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Bringing the (Origins) Course to a Close

Erin Cunningham

Hi WHP family,

After this week, we have 2 weeks until finals. I'm exactly where I was in the course last year, so my initial plan is to focus on decolonization and the Cold War next week and then discuss international institutions and the UN Sustainability Goals as well as the world in 2050 the following week. A few years ago I ended with a "DBQ" of sorts that I created about Mars exploration potentially being the "new" new imperialism but it already feels less relevant than it did at the time it was created.

However, it's been a rough couple of days with my 9th graders and their dang phones so I feel like I want to completely shake things up Upside down 

I did the Claim Testing: Global Conflict activity yesterday and while I had to beg many kids to get off their phones and participate, there was something good about the urgency of the activity and the accountability of having to publicly share answers. I also was able to provide instant feedback because, frankly, the idea of marking papers and giving written feedback doesn't appeal to me either!

So I think I'll have better luck with something that requires students to engage and participate "on demand" rather than things that they'll tell me they'll do later so they can be on their phones in class (can you tell my school doesn't have a unified cell phone policy.......).

I'm curious if anyone else is shaking things up in their classrooms to increase engagement as the school year comes to a close.

Parents

  •   We are in this quandary together! Origins is so expansive and there's so much ample opportunity to really do something meaningful at the end of the year... right at the exact moment that students are beginning to wind down and set their eyes on the door. And if I'm being honest, I can hardly blame them! 

    I've shared this elsewhere but maybe it hasn't caught your eye just yet - I spend the last 2-3 weeks on a controlled research project of sorts that is part Little BHP, part UN Sustainability Goals, and part Project X. I definitely took some influence here from  for the question - and would love to at some point turn this into a podcast project.  Here's my write-up - let me know if you find anything useful there - would love to collaborate in the future on projects like this! 

Reply

  •   We are in this quandary together! Origins is so expansive and there's so much ample opportunity to really do something meaningful at the end of the year... right at the exact moment that students are beginning to wind down and set their eyes on the door. And if I'm being honest, I can hardly blame them! 

    I've shared this elsewhere but maybe it hasn't caught your eye just yet - I spend the last 2-3 weeks on a controlled research project of sorts that is part Little BHP, part UN Sustainability Goals, and part Project X. I definitely took some influence here from  for the question - and would love to at some point turn this into a podcast project.  Here's my write-up - let me know if you find anything useful there - would love to collaborate in the future on projects like this! 

Children
  • in reply to Adam Esrig

    Wow,  I absolutely love the way this is organized. All of the links are so helpful to creating some autonomy, too. I like that since it's an end-of-the-year culminating project, you are truly putting all of the autonomy on the students. When I see how clearly this is laid out, it makes me want to set up something similar for a final project. Mostly so that I can also build in a reflective piece to ask students how they feel about tackling work when everything is given to them. I have SO many students who still ask a question a peer asked a mere second prior or who ask a 'right-there-in-the-instructions' question, and this is the type of document and set up that can almost provide a quantitative way to see who is there in terms of getting started and being resourceful and who needs a comment in their grades about areas of focus as they move on to the next grade.

    Sooooo, not totally in response to the original question here, but totally inspiring to me, nonetheless!

  • in reply to Adam Esrig

     , thanks for sharing this project. I really like how this assignment ties in the earlier eras. 

    How do you handle students who don't turn in end-of-the-year projects like this? Do you have checkpoints along the way?