Photo by Constant Loubier on Unsplash
My Grade 9 social studies teacher was a huge admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte, to the extent that I am certain he volunteered to be a teacher supervisor on our Grade 12 Europe trip when he learned we would be visiting Les Invalides, where Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb is located. I’ve never seen someone more excited to visit a museum.
This particular teacher had cultivated somewhat of a legendary status amongst the French Immersion students in our district. He was known for creating these really interesting projects that took most of the semester but turned learning into cooperative games or scenarios. One of the subjects in social studies 9 is “political, social, economic, and technological revolutions” including the French Revolution.
What this teacher did was to split the class into two sides, students were randomly selected and placed onto one of the sides of the room. Once the class was divided, the teacher explained that each side of the class represented a different side of the war. Throughout the semester, the teacher taught the French Revolution by having the groups of students experience each event. Some days we would arrive in class and the teacher would teach the backstory to each conflict. When we would arrive at a conflict, we would arrive in class with envelopes. Each envelope would detail our side’s action and result in the conflict. Throughout the lesson, the teacher would pause to further explain a part of the conflict. At times, we would arrive and have to construct some tool or item that helped our side, other times we would arrive to find out our side had been defeated and we needed to scramble to try and prepare for the next part.
It’s been nearly 20 years since I took that social studies 9 class and I still remember this learning experience. What I think made this experience really memorable was that it was the first time I ever experienced this type of immersive, project based, inquiry learning. It’s also probably the only time I’ve been engaged and wanted to go to my social studies class. I think it was also the first time I ever had a teacher who was really passionate about the topic they were teaching and they developed a way to teach a subject a lot of students struggle with. This experience was so impactful on me as a learner, I’ve attempted to create similar experiences for my students in my own teaching.
Last year, I tested my hand at this in science with two different projects. My students made cooking videos for their chemistry unit where they explained the chemistry happening while they were making the recipe. Later in the year, they wrote and made children’s books about fossils and geological dating. Last week, some of my former students visited during their semester break and a few of them mentioned the two projects. This year, my students will be doing similar immersive projects in social studies but they’ll be looking at an ancient civilization. My intention is that by providing choice and the student taking ownership of their learning, they will have a higher level of interest and engagement.
Simply stated, active learning is learning by doing, listening, looking, and asking; but it is not just being active that counts. It is the mobilization of the student to seek out and learn.
(Adelman & Taylor, May 2017)
References
Adelman, H. & Taylor, L. (2017). Addressing Barriers to Learning: In the Classroom and Schoolwide. Los Angeles, CA: University of California, Los Angeles, Center for Mental Health in Schools and Student Learning Supports. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED586985.pdf
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