As I listen to my neighbors talk about their gardens, I realize that this
is how a great deal of my learning about gardening has occurred during the last few years: just by listening and ruminating. And when my neighbors talk about their gardens, they inevitably talk about themselves, their families, and other knowledge that they possess that may overlap with gardening but may include other meaty topics like aging, parenting, human and planetary health, how the mind works, and how words work.
When I compare this kind of naturalistic learning, I feel strongly that learning in the classroom should resemble this kind of learning in a real neighborhood, where what you learn affects how you live (and eat!), what your relationships are with neighbors, and how you understand yourself as a person. This makes me think about situated learning and the idea that when we remove learning from realistic contexts, we may be depriving the learner of the ability to transfer her learning to the situations in which she may need to apply or use the knowledge that she is purportedly learning (Snowman, McCown, & Biehler, 2012). I fear we are also depriving the learner from a deeper connection to the people and places to which she is bound and on whom she depends.
In considering how a project like this could be included in a public school classroom, I would propose a high school project in which students would interview seniors in their neighborhood who had experienced the Depression and could talk about the ways in which American citizens at that time dealt with economic hardship in their own communities. High school students would research the depression using their textbooks, but also using primary documents, such as newspapers from that time. The New York State Archives and other archival institutions hold resources that would be of interest to such a project. Students could survey seniors in their neighborhood and find at least one person who would be able to talk about their experiences during the Depression. Students who did not find a likely interviewee could be paired with a senior from Albany’s Neighborhood Naturally Occurring Retirement Community, a community of retirees who have never left their homes or their neighborhood.
Each student would be responsible for conducting one interview. The interviews would function as oral histories of the Depression era. These personal, oral histories would be preserved as sound files. The interview would be understood as a historical source that also prompts students' research on the experiences the interviewees share. The students would also search for other images and objects, such as old photographs, newspapers, or diaries that bring the interviews to life. Together the students could create a website or a wiki on the Depression. Each student would do his or her work individually, but there would also be room for collaboration. For example, most likely several students would conduct interviews that shared certain features. If, say, three interviewees discussed participating in New Deal projects such as the Civilian Conservation Corps works at Five Rivers, students could work together, researching different aspects of those works.
This project would allow students to see historical events from multiple perspectives, strengthening the construction of a more complex schema for the Depression (Snowman et al., 2012). From a constructivist perspective, projects that are open-ended and that involve collaboration, exploration, and discovery, result in powerful student learning. The project also allows students to learn more about and connect more deeply to individuals who may already be valued members of their community. Thus, intrinsic motivation may be more likely to occur. Intrinsic motivation involves deep attention and persistence as a result of the learner finding the work interesting in itself and having its own value (Snowman et al., 2012). This could be strengthened if the students’ website could potentially be connected to the New York State Archives’ website or perhaps another institutional website rather than simply be evaluated by a grade. Such a meaningful and realistic form of assessment might further emphasize the innate value of the project, strengthening students’ intrinsic motivation (Snowman et al., 2012).
This imagined project would connect with the Social Studies Core Standards (Core 2) asks that students study Unit Two, which is titled “At home and abroad: Prosperity and depression, 1917-1940” (Global history and geography). Students learn about the economic, political, and social forces that led to economic boom and economic bust during this historical period. However, we know that learning is strengthened when students make connections to their own lives, their own communities, and their own families (Snowman et al., 2012). This is acknowledged in the Common Core Social Studies Standards, when, for example, students learn about FDR’s New Deal but are also encouraged to learn what New Deal projects were completed in their own communities.
In their written work for this hypothetical project, students would satisfy the Common Core English Standards related to writing. If this project were conducted by tenth graders, Standards 1 and 3 for Writing would be particularly relevant. Standard 1 involves writing for the purposes of gathering and synthesizing information. Standard 3 involves writing for the purposes of evaluation and critical analysis (English language arts core curriculum).
Writing opportunities for such a project would include gathering multiple versions of events in Albany during the Depression, such as information from textbooks, newspapers, films, newsreels, diaries, and artworks from the period. Finally, the oral history would serve as another source of information. Students would have to decide how to combine these forms of information into their final web page and synthesize that information in meaningful ways. Further, they could use their writing to critically evaluate the ways in which the Depression is depicted in their textbooks as well as how the Depression is being used to justify current day political decisions and policies related to our current economy.
English language arts core curriculum. Retrieved from: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/ela
/elacore.pdf
Global history and geography. Retrieved from: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst
/pub/sscore2.pdf
Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2012). Psychology applied to teaching (13th ed.). New
York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
When I compare this kind of naturalistic learning, I feel strongly that learning in the classroom should resemble this kind of learning in a real neighborhood, where what you learn affects how you live (and eat!), what your relationships are with neighbors, and how you understand yourself as a person. This makes me think about situated learning and the idea that when we remove learning from realistic contexts, we may be depriving the learner of the ability to transfer her learning to the situations in which she may need to apply or use the knowledge that she is purportedly learning (Snowman, McCown, & Biehler, 2012). I fear we are also depriving the learner from a deeper connection to the people and places to which she is bound and on whom she depends.
In considering how a project like this could be included in a public school classroom, I would propose a high school project in which students would interview seniors in their neighborhood who had experienced the Depression and could talk about the ways in which American citizens at that time dealt with economic hardship in their own communities. High school students would research the depression using their textbooks, but also using primary documents, such as newspapers from that time. The New York State Archives and other archival institutions hold resources that would be of interest to such a project. Students could survey seniors in their neighborhood and find at least one person who would be able to talk about their experiences during the Depression. Students who did not find a likely interviewee could be paired with a senior from Albany’s Neighborhood Naturally Occurring Retirement Community, a community of retirees who have never left their homes or their neighborhood.
Each student would be responsible for conducting one interview. The interviews would function as oral histories of the Depression era. These personal, oral histories would be preserved as sound files. The interview would be understood as a historical source that also prompts students' research on the experiences the interviewees share. The students would also search for other images and objects, such as old photographs, newspapers, or diaries that bring the interviews to life. Together the students could create a website or a wiki on the Depression. Each student would do his or her work individually, but there would also be room for collaboration. For example, most likely several students would conduct interviews that shared certain features. If, say, three interviewees discussed participating in New Deal projects such as the Civilian Conservation Corps works at Five Rivers, students could work together, researching different aspects of those works.
This project would allow students to see historical events from multiple perspectives, strengthening the construction of a more complex schema for the Depression (Snowman et al., 2012). From a constructivist perspective, projects that are open-ended and that involve collaboration, exploration, and discovery, result in powerful student learning. The project also allows students to learn more about and connect more deeply to individuals who may already be valued members of their community. Thus, intrinsic motivation may be more likely to occur. Intrinsic motivation involves deep attention and persistence as a result of the learner finding the work interesting in itself and having its own value (Snowman et al., 2012). This could be strengthened if the students’ website could potentially be connected to the New York State Archives’ website or perhaps another institutional website rather than simply be evaluated by a grade. Such a meaningful and realistic form of assessment might further emphasize the innate value of the project, strengthening students’ intrinsic motivation (Snowman et al., 2012).
This imagined project would connect with the Social Studies Core Standards (Core 2) asks that students study Unit Two, which is titled “At home and abroad: Prosperity and depression, 1917-1940” (Global history and geography). Students learn about the economic, political, and social forces that led to economic boom and economic bust during this historical period. However, we know that learning is strengthened when students make connections to their own lives, their own communities, and their own families (Snowman et al., 2012). This is acknowledged in the Common Core Social Studies Standards, when, for example, students learn about FDR’s New Deal but are also encouraged to learn what New Deal projects were completed in their own communities.
In their written work for this hypothetical project, students would satisfy the Common Core English Standards related to writing. If this project were conducted by tenth graders, Standards 1 and 3 for Writing would be particularly relevant. Standard 1 involves writing for the purposes of gathering and synthesizing information. Standard 3 involves writing for the purposes of evaluation and critical analysis (English language arts core curriculum).
Writing opportunities for such a project would include gathering multiple versions of events in Albany during the Depression, such as information from textbooks, newspapers, films, newsreels, diaries, and artworks from the period. Finally, the oral history would serve as another source of information. Students would have to decide how to combine these forms of information into their final web page and synthesize that information in meaningful ways. Further, they could use their writing to critically evaluate the ways in which the Depression is depicted in their textbooks as well as how the Depression is being used to justify current day political decisions and policies related to our current economy.
English language arts core curriculum. Retrieved from: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/ela
/elacore.pdf
Global history and geography. Retrieved from: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst
/pub/sscore2.pdf
Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2012). Psychology applied to teaching (13th ed.). New
York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
***
P.S. Below are pages from my gardening journal: the maps of my garden in 2009, 2010, and 2011. I included them on this page, because they show, pretty clearly, how messy my learning process has been. As you can read in the first page, I lost my journal that was started in 2008. So I'm careful about this journal now. It's a place where I draw and write about my plans, my successes, and my failures. I have noticed that there are fewer and fewer opportunities for me to write long hand and I treasure this skill. You can click on the images below to read these four pages. The second page shows another person's writing: a visiting friend wrote down the second round of plantings while I put in seeds and seedlings. I return to the pages and change the maps as I replant; I reread parts of the journal because I forget what has or hasn't worked. I don't have to log on to have an archive of my experiences. It's all there, including the private frustrations and hopes. I wish that our classrooms could reflect this messiness. I wish we could make more real things together, and be bound up in the joy and sorrow of real experiences together.
P.S. Below are pages from my gardening journal: the maps of my garden in 2009, 2010, and 2011. I included them on this page, because they show, pretty clearly, how messy my learning process has been. As you can read in the first page, I lost my journal that was started in 2008. So I'm careful about this journal now. It's a place where I draw and write about my plans, my successes, and my failures. I have noticed that there are fewer and fewer opportunities for me to write long hand and I treasure this skill. You can click on the images below to read these four pages. The second page shows another person's writing: a visiting friend wrote down the second round of plantings while I put in seeds and seedlings. I return to the pages and change the maps as I replant; I reread parts of the journal because I forget what has or hasn't worked. I don't have to log on to have an archive of my experiences. It's all there, including the private frustrations and hopes. I wish that our classrooms could reflect this messiness. I wish we could make more real things together, and be bound up in the joy and sorrow of real experiences together.