Part 4: Summit Prep Charter Teachers Integrating Technology–World Studies

Any high school teacher who has taught 9th graders and seniors can quickly list the differences in teaching 15 and 18 year-olds. One of the tasks of teaching 9th graders at Summit Prep (and most other high schools as well) is socializing them into the school’s academic and behavioral norms so that by the end of the year, these students know what to do, when to do it across academic subjects, and how to behave out of class while still on the campus. These skills and behaviors, Summit leaders believe, are crucial for success not only in high school but also in higher education.

Aukeem Ballard, who is finishing his third year as a teacher, teaches the first block of the school day, usually a 95 minute period for his 9th grade World Studies students. But today Block 1 is only 55 minutes because half of the school will be visiting Bay area college campuses for the rest of the week. The 28 students sitting in foursomes facing one another at tables are jumpy about the trip. Questions quietly ripple through the room. Ballard is very aware of the higher-than-usual nervousness among students and spends time at the beginning of the class taking their questions about when and where they will meet, what they need to bring, what they will be doing, etc.  He does all of this before launching into a Warm Up that begins a new unit on Imperialism. He puts up a slide on the screen that has the daily objectives and goes over them one-by-one (see slide 3 here).

For the Warm Up, Ballard asks students to write a two-minute summary of the story “The Rabbits” that they had finished reading earlier in the week (the fable-like story is about how rabbits  invade a land where other animals are living, colonizes the country, and despotically rules the nation; the story is an allegory for 19th and 20th century imperialistic powers slicing up Africa and Asia (see here). He tells students that to do the summary, there will be no partnering. He wants individual work.  Students take out their notebooks and begin writing. Ballard walks around the room checking to see their summaries. “I just saw,” he says, “a two sentence summary that is better-than-fair.” After most of the class has finished, he tells students to draw a dotted line under their summary and then write their opinion in a few sentences about “The Rabbits.” After they finish, he says, share for three minutes your opinions with their table partner.

I scan the class and all students are writing their opinions, a few have begun talking to their table-mates.

After three minutes, Ballard calls for their attention by counting down from five to one. He then asks students for their opinions of the story. No one responds. He calls on three different students and they give their opinions in very low voices. He asks them to speak louder so that others can hear.

“Now,” after the brief back-and-forth with a few students, “we are going to swing from the rabbit story to imperialism.” He then puts a slide on screen calling it a Link Frame.*   It is a matrix of  four squares with labels for each quadrant: List, Inquire, Notice, and Know (LINK). He asks students to put the Link Frame in their notebooks and then fill in  the List quadrant with 5-6 words that they associate with the word “imperialism.”  He says: “Use what you know in your incredible brains.” After a few minutes, the teacher says: “You should be ready to share out LIST with the rest at your table—don’t use Chromebooks yet.”

After the sharing, Ballard calls on students in various groups to give the words they wrote; the teacher jots the words down on his laptop and they appear on screen. He then walks around with his Chromebook in hand,  listening to various students, closing lids of three Chromebooks as he continues to note what words students have put down for imperialism in the List quadrant.

After a long list of words from class appear, he asks students to go to next quadrant of the Link Frame, Inquiry. Here he wants students in their group to brainstorm questions they would ask about imperialism for their project essays. He asks each table group of four to have one of them act as recorder while the other three members stand up and says questions that they would ask about imperialism. Recorder takes down questions as three peers stand and throw out questions. Ballard walks around room listening, offering compliments to some groups for their questions. He has a stop watch and tells students how many minutes are left for the activity.

At end of task, students sit and Ballard asks what questions came up in each group. He types their questions and they appear on the screen at front of room (e.g., Why do countries need resources in other places? Why so much violence? What are the most recent nations to be imperialized?).

Teacher then directs students to go to third quadrant of Link Frame, Notice. Here he asks students to use their Chromebooks and go to a link (see here) that shows photos and has text of Before and After Belgium, Great Britain, and other countries colonized parts of Africa and Asia. Students open Chromebooks, go to link and quietly read while jotting down in their notebooks things they notice. I scan class and every student is on task. As the end of class approaches, Ballard calls for “professional courtesy,” a code phrase students recognize for closing the lids of their Chromebooks. They do. He then asks students to complete Notice and Know quadrants of the matrix as homework for their next block class. They will pick up discussion from that point, hesays.

Teacher dismisses class and students leave for their next 55-minute class.

Teaching norms of discourse and behavior is a long process of socialization to high school and essential for those who enter college. It begins in the 9th grade at Summit Prep and shows itself fully in subsequent years. Such student compliance to these academic and behavioral norms, Summit leaders believe, is the basis for success in high school and higher education.

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*After reviewing a draft of this post for inaccuracies, Ballard said that “it is important to note that lesson and PowerPoint are a result of collaboration with my 9th grade history teacher colleague …. at [another Summit] school.”

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