This was my first discussion with my 10th grade World History class and they were not yet comfortable with using text to substantiate their claims. I wanted my students to develop the historical inquiry skills of sourcing evidence and scrutinizing sources. I gave them a set of primary and secondary sources about World War I, which they were supposed to use to answer the central question: “Who was to Blame for World War I?” My students were very engaged and providing great answers to the question, but no one was referencing the provided sources. Growing a little frustrated, I jumped in and pressed a student to provide evidence for his claim that Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Serbia were to blame for the world war. The student fumbled through the papers in front of him and then pointed to one and said, “I think it’s in this one.” After that, my classroom fell silent. I accidentally shut down the discussion by trying to get my students to use sources as evidence. I really want them to use sources, but I also want to keep them talking.
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Ashley
10th Grade
World History
First Year Teaching
- What is the teacher's dilemma? Consider the teacher's goals, possible actions, beliefs about the situation and the students, and their own self-perceptions.
- Complete or modify the following sentence in a way that captures the teacher's central tension in the situation: "While on the one hand, the teacher believed/wanted/felt/did __________, on the other hand, they believed/wanted/felt/did __________."
- Thinking about your own classroom, how do you decide if you should press students to provide textual evidence when doing so might shut down the flow of the discussion?