1. 1. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Rethinking the U.S. History Survey Course: How My Sons' Lego Play Inspired Me to Change the Way I Teach 1 Gordon E. Harvey, Ph.D. Professor & Chair JSU History & Foreign Languages
2. 2. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 We can discover a lot about how kids learn (and how we should adapt our teaching) by watching the evolution of their lego play 2
3. 3. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 1: By the BOOK (with a LOT of help) 3
4. 4. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 2: by the book (less help) 4
5. 5. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 3: By the book, just watch me dad 5
6. 6. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 4: No book,Dad come see what I built 6
7. 7. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 5: Throw the book away, Creativity unleashed 7 Click
8. 8. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 They have to learn to think for themselves 8
9. 9. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 20159 K-12 and Universities talk a lot about the need for individuality and creativity. Yet we do not truly pursue that ideal. We stifle individualism and force conformity when it suits us.
10. 10. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 201510 Something has to change. Tell me you are not bored teaching in the same way on the same material class after class, year after year, to the same passive and disinterested faces
11. 11. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 201511 Weve conditioned them to sit back and wait for the learning to happen. They wait for us to chew up knowledge and feed them like a mother bird does for her nestlings.
12. 12. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 How I learned to teach (Although theres still a place for this) 12
13. 13. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 What do we want to get out of HY courses? 13 Historical Consciousness The fallible memory Think like Historians
14. 14. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Historical Consciousness 14 Cass Mastern lived for a few years and in that time he learned that the world is all of one piece. He learned that the world is like an enormous spider web and if you touch it, however lightly, at any point, the vibration ripples to remotest perimeter All The Kings Men, Robert Penn Warren
15. 15. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 201515 What is History if not an amazingly dramatic story?
16. 16. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 201516 So lets approach the survey as a three-act play
17. 17. Act 1: A Play Exposition: establish characters and protagonist Some issue confronts the protagonists, whose attempt to deal with it worsens the issue Leads to a dramatic situation and incident that will be seen in Act 3 source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure17
18. 18. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 1: US History 18 Foundations Exploration and Native American Encounters Colonial development and expansion Geopolitical tension Revolution and New Nation
19. 19. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 2: A Play 19 Rising action Protagonist tries to solve the issue but the issue worsens Higher sense of awareness of who they are and the issue
20. 20. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 2: US History 20 Growing pains and sectional tension Republicanism (federal v state) Expansion of markets and the suffrage Rise of the Everyman Reform impulse, abolitionism
21. 21. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 3: A Play 21 Resolution of the story and subplots Intense and dramatic conclusion Leaving the protagonist and characters with a new sense of who they really are.
22. 22. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 3: US History 22 Rise of dual, incompatible political economies Manifest Destiny and slavery Sectional Crisis and inevitability of conflict Secession and war
23. 23. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 23 Begin with the End Show them the end of the story and expect them to put the lego pieces together
24. 24. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 24 Group discovery Each group has a cause of the Civil War and traces the origins and history of this cause from beginning to end
25. 25. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 25 Journaling each student journals the days info and findings as it relates to their historical awareness and the groups assigned cause
26. 26. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 26 Group collaboration Groups share the history of their cause with other groups, and compile a fully developed portrait of the nations inevitable march to disunion and war.
27. 27. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 27 Theres still a place for short, context-building lectures and individual assignments. Variety of assignments, options for different learning styles, and a mixture of individual and group-based work
28. 28. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 28 My role Ill assume the same role as always, albeit much less in scale. Ill lead micro lectures and facilitate discussion. The professor doesnt disappear, he only becomes a smaller part of the students journey
29. 29. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 29 Ill show them how to build historical legos and then get out of their way as they create on their own, with a little guidance from me, the historical lego master.
30. 30. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Contact 30 gharvey@jsu.edu