Late night saturday confession ....

So I've been grading quizzes that I "administered" on Wed. and I think that I'm realizing that I didn't teach very well what was on the quiz. Since my Unit 1 test, I've moved into the prologue of our Modern World History textbook, which deals, either somewhat arbitrarily or as a distinct gesture towards western-centric historiography, with the "rise of democratic ideals." 

The text is clumsy, and can hardly be taught in concept without sounding like some puppet for the textbook writers, who obviously wanted to frame everything that happened since 1300 until now within some sort of democracy-uber-alles context. And while I can understand the importance of democracy in shaping the modern world, I haven't bought into to why the book presents it the way it does, and I think my teaching has reflected that.

So I've basically been giving my students a painful assortment of worksheets and questions to get them exposed to the material. Also, for 2-3 days I had my students create some befuddled skits on the Magna Carta, which not only took longer to complete than justifiable, but I'm not sure left my students with the lasting, multi-perspective understanding of the Magna Carta that the activity intended. Not to mention, the Magna Carta is hardly even a paragraph in the book, but we seem to have obsessed over it. 

All in all, I'm realizing the role that I must take in presenting the material in clear, coherent ways, which I haven't done, and I can tell because my students are not able to put the big picture together, as evidenced by their almost 80% failing of the quiz. Its ok, it will be a learning moment for them, as I'm going to have them create a study guide out of the quiz using the answers to extract valuable information, and for me, I'm going to take a different approach to presenting and testing a chunk of information in the future.

Update: btw, I've been working on backwards design with my department chair, and it is really helping me to have a clearer idea of where I want my students to go with the material and how to get them there. I'll be posting more on my unit in the coming week.