Case Book Four

Nelson Quiock is meeting with his mentor, Mr. Gomez. Nelson asked for the meeting. His team is not really organizing interdisciplinary units, and he is mostly working his way through the text, based on outlines from the former teacher. In addition to being frustrated, he is really concerned about how well his students are learning. He hopes his mentor will be able to help him work through some ideas.

MR. QUIOCK: Thanks for meeting with me. As I said in my email, my team just checks in with each other and each of us is working on our own things right now. I am using the text and the outlines I was given, but I don't think it is going well. I feel that my students are falling behind. I really want them to go to the regular high school this next year, and get out of this transitional placement. I have some ideas, but I hesitate to use them. What if I am wrong?

MR. GOMEZ: What are your ideas?

MR. QUIOCK: It occurred to me that here I am trying to cram U.S. and world history into these students, covering basically seventh, eighth, and ninth grade content so they can pass this test. What has become clear to me is that a lot of these kids have no idea what the U.S. really is, much less the world. Many of them never had geography. Even if they did come here from other countries, they really don't understand city and county and state and nation as it is set up in the U.S. They have some sense of home country, but not how far away it really might be, or the country's own place in world history. I also have students who have never been more than eight blocks out of their neighborhoods except for school field trips. It became really clear to me when a few of them said that didn't understand why, after 2 hours on the school bus on a recent field trip, they weren't half way across the U.S. I was thinking that maybe we ought to go to maps. I know maps are not part of our learning, per se. But, I really want them to get the concepts of the governments and regions. I think that if they start using maps, and plan some virtual trips, they may get a better concept of distance. As they plan virtual trips to countries, they can plan what they need to enter the countries, explore the governments there, etc.

MR. GOMEZ: This sounds really interesting. How will you organize where they go?

MR. QUIOCK: I thought we would start small, somewhere within 10 miles. Then, somewhere in the state, then within the country, then to other countries. Each group could take a different set of places, and then everyone report out. Maybe this would help build the concepts. I know I can't spend a lot of time on this, but I really thought that two weeks may be very beneficial. If we build the background knowledge, maybe it will help them with the bigger concepts. What do you think?

MR. GOMEZ: I think this is a great idea. Let's clean it up a little. You need to carefully pick the places so that they are directly tied to the test standards. I think places of historical events may be helpful. You might want to have each group working with a particular memory association link, like a letter of the alphabet, or a group of letters that form a word. Wouldn't it be great if you came up with a set of places for them to go that formed a mnemonic link word for them related to some historical event? I would think about having them develop a presentation slide or two for each place and then put it all together to present it. The key will be getting everyone to remember everyone else's journeys, if you do this correctly.

Teacher Notes:

• Sometimes the smallest concept is difficult for students to learn when they don't have a context or prior experience. Remember that you may have to think about the learning that goes on before a concept can be grasped, and work your way through those parts with students.