I agree with Wesch's basic premise that we need to move students from just knowing stuff, to being able to do things with the information. This, for me, is a good jumping point for some of my lessons. As someone that teaches history, I'm always desperate to make it seem relevant to kids' lives and applicable to today. Wesch emphasizes the need to have students use the knowledge that they have or we give them. For me, I try to give students the facts they need and let them imagine what they would do in a given situation. This forces them to use the higher-level thinking skills that Wesch speaks of. For example, in a couple weeks I'm teaching about the rise of Hitler. I'll give the students the facts they need about Hitler. I'll set the scene for the them. Here's why Hitler was angry, here's how he came to power, etc. This is the knowledge I must give them for them to do the higher level thinking. The knowledge is the bricks and mortar for them to do more. Students then take this knowledge and evaluate, "would I have followed Hitler if I'd lived through the Weimar Republic? If I was alive and in Germany in the 1930s in light of what I've learned? So this taking students to knowledge-able, as Wesch describes. This is a lesson I'm going to use when I get to the rise of Hitler.
|
AuthorAspiring History Teacher Archives
April 2015
Categories |