MIT Year 1
Winter,2004
HISTORY PROJECT
THE COMMON SCHOOL ERA
GUIDING
QUESTION: How did ethno-centrisim, racism, sexism, class and religious values,
democracy, and a developing capitalistic economy affect the evolution of public
schools in America?
Your group's
task is to research the development, ideology, and politics of the common
school in the United States of America. Pay careful attention to the social,
economic, and political contexts that gave rise to this form of schooling.
- Each of you will collect
information from at least 3 sources. BEGINNING with The American School,
Chapters 5 & 6. Take thorough notes about the issues that affected the
development and content of schools during this period.
- After gaining an overview of
the time period and the issues from Spring, meet as a group and decide on
particular issues to focus on as you pursue your next two sources (see
linked websites for possible source material). For example, one group
member might want to learn ~ more about Horace Mann, another about the
conflict between Catholics and Protestants, another about the demands of
the "workingmen" concerning education, another about the
relationship of the high school to the common school, or the relationship
of political parties, free market economy, and the schools. Each of you
should keep careful notes about whatever topic you pursue.
- Each person will hand in an
individual annotated bibliography of her/his sources.
- Next, your group needs to meet
and decide how to create a time-Iine of the time period from 1820 to
approximately 1850. Include the events pertaining to education, politics,
the economy, and society that you discovered in your individual research.
- Next, as a group, design and
create a poster that provides a visual representation of .key features and
ideology about the common school, and, .the particular topics each of you
investigated. You could use a concept map or bullets for the features and
ideology. If you compare and contrast the positions of the Whigs and the
Democrats, or the Catholics and Protestants, or charity schools and common
schools, you could use an H-map or a Venn diagram.
- Then, decide together how you
will present your findings to the program. You will have 40 minutes to
teach your peers about this era in American school history. Review the
models of teaching, select an approach, and write your lesson plan. Be
sure to connect the information you researched to the functions of
schooling that education in this time period served and to the guiding
question.
- Finally, write three
assessment questions (and their answers) that could be used to assess your
peers' understanding of the information you will be presenting. Before
writing your questions, revisit Arends' section on Bloom's taxonomy. Only
one question can be at the knowledge or comprehension level.
- On Tuesday, Jan. 27 you will
teach your section and hand in .
·
An
annotated bibliography from each group member
·
The
group's timeline
·
The
group's poster
·
The
group's lesson plan
·
Three
assessment questions, with answers, developed by the group
·
Assessments
by each person for each member of the group