When entering Highland Park High School, I was assigned to teach three sections of World History Since 1500.  For the first two years, I taught the curriculum utilized by the other World History teachers; however, my students were not engaged.  At the end of my second year, I realized that I loved the content, but my students demonstrated little enthusiasm for the subject matter.  Not surprisingly, the students appeared to soak in little of the over 500 years of world history with the wide-breadth, traditional teaching approach.  I saw many life lessons that could be derived from the content, but my students were not benefiting from those life lessons.  I began to think about why I teach history, and I kept returning to the idea that history can encourage students to be lifelong active citizens.  I challenged myself to design a course that reflected my beliefs and utilized the students’ citizenship in the classroom. 

            Citizenship implies that an individual takes an active role in her community.  I provided that opportunity by encouraging students to take ownership of their learning in their classroom community.  In the spring of 1999, the newspapers were filled with coverage of the problems in Kosovo.  Students came to class asking questions about the topic.  They sought information surrounding the reports on the local news.  Several students recommended that we study the current conflict, and we did.  I worked with the students to design a unit.  The students created the content objectives: why the conflict started, which world countries were involved, and how it connected to our last unit about World War I.  

            Every day of the unit proved exciting for us, as student and teacher learners.  Students took the initiative to bring in articles and television clips to share with the class.  While we discussed the atrocities occurring in Kosovo, the students empathized with the plight of the Kosovars and questioned the limited response from the outside world.  They did not understand how Milosevic could force the Kosovars to abandon their homes or how Serbs could kill ethnic Albanians refusing to relocate.  As we watched the television clips, students appeared to lose their inhibitions and several cried.  The class demanded ways in which they could help.  Through some investigation, we found a woman who was working with the American Red Cross to gather toiletries to send to the ethnic Albanians.  We knew that our 42-minute class period was not enough time to organize this campaign to gather supplies.  Thus, the students and I decided to start “Kids for Kosovo,” a morning extracurricular club committed to gathering the toiletries. “Kids for Kosovo” got the word out through posters, word of mouth, and letters to the local newspapers.  In three weeks, the 30 members of the club, with the help of the local community, raised over 8,000 toiletries to send to Kosovo.

            After collecting the supplies, my three classes were eager to do more.  I encouraged them to start a letter-writing campaign to our members of Congress.  Most students believed that the United States should send more aid to the refugees and wanted President Clinton to take a larger role in the negotiations.  The students showed their commitment by spending weeks rewriting and polishing their letters to members of Congress.   

            The student-designed, student-implemented unit had magnificent results.  I gathered student feedback at the end of the unit.  They reported feeling the benefits of community service for the first time.  They also shared how the Kosovo unit increased communication within their own families.  Some students mentioned that they had never discussed school subjects at home.  They enjoyed sharing the experience with their families because they were proud of our class’s efforts.  Our study of Kosovo has encouraged me to talk to my students about what engages them in the learning process.  With their experience as students for over ten years, they know what inspires them.  Tapping into the inspiration guarantees their commitment.

Top