Part 5-Summit Rainier Teachers Integrating Technology: World Studies

The young, slim teacher stands on the chair in the middle of the classroom to be heard above ninth grade students clustered in the four corners of the portable classroom. The students are chattering about the reasons they agree or disagree with the statement Katie Goddard, the teacher, put on the “smart board.” The statement students considered–“There is no single group responsible for the crime of slavery. African rulers are equally as guilty for for slavery”– drove them to different corners labeled “strongly agree,” “agree,” “disagree,” “strongly disagree.” The teacher asks students in each corner why they agree or disagree with statement. After a few students give their reasons, some classmates change their minds and migrate to different corners making the classroom a swirl of movement.  This activity occurred in the middle of a 95 minute block in World Studies where Goddard was introducing a new unit on Imperialism.

Goddard had begun the 95-minute class with a Warm Up question: “Should the U.S. pay reparations to black Americans whose families have been slaves?” and, after telling them to put away their cells and Chromebooks, gave them two short op-ed pieces on opposite sides of the question. One op ed argued that who should pay and who should receive reparations for enslaving Africans were contested and confused. The other op ed argued that the British should pay reparations to Kenyans for what they did in colonizing that African nation.

She asks the 24 ninth graders to “read and chunk the text” for each opinion piece. She reminded the class to read each paragraph and write a one-line summary of each paragraph and indicate whether they agree or disagree with the op ed. As students write in their notebooks, Goddard, holding a clipboard, walks around the classroom of 13 tables, each seating two students facing the “smart board,” answering questions and checking to see what students are writing. Goddard asks students to hold up fingers indicating how much more time they want to finish task. Some hold up one, others two and three. For those who had finished she offers two options for them to do. She then asks students to share with partner their summaries and opinions. As students start talking to one another, Goddard interrupts and says: “Remember in working together you need to turn to your partner, move your body to face one another and listen carefully to what your partner says.” Students resume talking.

When she sees that nearly all students have completed the task, she asks students for their summaries of the two articles and which one they agree/disagree with most. Students are initially reluctant to commit to a position but as a few offer their opinions, Goddard teases out the reasons embedded in arguments for and against reparations. And this is the moment when the teacher asked all the students to take a position on the statement and go to a corner of the room: “There is no single group responsible for the crime of slavery. African rulers are equally as guilty for for slavery.”

This Warm Up and debate about reparations were initial activities in the lesson introducing Imperialism. By starting with the contentious contemporary question of reparations for slavery, Goddard would move to instances of European countries colonizing the Congo in Africa and India in Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries and consider the human costs of taking over these countries.

Katie Goddard and Rainier

Before describing the rest of the lesson, a few words about the teacher and the Rainier campus of Summit charter schools. Goddard is finishing her third year of teaching. A Brown University graduate, she completed a master’s degree and teaching credential at a Bay area teacher education program. Why Summit? Goddard says: “I knew I wanted a place where there was an emphasis on mentoring students with on-site coaching that supports my practice and collaboration among teachers.”

Goddard’s enthusiasm for teaching history is written on the windows and walls. Across one window in the portable (there are two in the room) in large capital letters is pasted: YOU CAN DO THIS. On a rear wall, are quotations: “The Past Informs the Present,” “Case Studies Reveal Patterns in History.” In the classroom, besides the familiar countdown to get students attention (“I’m counting down from 5), Goddard also switches student seats daily. She has a stack of cards with student names and places a card on each desk every morning, thus accomplishing two things that she prizes: with much student pairing up and “tellback” exercises, she wants students to get to know each other; second, the tactic is a quick way of taking attendance since when the seat at a table is empty, she picks up the cards and knows exactly who is absent. As her quote indicates and her behavior in this lesson mirrors, Goddard likes being at Summit-Rainier.

The school is one of the Summit network of seven charter schools in the Bay area. On a block schedule of 95 minute periods, the high school was founded by a group of parents and Summit leaders who received a charter from the East Side Union High School district in 2011. With about 270 students (60 percent Latino, 17 Asian and Filipino, 15 white, 3 African American; and just over half eligible for free and reduced price lunch–the measure of poverty), Rainier is located on the campus of Mt. Pleasant High School. What was once a parking lot there are now 17 portable classrooms, an office, and faculty lounge. Students have access to Mt. Pleasant High School for certain activities (see  School Accountability Report Card for 2014-2015). One hundred percent of Rainier’s first graduating class were accepted into four-year colleges.

Back to the Lesson

The agenda for the day, written on the white board, listed the sequence of topics for the hour-and-a-half session:

1. Reparations
2. Slavery op eds
3. Criteria
4. Imperialism op eds
5. Exit ticket

After the Warm Up and during the four-corner debate, Goddard gets deeper into the reparations question by introducing statements such as: “slavery ended a hundred years ago so the U.S. government should not pay any money to African Americans now.” One student points out that the U.S. government has already paid reparations when they gave sums of money to Japanese Americans for being in internment camps during World War II. Another points out that the money went to those who were still alive. Voices are raised and tone becomes adversarial among students agreeing and disagreeing. Goddard interrupts and says: “Remember our norms. The second your tone becomes combative, you don’t listen. Our goal is to listen to one another.” After more restrained back-and-forth in which the teacher specifically calls on students who have heretofore not entered the discussion, Goddard asks class if they want to shift corners. About one-third move to another corner.

Teacher now asks students to return to their tables and turn to the next question: When are reparations necessary? She asks class to open Chromebooks and come up with criteria to answer the question. She reminds class that there is no correct answer, that you have different opinions but you need examples and facts to support your opinion. Goddard moves around the room asking and answering questions at each table.

After about 10 minutes, Goddard asks students to put lids down and says that “we are going to study Imperialism and you are going to write an op-ed by the end of the unit. “The question you will answer,” she says, is “do former imperializing countries have a responsibility to give foreign aid to the countries they imperialized?”  She links the earlier discussion of reparations  to Imperialism and then previews the next 12 lessons on the “smart board,” going over each one briefly. She then puts up a slide that defines Imperialism as “the process of taking over another country through diplomacy or military force.” Goddard asks students to come up with their definition of imperialism by using the Playlist of sources (documents and videos)–she gives the class the link–that she assembled for them on the Congo, India, and other colonized countries. In coming up with their definitions, she urges students to talk to their partner. After pairs have come up with their definitions from Playlist, she then asks them to brainstorm what they would need to know about imperialism to determine if reparations are necessary.*

With clipboard in hand, teacher moves through the classroom checking to see which students are unclear about the task or having difficulties in answering questions.

As time winds down to end the class, Goddard summarizes what they have done, connecting discussions on reparations to new unit of Imperialism.

Like many other 9th grade teachers, socializing students to classroom and school norms, covering content, engendering participation, and teaching cognitive skills becomes a complex dance of tasks and activities interacting with one another over 95 minutes. Not easy to do.

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*A brief video of Katie Goddard preparing a class to write a culminating essay for a project in January 2015 is here.

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