DBQ Lab & Meetings

Post for 12/8

It was a bit strange today being back in the role of the observer after the past few weeks of designing and teaching my own lessons but today was a good day nonetheless. All US II classes were assigned a two-day project in the computer lab at the school. Essentially, the idea was for students to build their own DBQ in the style of their CRT's. Students had to decide on a question to ask about the New Deal, hopefully one they would genuinely like to research, and find the appropriate documents they could use to support it using online resources like the Library of Congress or the National Archives.

There was, however, a problem with this assignment since I received a variation of, 'Hey, Mr. A -- what's the New Deal?' about 25% of the time in every class. This was disconcerting since Mr. D's classes had been working on New Deal policies for the past week. Some of this could be attributed to students being absent, some students needed only a brief reminder but others seemingly just did not understand what the New Deal was or why they were studying. Here's where I come in with the first criticism of my co-operating teacher and it pains me to do so because I admire him both as a conscientious teacher and as a person. For whatever reason, Mr. D's classes were just not prepared to do this project. I asked him what he had worked on earlier in the week and to make a long story short, Mr. D focused on the micro aspects of the New Deal. Students did a gallery walk reading different accounts on how the New Deal effected (or didn't effect) their lives, they worked on a project related to public works and another on Glass-Steagall. These are all incredibly important aspects of the New Deal era and any interpretation of it would be incomplete without knowledge of these policies and events. However, there was very little done outside of a brief mini-lecture on the macro sense of the New Deal. What it meant, why it was important and how it changed the country. Since it was presented as brief vignettes and concepts, the connection was not made that all of these things were part of what was called the New Deal. So when Mr. D asked his students to come up with a DBQ based on that they were not sure whether the New Deal was one or all of these things. That connection just was not made in class time at all. This to me was a reminder that it's important to remember the objective of the content and that it can change depending on what you're trying to teach. The micro can help make things more real and tangible but history in a macro sense is essential, as well.

In addition to this, R came to meet Mr. D and myself at MHS during Period 8 & 9. The meeting was positive and productive. Things are good and I hope all parties are happy with the current situation.