Getting students to read the Constitution

My fiendish plot was simple - get my students to actually read the US Constitution, which is dry and long.  I came up with a Constitutional Convention, having them work in small groups, with each group taking on the role of an important stakeholder during this time period - merchants, farmers, slaves and free African-Americans, craft workers, indentured servants, and plantation owners.


They had to evaluate eight issues that were critical at that time, using the lens of their particular stakeholder.  The activities are described in the study guide posted on Scribd.  

I used some of the role descriptions from the Zinn Education Project's version of a Constitutional Convention, developed by Bill Bigelow. This helped my students understand their roles.

Each student had to find the parts of the Constitution that related to at least two of the critical issues that were hotly debated during this time - slavery, balance of power within the government, balance of power between states and Federal government, commerce and money, defense, personal liberties (since Bill of Rights was not yet part of the Constitution), religion, balance between big and small states.  Then each had to present the issue from the point of view of their role - and we had some spirited discussions as students really got into their roles.

We voted on each issue by group - although some were unable to agree - and found that there was little consensus.  But when we voted on the Constitution overall, when faced with the alternative of the Articles of Confederation, students opted for the Constitution in some form.  Only one team across two classes voted to ratify the original Constitution.  Most also demanded a Bill of Rights, and one team asked for the elimination of slavery. 

The only technology I used was posting a lot of resources online.  Could have added online discussions.  But this was glorious face-to-face. 

A good time was had by all, and the essay test I gave my students demonstrated that they really understood the Constitution and the issues that surrounded its creation and ratification.  This could have been the deadliest unit of the year - instead it was one of the most memorable. 

Mock Trial - Trying new tools

     The good news:  having used Moodle all year has meant students continue to use it easily during our too-many snow-days.  The bad news:  getting kids to start using a new tool when they don’t have the chance to explore and experiment with it at school first (because of all those snow days) means the tool doesn’t get used much. 
photo © 2004 dbking | more info (via: Wylio)

    Students are quite used to online discussions now, and used to online reflection, so these have continued without a hitch.  The problem:  I had wanted students to try collaborating online, using discussions which were limited just to team members; the plaintiff’s team for one trial had their own discussion forum (I would have given them a separate wiki, too, but the wiki in Moodle 1.9 is too anemic).

     Unfortunately snow days have prevented the time we needed in the computer lab to make students comfortable with this.  Prior problems with Moodle groups made us all a little gun-shy.  Students don’t want to expose their strategies to their opponents, and need to be assured this won’t happen.  This assurance comes easily from having everybody in the same room, trying it out at the same time; in 42 minutes we can all see how it works and build trust in the technology.  On snow days, having students working at home, at different times, it’s much harder to build that understanding and trust.  And since Moodle has 4 different basic varieties of discussions, before you even get into groups vs. no groups, it’s reasonable for students to be a little wary the first time they experience a new discussion wrinkle.  My more confident students are trying it out, but confidence is not always readily available in middle school. 

     During the most recent snow day, we tried  an informal chat using Moodle. We could all see the possibilities, but also the limitations – it often takes awhile between when you complete what you’ve typed and when it shows up, so people are frequently having several conversations at once.  But if we get too many more snow days cutting into the days we have left to complete the trials, we can try out a synchronous chat for at least part of a trial in each class. 

    It would be nice to say, “this is the Facebook generation; they are comfortable with technology,”  but there are huge holes in their skill set.  And while all of my students have internet access at home, not everybody brings the same attitudes.  For every 10 who will try anything and soldier through until they understand, there are 5 who give up easily.  I need for all of my students to be successful.

    Update:  as it happened, we got a respite from snow days (at least this week), so the trials finished in class.  But now students want to try out the chat.

Mock Trial - Blended and Fun

    We are engaged in our annual mock trial project.  We do a lot of in-class work in small groups preparing and having the trials.  We do a lot of reading/research/reflection online that complements what’s happening F2F.  While we’ve repeatedly lost class time to snow days, students have used the class Moodle to stay on target as much as they can.
photo © 2008 KeithBurtis | more info (via: Wylio)

     If you’re interested in how we do mock trial, I’ve attached the study guide and basic case materials for this year.  I divide each class into two trials.  Each half class takes on plaintiff and defense teams for one trial and then acts as the judge and jury for the other trial. 

    Snow days have cost us almost half the days we use for working in small groups to prepare for the trials.  Despite interruption after interruption, students are still remarkably prepared.  First, because students have had to be focused on the time they actually had; there has been no time for fooling around (yay, silver lining!)  Second, I had asked  students to explicitly discuss online how they would cope with a non-participant group member; this brought out some good strategies, encouraged proactive thinking, and even got some of the usual nonparticipants to think about what they needed to be doing.  Third, my students are motivated; they love this project-based learning unit. 

    This is problems from the real world; I use real cases that are working their way to the Supreme Court, using high interest topics like gender-segregated middle schools.  They get to play roles that grownups play (never, ever underestimate their interest in this). They have to struggle to read materials written for adults, but they persevere because they are interested.  They get to read laws that actually impact their lives (Title IX, for example) and relate their lives directly to the Constitution.  They also do a lot of writing that makes sense – questions for witnesses, opening statements to explain their case to the jury, online discussions about how to handle problems, reflections about what they hope to learn and what they do learn.  It’s also inherently dramatic – what kid doesn’t want to shout out, “I object!” 

    Snow days are now impinging on our ability to even have the trials, which is the topic of the next post.