academics” advancing? A Conversation with Matthew Busch

A few weeks ago, teachers and historians on Twitter (or what’s left of it) lit up in conversation over the release of this year’s Advanced Placement test preliminary data. In addition to the annual blowing up of Trevor Packer’s mentions, this continued an ongoing discussion about AP, dual enrollment, and the role of advanced academics for high school students.

Today, I sat down with World History AP teacher and #twitterstorian Matt Busch to talk about these issues. Matt and I have been in conversation on Twitter for a while now about the roles of the College Board in student’s lives. I’ve also engaged with him and his followers to dispel some very common myths and misunderstandings about dual enrollment. In this conversation, we talked about it all (for a while!).

Please also enjoy his doggos in the background, as I was a horrible dog mom and made mine stay in another room.

A Take on AI for the Truly Exhausted

Anyone who is familiar with my blog or my work knows that my survey-level history courses are 100% written. This doesn’t mean that my students are writing a full-length essay every week, but that every single assignment they submit to me is some form of writing that includes an argument and evidence. This often includes incorporating media like their outside reading, podcasts, documentaries, or games.

I, like every other professor, have sat through countless trainings and webinars this year on Chat GPT and other AI sites that students are (sometimes) using to assist with their work. The frenzy to catch up with and (more importantly) catch these sites is truly exhausting. And even more, it’s brought back age-old arguments in academia about plagiarism, academic policing, and trust in students.

The answer to this new technology isn’t simple. It isn’t TurnItIn or another plagiarism software (which don’t always work anyway), and it isn’t a redesign of assignments. Students who want to cheat on an assignment will cheat on an assignment. It doesn’t matter if you’re asking them to do a research paper or reflect on the classic rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You.

So for the truly exhausted, the 5-5 teaching loads (and more), the ones who spent years crafting assignments that they love – here’s my take on students using AI:

I don’t care.

Honestly, I just don’t.

Now, my syllabus definitely has a section on plagiarism, cheating, collusion (etc.) that I do abide by. After all, I’m an academic and if I find obvious plagiarism I feel that there’s an obligation to follow through on the procedures for that. What those procedures look like for you and your institution might (and probably do) look different than mine. But I have never gone out of my way to search for plagiarism. That’s a waste of my time and my students’ time; they expect feedback from me in a timely manner and I do my best to uphold that.

So when Chat GPT became a “problem,” I sat down with each of my classes and we had a conversation about why we’re here. And I told them what it’s actually like to be a working adult (my students are teens).

I told them that when you show up to an interview, a meeting, or a presentation and you’ve let the internet do your entire job for you – you’ll eventually get a question that you can’t answer or a task that you simply can’t do. And at that point, you won’t be disappointed in a grade, you’ll be fighting for your reputation and your job. The phrase that “knowledge is power” isn’t just something cute teachers throw around. The knowledge we’re learning in history teaches us about politics and context – how to understand where you stand in any given space and how to react accordingly. How to argue for something when you don’t have the advantage. The knowledge to ALWAYS have the receipts because others won’t. These are things you learn by doing.

Did I need to necessarily explain this to all of them? Absolutely not. Many of my students already have jobs. My students are women, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse, and diverse in race and religion. They know what politics are. They’re Gen Z.

Will some of them still use AI to do their homework? Absolutely. So do some professionals. But I don’t worry about those people either.

“I Never Have Time for _____:” Finally Teaching the Good Stuff

If you’ve ever taught a survey – U.S. History, World History, Western Civ. – any survey, really, you know that the most impossible task is balancing the things you need to cover with the things you want to cover. Sure, I could spend half a class period talking about the Bank Wars of the 1830s, but I’d much rather talk about…well…literally anything else.

This problem is especially apparent for those who teach survey classes as AP courses. When I was starting out in public education, I taught dual credit and AP. The AP United States History curriculum framework was probably the least forgiving curriculum I’d ever seen – second only to the AP World History framework. So how do we balance teaching the necessary stuff and the good stuff – the skills and the content?

The great news for our students is that there IS a way. The bad news for us is that we sometimes have to compromise on what we teach ourselves (how much fun we get to have) versus what the students learn for themselves. In the end, though, I think the benefit of students getting to learn the good stuff – the fun stuff – the stuff that drives continuous learning, is the real prize.

Media as a Supplement

In education today, there seems to be a real divide between K12 and higher education when it comes to using media as a supplement for learning. I don’t mean that educators are divided on this topic (we’re actually quite united on it), but rather that K12 teachers lack the academic freedom that higher ed professionals do when it comes to making choices about their student’s learning during class.

While we could go into a lengthy discussion here about why this is, my focus instead will be on providing tools and resources for multiple contexts.

Podcasts

Arguably the best way to provide a variety of topics for students to learn from is to use podcasts. Today, there are so many podcasts on different historical topics, periods, people, and themes from scholars in various fields. Below, I’ve provided a spreadsheet of just a few podcasts I’ve found that are great for World History and US History:

podcast-spreadsheetDownload

There are tons of ways to use podcasts both in and outside of class. In my college survey, I’ve crafted two different assignments that use podcasts.

Podcast Assignment 1

The first kind of podcast assignment assumes that students are at a stage where they can find and vet media sources on their own. It asks students to find a podcast or other form of media (although most choose a podcast) that fits in with their current unit of learning in some way. Students then follow the instructions to write a response. Below is the actual assignment provided to students:

podcast_vocab-assignmentDownload

Podcast Assignment 2

The second kind of podcast assignment assumes that students are not quite ready to look for their own sources of media yet. It provides a list of podcast episodes to choose from, and asks them to respond. The assignment also asks students to tie the podcast into an external reading they’re doing from throughout the semester. This reading varies by student, so their answers will also vary.

podcast-assignment-2Download

Either of these assignments that are done outside of class can easily be transformed into classroom activities. I’ve sometimes played clips of podcasts or videos that discuss an important aspect of a class topic from a different perspective or the perspective of someone who lived through it. We then go through some of the same questions that are in the assignment as a group. This has the added benefit of allowing students to engage with each other in the process of question formation and helps them to really refine what it is, specifically, that they didn’t understand before about the period.

Documentaries

Documentaries are another great source of material that we can use to cover the exciting aspects of our courses that don’t always get covered in textbooks or traditional curricula. When it comes to using documentaries, there are really two major drawbacks: 1) full-length documentaries can be hard to access without funding, and 2) the length of documentaries can sometimes feel like not enough “bang for the buck.” Working with a great resource librarian at your institution (and with enough advanced notice) can really help with finding a documentary that is the right fit for your class and topic.

I am extremely fortunate to work at an institution with access to a wide variety of documentaries, online resources, and fantastic librarians. This means that when it comes to using documentaries for class, my students often have options. I like to mix-and-match library resources with those widely available on the web from places like PBS.

Below is a documentary assignment that I do with my students:

documentary-assignmentDownload

For this assignment, I actually have two lists of documentaries at two separate points in the semester. If they choose to do this assignment in Week 3, they choose from these documentaries, which align with the materials we’re covering at that point. If they choose the one during the later portion of the semester, the documentaries reflect the material at that point in the semester. This gives students the opportunity to choose the assignment that is most flexible with their schedule, since I know not all of them will have 60-90mins to sit down with a film and critically think about it later in the semester.

Video Games

There aren’t a ton of great video games that I love using in my course, but Oregon Trail and The Fiscal Ship are two that definitely recommend.

I’ve used Oregon Trail for years in its original format. There are tons of new updates and new versions, and I honestly think it doesn’t matter much which one you use. Here are two assignments I have used for this game.

Oregon Trail Assignment 1

oregon-trail-assignmentDownload

This first assignment is a basic reflection. It asks students to play the game and reflect on their experience, based on what they’ve learned in class. I also provide additional materials for them to use and cite accordingly (if they were absent or sleeping during that part of class). This is a really great, easy assignment that gets students using their critical thinking skills.

Oregon Trail Assignment 2

oregon-trail-guide-assignmentDownload

The second assignment is a bit more involved. It asks students to play the game and then create a guide for travelers. They have to take into account the audience (rich, poor, skills, etc.) and adjust their guide accordingly. For example, a farmer probably has more hunting skills than a banker. This will make an impact on how they advise them to spend their money in the start of the game.

This assignment clearly requires a bit more understanding of context. It’s a great activity for an honors course or college students.

Media as the Lesson

I teach both sections of the U.S. History survey. The second half of the survey is “1877 to the present.” Now, I’d be willing to bet anyone reading this that if you asked 20 historians what their definition of “the present” is, you’d get 30 different answers (no, that’s not a typo). Some historians who have been teaching for a while are happy to end the survey somewhere around the Reagan administration. Others try to get to 9/11 before calling it quits.

In my class – for a variety of reasons – the present is literally the present. So how do we go about teaching all the other things in the class when the goalpost for the end is constantly changing? I sat through roughly a billion professional development sessions about this topic before settling on an answer for myself – we don’t.

We live in a world where local historians, historical societies, government associations, and museums have worked extremely hard to create engaging online content for the public. Educators need to learn to use that to its fullest potential. Here’s what that can look like.

The New Deal

I hate teaching the New Deal. I think the New Deal is incredibly important to where we are now as a society, and is even more important to teach (and teach well) – I just hate doing it. So I don’t.

My students use the Living New Deal to learn for themselves:

the-new-dealDownload

This assignment requires students to cover the same topics we would do in class during our normal discussion, but allows them the time to do it at their own pace. It also gives them ample time to explore the site’s primary and secondary sources. More importantly, however, they’re looking into aspects of the New Deal that they identify with and find most interesting and share those with each other.

Johnson’s Great Society

While I love talking about the Great Society, I often find myself rushing through it by the time we get to that point in the semester. I never want to rush through material as interesting or as important as the success and failure of Great Society programs. Johnson’s presidency was incredibly complex, and students should see it as a whole – not just for what it was in Vietnam.

For this assignment, my students use a brilliantly-assembled timeline of Great Society programs by the Washington Post. The site includes programs broken down by time and topic, as well as interactive graphics with data to support their claims. Here is the assignment:

johnsons-great-society-assignmentDownload

Students first watch a short, 5-minute introductory video about Johnson and the Great Society programs before reading the article. They are then asked to make arguments from three prompts. The prompts are purposefully vague so that students have the flexibility to use any/all of the sources provided for them.

As a professor, I only see my students three days each week for 50-minutes each class. These two assignments alone save me at least two full class periods that I can then use to either cover additional material or engage in class discussions. Not every assignment can be flipped to an online one – nor should it. It certainly is not my job to simply let the internet teach my students. These assignments, however, are used to scaffold skills that my students use on exams, in class discussions, and in other classes. When crafted well, these kinds of “flipped” lessons can often serve our students better than the lesson that would have been delivered in-person.

Now What?

There’s really no rule to how (or even if) one has to use these tools. In some settings, administrative procedures might provide the flexibility to mix-and-match. For other educators, curricula and planning are a lot more strict. The basic idea is to use the tools available to you as a way of either teaching the things you’re passionate about outside of the normal class period or making more space to do it during class. Know yourself, know your students – do what is right for you.

The Students Can’t Take Notes!!! (yes, they can)

One of the more frustrating aspects of teaching is when you’ve prepared a great lesson, and you look out among your students and see some napping, some on their phones, and some staring blankly at those two inspirational posters that you meant to replace last year.

While we could write 50 articles on the many reasons students are rightfully distracted in class, I want to focus instead on one of the things that’s helped my own students when they ARE ready to show up and engage. One of the things I hear all the time is that my students don’t know “what’s important” to write down and what isn’t. This is pretty fair, since I do a fair bit of story-telling in my survey History courses. We dive deep into the context of the events we’re learning about, and not all of that IS essential information for them to write down.

In an effort to help them learn note-taking strategies, I stole an idea from Dr. Eric Gonzaba and modeled it for them during one of our live lectures. I didn’t record that (for obvious FERPA reasons), but what I’m providing here are some examples of what that might look like based on a lecture from Dr. Joanne Freeman’s Yale open course on the American Revolution.

Page 1

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creating-a-nation-lecture-notesDownload

The other major thing my students struggle with is differentiating between types of note-taking. For example, they’re often unsure of how to take notes for a class discussion, versus for their own understanding of the lecture material or for exam study. Since these are two very different styles, I used the same lecture to model the differences for them. Below is a PDF of the first few minutes of Dr. Freeman’s same lecture on “Creating a Nation,” with an emphasis on discussion-based annotation/note-taking.

creating-a-nation-discussion-notesDownload

These examples don’t seek to cover every style of note-taking, nor do they attempt to cover the complexity of note-taking for various subject-matters. The hope, however, is that students will see that annotation and note-taking is flexible and nuanced – a skill that changes with context and is developed over time. If this method doesn’t work for my students, I ALWAYS encourage them to see me for other options! The way I took notes as a HS student didn’t work for me in college. The way I took notes as an undergrad TOTALLY didn’t work for me in graduate school. As we learn, we have to adjust the WAY we learn too.

For students just getting started, another great tool are the Crash Course Study Skill videos. They cover a wide variety of skills, and are an awesome point of reference.

Writing Rubrics: Avoiding Pitfalls

In my job, I see a lot of grading rubrics. These are often for final papers, class projects, portfolios, and a whole host of things in between. In my own class, I use rubrics for everything, because the entire course is based on written assessments. Here are some questions I’ve learned to ask myself after writing a lot of (sometimes really bad) rubrics:

1. Do you know what you’re assessing?

This always seems like such a simple question, but after teaching both high school and college history, I’ve found this is the thing most people mess up for themselves first (including myself). What is the purpose of your assignment? For example, my students in History 1302 watch a documentary on Reconstruction. This is their assignment:

After watching the Reconstruction documentary, answer the following questions:

• What is one thing from the documentary that confirmed an understanding that you had about the post-Civil War period in the United States? 
• What is one thing you learned in the documentary that challenged an understanding you had about the post-Civil War period in the United States? 
• Provide at least one specific connection between an event, trend, argument, or circumstance in the documentary and that is unresolved today. Be sure to explain how this connection is specifically similar (beyond just simple categories of oppression, race, gender etc.). 

Answers must be specific and provide evidence and/or examples. These should come from your notes, the documentary (especially where asked), or scholarly sources that are cited (citation style does not matter).

Submissions must be in PDF or Word format.

The only thing I require of them (other than watching the documentary) is to answer the questions with a specific answer and specific historical evidence. Notice that I do not dictate anything about:

• Length
• Grammar
• Exclusions

Here is the rubric:

Criteria	Ratings
Question 1	10 to > 6pts Response answers the question and provides specific details/evidence to support confirmed understanding.	6 to >0pts Response answers the question, but may provide little or no specific details.	10
Question 2	10 to > 6pts Response answers the question and provides specific details/evidence to support confirmed understanding.	6 to >0pts Response answers the question, but may provide little or no specific details.	10
Question 3	20 to > 12pts Response answers the question and provides specific details/evidence to support confirmed understanding.	12 to >0pts Response answers the question, but may provide little or no specific details.	20

This rubric is incredibly simplistic, but tells students exactly what to expect when I am looking at their assignments. They do not have to ask me if “grammar counts” or “how long does it have to be.” They know those things aren’t being assessed. They know that it needs to be as long as necessary to respond to the question specifically and with enough historical evidence to completely address the question. On the rubric in our LMS (Canvas), I add additional feedback for students directly onto the rubric when I grade the assignments so they know how to improve from there.

Could I have added a third column to make this more complex? Absolutely! Keep in mind that not every rubric needs to be so complex that students feel trapped into specific criteria though. My rule of thumb is that if there is room for flexibility, always give it.

2. Should points be allocated that way?

One of the struggles I had to learn primarily through trial-and-error was how to allocate points. This is especially difficult on a multi-part rubric for things like projects or for an essay where the various components are broken down into individual parts for grading. How much should an introduction be worth versus a conclusion?

Here’s an example from an UnEssay project I did a few semesters ago in class:

Administrative (25pts)

5-4 pts	3-1 pts	0pts
Reading plan outlines a clear reading strategy, as well as a general idea of how the student intends to budget time, balance other courses and extracurriculars, etc. Plan incorporates ideas based on “How to Read for History.”	Reading plan outlines a strategy for reading that may leave out certain aspects of the process, such as how to budget time or may be vague. Plan may also be incomplete or not answer all aspects of the posed questions. Plan may incorporate ideas based on “How to Read for History.”	Plan does not answer the questions posed or is not turned in.

Reading Plan

10-6pts	5-1pts	0pts
Proposal outlines clear plan for the project/essay the student wants to complete. This includes at least one potential specific historical trend the project intends to focus on, as well as specific examples of that trend gleaned from the research thus far. The proposal includes either a rough outline or sketch of the final product.	Proposal outlines a plan for the project/essay that the student wants to complete that may be slightly vague in concept. The proposal may include a historical trend that the project intends to focus on, or the student may still have substantial questions about where their focus should be. The proposal does not include specifics, such as examples or an outline/sketch of the final product.	Proposal does not meet basic requirements, or is not submitted.

Proposal

5-4pts	3-1pts	0pts
Student is prepared for conference with prepared notes, questions, comments, etc. for the instructor. Student is prepared to engage with questions about the material and/or their progress in their project. At first conference, student has set reachable goal for second conference.	Student has clearly done some research or work toward the project, but is not prepared to engage with the instructor about the material. Student may or may not have notes, questions, comments, etc. prepared to show/share. At first conference, student has either not set	Student has not started research  or prepared for the conference.

Guidance Checks

In this case, 25pts (out of 125pts total) of the UnEssay were dedicated to “Administrative” tasks like proposing a project and turning in a plan to me about how the student planned to complete their outside reading for the project.

Since outside reading was critical to this project, I really should have made this Reading Plan more of the overall score. Many students didn’t take the task seriously since it was 1) the very start of the semester, and 2) only 5pts. Additionally, I should have done a better job of explaining why the reading plan was important for me as their professor in helping them stay on track.

In the end, it’s important to not only think of the point significance of a category to the overall success of an essay or project, but to communicate that to students at the onset.

3. Does your rubric build off itself?

Overwhelmingly, this is the biggest issue that I find on other educators’ rubrics when they are dismayed at student failure rates on assignments. So what does it mean for a rubric to build off itself?

Let’s use this Core Objective Assessment Rubric for Personal Responsibility from the University of North Texas (2014) as an example:

	Advanced (4)	Proficient (3)	Developing (2)	Beginning (1)
Describes the ethical issue	Skillfully describes the ethical issue	Adequately describes the ethical issue	Partially describes the ethical issue in broad terms	Minimally describes the ethical issue
Analyzes the ethical issue	Skillfully analyzes the ethical issue	Adequately analyzes the ethical issue	Partially analyzes the ethical issue	Minimally analyzes the ethical issue
Suggests steps to solve the ethical issue	Skillfully suggests steps to solve the ethical issue	Adequately suggests steps to solve the ethical issue	Partially suggests steps to solve the ethical issue	Minimally suggests steps to solve the ethical issue
Justifies the suggested solution to the ethical issue	Skillfully justifies the suggested solution to the ethical issue	Adequately justifies the suggested solution to the ethical issue	Partially justifies the suggested solution to the ethical issue	Minimally justifies the suggested solution to the ethical issue
Discusses possible consequences of solution	Skillfully discusses possible consequences of solution	Adequately discusses possible consequences of solution	Partially discusses possible consequences of solution	Minimally discusses possible consequences of solution

2014 UNT COAT Rubric

Now, this rubric is problematic for a number of reasons. First, it doesn’t seek to define “ethics” within the context of “personal responsibility.” Moreover, however, it provides no sense of what extremely subjective terms like “skillfully” or “adequately” mean. This ties us back to both Question 1 and the ideas we’ll explore momentarily in Question 4.

To address the idea of building off itself though, in every sense, this rubric assumes at each level after “describes the ethical question” that the assignment has done that correctly. If the student hasn’t correctly established or described an ethical issue, they cannot possibly analyze that issue, suggest steps to solve it, justify solutions to it, or discuss solutions to it. By building all subsequent portions of the rubric from the first step, the creators of this assessment have either created a grading system they cannot possibly abide by or doomed a large portion of students to failure.

Here is an example from one of my essay exams of a rubric that does not build from itself:

	Explanation	Points
Thesis	Essay begins with a thesis, which makes an argument that responds to the prompt, rather than just restating or rephrasing the prompt. Thesis statements should lay out at least one specific argument that addresses the entire prompt.   Thesis statements receiving full credit should lay out three arguments that address complexity of argumentation.	15pts
Argumentation	Within the thesis statement and the body of the essay, there are complex and/or counter arguments. This can look like:   Presenting both similarities AND differences Presenting both continuities AND changes Presenting both causes AND effects Ranking causes or effects in order of importance and using evidence and analysis to sufficiently support that ranking (not just simply stating it)	20pts
Evidence	Each argument must be supported by specific (ex: proper noun) evidence. Essays should include at least five (5) pieces of specific evidence to support each argument.	15pts

Donawho Essay Exam Rubric

Each category of this rubric is evaluated separately. For example, even if a student does not present a strong thesis, but manages to present arguments within the body of the essay, they can still get points for argumentation. Or, even if they don’t have strong arguments at all, but manage to tell me very specifically about the time period in general, they will get points for evidence.

Of course, some educators may decide that constructing a rubric that builds off itself is, in fact, what they are going for. There are a variety of reasons why someone might do this, and they are completely valid as well! For example, in a science or math class where the steps to a lab or problem are contingent upon getting the first step correct, a rubric that reflects this process is certainly appropriate. This ties back to Question 1. Or, for example, in an upper-level writing class where the instructor wants students to understand that the evidence used in an argument must be contextually correct for that argument an tie back to a central thesis, this would be a correct approach. In the end, how one approaches this particular issue is entirely up to the instructor and their understanding of the course and assignment objectives.

4. Does the rubric make sense?

Finally, does the rubric make sense? This probably seems like a ridiculous question once you’ve answered Questions 1-3, but it’s still important to ask. The best way I’ve found to answer this is to actually do the assignment myself and try to grade it. This probably seems like a pain, but I’ve always lived by the logic that I’m not going to assign anything I wouldn’t do myself. It also gives you a good “example” essay or project that you can upload to the LMS for students as a framework. I have one of these for each writing assignment.

In testing your own rubric, you can see whether the points make sense, or whether your wording either too vague or too specific. After all, if you’re an expert and you can’t figure it out – your students sure can’t. Writing the assignment for yourself as a trial run will also help you hit some of the roadblocks your students might stumble upon ahead of time and either fix them or have answers ready. I’ve found that sometimes my instructions weren’t entirely clear and needed to be rewritten for clarity, rather than the rubric.

In any case, it’s important to remember that rubrics are meant to guide students on expectations as much as they are a tool for you to grade with (which you certainly don’t even have to).

Be flexible – ask for student input when it’s appropriate! And if it doesn’t work, don’t feel defeated. Like writing, it’s a journey.

Documents & Resources:

PDF Version of Blog Post

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Example Discussion Post Assignment and Rubric

discussion-post-example-rubricDownload

Example Short Write Assignment and Rubric

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Example Essay Exam and Rubric

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Example Podcast Assignment and Rubric

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My HS Students Read “Banned” Books Last Semester – Here’s How it Went

Like so many places wrapped up in the right-wing political theater around Critical Race Theory (CRT), a lawmaker in Texas proposed a 16-page list of books on race and sexuality for “investigation.” And while the proposal did not require any of the books to be removed from classrooms or school libraries, actions such as this paired with HB3979 very clearly stifle the ability of K12 educators to teach about issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and social constructions of identity in their classes.

But despite teaching high school students in my dual credit class, I am not a K12 teacher. And this semester – before any of these so-called “book bans” went into place – I assigned all of the monographs from the ReVisioning American History series in my U.S. History survey course. Students had the opportunity to select one of the books to read over the course of the semester for in-class discussions, as well as tie-ins to other course assessments.

Here are the three major things I saw my students take away from these books:

Illumination

The very first thing we read in class was Daniel Immerwahr’s “History Isn’t Just for Patriots.” One thing that surprised me during every class discussion was each section’s insistence that students can’t necessarily trust historians because they’re “hiding” history from people. When I pressed the students for what they meant by this, they insisted that every time they take a history class, they’re told a different or more elaborate version of events. It took a bit more Q&A, but I finally understood what they meant. If, as Immerwahr says, “history is messy,” then how can we present very simplistic narratives to students year after year until college (when we suddenly tell them it’s messy) and expect them to not think we’ve been hiding something?

Our first step in tackling this very obvious trust issue was to talk a bit about pedagogy. For example, we discussed why it makes sense not to deep-dive into the details of massacres with 1st graders. We also discussed ways that topics like harm against Native American populations and other marginalized groups could be introduced to younger groups (because they totally should be) in a more age-appropriate way.

The second step came with reading their actual books. In reading about disability, race, gender, and sexuality, my students learned about how historians have navigated archives that are traditionally exclusive of these groups. In our class discussions, we talked about methodology and how historians work with the sources they do have in the face of lacking the types of documentation that historians who study cisgender, heterosexual, white men have. This process illuminated the fact for many of my students that history is messy, and writing history can be equally messy.

New Language

By the end of the semester, one of the things I overheard quite regularly was new language my students picked up from their reading. After about midterms, I’d notice students having a conversation and someone would make a comment followed up by a classmate saying something like, “Hey – I read in my book that that word comes from _____ so it’s probably not good for us to use.”

I want to point out that these conversations were never rude or demeaning to any student. After a few weeks, these types of conversations happened so regularly that other students would often jump in with “Oh my gosh – did you know that [insert common word] comes from ___!?”

About 90% of the time, that was the end of the conversation. But sometimes, students engaged in really excellent critical discussions about the words they use every day and whether they should be using those words. These conversations sometimes included me (when asked – I always allow them to explore these topics on their own), but often involved the students navigating ideas about alternative language and the benefits and drawbacks of that language.

Empathy

The single greatest thing to come out of this series in my class is the empathy that it’s built into my students as scholars and as people. Some of them chose their reading selections because it was a history personal to them and some chose a history that they knew nothing about and wanted to learn more. In either case, my students have learned to look at narratives and ask “What about _____?” I assigned articles from JSTOR Daily, Contingent Magazine, and Nursing Clio with the books, and students were constantly asked to look for how the topics of those articles might overlap with the populations from the books. If the connection between the article and the book wasn’t immediately clear, students were asked to imagine how someone from their book might be benefited or alienated by the situation.

It didn’t take long for this thought process to sink in for them. After a few weeks, students began popping up hands during lecture to ask “Okay, but how would this impact disabled children?” or “But women of color clearly didn’t have the same benefits here – so what were they supposed to do?” Or my personal favorite “Professor – you talked about _____ for half an hour and didn’t talk about Native Americans once.” (It was a separate lecture – but a great catch!)

Right-wing activists can shout from the rooftops that books like these will make students feel bad about themselves or hate the United States, but I teach over 100 students and I didn’t see a single ounce of that. What my students experienced last semester was the ability to learn where to find answers to something they felt was missing. They also gained the ability to grapple with complex ideas and language, and engage with senior scholars in a meaningful way. If this is what teaching with “banned” books looks like – I’ll take all 16-pages worth.

Resources

Calendars

Calendars of overlapping readings and podcasts used throughout the semester for class discussions.

Calendar PDFs & Discussion Questions

I also have versions of these calendars that are in black and white for students with accessibility needs. Feel free to reach out to me for copies of those!

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wwii-modern-eraDownload

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5 Tips for Dual Credit Students

#1: Communication is Key

In any college class, it’s important to remember that you’ll have high expectations when it comes to attendance, participation, and assignments. This is why communication is absolutely essential. If you are ever uncertain about an assigned reading or instructions for an assessment – ask your professor! If you know a day you will miss class, be sure to let your professor know before you are absent. If you’re missing for illness or an unanticipated reason, be sure to let them know ASAP.

The focus here isn’t that your professor needs to know every detail of your life (or shouldn’t be). Rather, you are a member of a learning community. Professors work under the premise that all members of that learning community will be present and ready with an understanding of the class material each day. So if you’re confused about what you’re supposed to do, or you won’t be able to participate, your professor should know that so they can make adjustments if necessary.

Here are some basic things to keep in mind when reaching out to your professor:

• Always communicate using your college email address. Professors cannot respond to personal email addresses due to federal law.
• Unless otherwise prompted, it is a good idea to refer to your professor as “Professor —–” in correspondence. If you know they have a Ph.D., they would be “Dr. —-.” In college, we do not refer to faculty by their marital status. 
• Remember that professors are people with lives outside of work (crazy, I know!). They may not respond to your emails outside of regular working hours. As much as possible, you’ll want to give yourself at least 24-48 hours of room to receive a response. Most professors indicate their email turnaround in the syllabus. 

#2: Study the Syllabus

In high school, teachers often provide students with a calendar for a unit or a semester. While this is sometimes referred to as a “syllabus,” it likely looks quite different from a college syllabus.

In a standard college syllabus, students can expect to find things like:

• Class location
• Professor’s contact information
• Textbook information
• Course expectations (attendance, participation, grading, etc.)
• Assignments
• Course Calendar
• Administrative Materials (ADA Accommodations, Title IX, Plagiarism, etc.)

Often, professors present the syllabus as a type of “contract” between themselves and students. It sets forth the basic format for how students can expect to move through the class. Students should read the syllabus thoroughly before beginning every college course. 

Students should communicate any questions about the syllabus to the professor as soon as possible to resolve them. No one should move through a course confused about what the expectations are!

#3: Be Smart about Reading

One of the things dual credit students often find most overwhelming about their first college classes is the amount of reading. This is especially true for students taking History and English courses.

Something that students in college learn – usually in the first year or two – is that reading is meant to be approached differently for different subjects. For example, I would never read a fiction novel the same way as a non-fiction US History textbook. Many US History monographs aren’t necessarily written in a way where one has to read the entire thing. 

That isn’t to say that you don’t have to do your reading (not by any means)! However, if a student finds themself overwhelmed, they should reach out to their professors for help. We’ve all been there!

Here are some other helpful resources students might look into:

Reading Assignments

Crash Course Study Skills: Reading Assignments

How to Read for History

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Disciplinary Literacy

What are Literacies within the Disciplines?

#4: Expect Different Grades

Probably the #1 reason that students drop out of dual credit courses is that they panic about their grades early on. To be fair – this is a perfectly understandable thing to do! 

I want to be super clear, though – there is absolutely nothing wrong if you see a slight drop in your “normal” grades when you take college courses. If you are usually an A-student and you begin to hover comfortably in the B-range – this happens all the time. 

College courses are not high school courses. The expectations are not the same; the grading scale is not the same; the thought process behind evaluating grades is not the same. As someone who used to teach AP classes, I can confidently say that dual credit classes can’t even be compared to those when it comes to grading. 

You may not see a significant change in your grades and GPA when you start dual credit. If you do, though – don’t freak out! Talk to your professors. Ask them to walk you through your assessments and provide feedback. Ask them if there is room for improvement to get your grade to where you desire it to be by the end of the semester.

Most importantly, remember that you are learning at a different level. You are challenging yourself in ways other students are not and receiving a college education that you will not have to spend time and money on later. 

#5: Save Money!

In and of itself, dual credit is a HUGE saving for many students when it comes to college expenses – congratulations! That doesn’t mean that there aren’t other ways to save money on top of that, though!

Here are some helpful tips that you might consider:

Tuition: If you pay for your tuition, look into any exemptions or grants you may qualify for, such as:

• Military/first responder/teacher dependent
• First-generation student
• Free & Reduced Lunch 

Textbooks: If you are responsible for your textbook costs, ask your professor if an earlier edition will be acceptable. This can save a lot of money.

In this, a few things to know:

• Sometimes, professors don’t actually know the answer to this question. Some professors do not keep up with the changes to textbook editions. You may need to do some research here yourself. You can look at the table of contents for different books using Amazon’s “look inside” feature. Typically, books with the same chapter headings and in the same order will generally be the same. Major things to look out for would be new chapters, changes in the order of chapters, etc.
• Some professors may be explicitly forbidden to say that you can use an earlier edition. This isn’t their rule – it is probably their college’s rule (and the bookstore’s rule). 

If you can’t use an alternative edition of the textbook, you may check to see if your college library has a digital version available or a reference copy. Today, many colleges have scanners that will save to a USB (which will take a while but save money). 

State Testing and College Teaching

As a college professor, it isn’t my job to worry about my dual credit students’ state end-of-course exam. This isn’t meant to sound harsh or like I don’t care about my students’ success. After all, they can’t graduate from high school without passing the US History STAAR test in Texas. But put quite simply – the State of Texas sometimes cares about drastically different things in curricula than I do as a college professor.

But as a former K-12 educator (and a current certified high school History teacher), I also know that my students have to strike an awkward balance in this particular dual credit course. They want to be treated like college students – as they should! At the same time, though, they’re constantly reminded by the school that this final end-of-course exam lingers in May.

How, then, can I make sure that my students have what they need to be successful on this test while not having to take the time out of my class to focus specifically on it? The simplest way I’ve come up with is to provide students with study materials at the start of my Spring semester course (covering Reconstruction-present) that they have access to for preparation. Students can download these materials at the beginning of the semester and add them to their notes as we go, or they can look at them toward the end as a final study guide.

In either case, I emphasize to students that:

1. the material provided is sometimes different than the way we approach the same topics in class, and they need to be aware of that for their test
2. they are responsible for studying the material for their test on their own

There are tons of online resources for students and teachers concerning the US History STAAR and EOC exam. However, I’ve found many of these resources provide either far too much information for a practical study guide or outdated information. Since I’m an experienced US History teacher and have kept up-to-date on changes to the TEKS (standards), I’ve chosen to make my own materials. Others may not find this practical – to each their own!

Study Guides

Below are some of the study guides I’ve created for my own students. Feel free to steal for yourself.

PDF Guides

STAAR Review Terms

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STAAR Long Review

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STAAR One-Page Review

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STAAR One-Page Review (Black & White)

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Google Slides Review Games

Jeopardy Game 1

Jeopardy Game 2

Jeopardy Game 3

Jeopardy Stimulus Game 1

Jeopardy Stimulus Game 2