How my Sons' Lego Play Caused me To redesign My US History Survey Course
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Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Rethinking the U.S. History Survey Course: How My Sons' Lego Play Inspired Me to Change the Way I Teach 1 Gordon E. Harvey, Ph.D. Professor & Chair JSU History & Foreign Languages
How my Sons' Lego Play Caused me To redesign My US History Survey Course
1. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Rethinking the U.S.
History Survey Course: How My Sons' Lego Play Inspired Me to Change
the Way I Teach 1 Gordon E. Harvey, Ph.D. Professor & Chair JSU
History & Foreign Languages
2. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 We can discover a lot
about how kids learn (and how we should adapt our teaching) by
watching the evolution of their lego play 2
3. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 1: By the BOOK (with
a LOT of help) 3
4. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 2: by the book (less
help) 4
5. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 3: By the book, just
watch me dad 5
6. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 4: No book,Dad come
see what I built 6
7. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Stage 5: Throw the book
away, Creativity unleashed 7 Click
8. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 They have to learn to
think for themselves 8
9. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 20159 K-12 and Universities
talk a lot about the need for individuality and creativity. Yet we
do not truly pursue that ideal. We stifle individualism and force
conformity when it suits us.
10. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 201510 Something has to
change. Tell me you are not bored teaching in the same way on the
same material class after class, year after year, to the same
passive and disinterested faces
11. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 201511 Weve conditioned them
to sit back and wait for the learning to happen. They wait for us
to chew up knowledge and feed them like a mother bird does for her
nestlings.
12. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 How I learned to teach
(Although theres still a place for this) 12
13. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 What do we want to get
out of HY courses? 13 Historical Consciousness The fallible memory
Think like Historians
14. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Historical Consciousness
14 Cass Mastern lived for a few years and in that time he learned
that the world is all of one piece. He learned that the world is
like an enormous spider web and if you touch it, however lightly,
at any point, the vibration ripples to remotest perimeter All The
Kings Men, Robert Penn Warren
15. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 201515 What is History if not
an amazingly dramatic story?
16. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 201516 So lets approach the
survey as a three-act play
17. Act 1: A Play Exposition: establish characters and
protagonist Some issue confronts the protagonists, whose attempt to
deal with it worsens the issue Leads to a dramatic situation and
incident that will be seen in Act 3 source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure17
18. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 1: US History 18
Foundations Exploration and Native American Encounters Colonial
development and expansion Geopolitical tension Revolution and New
Nation
19. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 2: A Play 19 Rising
action Protagonist tries to solve the issue but the issue worsens
Higher sense of awareness of who they are and the issue
20. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 2: US History 20
Growing pains and sectional tension Republicanism (federal v state)
Expansion of markets and the suffrage Rise of the Everyman Reform
impulse, abolitionism
21. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 3: A Play 21
Resolution of the story and subplots Intense and dramatic
conclusion Leaving the protagonist and characters with a new sense
of who they really are.
22. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Act 3: US History 22 Rise
of dual, incompatible political economies Manifest Destiny and
slavery Sectional Crisis and inevitability of conflict Secession
and war
23. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 23
Begin with the End Show them the end of the story and expect them
to put the lego pieces together
24. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 24
Group discovery Each group has a cause of the Civil War and traces
the origins and history of this cause from beginning to end
25. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 25
Journaling each student journals the days info and findings as it
relates to their historical awareness and the groups assigned
cause
26. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 26
Group collaboration Groups share the history of their cause with
other groups, and compile a fully developed portrait of the nations
inevitable march to disunion and war.
27. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 27
Theres still a place for short, context-building lectures and
individual assignments. Variety of assignments, options for
different learning styles, and a mixture of individual and
group-based work
28. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 28
My role Ill assume the same role as always, albeit much less in
scale. Ill lead micro lectures and facilitate discussion. The
professor doesnt disappear, he only becomes a smaller part of the
students journey
29. Gordon Harvey | CORE | June, 2015 Structuring the Course 29
Ill show them how to build historical legos and then get out of
their way as they create on their own, with a little guidance from
me, the historical lego master.