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Teaching High School History in the Context of Performance-Based Standards: An Innovative Approach for Urban Schools
Robert A. Scappini
Central Falls High School, Rhode Island
| TODAY, URBAN HIGH SCHOOLS are faced with a variety of pressures that are competing for attention within the classroom. These pressures come from a variety of sources and for a variety of reasons. They can appear when standardized test scores become the indicators of success and replace traditional measures of effective instruction. The source may be budget conscious legislators demanding results and accountability from a profession that deals with intellect, emotion, and motivation. Pressure can also come from school districts looking for some positive performance indicators wherever they can be found. It may even come in the form of professional educational services offering new, improved and high priced solutions to urban school problems. The situation may involve students who arrive in the classroom unable to read or write at grade level and who display a wide variety of educational deficiencies. Pressures may involve new state directives that require history teachers to become reading teachers. |
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I teach the History of Technology and United States History classes in Central Falls High School, Central Falls, Rhode Island. Central Falls has 23,000 people living in one square mile. The per capita income is just over $8,000 a year. Tenements can be home to fifteen people living in three rooms without heat or light, and many occupants of these tenements are undocumented aliens living from paycheck to paycheck without health insurance. At any given time, ten percent of the population is involved in the legal system, and it is rare to find a family with a mother and father present. The traditional evils of drugs and alcohol abuse are evident and gangs are seen daily. At the high school, ninety-eight percent of the student body qualifies for free lunches. Of the one hundred and twenty students that I generally have in five sections, sixty will likely leave and sixty new students will take their place. As I and my colleagues stand before our classes we wonder to ourselves which student may be high on drugs and who has a weapon. |
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Under such conditions capturing the attention and interest of students is difficult at best. To the majority of students, history is a dull journey to a distant period of time that has no bearing on the here and now. So my task is clear and my objectives are simple: convey to my students the same sense of importance, excitement, and intimacy that I feel for history. I use my classroom as a vehicle of instruction to explore local history, encourage a working knowledge of the historical method, and help students gain an understanding of the research process. In the broader sense, I believe that history should be used in the grander context of learning. I accept as a guide statements such as the Pennsylvania Department of Education's proposed Academic Standards for History which states: "History may be used as an organizer for all other academic standards."1 Or the objective for history of the National Center for History in the School which states in its overview (National Standards for History, Historical Thinking Standards, Grades 5–12):
true historical understanding requires the students to engage in historical thinking: to raise questions and marshal solid evidence in support of their answers; to go beyond the facts presented in the textbooks and examine the historical record for themselves; to consult documents, journals, diaries, artifacts, historic sites, works of art, qualitative data, and other evidence from the past, and to do so imaginatively, taking into account the historical context in which those records were created and comparing the multiple points of view of those on the scene at the time.2
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With these goals in mind, my problem becomes how can I capture the interest of students who have so many distractions. As my school district moves towards standard-based instruction, I believe that the direction of educational philosophy must shift from textbook-driven instruction to project-based lessons. |
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Public History in a Public School | |
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I am fortunate to teach in a city that reflects the American timeline. From colonial America to the present, the collective memories of this unique city, Central Falls, can be seen in the Native American burial grounds and cemeteries, in abandoned mills and union halls, in parks and ball fields, in churches and school yards, in tenements and senior centers. For example, my search for a topic to move my history classes beyond the textbook came into class one day in the hands of a student. He carried a bronze plaque he had pried loose from the sidewalk not far from the school. Engraved on the face was "Built by Works Progress Administration 1935–1937." Further discussions with the students revealed that all of the city sidewalks have such a plaque embedded in the cement. The students were eager to find and plot the locations of all the plaques in the city. The students designed a form and conducted a street by street survey, noting the position of each plaque and the year it was installed by a WPA work crew. Visits to the city clerk, and researching of city council records showed how the city plunged into a record unemployment slump of over forty-eight percent.3 When the Works Progress Administration came to town they surveyed several public works jobs. There were very few sidewalks in Central Falls in 1936. Putting in public sidewalks was considered an "A rated project," and under a ruling by the National Resource Committee, priority for sidewalks was to be given to public school environs. Sidewalks were to be installed one mile in all directions leading to public schools. Since Central Falls is only one square mile in size, most of the city had sidewalks installed during the WPA era. The students involved in the project were obliged to meet a wide variety of standards for good history instruction. They found themselves recognized by the New Deal Network, a web site devoted to the era of the Depression and the New Deal of the Roosevelt Administration. |
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This type of student-based activity is now labeled project-based learning, an activity that allows a student to demonstrate skills as an independent learner while investigating a specialized area of interest. These teaching moments were found, literally, in the streets of Central Falls and from this starting point the students were launched upon a historical investigation into the Great Depression, the Roosevelt Administration, the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration, emergency measures by the city, and the fight to keep families together. These historical events became a tangible force that my students were able to identify with, and more importantly, they were able to comprehend the nature of the social, economic, and political changes that this country faced. |
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Pain of poverty reached beyond 1936, however, and as the students moved deeper into the material and historical events of the 1930s and World War II, residents from a local retirement home came to share their life experiences, photographs, and memories. Students learned that from the small city of Central Falls more citizens volunteered for duty on December 8, 1941 than from any other city its size in America. They also learned the consequences of such patriotism as Central Falls suffered comparable combat losses during the war. The use of local history is a powerful tool. It enables the students to make connections with their community that go deeper than anything that can be offered in a book, and offers a sense of ownership and kinship with that community. |
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There are many resources available in a community that can add another dimension to the classroom experience. Senior centers, veteran's organizations, civic associations, and labor groups can provide invaluable resources for oral histories. Public libraries, historical societies, museums, and the city hall are repositories of local history. One avenue that we are now exploring is profiling local businesses. One team of students has interviewed workers at a hardware store that has been in business in the same location for nearly one hundred years. The great-grandson of the original owner gladly opened the family books to show students the industrial, economic, and social history of Central Falls. |
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There is also a sense of discovery and excitement when students turn their energies onto local landmarks. Given an assignment to research and write about some aspect of local history, one team of students decided to investigate our local park. Standing on top of a rock ledge is a century old field stone clock tower that can be seen for miles. They learned that money donated by a former resident, who made her fortune during the California gold rush, made it possible to build not only the clock tower and an iron pavilion, but also a series of fresh water ponds that were stocked with fish. In searching the records the students found the deed, engineering drawings, original blueprints and plans for a tunnel that connected the ponds to the Blackstone River. This was an aspect of the park that was long forgotten, and when its existence was revealed, it was quickly sealed by the city. |
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Sometimes a student project begins as a challenge, as happened when a class discussion about Rhode Island history was cut short by a student stating "nobody famous ever came from Rhode Island." Since the class was History of Technology, we decided to put that statement to the research test and search for any famous engineers and inventors who were born and/or lived in the state. This type of activity put us squarely in performance and historical thinking standards territory as students learned about research methodology, use of public documents, self-management skills, search strategies, and collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data. With the generous support of the Newell D. Goff Institute, Rhode Island Historical Society, and Central Falls Free Public Library, we established a database of eighty-five inventors, engineers, and entrepreneurs who had obtained patents that have made a significant contribution to the Industrial Age of America from 1755 to 1900. Sixteen of these inventors came from Central Falls. |
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The Central Falls School District Superintendent, the Principal of Central Falls High School, and the community have been very supportive and appreciative of our efforts. When Mayor Lee Mathews asked if there was anything we could do with an abandoned mill scheduled to be demolished in four weeks, a new adventure began. This proved to be an opportunity to study the architecture and archeology of a mill that has a long history in the city. Students designed an overall strategy to cover all aspects of the building and its outside area. Two sections of the History of Technology class came to the American Supply Mill after school on Saturdays and during vacations to conduct a sweeping examination of the mill. The mill had been in operation from 1845 to 1947, at first making industrial belting for textile machinery and later changing to producing braiding looms for rugs. With the help of a trained archeologist, the class surveyed the exterior grounds around the mill. Test pits were dug adjacent to the Blackstone River, and as luck would have it, we found several piles of material thrown out over the years. Tools, industrial leather belts, cans, bottles, and a tanning tub were recovered. A test pit revealed numerous pennies and nickels from the late 19th century. One mystery that could not be immediately explained was a stacked column of bricks beside the river. One student was bitten by the detective bug and continued to do research on the mystery pile. At city hall she discovered that this pile was part of a toll footbridge that connected Central Falls to the neighboring city of Valley Falls. Her investigation also uncovered a pen and ink drawing of the original bridge. |
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Inside the mill you could see the evolution of a mill from brick and mortar to metal and concrete. Timbered beams twenty-eight inches in diameter spanned the main floor supporting oak planks twenty inches wide. Moving cautiously through the floors, students charted, cataloged, and recovered more than one hundred and fifty items of interest. These included tools, loom gearing, payroll bags, cotton bale scales, swatches, sample braids, time cards, and machine leather belts. Back in the classroom, enthusiastic students labored over the cleaning and preservation of each artifact. As the mill was razed, the search teams gathered for one last look. One student commented that it was a good thing we got some of the items so that we could capture the memory of the mill. |
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The Collective Memory of a City | |
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Community history is passed from one generation to the next over the dining room table, at weddings and funerals, in the trade halls, and in the churches. It is the sagas, and values, and collective memories of the people that bring a city to life. But this line is now breaking as language, and more often, mistrust prevents communication. The new wave of immigrants and the established lifelong residents rarely meet and talk. That is why it is so important to encourage students to carry on the task of preserving the memories of cities like Central Falls. Acting independently, armed with the historical tools of inquiry, and a curiosity about their surroundings, these students can move out of the classroom to discover history for themselves. |
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A lively discussion about medical technology in class one day led to a remark about the horrible consequences of the 1918 influenza epidemic and the devastating effect it had on the city. Because I was unable to answer all their questions the class decided to take the subject on as a research topic. A short walk from the high school is the Masshatock Cemetery established in 1850. It is the last resting place for many residents from Central Falls. One overcast spring morning found the History of Technology class in a long skirmish line at the back of the cemetery, armed with pencils and pads. Their mission was to move through the cemetery and note the headstone information of all residents that died in 1918. With the help of the caretaker and his staff we were able to find all four hundred and thirteen headstones. Back at school, poster paper taped to the walls, the students wrote down all the information collected. Based on medical documents and articles, students developed a working profile of a typical victim. From that profile, the final list was created. As the final numbers were announced a silence came over the class. More than two hundred juveniles and young adults died in a single year. Going through archival high school records we could match some of the deceased with students from the high school. Noted on their record card next to "reason for leaving" was "death from influenza." It was a powerful message from the past, and another moment of personal enlightenment and discovery for my students. |
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To see Central Falls is like looking at the strata of rock on the side of a mountain. Layer upon distinct layer profiles each period of history. The history of Central Falls is the history of immigration, enterprise and hard work. It is a city claimed by many immigrants. Starting with the lowest strata we see the Narragansetts, Nipmucs, and Wampanogs. Using our now famous tower ledge concept we see the next tide of immigrants, the English from Plymouth Colony. Soon others arrive from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, establishing forges and manufactories along the Blackstone River. A short distance away in Pawtucket, Samuel Slater built the textile mill that spawned a new industrial age and that brought French-Canadians to man the jennys, carding machines, and mules. Then came the Italians, Poles, Portuguese, and Syrians. Now our recent immigrants are from Mexico, Central and South America, Africa, China, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean. It is by projects such as these that I can convey to my students who have deep roots in other parts of the world a sense of ownership of history and a sense of belonging. They find this sense of ownership and belonging in the history of the city they have adopted, its streets, mills, and buildings, by using the historical tools I teach them. |
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The Central Falls Approach: Successful Teaching Strategies in the Urban Environment | |
Since I started teaching in Central Falls more than a decade ago I have learned to adapt to the ever changing clientele that has come into my classroom. In order to try and find meaning in data and deeds, and bring structure and order to historical inquiry, I have developed the following principles.
- Keep students informed by syllabus, worksheets, and handouts. Academic discipline is hard enough without a game plan.
- Encapsulation. Keep the project to a set period of time, with specific goals or end product. Be flexible enough to shift direction or focus as the project evolves. Focus and support the project with additional material such as articles or videos.
- Display student work.This is a key component of performance-based standards. Students will work harder if their final product is geared for public display. This will allow the students to conceptualize their finished product as a visual display of information. Creating a "stand alone" display challenges the students to develop a visually appealing, self-explanatory exhibit of their research.
- Find Outside Support. Support from local historical agencies and libraries have provided us with a wealth of information. Photographs, narratives, and articles add color and texture to the historical painting.
- The Historical Tools. The greatest challenge is to exercise the five standards of historical thinking folded into the performance-based standards that are mandated by the school district and the state department of education. Staying the course with chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical issues, and analysis and decision-making will provide a good foundation for any student.
- Journals. This is an effective research management tool and an integral part of the classroom dynamic. Students in my History of Technology class receive a journal and are required to record ideas, notes, concepts, field trip observations, and research material.
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Working Partnerships | |
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I have had the good fortune to have the support and cooperation of the Newell D. Goff Foundation at the Rhode Island Historical Society. The Goff Foundation supports the efforts of Rhode Island teachers in developing lesson plans and classroom activities that highlight innovation and entrepreneurial history in Rhode Island. Together with the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Goff Foundation has developed a series of programs, workshops, and grant opportunities to assist teachers in meeting the challenge of presenting creative standards-based lessons. I have come to the conclusion that historical societies, libraries, museums, and specialty organizations are not only caretakers of history, but are often teachers with lesson plans of the past. These new partners in education should have a front row seat in the classroom. James Percoco states it in A Passion for the Past: "Keep in mind that teaching is about building relationships. In our particular case it's about building relationships between the past and the present, as well as creating and nurturing relationships with our students and colleagues."4 Teaching history is more than just the timeline. For my students it has been about exploration, cooperation, analysis, and personal discovery. The skills they have developed during the project-based learning activities have translated into real world life skills that are transferable to any career path they follow. Urban schools and the students who attend them are in need of the cooperation, support, and attention of the entire community. Historical societies and the vast network of professionals and amateurs associated with them can make a difference in the quality of lessons that are developed. What better way is there for them to share their knowledge than to make it available to students who can appreciate a multidimensional approach to history. Experts in research, photography, oral history, culture, and manuscripts can help develop creative and dynamic history projects. This type of working partnership can not only capture the imagination of students but will also improve the quality of historical education. |
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I have tried to develop a program of study for my classes that gives life to the subject. By using local topics and moving deeper into those topics I hope to make history interesting and accessible. Along the way my students have collected an impressive inventory of artifacts and memorabilia about their city, artifacts that were cleaned, preserved, cataloged, and were or are now displayed in our school library. Topics of historical inquiry were initiated by students that led to abandoned mills, city streets, cemeteries, secret tunnels, and the local park. Each class built upon previous work and, like mill workers at their break, tell tales about their adventures and about the city as it was meant to be. We are looking forward to adding more chapters to the story about our city. |
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Notes
1. National Council for History Education, Volume 13, Number 9, May 2001.
2. National Standards for History, Historical Thinking Standards, Grades 5–12, <http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards/thinking5-12.html>.
3. City of Central Falls, City Council Records, May 1936.
4. James A. Percoco, A Passion for the Past (Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, 1998) 129.
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