One
way to address the issue is to use the theme of citizenship in the classroom. Themes
can be important tools for defining a path of study. The use of themes helps to
draw attention to a broader interpretation and understanding of history. Using citizenship as a theme sets the stage for
a study of both action and perspective by individuals as citizens in history.
Events become more than dates as students use themes and case studies as a
basis for analysis. A case study is an in-depth investigation of a single
person over a period of time. By choosing biographical sketches as case studies
for citizenship students can use the actions of citizens to developing an
understanding of citizenship and the impact of citizens on society. Students
will be able to observe how the understanding of citizen has evolved over time.
It will also give students an opportunity to extrapolate about how they can use
similar actions as citizens in their own lives.
To support the use of historical case studies to
study citizenship, we developed a student strategy. The strategy focuses on answering several
questions. Our questions include:
- What can we learn from the past?
- How can people change their community?
- How can
individuals be agents of change?
The goal was to encourage students to use the lives
of historical figures and these questions to better understand how citizens
exercise their rights to impact their community. What kind of path did they PAVE?
Did they create change? Did they ensure continuity? Students used the
questions below to consider the lives and impact of citizenship in the past.
To support this strategy, we organized case studies around a few historical figures. We organized materials spotlighting the lives of George Washington, A. Philip Randolph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and William Cody.
We
used two methods for incorporating case studies into the history classroom. One
is to embed the case study in the unit of study. Students can study the actions
of the individual as they study the period. Students can track the figure or
follow them just as they might follow a celebrity via social media today. This
provides students an opportunity to use the words and actions of the individual
to illustrate the developments of the time period. The lives of these
individuals become the examples of citizenship in action and the teacher
directs how they are analyzed. The other option is to investigate the life of
the individual as a small project as some point during the unit or year.
Students they dedicate sustained time to the study of the person having
previously acquired background knowledge. Each study can provide opportunity
for extrapolating modern behavior equivalents to adopt.
