Two Go-To Strategies for Engaging Lessons

With my high school students today, I relied on two of my go-to strategies for creating engaging lessons:
a. examining primary source images
b. answering questions from the perspective of a historical figure

This lesson launched my Reconstruction unit.  I'm obsessed with Reconstruction, will probably write a master's thesis about it, and will explain my fascination with it on this blog some other time.  But I have some interest in getting my students excited about this unit.  As it happens, I just finished teaching the unit to my eighth graders, so I can use many of the same lessons with my ninth graders, adapting when necessary.

First, we examined an image.  This is a really useful Do Now activity, because the first question I'll almost always ask is, "What details do you notice?"  Anybody can answer that question--even struggling readers or kids with mental processing issues.  Then I'll follow up with other questions: "What event or events are being depicted?  What's the main idea of the picture?  What does it say about the artist's opinions of the event?"  Some students will only make a list of details while others will do it all; that's fine for this activity.  Then we discuss.  I insist on not interpreting the image until we have a good list of details.  That way, everyone is aware of the content, and students can use the content explicitly to support their interpretations.

Here was the picture today, thanks to a reliable source for political images from the late 1800s--political cartoonist Thomas Nast.

We made observations about everything, all the way up to the students who rightly interpreted that it's a "before-and-after" drawing: the travails of slavery on the left, the promise of freedom on the right.

"So here's the question," I said.  "Did the stuff on the left really give way to the stuff on the right after the Civil War?  That's what Reconstruction is about."

Then, I threw these questions at them:

The Big Questions of Reconstruction: If you were an American after the Civil War, how would you answer the following questions?  Be ready to explain and justify your answers.

1. How should former Confederates be treated after the Civil War?
a.  They should be prosecuted as traitors and should face all sorts of punishment.
b.  They should be forgiven so the country can get back to normal.
c.  Or something in between…explain: ______________________
2. How should Southern states be readmitted to the Union?
a.  They should be treated as if they had never left the Union and should be treated as states as soon as they can form a government that is willing to abolish slavery.
b.  They should be expected to grant civil rights and voting rights to all blacks before being readmitted to the Union.
c.  Or something in between…explain: ______________________

3. How should blacks be treated politically?
a.  Blacks should immediately be given voting rights and the ability to run for office.
b.  Blacks should be granted civil rights and voting rights only after years of adjustment.
c.  Or something in between…explain: ______________________

4. How should blacks be treated economically?
a.   Blacks should be given land and free education and services by the government.
b.   Blacks should be expected to earn their own money to pay for land and education.
c.  Or something in between…explain: ______________________

Those are, more or less, the biggest issues that Americans struggled with during Reconstruction.  So, before we find out what happened, what do you say, class?

I think this strategy works well because:

• There really is no right answer.  Sure, there's the answer that was actually chosen in history, but who's to say that one was the best?  As long as you have an opinion that you can justify, great!
• Multiple choice options work well because they focus students on a few legitimate options.  If I'd just asked, "How should former Confederates be treated after the war?" most kids would have no idea what to say.  But they can choose between a few options and explain their reasoning.
• This works in an individual-, small-group, or full-class setting.  With the first question, I asked them to answer individually, then explain their answer in small groups, then talk as a whole class.
• Multiple choice questions allow me to poll the class.  Then, I can ask, "Okay, who can explain why they chose A?  How about B?  And you who chose C, what does that mean to you?"

We had some surprising results today, too.  In particular, in response to #3, my class was almost universally agreed that blacks should not have been given suffrage and civil rights for many years, in order to give the country time to adjust.  They had good arguments: "It'll just lead to violence and rebellion in the South.  If Lincoln wanted to save the Union, it wouldn't be smart for him to force black rights on them right after the war."  Wow, okay, fair enough--I just would have thought that their views of justice would have outweighed those practicalities.

I'll be using these strategies again soon--believe me.