CAROLYN
BEITZEL
Diary #12
They
Are Not Putting Forth the Effort to Learn
It seems like all my classes are becoming harder to teach. As we dive into more and more American history it is obvious that my students have a retention deficit. They cannot remember what is discussed from day to day. Even when we take notes and talk about the information we read.
We have been discussing the American Belief system, the problems associated with the Articles of Confederation, and the reasons why the government wanted to revise them but instead wrote an entirely new Constitution. We have also talked about the political views and opinions of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists and how they felt about the Bill of Rights. This kind of discussion begins by describing a Big Problem, bringing in the proposed solutions and the many other problems that develop, and ending up with an consideration of the final product. All the knowledge needed to understand the concept builds from Day One. I am finding that in class when I ask a question from information that we have already discussed I get blank stares – or the same five students raise their hands while the rest remain silent. If I delve further into the past, oh say about three days ago, even those students who raised their hands can't remember.Nobody raised their hand
Yesterday we finished a section about how to amend the Constitution (a process), why the Bill of Rights was included, and we compared the different agendas of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The class procedure is to answer the main idea questions raised at the beginning of the section, define some key words and then answer a few review questions.
The high-level class did fine, but the other three struggled with this task. I reminded them to look through their notes or to scan the text using the techniques we've learned. I gave them a sufficient (I thought) amount of time to complete it.
I asked the first question, "What is the difference between the Anti-Federalists and the Federalists?" Nobody raised their hands. I rephrased the question, "How do the views of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists differ?" Still no one. Okay, one last try. "The Federalists and the Antifederalists held different opinions about the Constitution, the national government and the Bill of Rights. What were those differences?" Pop, lightbulbs on and hands get raised.
This is strictly
a low-level thinking question, knowledge and comprehension on the Bloom
scale. I couldn't have made the question any easier and that'w what it
took before the students remembered something.
The next question, "How do you amend the Constitution?" Again, strictly low Bloom. Here is how the class conversation went:
Student: You get a bunch of people together.Me: Excuse me, just any old person?
Student: People from the government.
Me: Whose government?
Student: You get a group of people together from our national government.
Me: Where in the government will you find these people?
Student: In Congress.
Me: Okay, how many Congress people are involved?
Student answers vary: 9 out of 13, _, 1/3, and finally 2/3.
Me: So what are these Congress people doing?
Student: They are in a special meeting to discuss the Constitution.
Me: Well, why are they doing that?
Student: Oh, because someone proposed a change to the Constitution and they are talking about it.
Me: Can anyone else talk about this change?
Student: 2/3 of the states can have these meetings too.
Me: Great. So here we are at this special meeting to talk about a change to the Constitution. Let's say we like this change and want to write it into the Constitution. Can we do that by ourselves?
Student: No. All the other states have to agree to the change.
Me: All of them?
Student: Some of them?
Me: How many?
Student: Oh yeah, _ of the states.
Me: (BIG SIGH) Great. Can someone now tell us all at once the process for amending the Constitution?
Student: A change is first talked about by either 2/3 of the Congress or the states and then 9 out of 13.
Me: How many?
Student: Um
Me: (wait time) Can someone help him out?
Student: _ of the states have to agree.
Me: Terrific. Let's write it down (I then write it on the transparency).
Third and
final question, "What rights are protected by the Bill of Rights?"
Everybody wants to tell me about what each amendment says.
"No", I say, "Not what are the individual amendments, but what are all the rights combined?" Now, there is no response. So I clue them in to the knowledge that should be in their brain cells somewhere.
"Remember
when James Madison...A federalist or antifederalist?"
"Federalist" they all say in unison.
"Okay, remember
what he stands for?" I ask. I continue, "He supports the Constitution,
he wants a strong national government and what was his opinion on the
Bill of Rights issue?"
Student: He doesn't want one.
Me: Why not?
Student: The constitution already says enough about freedoms.
Me: What were his thoughts about these freedoms? Remember?
No responses
Me: Okay, look at page 207 under the bold heading "Bill of Rights." Let's
read it together: "James Madison insisted that the Bill of Rights does
not give Americans any rights. People already have the rights listed in
the amendments as they are natural rights that belong to everyone." So,
what are the rights protected by the Bill of Rights?
Student: Rights we already had?
Me: Yes, and they are called?
Student: natural rights
I don't have an answer
I keep in the back of my mind that approximately 40 percent of my eighth grade students read at a fifth-sixth level. So I know that I need to go slower than I want. But this is just ridiculously frustrating. I don't believe our snail's pace is because they cannot understand what they read, because I am giving them reading and comprehension strategies as we go along, and we discuss everything in class.
I am convinced they are not putting forth the effort to learn. That there is a fundamental lack of academic achievement because it is just not important to them or to their families. Underlying my belief, is the lack of a supportive parent, a place at home to do school work or someone to help them out, or to even tell them that Yes, it is important to be educated if you want to succeed in life. I guess, I should also take some blame? I know that what we are learning is not very interesting to a 13-year old and is so far from their daily lives that the meaning is lost. However, I also need to teach them the fundamental knowledge before it can be applied and synthesized. There is where the breakdown is occurring and where I am at a loss to bridge the gap. I want to move faster. I recognize that my students don't have that capability yet. I am teaching them strategies to understand what they read. They are not using these strategies. We take forever to learn one concept. It's an unbroken circle and I need help to change the course or I need to let it go and teach them this way regardless. I don't have an answer.
