Becoming Historians: Discourse, Engagement, & Deeper Learning in High School History

Abstract

This project investigates a problem of low student engagement and a scarcity of higher-order thinking opportunities in high school history classes within a ‘no excuses’ charter high school. In an attempt to address these problems, revealed to the school through its internal data, the school launched a new pilot program in its history classes to prioritize student reading and discussion of primary source documents. Utilizing comparative lesson plan analysis, student classwork samples, class observations, and structured open-ended interviews with teachers, this project found that although the rewritten lessons represent an attempt at greater student engagement, the school remains overly reliant on its previous school-based systems of student compliance that ultimately hinder diffusing student engagement and learning.