Pursuing Justice

I was really intrigued by the discussion that ensued after we listened to the Kennedy tapes in class on Wednesday. It was so interesting to consider how we all interpreted the conversations. It was a great lesson in understanding how different people bring their own personal perspectives and experiences into how they ‘heard’ the conversation. I use audio a fair amount in my class and have my own understanding of the significance and importance of the audio and sometimes steer my students to draw those same conclusions. After reflecting on the conversation we had, I’m thinking that there may be more value in letting them explore their own ideas, and then push them to find explicit evidence within the document to prove their point…even if it differs from the conclusions that I had originally drawn. I’m continually impressed with their fresh & original views. Using the audio and letters also reinforced how primary documents can make history come alive and become more relevant for our students.

I also thought the method that Dan used for presenting his lecture was really effective. I am a visual learner so the charts and graphs that he presented helped me to categorize the information in a way that made sense to me. It also helped me remember it—I think my students will also benefit from this type of lecture.

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Lauren H. Berenson
Social Studies
Wellesley High School

I agree with Lauren's comments about the effectiveness of Kennedy tapes and the authentic discussion it can lead to in the classroom. Also as Lauren pointed out, audio like this can really "bring to life" history and have students get directly involved in the past. Overall I found this lesson very effective and will use in with my high school students. The t-chart of JFK's behavior: Influence and the implications/behavior was a great way to wrap-up the audio tapes and will give students a concrete understanding of the events that influenced President Kennedy during this crisis with Gov. Barnett.

  A new perspective I gained from Dan's lecture was how little attention historians have paid to the white "Villians."  It was interesting how he presented some of the white figures like Ben Collins and their effectiveness in leading over the majority African American population in Mississippi. I never viewed these white figures in a way where I would judge thier effectiveness as a leader.  I concentrated more on their action against African Americans and looked to villify them in my teaching.  Students can benefit when we look at these characters and how they were able to successfully lead and what effect that had on the civil rights movement.

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Crystal Bartels
High School History
Wellesley High School

I agree as well. The audio tapes werevery effective and a fellow teacher used the same tapes and had a great response from the kids.

 I think that perhaps the two standouts from the lesson were first: the dynamics of the Kennedy's vs Barnett. The idea of who got the upper hand in the situation and who was more effective. The battle of Exectutive Office and Attorny General againts a state governor had surprising results.

 The second major standout was the lesson of JFK's behavior (influences and reasons of). That lesson was superb and it would have been great to do the same with Barnett more indepth -and even RFK. The more you add to the list the better understanding one gets not only of the people, but of their times (the questions of history and what else is going on at the same time ) and the power and lack of power of their positions.

 

Zach

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Zachary Simmons

I also spent a lot of Wednesday's class reflecting not only on the content (which I found very engaging) but also on different methods of instruction.  One of the pieces of this seminar that I am coming to value is taking on the role of the student again for the first time in a while.  It's been valuable for me to switch modes for a little while.  I've been trying to take a step back and reflect on what it's like to be a student so that I can go back to school in September with a renewed appreciation for what it's like to sit in the other chair. 

Some thoughts I've had:  Being a student again reminded me how helpful it is to use visuals!  Although many of the professors had great ways of doing this I especially found Andrea's method of providing an outline on chart paper at the front of the classroom with key phrases helpful.  Another professor - I think it was Michael - wrote all of the quotes he wanted us to look at in depth on a separate sheet of paper.  That was SO helpful for me as it allowed me to read at my own pace and keep up with the lesson at the same time!  Also, I was reminded of the importance of explicitly stating essential questions at the beginning of the class.  As the year goes by I sometimes find myself forgetting to do this and I was able to appreciate once again how helpful having a question at the beginning of the class can be to provide context to the lesson.  Also, several of the professors provided some amount of background knowledge before beginning their lectures or when switching topics and I found this very helpful - even if it was a subject I was very familiar with.  It helps to hear the context from which the professor is speaking- again, it's like a frame around the lesson. 

It also gave me the oppurtunity to experience some of the difficulties my students might face first hand.  For example, I had significantly less background knowledge about the topics and time periods that were lectured on Monday and Tuesday.  Because of this it was much harder for me to follow the lectures and make the same kind of connections that I was able to create during the first three lectures.  I also found myself feeling frusterated at times when I lost my way and more reluctant to contribute to the conversation for fear that I wouldn't be able to express myself as well.  I'm sure many of my studetns have felt the same things in my classroom and so it was very helpful for me to be reminded of how hard it is to be a student!  Here I was feeling anxious and unsure as an adult, imagine how that's compounded when you're 13!  It reminded me how important it is to create a learning environment where all of my students feel that they can ask questions, ask me to slow down it I'm going to fast and share their perpectives (as Lauren mentioned above) even if they're different from mine.  I hadn't thought about any of these things in a long time and so I am truly greatful to have had the oppurtunity to do some reflection not only on the content we teach, but on the way we deliver it. 

I continue to be impressed every day with the talent and insight of everyone in this seminar:) 

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Kate Parker
7th & 8th Social Studies
Runkle School, Brookline

I couldn't agree more with what has been said in these posts in response to Wednesday's lecture.  As a student of political science and sociology, I found Dan's charts extremely helpful.  I think it is extremely important, as Lauren mentioned, to appeal to visual learners using graphs and images of the like.  I found the charts we examined in class extremely interesting in analyzing trends and hypothesizing why certain patterns emerege during specific years. I noticed that many people felt that the charts may be too biased or inconclusive, which I agree can be true in some cases to a certain extent, but perhaps it might be interesting to study the same type of trends using different media sources and see if there is consistency or bias in the findings and then form a discussion around why we see persepctives shift in correlation with media coverage from various regions- this can open up a whole different conversation but an interesting one in that.  This is something that I did with my sociology students (we looked at presidential media coverage from different sources in the U.S. and then analyzed what factors shaped the way in which the candidates were portrayed be it age, geographics, religion, culture, etc).  Great ending to the lecture days...looking forward to beginning the curriculum work this week!

 

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Erin Eriksen
9th Grade World History
12th Grade Sociology
Natick High School

I love this strand because I was thinking about this over the weekend too.  Dan's presentation was excellent and I was particularly fascinated with hearing the tapes.  It was shocking to me how these sorts of crisis are handled.  I sort of felt like,  I now understand why we went to war in Iraq when I listened to way that JFK had "his guys" telling him one thing while the governor changed his story 3 times.  I was struck by how human the president sounded in those conversations.  It is so easy to make presidents wooden figures or god-like and the tapes really humanized the role of the president for me.

There are great resources from the library of congress that I used with my classes with FDR's fireside chats that were amazing in class (though not as candid as what we had in the seminar) and I had students chose an identity before listening to the broadcast and then react to the message from the identity that they chose- it was a great way for them to listen with purpose.

Kate's point about being a student again really hit home for me as well.  I noticed that I was a better student when the information being presented was familiar or more organized.  It is obvious to me that Andrea was a secondary ed teacher because her methods are wonderful and clear.

Cheers
jen

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Jen Martin
Brookline High School
History Department