History’s Influence on Today

In the teaching of US History, I have taken the approach of teaching more thematically rather than

chronologically.  This is not the way many of the teachers in my district approach the teaching of the history of the United States, but I feel that it works in my Cultural Responsive. Representative classroom.  Culturally responsive teaching is a pedagogy that validates the importance of recognizing students’ cultural references in the classroom (Burnham, 2020). As a student of US History and a white woman, I always saw myself in the curriculum and felt that the story I was receiving in the classroom was my story.  As I have learned more about the history of the US and teaching strategies, I feel compelled to tell the story of the nation's history including the cultural identities of my students and their community.  

Harlem Renaissance Comparison Project

Amid the unit on the nation's reaction to Reconstruction, the class was asked to consider how the demographic of US society was changed following the Great Migration, specifically the flourishing of Harlam Rennisaunce.   The class is composed of many introverted persons, and group involvement is a struggle, so I created this lesson so we could work as a class and also work on our partner work.  The students enjoy being creative and many thrive when they have a choice in how they demonstrate their learning.  This lesson was also to encourage the development of students' conceptual thinking skills, specifically being able to draw connections to ideas or concepts to current-day examples (Marschall, 2019).  Two students live to process this thinking out loud and I try to utilize their processing as teachable moments for the whole class to work on their own conceptual learning.  The final product of this lesson was a Google Slide presentation where they demonstrated the influence of Harlem Renaissance poets, dancers, artists, musicians, world leaders, writers, and sports figures on current-day performers through the comparison of

their work.  This was a highly engaging lesson that leverages a student's prior knowledge of famous people and their work and encourages them to draw connections between them and a moment in history that influenced their work.  This project has something for all learning styles and all skill levels.  

Within the project, differentiation is embedded.  All students have access to all the tools and may use them if they wish.  Multi-language learners are given extra time and given a list of sentence starters to assist in the comparison.  There will also be a list of sites that could be used for research. Students with IEPs (Individual Education Plans) have similar aids but the assignment can also be shortened if that meets the needs of their accommodations.  For students who need further intellectual challenges, the requirements for the writing regarding how the current artist is influenced by the Harlem Renaissance artist will be increased to one full paragraph citing specific evidence.   For the student who races through the project and claims to complete the tasks in 20 minutes, I will encourage them to walk through the rubric and make sure that they make sure since they have some extra time they strive for excellence and not for basic or a passing grade.  I also point to our class motto, “Do not sell ourselves short, strive for excellence”.  If they need some encouragement, I will go over the assignment with them and point out areas where they can add more information or include massage aspects.  

Another aspect of this project is that it isn’t just my voice being heard in the classroom.  Students learn from each other, we learn from poet, Clint Smith via Crash Course - Black American History, students learn from the black writers they read from and the black artists they study.  Multiple instructional practices allow each student to have a movement to excel and a moment to practice learning skills that will help them later in life.  There are class discussions, research projects, reading for meaning, and lectures to name a few (Staake, 2023).  

Burnham, K. (2020, July 31). Culturally Responsive Teaching: 5 Strategies for Educators. Graduate Blog. https://graduate.northeastern.edu/resources/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/

Marschall, C. (2019, September 10). 3 Ways to boost students’ conceptual thinking. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-ways-boost-students-conceptual-thinking/

Staake, J. (2023, March 27). 30 instructional strategy examples for every kind of classroom. We Are Teachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/instructional-strategies-examples/

CrashCourse. (2021, November 19). Arts and Letters of the Harlem Renaissance: Crash Course Black American History #26 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKaegbtcE00

CrashCourse. (2021, December 4). Political Thought in the Harlem Renaissance: Crash course Black American History #27 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HY8d4ABHQA